Our clients purchased the downtown property and fell in love with the idea of living in a quaint downtown historic district. The original building dates to 1817, and was many things over the years, from single-family residences to apartments to even a general store at one point. The initial concept was a smaller renovation that paid homage to some of the leftover original federal period trim on the upper floors and detailing the home was originally built with, but with an updated feeling. The first floor and lower floor lost these details over the years, with awkward layouts and non-stacking stairs that did not make efficient use of the already small footprint.

As the design progressed and construction started, it was evident that the 200-year-old structure had seen better days. It was decided then to gut the interior of the building down to the original brick walls. Part of the design was to consolidate the stairs against a back wall, where we found evidence in the existing structure it had once been. However, we widened it to be more of a grand stair and detailed it with an open balustrade all the way up all three floors, giving it skirt inlays, and a beautiful sweeping wood railing.

All five of the existing fireplaces were reworked using gas inserts, and uniquely designed surrounds to each one using period detailing. The construction details throughout the home were meticulously thought through for a cohesive historic design using color schemes, furniture, and antique lighting. A putty trim color is used throughout the main spaces along with a grass cloth wallpaper. Narrower white oak floorboards were used with a darker brown oil finish. Older style mortise locks were used for all the interior doors to incorporate a “beehive” style solid brass, chrome finish doorknobs.