The Goddess on the Hill

My withdrawal symptoms had subsided with the discovery of the Tavern, thank goodness, with not only restoring this magnificent home (it was featured in the June 2014 edition of Early American Life magazine entitled "Yankee Occupation"), but four more in the meantime.  Including an Edwardian cottage, Eastlake Victorian, a Second Empire and a late vernacular Victorian that had been updated with Arts & Crafts embellishments. The photos below will give you a taste of what we were up to!       

The chapter on my Greek mistress will now begin! We were ready to embark on a new journey after several years of working on the Tavern and doing these side restorations. I just didn’t realize how long and how involved the next one was going to be. Again, my wandering little spouse had come upon needy relics that were begging for a revival of their former glories. Where were some of these gems that were in need of a good polish, Lynchburg. Settled in 1757 at the base of the Blue Ridge mountains, it was named for its founder John Lynch who established a ferry service at a ford on the James River. It is also known as the “City of Seven Hills” because of the quite steep inclines that rise from the river bank. This small city exhibits quite a range of architectural finds from early Federal structures to an Art Deco skyscraper. The story begins in January of 2010 when we called a realtor who specialized in historic properties to start the search. Since we owned a later Georgian/early Federal home, something different was in order. He emailed us several properties to review and select the ones that most appealed to us.  Only five properties jumped off the page and one in particular.  The realtor gave us a tour around the main historic districts encircling the transforming downtown district.  All were in various states of restoration, re-muddling, etc.  The one I wanted to see the most was saved for last and the realtor really didn't want to show it to us.  He said it needed "allot of work", which didn't deter me.  To most customers that would make them not want to even see the house, but that intrigued me more. 

 

The house is called Rivermont because it overlooks both the James River and the Blue Ridge mountains beyond.  It was built in 1852 by Judge William Daniel, Jr. for his bride Elizabeth Cabell, this Greek Revival "mansion" boasted very up-to-date conveniences that included two bathing rooms and gas lite chandeliers.  She wanted a modern house and compared to other houses of the era it is understandable why it would have been considered that.  The windows are huge and allow the whole interior to be bathed in light.  The house is symmetrical in design with a central hallway from front to back with two rooms on either side on all three levels and is said to have been based upon a Palladian villa.  The front porch has "Temple of Winds" capitals and fluted columns and the rear porch stretched across entire back, had the more simple "Doric" capitals and smooth columns.  A wide stairway leads to the second-floor hall which is a small room in itself.  Each room is punctuated with a fireplace along with the oversized windows.  The double parlor have a massive pair of pocket doors that are ten feet tall and allow the rooms to become one large open entertaining space.  Rivermont was actually part of the original “Point of Honor” plantation, which is a half octagon brick Federal home based upon the principles of Thomas Jefferson’s designs.  Dr. Cabell resided in this home and was Patrick Henry’s personal physician. 

As we walked in one thing was evident, the house was a wreck!  Plaster falling down, woodwork missing or badly damaged from years of neglect and layers of paint.  However, it was 1,000% better than what it was just 15 years prior. The pictures I show below make it look like a palace compared to the ones I was shown when a group of concerned citizens acquired it. A non-profit was formed to bring this house back to its former glory and help stabilize the neighborhood.  When they took possession of the house, it was nothing short of a disaster!  I need to back up first and explain what happened over the years.  The original owners lost the home after the Civil War, it was then purchased by different people through the decades including a Mr. Hutter in the latter portion of the 19^th century who divided the land during a massive building frenzy in Lynchburg.  He was the main person behind the building of the bridge connecting downtown with what is now the Rivermont Avenue neighborhoods.  By the 1950s this area was in decline and the house was subdivided into six apartments.  When the non-profit took over all four chimneys had collapsed into the structure ripping the heart pine floors to shreds below, windows were missing, the exterior was covered in asphalt shingles, the brick and flagstone flooring that once graced the English basement was gone, etc., etc.  They restored the chimneys, put on a new standing seam roof, stripped the shingles off and re-milled and installed siding to match the original, rebuilt windows and did a massive stabilization of the structure itself.  I’m not sure I would have taken on this project if all that had not been done.  A great applause should be given to organizations like this who resurrect buildings that have lost favor.  Without people and groups like them, many more pieces of history will be lost.  

I just remember walking through for the first time and seeing what it could be.  My other half wasn’t as convinced as I was.  It took time to go through the numbers and talking with the board members before "everyone" was comfortable and I mean my spouse!  It took until June to work out all the details and "plan of attack" before we closed.  As I get into our story, or trials and tribulations as I should say, we just didn’t know all of what we were going to be getting into.  Things you think will be easy or self-explanatory, turn out not to be.  Projects such as this test your fortitude and relationship…lol, but in the end, are very much worth it!                  

