Unique Roof
‘Gingerbread House’ Roof in Desperate Need of Repair; Nobody Seems to Know the Fix
A Northern Massachusetts couple has spent more than two years searching for somebody who can tackle replacing a storybook-style roof.
Since buying Tyringham’s famous gingerbread house, in 2020, the owners have struggled to find a way to replace the storybook-style roof.
— Photo by Stephanie Zollshan; reprinted with permission by The Berkshire Eagle
A story originally appearing in a Northern Massachusetts newspaper, The Berkshire Eagle, describes the dilemma homeowners Joshua Williams and Shaun Mosley are facing after the couple purchased a home called Santarella Gardens in Tyringham, Mass., with repairs still waiting for the right contractor.
Known locally as “The gingerbread house,” the former dairy barn was transformed into an art studio by English sculptor Sir Henry Hudson Kitson, according to the article by reporter Stephanie Zollshan, and invites roadside stares with its 1920s storybook architecture featuring curving stucco walls, mounds of stone, turret and its faux-thatched roof. Kitson dubbed the structure "Santarella."
Photo by Stephanie Zollshan; reprinted with permission by The Berkshire Eagle.
“It is so visible from the main road that it is a stopping place for people driving past,” local historian Cornelia Brooke Gilder told the newspaper. “It is of extreme cultural importance to Berkshire County.”
The roof to the gingerbread house is leaking and, according to reports, will cost an estimated $600,000 to replace. The couple paid $1.1 million for the property in October 2020.
Click here to read the original story in the May 1, 2023, edition of The Berkshire Eagle.
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Bryan Gottlieb is the online editor at Engineering News-Record (ENR).
Gottlieb is a five-time Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism award winner with more than a decade of experience covering business, construction, and community issues. He has worked at Adweek, managed a community newsroom in Santa Monica, Calif., and reported on finance, law, and real estate for the San Diego Daily Transcript. He later served as editor-in-chief of the Detroit Metro Times and was managing editor at Roofing Contractor, where he helped shape national industry coverage.
Gottlieb covers breaking news, large-scale infrastructure projects, new products and business.
email gottliebb@enr.com | office: (248) 786-1591
