Lake side of the house with two gables facing the water, a wraparound deck and a screened porch at one end

Projects / Lake houses

The Boathouse, Mayville

Chautauqua Lake, New York·Vacation home·Renovation and addition

Where: Mayville, New York, on Chautauqua Lake, with a canal beside the house

Building: Family vacation home with its own boat launch

Work: New master suite wing and entry, lakefront rooms turned to the view, wraparound deck and a natural wood screened porch. Finished 2026

Service: Lake houses and residential

A house turned to face the lake.

A Pittsburgh family’s second home, on the Mayville shore of Chautauqua Lake, with its own boat launch on a canal beside the house. That is why everyone calls it the boathouse. It needed to hold more family and more guests, and it needed to make more of where it sat. A friend of the owners, an architect in Pittsburgh, worked with the firm from their end.

The move that made the difference was relocating the main entry. You now step in and see the lake at once, and the new lakefront rooms are laid out to take the full width of the view. A new wing holds the master suite, joined to the house through the new entry. The main living, dining and kitchen space was remodeled under a reworked vaulted ceiling with high glass, and two gables now face the lake and give the house its identity from the water.

Outside, a large wraparound deck runs along the water with a covered place to eat, and a screened porch in natural wood, craftsman in feel, ties the deck to the master suite.

Just as much thought went into the boat launch. Everything that comes up from the water has a place to go: wet feet, a changing area, a toilet, and the laundry, all on the route in so the rest of the house stays dry. Larry Anderson built it, and the work finished in 2026.