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An addition to the rear of the 19th-century house provided space for modern amenities, plus a sunroom and deck.
The restoration of the plantation house was intended to keep it true to its 19th-century roots. The staircase, with a wall
The foundation of the house is new,
The country kitchen may be in the same room it has always been, but it was thoroughly updated in the restoration, with lots of cabinet space and top-of-the-line appliances.
After 21/2 years of effort, the plantation house transplanted from a North Carolina cotton field to builder Dan Spear's property in Spotsylvania County is
The North Carolina mansion's master bathroom is situated |
Last of a three-part series.
By RICHARD AMRHINE
I F HOUSES could speak,
In the fall of 2003, it was a strong, but decaying, 1812 plantation house sitting in the middle of a cotton field in Como, N.C., 15 miles south of Franklin in southeastern Virginia. It had been damaged by Hurricane Isabel, and the owner was fielding offers to gut it for its parts.
Today it stands tall on the Spotsylvania County property of local builder Dan Spear, completely restored and impeccably decorated.
"From the beginning we knew this would be something special. The craftsmanship itself elevated our game--our commitment--to the house and making it true to the period," Spear said during a recent tour.
From a distance, the simple design of the house belies its massive size. A closer look at the Greek-revival-style house lends an appreciation for the extent of the restoration. The fresh, white HardiPlank siding, black shutters and standing-seam metal roof make the house look new. But the door hardware, heart pine flooring, rough-hewn structural beams and detailed trim suggest a by-gone era.
The rocking chairs on the porch and the electric candles in each window create a timeless, inviting setting, along with the carpet of impatiens and the working fountain beside the driveway.
"For something like this to work, you have to have a partner who's willing to stick with it," Spear said, referring to his wife, Debbie. "She's been great. Every day we could feel good about something we'd accomplished--and then realize how far we still had to go."
With the experience now in hindsight, Spear is free to revel in his pride in the structure. His company, Spear Builders of Virginia, has built thousands of homes in the Fredericksburg area over the past two decades, but working on this house has given him a new appreciation for the builder's craft.
"What they were able to do with what they had, and to do it so accurately, it's just amazing," he said of the home's original builders.
And he speaks just as highly of the people who have contributed their talents to the reconstruction and restoration project over the past 2 years.
Scott Kidd, of J. Scott Kidd Interiors of Atlanta and Charleston, S.C., is the most recent example. The Spears have a home in Charleston, and came to know his work there.
"We just turned the house over to him," said Spear, which wasn't easy for a builder who likes to be intimately involved with every project he takes on. "We couldn't be happier with the results."
In Kidd, Spear found someone confident in his ability create the ideal decor for a 19th-century house and 21st-century living. That confidence comes from Kidd's 15 years of work with old Southern homes and the contacts he's developed over that time.
"We needed an eclecticism that would allow us to use the colors of the period without getting too stale," Kidd said of his plan for the plantation house.
Given that philosophy, he proceeded to design every aspect of the interior while incorporating the Spears' basic wishes and the furnishings they wanted to include.
Kidd settled on a color scheme based on a peacock's tail in paintings by artist C. Roy, two
Kidd filled the house with furniture that is either antique or interesting for other reasons. There are barstools originally made for Elvis Presley's Graceland, and a table from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's estate at Warm Springs, Ga. There are 18th-century commodes in the master suite, and 19th-century secretaries, armoires and dessert and game tables scattered throughout. Some upholstered pieces were re-covered, but original wood finishes were cleaned up and otherwise left alone.
Mirrors, large and small, are key to the design, helping to reflect light and enhance the feeling of space. Those that show their age were intentionally left that way. Window treatments are true to the period, but are always swagged to the sides and never cover the windows.
The antique chandeliers and wall sconces, of which there are several, were all originally powered by gas or candles but have been converted to use electricity.
Kidd overlooked no detail, deciding, for example, to replicate trim from an original, 12-foot fireplace hearth in the kitchen and apply it to the new kitchen cabinets. Those cabinets extend to the ceiling, and to reach their upper shelves an English library ladder has been hung nearby.
The house has come a long, long way since Spear first laid eyes on it in 2003. He was introduced to it by Craig Jacobs, who runs Salvagewrights Ltd. in Madison County.
Spear was in the market for a rustic log cabin to reconstruct on his Courthouse Road property--something he still intends to do--and got in touch with Jacobs. Spear's plans changed when Jacobs took him to see the plantation house.
Known in Como as the Hare Plantation, the property is located next to a plantation once owned by Richard J. Gatling, inventor of the Gatling gun.
By early 2004, the house had been disassembled, each piece marked and cataloged for exact reassembly, and transported in three tractor-trailer loads to Spotsylvania. Jacobs stayed on to run the disassembly and reconstruction phases.
Spear said he gained huge respect for its original builders, who must have used livestock, rope and pulleys to erect the home's framework of heavy Southern pine timbers, some as long as 40 feet and 14 inches square for their entire length.
Much of the framing would have been put together on the ground and then guided into place. Assembly was done almost entirely by pegged mortise and tenon. Using a crane for the reconstruction made things somewhat easier 194 years later, Spear said.
To make it the Spears' new home, some nods to modern convenience were necessary. A large addition extends seamlessly from the rear of the house, and to that a sunroom was added. New electrical, plumbing and climate-control systems were installed and designed to be unobtrusive. Even radiators from an earlier upgrade were retained as part of the home's heating system.
The Spears plan to move into the plantation house from their existing home on the property in early 2007.
Spear has said he wants to use the plantation house to help advance local preservation efforts. Last Sunday, groups were invited to tour the home to raise funds for the purchase of the 205-acre Pierson farm near Shannon Airport. The tract became known as the Slaughter Pen for the fierce fighting that raged there prior to the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862.
The previous installments of this series can be found at:
fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2005/022005/02182005/1660492
fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2005/112005/11112005/hh spear
To reach RICHARD AMRHINE:
Email: ramrhine@freelancestar.com
