Press

A Petite Retreat

by Debra Nussbaum

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Caroline Millett’s hideaway house on the Delaware River has always been a retreat.  When it was built around 1815 in the shadow of the Andalusia mansion, men would retire within its walls after dinner, leaving ladies behind in the big house.  Here, banker Nicholas Biddle and friends could smoke cigars, play billiards and engage in the upper-class games gentlemen played. 

A 20-by-20-by20 box, this structure didn’t have much charm until many decades later, when it became a gentle river residence for complete with bathroom, kitchen and deck.  To Millett, who also has her own big house in Powelton Village, this home she rents on the estate property is a “precious little jewel.” 

On the first floor is a living room, small open kitchen and a bathroom.  Millett has painted the walls yellow, used gold and green coloring on the furniture and kept the windows uncovered.  “It’s all about the sun and the river,” she says. 

But it’s also about using space wisely.  Her only other room is a bedroom upstairs, which doubles as a home office for Millett Enterprises and CDM Contracting Corp.  If she has a party, she throws a lace cloth over her dressed and uses it as a table.

Downstairs, she uses a wall mirror to make the tiny space appear larger.  A tiny refrigerator doubles as an end table.  The dining table in a corner can move to the middle of the room for guests.  With no closets, everything needs to be cleverly tucked away. 

Though small, the house does not feel confining, because the indoors connects so completely with the outdoors.  From the deck you see the river below.  Out each window are the immaculate grounds of Andalusia, maintained to perfection under the direction of James Biddle, who lives on the property.  And one cannot help but be in awe of the magnificent Greek Revival mansion where royalty and presidents were once entertained. 

Maybe after those lavish affairs, they strolled down to the private billiard room and found it as enjoyable an escape then as Millett finds it now.