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ANTIQUE REVIVAL

An 1850s Greek Revival in Chatham gets a new lease on life with an award-winning renovation that honors its past.

ARCHITECTURE BY SAM STREIBERT

CONSTRUCTION BY MINGLEWOOD HOMES

TEXT BY NANCY BARR

COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH MUSUMECI

The old house hid its weathered face behind a tall evergreen tree, overgrown bushes and tangled vines. Stately but modest, the Greek Revival dwelling had changed little since its construction around 1850 for Chatham sea captain Stephen Howes. But at more than 150 years old, the home was clearly showing its age: floorboards sagged onto the dirt atop a crumbling brick foundation; determined tendrils of ivy snaked up a side wall and into a downstairs bedroom; rotted shingles marred the gabled roof; electrical and plumbing systems were hopelessly out of date. With its elderly owner – who summered here for more than 50 years – now in a nursing home more than 1,000 miles away, the historic residence was on a course to what preservation specialists term “demolition by neglect.” But it was about to get a reprieve.

In 2001, after two years of planning and working with an architect, the elderly owner’s four nephews took on the challenge of rehabilitating and modernizing the sad structure and soon rediscovered the historic charm hidden beneath – yet preserved by – the years of neglect.

With a contractor experienced in working on old houses and willing to take the extra care required to fit modern systems into the historic home’s many nooks and crannies, a new foundation was installed, electrical, heating and plumbing were brought up to code, and the kitchen was fitted with modern amenities.

Throughout the process, the original floor plan of the 1,700-square-foot home was not changed and, except for the addition of a mantel over the fireplace in the gathering room and modern windows (designed to be in keeping with the Greek Revival style), almost all elements of the historic structure were preserved or refurbished, right down to the wide-board floors, diminutive doorways and steep 19th-century staircase.

“Anything we weren’t able to save, we duplicated,” says builder Tim Smith of Minglewood Homes in Chatham, the contractor for the project.

The $350,000 renovation took more than a year to complete, with gratifying results. In May 2004, this Old Village home was among seven properties to receive the first Chatham Preservation Awards, a new initiative launched jointly by the Town of Chatham Historical Commission and the non-profit Chatham Historical Society to honor those who have taken on the old-house challenge of the three r’s – restoration, rehabilitation and renovation – and prevailed. The award-winning projects succeeded in adapting, altering and modernizing old homes in a manner that preserved their historic character while creating comfortable abodes with all the necessities of contemporary living.

“Once you get the house properly founded,” says architect Sam Streibert, “the design decisions are the same ones you face with any home.”

The owners are pleased with the results, as well. “The most gratifying thing was the response from our neighbors as they walked past the house and said how great it looked and how happy they were that we worked so hard to preserve it,” says Alfred Macdaniel, who oversaw the project on behalf of his three brothers. “That’s not to say that initially there wasn’t some anxiety about preserving the house, which, when we started, was scary. But we got a good contractor who was able to determine that the structure was sound, so we went ahead. And it became a very rewarding – and actually fun – process.”

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