DID I MENTION that we are only the fifth owners of this old house? It stayed in the same family from 1826 until 1975. And in 1975, new owners gutted the original kitchen wing — which included a dairy pantry and a butler’s pantry — I still cry about this — and turned it into rental apartments. Then they assaulted the formal, Greek-Revival dining room by turning it into an eat-in kitchen. I’ll show you what we did with the rental apartments in a future tour. Meanwhile, here’s a glimpse of the dining room, restored to its intended purpose:
Restoration involved the removal of kitchen cabinetry, appliances (none, unfortunately, worth keeping), and a big wood-burning stove, which you’ll hear more about later. Then the holes in the floor, drilled there to accommodate plumbing, were filled. Did you know that the round pieces of wood used to fill such holes are called — according our contractor — “Dutch Boys?” Me neither.
Added to the house in 1835, the dining room featured the black-marble fireplace you see pictured above. Unfortunately this had been bricked up for 27 years. Why? Because the same “Let’s remodel!” family had placed a wood stove in front of it. And two subsequent owners left it there. The stove featured a huge exhaust pipe, or flue, which grew up above the mantel, and then exited through the wall where a painting now hangs. I have nothing against wood stoves, but in this location it was an eye-sore.
Restoring the fireplace to working condition was not easy. In fact, the contractor said that it couldn’t be opened. I ignored his reasoning. A fireplace functioned there back in 1835, and, hell and damnation, it was going to function once again. I asked him to remove the offending bricks. And he did. With a sledgehammer.
Can you guess what happened next? Well, a blinding black avalanche completely engulfed the room, as out poured what must have been 167 year’s-worth of soot, dust, and assorted bird nests. What a mess. But I got my fireplace.
And what a fireplace it is. The angled sides and shallow depth of the firebox (it is a Rumford design) produce all the radiant heat needed to warm the room quickly and efficiently.
I used a plum-colored paint for the walls above the chair-rail. Because the color seemed to demand some “bling,” I suspended, above the sideboard, a gilded mirror. The mirror is a Federal-era piece.
At the other end of the room, between two windows, is another gilded 19th century mirror. On the games table (one of two we purchased from Dominic Dunne’s estate), is a Victorian-era ginger jar.
The pocket doors on the west wall lead to the Music Room…
while on the east wall, the door on the right leads to the entrance hall, and the one on the left heads into a pantry. The dining room, like every room in this house, is completely private. Privacy was essential in the days when people relied on fireplaces for warmth.
Here is the room as it appeared around 1890. A descendant of the original owner sent me this picture, or rather a xerox-copy of the picture, and hence the poor quality of the shot. As you can see, the room was furnished at that time with a late-Victorian sideboard. I chose to give the room an even earlier, more “Federal” look.
In closing, I’d like to say that when we first saw this dining room — as a run-down kitchen — it seemed to cry out “Look what they’ve done to me!” I hope it is happy with our restoration. We certainly love the room.
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Related Posts:
House Tour Part 3: The Parlor
Welcome to My Herb Garden
From Parking Lot…To Rose Garden
Perfect Kevin. Your home cries out to me to want to build a 1:12 scale replica of it. It is so charming and beautiful. I especially like the exterior drawing of it. You have so much talent in so many areas.
Kevin,
I’m so enjoying the tour of your beautiful house! As I’ve mentioned we own a 125 year old house, so I have a spot in my heart for all your lovely restorations! Keep the tour coming!
Louise
Love it! And we have the same buffet as you! The flowers look beautiful!
Marilyn – Ah, you are so kind. Thank you.
Louise – And the work never ends, does it?
Erin – I’m madly in love with the flowers. Thanks for helping me select them — I feel I want them always!
That poor fireplace. Thank heaven’s you saved it-it’s gorgeous!
My heart breaks for your butler pantry and dairy pantry. We looked at an old, gorgeous brick-fronted home in Pasadena that had a butler’s pantry and we almost bought it despite the sad neighborhood which had developed around it. What I would give for a butler’s pantry today! LOVE the dining room and that spectacular fireplace. You two have done a service not only to yourselves and your guests, but also to future generations. Wouldn’t we consider sainthood for those early owners if they’d embraced the butler and dairy pantries, instead of sacrificing them? Terrific too to the story, is the house being in the same family until the mid 1970s… a time we all can remember
! Your photographs are lovely, the pieces are lovely, your talent is overwhelming. Congratulations on a job exceedingly well done! Thanks too for sharing it..!