I know after reading the first three posts you must be wondering if Carter's Tavern was the "Big One" that I penned the title of this blog after.  Well, no it isn't!  That one I will get to after this post. The Tavern is a dream compared to the nightmare we decided to take on almost five years after buying this one.  Talking or in this case writing is a superb form of therapy when speaking of addiction.  Friends in New England used to refer to my many restorations as my mistresses.  I would say that was an accurate description.  There is nothing like taking a rough stone, polishing and shaping it to a beautiful, sparkling creation!  The satisfaction is overwhelming and the sense of accomplishment is unparalleled knowing that you did this with your own two hands along with others that helped to revive this long lost beauty.  Enough about the psychological side of house restoration.  I can drone on and on about that.  Back to the physical world of it!

By the fall of 2006 the house was painted; windows re-glazed and painted; the shutters were almost finished being reworked or rebuilt as with most of them and readied for their gleaming coat of black paint.  We had hired Barry Thompson to build the cabinets in the tap room for our kitchen.  That was modified of course before we started, but the end result was amazing.  Barry used very few power tools in the construction and most of it was done by hand.  Since we did not want to harm the original moldings and if the house was ever turned into a museum, all the cabinets had a lip that went above the chair rail.  They could easily be removed with no harm to the woodwork.  He constructed all the components out of 200+ year old heart pine boards that he salvaged from a demolition.  Even the countertops are made of this "golden" wood.  The patina and aged look of these can not be faked!  Only the real McCoy will do.

We then turned our attention to a hall bath that drove me out of my gourd!  I would have liked to have redone all the baths the same way, but money always dictates what direction we take.  We had visited numerous historic sites where the "necessary" was almost always a separate structure, but what would it have looked like if it were in the house?  I took that to heart and designed an indoor, outhouse inside the house!  I turned to Barry again to build an authentic "one-holer" for the bath.  Kohler at the time was selling a hat box style, but it was a very expensive hat box.  We then turned to a low profile water closet that could be concealed by a wooden seat and back.  That was perfect, except the first one came cracked, second one came cracked and we decided to abandon ship on the third, so we went with another style.  Matching all the same measurements, but a little more money, we had one piece of the puzzle figured out.  This one came in unscathed!  Next I designed a dry sink cabinet that we could make wet!  Barry took the drawing and ran with it so to speak.  I wanted it to look at least two hundred years old and have a dry painted finish.  He did such a great job that one of his other clients came in and said "that will be a nice piece once you get done restoring it", perfect! That is all I needed to hear.  We had a redware, basin bowl made in the Pottery Capital of the World; Seagrove, North Carolina.  Found a bronze faucet that would blend and add to the 18th century illusion.  Alice came and worked her faux painting magic on the newly installed wooden "necessary".  We played off of the mahogany graining of the room and pulled that onto the "new throne"!  We now had an authentic outhouse, indoors.....

 

The last frontier was starting to recreate the outbuildings that may have been on the property originally.  Within a couple of years we added a log barn that was just down the street from the Tavern on an old tobacco farm.  It was in danger of being torn down because a couple of rows of logs had rotted on one side.  Barry salvaged enough to where we still have generous ceiling height and a loft above.  He then found an smokehouse that was being torn down in North Carolina to make way for a new development.  Classic in design with a conical roof, but unfortunately over half of it started to crumble when he tried to dismantle it.  We at least had the dimension and some of the framing timbers and siding to duplicate a new one and a matching diary house.  All three buildings have brick floors, which came from a tragic fire at a neighboring historic house.  A dear friend who is like a second mother to us, generously gave us brick from her once great home to use.  Something good did come from something bad.  Not to be too cliché, but that's true....  The last building to be finished thus far is the well house, sort of! After purchasing the property we discovered a fairly deep hole in the backyard and quickly learned it was one of the original "hand dug" wells.  A safety hazard now, but a perfect place to put the air handler for the main floor.  A sturdy concrete pad was poured, floored in brick pavers, some magic from our carpenters and ta-da, a well house.  A friend had bought us a well wheel and bucket, so naturally we had to have a place to put it and it is in the location of the old well.  These photos were taken during a December snow, you will see our four-legged child racing around all the obstacles we have placed in her yard!

The next chapter, I promise will begin the real journey.  This house was just a warm up for what we were in for!!!!