If you were searching for an ideal candidate for historic preservation near the nation's capital, Porto Bello, in southern Maryland, would seem an obvious choice. Unless, of course, you were bothered by the caved-in roof, the decaying brick walls, and the rotting floors.
"It was awful, just awful," remembers Washington, D.C., architect Stephen Muse. "But when you squinted your eyes, it had great bones."
"It was a ruin," admits Sally Quinn, who with her husband, Ben Bradlee, hired Muse for the restoration project. But to Quinn, that was the point. "I love ruins," she says. "I have to feel that the house is saying, 'Come save me.'"
Even in its weakened state, Porto Bello's voice must have resonated. It was built in the 1740s by William Hebb II about the same time George Washington's half-brother, Lawrence, was building Mount Vernon. The setting was also historic. The Colonial-era manor is perched upon a pastoral bluff overlooking St. Mary's River, a tributary of the Potomac, and the nearby town of St. Mary's City was capital of the Maryland colony for much of the 17th century. So the house's credentials were impeccable. But to restore it to livable condition would require more energy, talent, and money than it would take to tear it all down and begin again -- which made it the perfect project for Quinn.
"When she called about Porto Bello," says Muse, "there was a special tone in her voice." There was also a built-in sense of urgency. The collapsed roof was already endangering the interior, and the structure of the house needed stabilizing before work could begin. The couple closed on the house in the spring of 1990, moved into a quickly renovated guest cottage on the property that summer, and helped supervise a renovation faithful to the spirit of the 18th century and, eventually, comfortable enough for year-round family escapes from D.C.
Muse and his clients weren't tempted to modify the interior to squeeze in more than the existing three bedrooms and two baths. For guest quarters, there are updated outbuildings. The nods to modernity are the single-room wings on each side for a kitchen and a sunroom; both have large windows to capture river views. Although it's clear the wings postdate the main house, they show reverence for style and place in the overall design.
Inside, rotting floors were replaced by antique planking of nearly the same vintage. Quinn cut through layers of paint and mixed her own colors to achieve shades for the trim that offset the white walls throughout.
If history delivered a certain quirkiness at Porto Bello, Quinn and Bradlee respected that as much as its Colonial pedigree. Over time, for instance, uneven settling pulled one of the door frames out of plumb. Despite the carpenters' pleas to fix the crooked door, Quinn insisted on retaining it as an imperfection earned by age. In the two wing additions, Muse had to rein in local masons whose work looked "too good" next to the cruder styles and materials of their 18th-century counterparts. The local craftsmen were proud of their own standards, says Muse, "but it was always a matter of getting them to take into account the house's historic character."
It was this opportunity for partnership that the house offered Quinn from the beginning. "In a strange way," she says, "I feel I was chosen to save this house and preserve it. I feel lucky that I could do that."
FIVE THINGS I'VE LEARNED ... BY SALLY QUINN
1. Restoring an old house is more expensive than tearing it down and rebuilding it from an architect's drawings. The contractor will tell you to demolish it, that he can build the same house new for less money. He is not lying.
2. Don't restore an old house unless you are committed to doing it right. Cutting corners and doing it on the cheap is not fair to the house, to the neighborhood, or to your soul.
3. Make sure you have a solid marriage. Many couples decide to save an old house when what they really want is a project to save the relationship. This is a mistake. You'll not only have the expense of the restoration but also the expense of a divorce, and then you may have to sell the house anyway.
4. Don't try to make an old house look new. If it has crooked ceilings and doorjambs, funny shaped windows, odd moldings, wormy floors, and secret panels, leave them that way. Obviously you will want more light and good kitchens and bathrooms. The worst thing you can do is create a modern addition that isn't faithful to the original house. Remember why you bought it ... because it's an old house.
5. Keep in mind that this is a house, not a museum. Too many people get carried away and devote the décor of their historic houses so slavishly to the period that you feel the rooms should be roped off. When the house was built,
people actually lived in it. So should you. And love every minute of it.
RESOURCES: Restoration architecture by Muse Architects, 202/966-6266, www.musearchitects.com; contractor, George Fritz, Horizon Builders, Inc., 301/261-6706, www.horizonbuildersinc.net.
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