By Tovah Martin
Photos by Antoine Bootz
When it comes to setting a stage, Squirrel Hall knows how to entertain.
Michael Poulin didn’t have to think twice. He was visiting a friend’s weekend house in Millbrook in the late 1990s, when he decided what he wanted for his 40th birthday. “It was one of those perfect autumn days,” he recalls, “and that’s when I decided that Millbrook was the town for me.”
Poulin and his husband had been looking for a weekend house when Millbrook spoke to them, although they hadn’t hit on a target property to purchase. Poulin was the vice president of creative operations at L’Oréal followed by a career in freelance media and event planning in New York City, so finding the perfect house was not an issue. He knew how to reinvent a place to make it his own both indoors and outside. A realtor led the couple to a modest 1970s former town librarian’s home on less than an acre and it immediately spoke to them. Both Poulin and his husband, Bobby DeFrank, the former VP of talent acquisitions for A&E, knew they had the vision to transform the scene to reflect their ideal.
The Millbrook weekend home has always been “100 percent about entertaining.” Poulin and DeFrank’s parties are legendary and the garden has everything to do with hosting. A single table for 80 people in “vivid attire” staged in the garden is just one event in a summer schedule packed with gala parties. In Millbrook, they don’t have to look far to make up a titillating guest list. Meanwhile, the garden is tasked with equaling the splendor.
It was pretty much a blank canvas upon purchase. Actually, some serious tree removal had to be accomplished before any magic could be worked. By necessity, Poulin’s landscape needed to be classical in flavor. “I played with vegetables for a minute,” he admits. But fighting the deer proved too much of an adversary. Instead, he turned to boxwoods and shrubs that the deer dislike. But first, he focused on the hardscape. Straight lines are the only angles allowed in Squirrel Hall’s domain. Only one “small curve” resides on the premises. Instead, allées with strong focal points create the scene. Early in the garden’s metamorphosis, Poulin discovered that, “The more we divided it and created rooms, the larger it looked.” That said, long division was a delicate balance, “You have to be careful with scale,” he explains, “it all has to be in relation to the house.”
The canvas began with stone walls that impart a timelessness, “and they cement the formality.” A gravel outdoor seating/dining area with two tables as well as lounging chaises and a prodigious focal point outdoor fireplace dominates the backyard venue. Luring visitors to meander beyond that center of attention, allées and parterres feature statuary, antiques, outbuildings (including a Greek temple that doubles as a bar/entertaining space/tool shed), and a pair of imposing mausoleum gates from Stamford Salvage are part of an enthralling picture that keeps you exploring. It’s like a treasure hunt. Along the way, there’s an orchard, an aviary, a bountiful cutting garden stocked with bulbs (including 1,000 plus daffodils) and iris to feed into floral arrangements. There’s a glade and a woodland path while seasons create varying moods.
The classic motif, the geometric axis, and the themes lend the scene agelessness and majesty. But there is also levity in the mood as well as inventiveness. “It’s sculpture, it’s art, it’s shape, and form.” And it’s also nature being defined by man. As Michael Poulin sums up the process, “You can really create a story here.
