Tate House, Portland, 1931
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Tate House Museum
George Tate built a house commensurate with his economic and political station. Designed in the Georgian style with a unique indented gambrel roof, the two-and-one-half-story house was strategically positioned on a hill overlooking the Fore and Stroudwater rivers.
Its imposing size distinguished it from more modest dwellings in the neighborhood. The building’s narrow lot in townhouse style mimicked domestic practice in London.
The choice of a central chimney, however, made it more conservative, as it was less expensive to build than a house with a central hall and two or four chimney stacks.
Inside the house, the high-posted rooms featured distinctive architectural elements. The best rooms were decorated with paneled wainscoting and carved pilasters. A carved bofat or corner cupboard in the parlor held fine English silver and Chinese porcelain tablewares.
A black line painted above the ceiling cornices gives an illusion of added height to the rooms. This decorative element is often associated with buildings around the Baltic Sea, a region familiar to George Tate. Eight fireplaces helped warm rooms on three floors and a large kitchen hearth provided ample space for cooking and domestic chores.
The Tates are known to have had an elegant garden on terraces facing the Stroudwater River. All of these elements served to reinforce Captain Tate’s position in Falmouth as a true Englishman.
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