Baber House

Baber House, Macon, Georgia

2nd Floor Stair Hall, 1936

While on a run...

I know I've been negligent with Sybaritic, but I thought I would show everyone one of my favorite places to visit while on my evening runs, Elsie de Wolfe's Irving Place home. I just assumed this building had been demolished, but when I rounded the corner and saw the distinctive Victorian awning and balcony on the front of the home, I recognized it immediately. The image above shows the house circa 1900.

Her home, circa 1905. Note the demolition of the townhouses to the left of her home and the removal of the decorative balustrade on top of the cornice. 

The interior following de Wolfe's redecoration removing much of the original Victorian decoration.

The house today...

Tragically the basement of the house is home to a Japanese restaurant and the rest of the building has been divided into apartments. I'm not sure I'd like to live in this area, but it would be amazing to be able to live in a space that was once home to one of the 20th century's most influential interior decorators.

Something I enjoy looking at...

 

This vestige of the interior design business from another era always brings a smile to my face when I walk by it on 2nd Avenue near 59th Street. That graphically painted sign always reassures me that I'm in the right place doing the right things.

Something I saw

After a Sunday of shopping, I headed back to my friend's place where I'm temporarily staying and passed by this amazing Art Deco eglomise panel...

 

 

I don't know that beautiful is the right word, but these panels are definitely amazing in their severity. This building stands at 570 Lexington Avenue and was designed by Cross & Cross and built between 1929-1931. It was built for RCA but later deeded to General Electric before the building was even finished. 

I will definitely want to borrow this motif later on... especially the intertwined lightening bolts.

Opportunity of a lifetime

This historic George Robertson House in Charleston is for sale. Located at 1 Meeting Street, you can't get more South of Broad than this. This home was built in 1846 on the site of a previous home designed by James Hoban, architect of the White House. The piazza on the south side is masked by a brick wall with windows that allows the east elevation of the house to remain symmetrical. The front bay was recently removed due to structural issues and rebuilt.

This aerial view from the side exposes the piazza that looks out on to South Battery and White Point Gardens...

The George Robertson House as illustrated on a bird's eye view map of Charleston from 1872...

The Robertson family sold the house to the Ross family following the Civil War. Mary Jane Ross filled the home with art and decorative arts during the Victorian period and attempted to leave the house in a trust to be operated as a museum at her death in 1922. This never came to fruition and the contents of the house were sold in 1944.

The house today... 

A spectacular staircase... I would edit out the 50 rugs in the entrance all, eliminate that pathetic excuse for a chandelier, and remove the wallpaper...

I wish I could begin to understand the pattern of this wallpaper... you can hear this room screaming in agony from the rug, matching camel back sofas, and general color palate. At least it maintains the original mantle and woodwork... 

Through the pocket doors is the dining room... what is there to say? I'm not sure I could rationalize maintaining any piece of furniture in this room with the exception of the sideboard... think how amazing these two rooms could be... perhaps a charcoal gray wall color with soft white trim, and furniture and decorative objects in flame mahogany, vermilion, and gilt? I'd also have to get rid of those chandeliers... they somehow manage to make absolutely no decorative statement. I also wouldn't mind a taxidermy creature of some sort in one of the bay windows. 

I hate to say it... but I almost like this wallpaper. Without the bad furniture (I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume this is a real Charleston Rice bed and let that piece remain) and horrendous rug, I think I could work with it. I'd tear out the make shift closet and create something a little bit more intentional, a built in armoire of sorts, that followed the lines and proportions of the original door frame behind it.

I would assume this archway originally opened into the next room, but I like that it's closed off now. From what I can tell I love the side tables, but on further examination I'd ditch the bed and upholster the arched opening and create a bed that didn't distract from the period woodwork. We'd obviously have to say good bye to the chandelier.

What can I say? I'm horrified by everything in this room. I really can't believe that anyone living in this neighborhood is living in such an ungracious and common way. Two chests shoved up next to one another? No bed skirt? 

I'm not even going to acknowledge the trim color or wallpaper and matching drapes.

I think I love the light fixture though...

Not as awful as the previous room, but still almost unbelievable that a room like this even exists in a house such as this. The light fixtures are interesting... I think I really like them and could definitely rework them into my redecoration.

Photos of the kitchen and bathrooms are conspicuously absent... your guess is as good as mine but I would assume there are toilets in every range of pink and mauve you can imagine and faux brick linoleum in the kitchen.

and it can all be yours, horrible wallpaper and all, for a mere $7,495,000.

View the rest of the real estate listing and more photographs here.

I would live here: LaGrange Terrace

While searching for the Merchant House Museum, I came across my new favorite building in Manhattan. I'm certain I'm destined to live here at some point in my life...

