June 21, 2012

Mid-Week House Tour

I was invited to Baltimore Heritage’s Architectural Awards dinner, but before the dinner, they had arranged a tour of several houses in one of Baltimore’s most charming neighbourhoods, Bolton Hill.

The tour started at the historic Brown Memorial Church, with its incredible Tiffany windows. These windows make up the largest collection of Tiffany windows still in their original setting.In 2000, the church undertook a massive renovation of the windows, clearing nearly 100 years of grime from them, reinforcing the lead and restoring them to their original glory. In looking at these massive windows closely, you can see Tiffany’s artistry, like in this star with its beam shining down, all done in the shading of the glass. Tiffany accomplished the varying shades and colourations through the texture and thickness of the glass, so that in this window, it looks like light playing on water, but it’s really the texture of the glass.The detail in the windows is incredible, down to the catch-lights in the eyes of this shepherd.

The entire church was beautiful in a very simple way, with the windows doing all of the decorative heavy lifting.

Our next stop was a late 1800’s brownstone house, with much of the original tile and woodwork intact.We were all charmed by this terrific bench, which looked like had been purpose-built for this curved wall.If that wasn’t wonderful enough, the woodwork on the original wood floor was fabulous.This house had a delightful garden in the back, which was a perfect respite from the 100* afternoon.I was quite taken with this vent in the kitchen, which has elevated a utilitarian piece into a work of art.

From there, we walked a block or two to a cottage that would have been at home in a small village, complete with a picket fence, a rambling garden and a small koi pond. Our fearless leader, David, is showing everyone the way in!The owner of this house had a few passions that were easy to identify… textiles, china and travel.  There were wonderful middle-eastern rugs, pillows, blankets and runners all through the house. There were also maps and myriad travel posters indicating the the owner might have picked up some of the textiles on her travels.Here are a few more pieces of the china collection.And I love how she’s used some of the pieces of china for the candle sconces.There was a tray of fresh apricots on the patio, which was a huge treat on such a hot day, and when I walked around the corner of the house, I saw the source for this bounty!I loved the front garden of this house with its huge hydrangeas and boxwood lining the path.

Finally we visited a house that someone told me had been decorated in “80’s gay disco” style, but is now in the final stages of a complete restoration.All of the woodwork had been covered with a black lacquer, and has now been stripped down to its original state.

One of the most interesting features in this house was the windows and their curious woodwork. After looking for a few minutes, we concluded that there were once interior shutters that folded into the wood frames. Since the original shutters are missing, we couldn’t test our theory, but I’ve been in dozens of houses in this neighbourhood, and will soon be spending lots more time there, and have never, ever seen this before.

The owners have used a lot of William Morris-style printed wallpapers in the main rooms, and they went perfectly with the period.And amazingly, some of the hardware remained on the old doors, although it’s been cleaned and polished.

Despite the 100* temperatures, it was fun to see some of the neighbourhood’s interesting houses.

For more information on Baltimore Heritage, click here.

20 comments:

  1. Yes,
    I know all of them, Meg. I will show you my house one day. I helped Valerie (the cottage) years ago after she stepped off the curb after work in DC, she was taken to a hospital in DC, yet wanted to come back to her house, of course. So, I helped her wrap her Christmas presents for her family. The presents were lovely fabrics from her travels and we talked so much.

    Kathleen

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  2. it IS hot, ugh -but what a wonderful tour!

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  3. Amazing Tiffany windows in the church just incredible!

    Heat wave her as well!

    Xoxo
    Karena
    Art by Karena
    Artist Series 2012

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  4. Hot, Hot, Hot----mid 70's here. Gorgeous homes: apricots, tiffany, william morris-thanks for sharing. Mary

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  5. The cottage has the prettiest hydrangea bush in all of Bolton Hill. I admire it everyday that it's in bloom.

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    1. Jule... i have thought the hydrangeas were particularly good this year.

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  6. Loved going on the tour with you + of course I stayed tucked away in your pocket. June Gloom here in SCA. not complaining, just sayin! xxpeggybraswelldesign.com

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    1. Peggy... it's the 3 H's here: hazy, hot and humid. ugh

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  7. It's cold where I am. Sydney houses, the older ones are always cold inside, great for summer but not in winter. As always loved seeing Baltimore. The stained glass windows in the church especially beautiful

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    Replies
    1. I can attest to the fact that some/many of these huge houses are frrrrreezing!

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  8. Excellent post -- the architecture of Baltimore is amazing.

    Thanks again -- David in Raleigh

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  9. It was such a treat to go on this vicarious house tour with you through your blog post -- while sitting in my 76 degree study! Thank God for air conditioning -- and for Tiffany windows. I really need to make a detour for sight seeing in Baltimore the next time we go up to NJ; the worst thing about the interstate highway system is that now, when we drive across the country, we don't see a damned thing!

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  10. Egads... the BEAUTY!!! All of it, all of it.

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  11. Meg, thanks for the great pix. We usually go, but this year bailed at the last minute because of the weather. I didn't want to get all dolled up only to have my makeup melt and my dress become soggy as we tromped from one house to another. Last year (at Union Square) was hot, too, and then we had a thunderous downpour to boot. So we all squeezed under the tent and tried not to get soaked. But great camaraderie!

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  12. Love those awnings. You are inspiring me to do an awning post.

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  13. Love the house tour. I think it reminds me of the olden times, where everything was simple and just great. Miss those times.

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