Obsessed by a House

In a recent post, the one about H. Pleasants Pennington, I posted a picture of a fascinating house that was shown in the architect’s monograph that I found in Montreal. The house was listed with the name of the man who comissioned it, and its general location. That lead me down a rabbit-hole of searching for the house with very few clues, and with those leading to more discoveries.

It took a little bit of work to find out where the house was located, and once I got the general address, and realized it was no longer a private home, I set out to find it. Of course, the address was a red herring, but I managed to slueth it out, regardless.

It’s an amazing house: A five-part Georgian, with an extra wing added (right side, below), all totaling 11,000 square feet.

Of course, as I research the house, I find out more and more, but there are also some mysteries.

The first is the colour. In all of the early images of the house, it’s cream or yellow colour, not the plain brick that it is today. In the images below, it almost looks like painted brick, but when you look at the brick close up, it doesn’t look like it’s been painted.

In these two renderings, done in the late 1940’s, the house is clearly a pale colour and it almost looks like it could be some sort of applied stucco.

The house makes more sense to me with the pale shade, and the front arch works much better. I also love the shutters for the Palladian-style windows. And the crazy ivy on the front façade!

Both of these photographs, from the 1930’s and 40’s, show the pale shade, and the ivy.

When I got close up to the front of the house, I could see some spots where it looks like there might have been some stucco. As I said, the house makes much more sense painted or stuccoed in cream or pale yellow than in brick. The original owner of the house died in the late 1940’s and his wife moved out and sold or transferred the house to its current owners. The house is no longer in use, which is a shame. Regrettably, one of the current owners is not known for their support of historic preservation, so it is sad that this place is just being left to deteriorate.

I do have some of the early images of the interior, which I will show you along with the current views, where I have them.

Center Hall – Interesting that the hinges on the door are still intact.

Corner Room – This was a decorator show house one year, which may account for some of the changes.

Sunroom wing – Too bad the wonderful curved shutters are missing.

Sunroom – Clearly the same room, I just can’t quite figure out the angle.

The family’s three sons at an old stone gate.

Another view of the front hall

Parlour

Random visitors, aka the Duke & Duchess of Windsor (Look at her wasp waist!)

I wish that they would use this house for something other than storage, but my understanding it that it will take so much money to bring it up to code and repair the issues, that it’s not worth it to the owners. Because it’s less than 100 years old, and isn’t really significant in any way, it’s not protected. And if it was, it probably wouldn’t matter to either the owners or the local jurisdiction.

NB: I am being a bit quiet about the owners and location of this house on purpose. I have had a conversation with the current owners who have offered me a tour.