This arts community in PA might have the best porch game in the country
I love a community that has its values front-and-center.
You’re probably getting this newsletter from me, Emily Grosvenor, because you love controlling your life through your interiors, the process of changing with your home, and values-based design. Note: All images in this post courtesy of the book The Porches of Mt. Gretna by Shannon Fretz and Kerry Royer.
God, let me come back as a porch — well-loved, shaded from the elements, made for a quick chat, holding my people.
And if I can’t have it in the next life, just give me Mt. Gretna — an arts community built that may be the most beautiful community of porches in the nation.
I was exploring this arts community’s porcheverything this week as I dreamed about styling my own.
You might remember, if you’ve read Find Yourself At Home, that we put in a porch on our street with barely any porches during the pandemic and changed our life for the better.
But lately, I’ve been pretty convinced that porches might be the answer to all the world’s ills (or maybe just a handful of them). So wasn’t I pleased when my friend, Jeanne (hi, Jeannie!) gifted me a copy of Porches of Mt. Gretna by Shannon Fretz and Kerry Royer.
“The cottages and front porches face the streets and walking paths — it’s an optimal way to engage with your neighbors, and it elevates those connections,” Shannon says.
Shannon and Kerry, longtime Mt. Gretna lovers (photographer Shannon runs a nursery school in town and writer Kerry is Director of the Mt. Gretna Art Show) created this book during the pandemic to capture the porch culture of Mt. Gretna, a small town in Lebanon County, PA.
The book also offers great insight into the porch as a livable space, a stage for the collected aesthetic, a molder of community, and a throwback dream of the Chautauqua Movement, an education and social movement in the United States that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Chautauquas are basically precursors to planned living communities, but they get extra points for basically caring about the things I care about (arts/literature/science/community/adorable houses).
So with all of that in mind, here are some of my favorite design takeaways from The Porches of Mt. Gretna.
Own the flag
I am increasingly interested in design moments that take back the American flag as a shared cultural symbol, not as a divider of political persuasions. This image of Mt. Gretna’s community hall shows A COMMUNITY PORCH (!), officially called The Hall of Philosophy (1892), built for discussions around scientific, literary, and cultural advancement. Can you imagine?
Mix styles
I like how willing the Mt. Gretna home dwellers are to mix rustic and antique, rough-hewn wood and metal, painted and natural finishes, and just try things on the porch. Home design can be like this. WHY NOT?
It’s a wrap
I’m sure there’s some activity happening inside the house here, but I’m so fond of how much of a footprint this porch takes up I can’t imagine anyone wants to be inside. The porch as event space, if you will.
Socializing, with better boundaries
Can you even stand it? You could talk to your neighbor without even getting off your wicker chair! “Porches are colorful, welcoming, beckoning, comfortable, and they invite conversation and that stay-a-while vibe,” says Shannon.
It’s gonna be me
There’s so much room to personalize a porch, and I’m very inspired to look for ways to charm up my early 2000s fast-built PNW home (my entire #lifegoal). I like that this house was giving “Gemütlichkeit” before marketers tried to make it a thing.
Late-night magic
More filigree, please! Seriously, I can see how some homeowners might not like being on a stage like this, but I can’t envision anything better. I like my neighbors, and I want more of them. “ The way the homes are situated you can be very close to the people walking by,” says Kerry. “It’s not uncommon to exchange friendly greetings, and there is a real pride in porch ownership.”I also like how this home puts some more modern elements alongside the traditional Mt. Gretna decorative woodwork. Fun!
P.S. You can purchase the Mt. Gretna porch book for $45 at all the Mt. Gretna hot spots, or by emailing Shannon Fretz at sfretzphoto [at] gmail.com. Thank you to Shannon and Kerry for sharing these images and their thoughts about one of my favorite spaces!
Questions no one has asked me
🐊What is the deal with alligators?
Ok. So last week I was reading about aligator attacks because apparently the NYTimes loves writing about them, and this week the aligators are showing up everywhere in my life! Like aligator decor and aligator student art and aligator greeting cards. For someone living in the PNW, this is unexpected. As a symbol, aligators stand for connection between the spiritual and physical realms and are protectors of secrets. So I’m just going to close my eyes and shut up over here.
🎥 Michelle Buteau. Wut. 😲?
I am so late to Michelle Buteau and Survival of the Thickest. My friend, Erika knocked on the door the other day while I was watching and we talked for 10 minutes about the lack of style/art openings/fashion shows/plus-sized stylists/genius comedians/Black anything in our small town. [#oregonproblems]. Required Comedic Viewing.
🏠Is it working? Trying to keep kids around with a hangout space?
Yes it is! We had SEVEN BOYS in our house on Tuesday after the school engineering fair and they stayed until 10 until I figured out what time it was! This morning, I woke up at 6:45 and there were three kids (one neighbor) playing Warhammer on the floor. Plans, fruition, and all.
😦What have you been doing differently?
The house is getting painted this week and it’s giving Bubble Boy in here right now. I had no idea I spent half my days looking out the window. Now that I can’t, I’m even further committed to human need for looking at green and natural spaces. Design is often positioned at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of need, and that is definitely incorrect. Having access to green spaces should not be aspirational.
My porch is naked and you’ve inspired me! I must do something.
Great article on porches. Reminds me of my uncles porch, my grandmothers porch, and a trip to Deal NJ where the house had a wonderful porch.