Yet another beautiful room! I’m really enjoying the tour
I would love to see before and after pictures. You are doing an amazing job bringing this old home back to life
Amie – Had I known that one day I’d produce this website, believe me, I would have taken lots of “before” pictures. But back then, I mostly concentrated on “after” shots. Bummer!
In the Victorian home we lived in (the haunted one I elaborated on earlier), we had numerous fireplaces, luckily never bricked up. They too were shallow, and we were told that they were meant to be coal burning fireplaces, not wood burning. After we were told that, we were afraid to burn wood in them, but were lucky enough to find a source for anthracite coal, which I must say, did burn very hot. You seem to have had no problems burning wood in yours. Had anyone ever told you that, in their opinion, your fireplaces were meant for coal?
Great tour and pictures. Look forward to more rooms!
John – When this house was built, shallow, wood-burning fireplaces were the norm. The design of the firebox was perfected by Count Rumford, a British-loyalist and inventor who fled during the revolution.
So all of the fireplaces here were intended to burn wood. That is, except for one in an upstairs bedroom, which was reconfigured in the late 19th century to accept coal. It has a detachable basket which holds the coal.
I think the haunted house (I can still imagine that blue light) you lived in must have been late Victorian. Fireplaces in late-Victorian homes were almost always coal-burning — although you had to burn wood in them first, I think, in order to get the embers that would ignite the coal.
just beautiful, can’t wait to see the rest. thanks Kim
Beautiful , You do the house Proud You’ve made it look like the grand manison she once was inside and out You have done a wonderful job
The wall color is lush and welcoming. You feel welcome the minute you walk in. Kevin, I am glad you fought for your fireplace.
I don’t blame you for going for the Federal look in this room. It isn’t heavy and it gives the room that genteel touch. I love what you have done with this house in order to turn it into a home. I am often sorry that we didn’t buy a house from the Queen Anne era. Alas, I am now too old.
Have you ever considered going into decorating services? You have certainly added a professional touch to this magnificent home.
Ann Woods
Ann – Honestly, I think the room looks better now than it did in 1890. The mantel-, window- and door-surrounds suggested Federal or Greek Revival to me (and the room was added during that period), and thus I avoided the use of heavy, late-Victorian furnishings there.
Here in the U.K we have some wonderful home magazines which feature beutiful period houses. Then you read” we just loved the double bay fronted Victorian villa – then we bought it and ripped everthing out, decorated it in a contemporary fashion and tacked a glass box on the back ” ARGHHHHHH! Why do this? Buy acontemporary home and leave the period gems alone. Rant over!
Mary – Well, that’s my rant, too. I suspect the family who bought this house from the original owner’s descendants REALLY wanted, in their heart of hearts, a modern, multi-family dwelling. And had they bought a modern, multi-family dwelling, then probably the original kitchen wing here — with its butler ‘s pantry and dairy pantry could have been saved.
I’ll tell you this: poverty can do wonders for historic preservation. If you can’t afford to remodel, you are forced to leave well enough alone. ‘Nuff said.
Thank you for sharing these anecdotes and photographs. It’s great to see where you live and fascinating to hear about the work you did to renovate your lovely home. Your dining room is so pretty!
So do you ever have days when the table gets piled with paperwork and miscellaneous stuff? My dining table is often buried.
Perhaps you would consider sharing some housekeeping hints as well as all the other good stuff you give us?
Alice – I keep paperwork, etc., confined to my teeny-tiny home office, which is where I do all of my work on A Garden for the House. And what a disaster this office is. I should probably post a skull and crossbones on the door. But this way the entrance hall, parlor, music room and dining room can be kept in pristine condition — no clutter anywhere. I insist these rooms be “company-ready” at all times.
Thanks for your suggestion that I offer housekeeping hints on this site. Stay tuned…they are coming. Just hope I won’t come off as Joan Crawford in “Mommy Dearest.”
I first heard about “Dutch boys” when I purchased a cherry drop-leaf table with a perfectly fitted bow tie-shaped insert meant to stabilize a spot where the two wide boards that formed one leaf had begun to separate. It’s visible but not obtrusive, and it could not have been easy to do so well. I love to see a good thing salvaged!
It’s really beautiful. I love old houses too, and wish I could buy back the one I grew up in. Each room had a sculptured tin ceiling and every one had a different pattern. It even came with ghosts!
Nancy Shelly – I want your table! Seriously, it must be an exquisite piece — and even more so for the clever repair that employed bow-tie-shaped Dutch Boys.
Stacey Kenkeremath – I wonder if you’ve visited, as an adult, your childhood home with its tin ceilings and ghosts. Might be fun to see the place again. Hopefully subsequent owners didn’t “improve” the ceilings by replacing the decorative tin with sheet-rock!