Village of Chevy Chase
In the waning years of the 19th century, Nevada Senator Francis G. Newlands began purchasing farmland across the DC line in Montgomery County. The properties were strategically located along a proposed streetcar line being planned for Connecticut Avenue. Newlands established The Chevy Chase Land Company in 1890 and began building large single family residences. Among them was this home, built in 1904. It is a classic four square style, constructed with balloon framing. The owner wished to expand and update the home, which was in its original form. The project required a deep understanding of the style and exhaustive searches for period appropriate materials.
The plans called for a new kitchen addition, updating of all the bathrooms, reworking the bedroom floor plan, making living space on the third floor, and adding many custom built-ins. With all the original details intact, we were able to source period building materials.
The Detail
The house sits on an exposed foundation faced with what I call “Cleveland Park Granite.” It was cut from one of the long closed quarries in what is now Rock Creek Park. The kitchen addition and new back stairs required a significant amount of the stone. I was fortunate enough to discover a dry stacked stone wall made of matching stone in a neighbor’s yard. I purchased the wall, and with an acid wash, it was a perfect match to the original foundation.
The original floors are exceptionally tight-grained, quarter sawn, longleaf heart pine. This species was lumbered out nearly a hundred years ago but it is still available from companies that salvage old logs and beams. My search for a match was not rewarding because the original floor had such tight growth rings and I needed a few thousand square feet. Fortunately I heard about a hardware and feed store being demolished north of Baltimore. Their flooring was thicker than needed but otherwise was an exact match. I drove to the site, purchased, and hauled all of the flooring back to my job where I planned it into one of my finest floors to date.
Another challenging building material to locate was the clear chestnut. At one time, one out of every four trees in the Appalachian Mountains was an American Chestnut. These trees were magnificent, growing up to 100 feet tall with a trunk diameter of over 12 feet. In 1904, a blight was introduced through Japanese nursery stock. The blight decimated the nation’s chestnut trees and eliminated the wood from lumber mills. Many homes built in the 1920s used wormy chestnut for trim, floors, and cabinetry. This wood was plentiful as insects attacked the dying trees and mills salvaged the lumber. Our project, however, predated the blight and required clear chestnut. Over many months, I was able to locate enough salvaged boards to build new cabinetry and wainscotting in the home’s library.
I enjoy working with homeowners to create custom features for their projects. In this case, the homeowner wanted a built-in desk with a hidden keyboard. I designed a drawer system that maintained the traditional look of the cabinetry while simultaneously supporting an ergonomic keyboard tray.
