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"The best material for your palatial, 42-room mansion by the sea should be concrete blocks." Just imagine hearing that from your architects.
It takes real fashion courage the kind that seems to go hand in hand with lots of money to build a "summer cottage" without so much as a nod to the New England convention of cedar shingle. It's an especially brave move if your cottage will be visible to all who sail past it, perched majestically alone on 235 acres overlooking Long Island Sound and surrounded by a private golf course.
The summer home of millionaire philanthropist Edward Harkness and his wife, Mary, has stood the test of time, both physically and aesthetically. And its reward has been a recently completed $3.8 million renovation.
As a state property since 1950, Harkness Memorial State Park has embraced visitors, offering them a spacious sanctuary of quiet caressed by constant breezes.
The house, called Eolia, reopened...