I rather enjoyed working as a docent yesterday for the Hyde Park Homes Tour. At first I was assigned to the garage/studio part of the house (a 1999 structure, built behind a 1913 Dutch Colonial Revival), but the docent master, when she arrived, apologized and said she realized it was foolish to waste someone who actually knew a bit about old houses on a new structure, and gave me the second floor of the main house to do instead. The implied compliment to my knowledge pleased me, as did the part of the house I got to show.
The second floor had several nice features to show: the original longleaf pine floor planking (covered over by oak flooring downstairs), original doors and door hardware, visible damage from a major fire many years ago (scorch marks visible on one room’s floor, which is also the reason the floors are oak downstairs—the oak planking covers over much more extensive damage to the original floors), a nice period-like bathroom made from part of a screened-in sleeping porch that used to run the length of the house on the back. The claw-foot bathtub had nickel-plated feet, a prairie shower, and a faux-primitive mural of grazing cows on its side, reminiscent of Edward Hicks’s The Peaceable Kingdom in style. The current owners, who enclosed the sleeping porch four years ago to make the bath and the adjoining master bedroom, took some care to make the bath look like something that would have been in the house about 1920, with a very nice period pedestal sink (architectural salvage yards are wonderful, seductive, and expensive things), bead-board wainscoting, and white hexagonal-tiled floor. The only clue I saw to tell me it was a modern room was there was too much grout used between the floor tiles.
After my shift was over (I talked myself half-hoarse over three hours), I decided to go over to the 1928 Italianate Perry Mansion, the only home on tour that I didn’t hit Saturday. I was of two minds whether to go, since I’d previously seen in on tour in 1999, but finally concluded I might as well. As it turned out I was rather disappointed, because in ’99 the Homes Tour had borrowed a lot of furniture to put in the house for the tour, to make it look as though someone lived there (the property now belongs to an educational foundation, and is only open to the public for special events). This time the rooms were much more sparsely furnished, which was a disappointment; I found it much harder to imagine the Perrys or their successors at home.
Of the other three houses on tour, I liked best the 1912 Transitional Queen Anne Vic, which the current owners have spent a year bringing back from serious dilapidation (the previous owner lived there for more than fifty years, until just before her death in 1999), and turning into something that looks as it would have about 1915 (except the kitchen, which has some modern features I personally wouldn’t have chosen—but then, kitchens tend to be treated that way during remodeling and restorations, and in this case I’ll make allowances). The whole house was full of delicious pillar and fretwork between rooms, on staircases, and generally all over, as well as egg-and-dart moldings, done by a superannuated millwork craftsman the owners managed to dig out of retirement, and who did astonishing work despite a moderate case of Parkinson’s. Of all the houses I saw, this is the one I most wish I could have for my own.
The fourth house was a 1909 Foursquare that was re-done using green building techniques, and the owner and builder did a nice job of not screwing with the character of the house and re-using materials from the house itself during the restoration, to avoid cross-period remuddles. The only thing I had issues with was (again) the kitchen, which is a luxurious modern kitchen . . . that IMO pays no attention to what the rest of the house has to say. (When I get around to trying to undo the remuddles in my own kitchen, I’m going to do what I can to make something like what would have been in the house around 1940, including a period gas range, if I can afford one—a 1985 cheap-modern kitchen in a 1936 Colonial Revival/Arts & Crafts house is an abomination before the Lord!)
The last house was the biggest disappointment for me. The exterior is a very acceptable 1927 Craftsman cottage, but the interior . . . oh, dear. The owner stuffed what I regard as a crop of remuddles inside, using wall treatments totally out of period (1999 post-modern should never, ever be used in a 1927 house), over-modern kitchen appliances and counters (do we see a theme developing here?), dead-wrong lighting . . . if I continue, this is going to become a rant. I suppose the owner feels she’ll be comfortable with it, but I can’t say I think much of the result.
