warm and inviting old house interior
Many folks reading my column with any regularity probably already knew or have guessed that I have ‘the passion’. Indeed I am an old house lover. As Halloween approaches and old houses take the spotlight (or at least full moonlight) I thought it was a good time to share the spirit of old house love and give some practical information about why old houses can be healthy, practical, cost effective and comfortable choices for today’s living.
I think my mother is ‘to blame’ for my love of old homes. Starting when I was very little I would ride in the car with her and she would point out different buildings and their details. We would take occasional trips to historic sites and she encouraged my interest in such places. Then again my father would take me to construction sites and explain how buildings were renovated or built. At age three I declared I wanted to be a house builder. By age five I knew what an architect was and determined I would be one. Old photos show me making elaborate, carefully balanced structures out of building blocks or other materials at hand. One house in Plainfield made a big impact, it happened to be the residence of friends of the family. I didn’t know what style it was, how old it was or how it had been built, just that it was the most magical place with its many halls, stairs and doors, a beautiful stained glass window in a high ceilinged hall, fireplaces and all sorts of details, each wonderfully detailed or carved. I was given full run of the property from servants’ rooms to carriage house and found something fascinating about each detail I discovered. Surprisingly enough during a recent visit I was able to verify that this house is both as large as I recalled and exquisitely built and detailed
This mid-Victorian house was very out of fashion in the 1960s and was considered a white elephant. The family that owned it was not interested in prevailing trends and the woman was collecting used furnishings and tableware to furnish the house – items that today are valuable but at the time were cast offs. There is a lesson to be learned here; even if something is horribly out of fashion it may still have quality, good design and be superbly functional. If you are old enough you may recall that people used to throw away signed Louis Comfort Tiffany lamps that are today worth many thousands of dollars just because they were out of style! Eventually some things that survive being passé become classics. Those who see the merit in things others cast aside have vision. There are environmental and economic benefits to using old things and living in an existing house. This is part of the mystique of old house love, cherishing and nurturing something others may not notice due to the tarnish of time or neglect and bringing it back to life. There is a sheer joy in being in a space that resonates of another time; sensing echoes of lives lived there, whispers of the visions that created the house.
Imagine; every home started out as a concept, someone dreamed of it and had to figure out how to achieve that goal, had to rally to assemble property, material goods and expert help in many domains. What starts as a daydream becomes a tangible and useable creation for living in. Over time homes acquire a patina, layers of history. Even tract homes that start out identical become personalized and unique. In Long Island out of the countless number of post war Levitt homes a survey only found four remaining in original condition! The rest had been added to, customized and remodeled in distinct ways just as a musician makes their own arrangement from a familiar piece of music.
As a preservationist people sometimes assume I want to freeze things in the past. With the exception of scholars working on historic sites that interpret specific moments, such as Thomas Edison’s office, with his desk famously left as it was the day he died, preservationists live in the current world. The goal is to allow buildings to grow organically so that they maintain usefulness and safety for today’s occupants, while also saving the best of the past and keeping true to the soul of the structure. These are the things the old home lover daydreams about. More to come.