These townhouses known as LaGrange Terrace, of which only four of the original nine remain, were begun in 1831 and finished in 1833. Each house contained 26 rooms, marble mantles, indoor heating, and a bathing room. Such luxuries attracted the likes of the Astors and Vanderbilts.

LaGrange Terrace as it would have originally appeared in the 1830s...

 

and in the 1850s... 

and in the late 19th century...

note the penthouse addition to the far right unit

 

A neo-Venetian Gothic home that stood to the left of LaGrange Terrace...  collection of the New York Public Library

Five of these homes became The Colonnade Hotel in 1875. They survived until the turn of the century when the hotel was demolished...

A detail of the front door surround during the demolition process (note the the empty lot at left). These fantastic marble porches with cast iron street lights were removed during the early part of the century to enlarge the sidewalks. 

 

Another view during the demolition process. Note the original iron railings which have since been removed and replaced with a more generic version. 

 

A view of the surviving units while the Wanamaker's warehouse was being constructed at left... collection of the New York Public Library

 

Another view contemporary with the one above... collection of the New York Public Library

 

The columns from the demolished houses were purchased by Luther Kountze at the turn of the century and were moved to his estate in Morristown, New Jersey where they remain today.

 Elevation and architectural details completed by HABS...

Interior architectural details completed by HABS...

View the rest of these drawings here.

This post derives almost all of its historical information from a fantastic write up I found on the blog Daytonian in Manhattan that was published back in April of 2010. He delves into this topic much more deeply with all sorts of wonderful details. View this original post here.

Another great article on this group of buildings can be found here.

The Seabury Tredwell House

While researching my bachelor's essay on the Aiken-Rhett House I discovered the Seabury Tredwell House, or the Merchant House Museum in New York City. While there I made it my mission to see this period 1830s Greek Revival townhouse.

 

The home in its original context during the 1930s...

 

Sadly both homes on either side have been demolished leaving a vacant lot to the right and a garage building to the left...

 

The impressive door surround which was my initial reason for researching this home...

 

A near identical example at the Aiken-Rhett House which was added in the 1830s, contemporaneous with the construction of the Merchant House...

 

Original cast and wrought iron gas street lamps reminded me of similar examples in Charleston as well...

 

A similar street lamp at the Primrose House, 332 East Bay Street, Charleston, South Carolina...

 

The ceiling of the entrance vestibule... love the marbleized wall finish

While I was there the staircase was covered for renovations, but after the docent described the newel post it reminded me of something...

 

The staircase from The Heiress, 1949, starring Olivia de Havilland... a must see film that documents 1830s New York society... there's no way the set for her home was not based on this building

 

An original gasolier, curtain rods, and furnishings occupy the dining room and parlor...

The parlor of the Seabury Tredwell House in the 1930s...

... and Olivia de Havilland in the parlor of the set of The Heiress... note the similar columns (pilasters were common features around pocket doors, but full dis-engaged columns were rare) and the similarly paneled pocket doors.

This house is a fascinating glimpse into 1830s New York... a must see while you're there; there's nothing else like it in the city.

and I'm off

A week long trip to NYC is just what the doctor ordered...

 

Murray Hill Hotel; From Park Avenue and 40th Street

November 19th, 1935

Photograph by Berenice Abbott

View the rest of Abbott's Changing New York 1935-1938 series in the New York Public Library archives here.

In light of current events...

I thought I would post some photos of the Charleston Earthquake of 1886. This earthquake, which was a 7.3 on the Richter scale, was one of the largest and most devastating of any in the Southeastern United States. Over 2,000 buildings were damaged causing 6 million dollars worth of damage (almost 150 million in modern terms).

Although the event devastated the city and surrounding areas, the resulting photographs are hauntingly beautiful and surreal.

 

Note the large section missing from the upper portion of the spire of St. Philip's on Church Street. To the left is the old Planter's Hotel, now the Dock Street Theatre, and to the right is the French Huguenot Church... 

 

The effects of the earthquake necessitated many large homes to be demolished, fortunately these two homes still stand on Broad Street. Note the small piece of furniture still in place in the gable room of the home at right...

 

This large antebellum building which stood at the corner of Broad and Meeting Streets was so badly damaged that it was demolished... 

 

Tombstones in the graveyard of the Unitarian Church on Archdale... note how the marble obelisk has moved three or four inches from its original position... the church attached to this graveyard was so damaged that much of the gothic ornamentation was removed. Please see here for my previous post on the Unitarian Church.

 

This is one of my favorite photographs from this series... the elaborate doric column was thrown to the left and has partly planted itself in the ground. The capital lies about two feet farther to the left, and the urn finial is to the right...

 

and finally my favorite photograph: a double exposure of a church and the granite works showing toppled over marble and granite tombstones.