apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I loved the tour, lots of interesting pieces. I was a little bit curious though about the ugly neon chandelier. It's not an attractive piece, not even in a tongue-in-cheek way, and it felt so out of place and 2004-2005 trendy I can't understand why it was chosen. It jolted me out of what was an otherwise nice walk through the past.

i've walked by this place countless of times-- it was wonderful to finally get a peak inside. I liked all the little detailed shots-- would love to have a set of stairs to decorate! thanks aaron!

awww, so pretty. makes me want to throw out all my modern stuff and go antique hunting.

Oh, yeah, the faux chandelier was really tacky - insulting, actually. i've seen it at future perfect. i'm sure some hipster museum intern thought it was really clever, but it just comes off as immature and insensitive.

jackief - I was thinking the same thing. The museum is so special, why throw in some tacky hipster accessory that isn't even hip any more? It would come off as immature anywhere, but especially in this museum. I'm all for mixing styles (minus tacky neon chandeliers), I do it in my own home. But my home is my home, it isn't a preserved home/museum.
Like you, I'm also up for antique hunting after this!

The neon chandeliers are place holders while the originals are being refurbished. While I mentioned this in the image's caption, it is important to know that photographs of the stunning originals are on the Merchants House Museum website (direct link on my name).

The captions don't show up in slideshow view this time. If one deletes the /show/ from the URL, then it's possible to see the photos with captions.

Fascinating house: it is so clearly the 1930s understanding of the 1830s, with what look like some more recent efforts at updating the curating.

The captions should be accessible within the show by clicking on the photo.

I actually thought the chandeliers were cook ;-).

Anyway, I'm all for throwing out all the mid century modern stuff and going for the antiques! MCM is soooooo played out.

Obviously meant "cool" not "cook."

To Wende, What details specifically make the house feel like it has 1930s slant to it? I'm curious, because the house was transfered to the the Trust in the 1930s, but everything that I have ever read about it has said that the family who originally owned it had never made any significant changes to the house and it was in period condition when the Trust took it over.

Now I'm sad that everyone else is catching on to how cool the 19th century was. I'm going to have more competition for those swank antiques... The Old Merchants House is my dream home.

Kyle -- What first made me think 1930s is the painted white walls and white trim. That would be unusual as the original condition for an 1830s house, but in the 1920s/1930s, that's how Colonial and Federal styles were more likely to be interpreted.

In Roger Moss' _Paint in America_, there's a great article by Taylor & Pappas on how Colonial Williamsburg (the leading example of careful restoration) got the original paint colors wrong, partly due to the state of restoration techniques and partly due to interpreting results according to what looked good to 1930s eyes.

That said, that article does show a foyer with a more recent restoration to creamy white with black baseboards, so white's not impossible.

If we go to _The Marble House on Second Street_ -- same era, but upstate and trying hard to ape NYC during the era when Troy was chic -- wallpaper was commonly used in the important rooms. But in the 1930s, all the layers of wallpaper were stripped and replaced with white or light paint, accompanied by Federal Revival molding that wasn't there originally but looks terrifically historic to modern eyes.

So I'm thinking the furniture and layout of the Merchant House are original, but the finishes seem doubtful. Going a century without repainting or updating the wallpaper would require an unusual situation.

Curious about the clock shown on the marble mantle- do you recall what the image reverse painted on the lower glass was? I have just received a very similar piece as a gift- and my initial research shows that the company did decorative panels in three categories: flora, fauna (mine) and portraiture. . . that having been said, this one looks scenic.

Thank you for the detailed reply Wende. That had been my suspicion as well. I had always wondered about the all white interior, it just seemed off to me even though the house predates the real riot of color that happened 20 years later. If you look at the Library of Congress's photographic record
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.ny0591
in the HABS database for the house you can clearly see that the walls are a darker shade than the moldings in the photographs taken on March 5, 1936 and everything is all white in the photos taken on May 25, 1936. So at least some kind of painting went on in the original staging of the house before the museum opened. I wonder if they ever did any tests to investigate the original finishes in the parlors.

I'll make sure to check out the Marble House sometime, that's one I hadn't heard of before. If you're interested in historic interiors, I have a lot of links saved up from the Library of Congress archives that show interiors that I could share with you. And now I have to bow out, because everyone will know I'm not hip and modern if I talk anymore about old houses.

Kyle -- Oh, we must talk old houses, even if it's unhip! The Lib of Congress material is new to me.

(And I just started looking up places I'm vaguely interested in, to keep busy while the students are doing a group discussion -- oh, great excitement!)

The LOC is amazing! First time I stumbled across it I stayed up till something like 2 or 3am just browsing. They have hi-res scans too on the HABS database, big enough to print at decent sizes.

I wrote a blog entry about it on my site (which is a little sparse at the moment because we've just started it in the past couple of weeks). Feel free to email me and I'll point out some gems that are worth checking out. Sadly there are not a huge amount of SF buildings in the HABS collection, but there are lots for the East coast and the Midwest. My email is listed under the About & Contact section on my site http://www.pilastered.com/about/. We wouldn't want to overwhelm this posting with antiquarian banter.

Sometime during my midafternoon spent at the Merchants House, I remember reading that they are working on restoring more period-appropriate wallcoverings and paint colors. There were a few spots on walls that restorative experts had been methodically stripping layers of paint...I'm sorry I don't remember any more details, but they are working on it!

I haven't been to the House in years but I've always loved that place. I had taken a Christmas tour once, which was really lovely--period decorations, candles, etc. Next to Merchants is an empty lot and then another almost identical house that is about to keel over through intentional neglect. (The developer/owner has the parking lot at the corner and the empty. I don't think he was allowed to tear down this other house so he's let it fall apart with a little help) It pains me to think of all those architectural details, all those furnishings, lost over the years...

Oh just read part about Water Tunnel construction-- Developer/Owner issues were from several years ago. Oops. So--obviously other things are happening there now.

It seems like there are some 1930s aficionados on these threads, who I am hoping can give some direction!

We live in a 1930s house and would like to gently refurbish it in keeping with its roots. I'm not interested in creating a house that looks like a film set from the 1930s, but I would definitely like to preserve/highlight some of its characteristics (for example, the bathroom's glorious golden yellow tile).

Does anyone have any recommendations for books or websites highlighting 1930s styles in interiors? Thanks in advance. I'm interested in anything from furniture to light fixtures to paint/wallpaper fashions to millwork.

Oh, and one more question: the front entrance hall and the upstairs hallway of our house are finished in some sort of textured plaster/stucco. It's not bumpy and flaky like a popcorn ceiling, or gritty like exterior stucco, but smooth (though textured, if that makes any sense) to the touch - kind of a ripply look. Would this be original to the house, or a later addition?

On Roosevelt Island there is on old house from, I think, the 1700's. It was fenced off and I assumed it would be renovated, but it seems to be caving in on itself. I am stunned that in all of New York, there is no person or agency to rescue such a historical treasure.

I looked at the drawings made of the house in the 30s and those said that the trim was painted white, and the walls were painted yellow. That was what the condition the house was in the 1930s, so not necessarily the colors that might have been used in the 1830s. Yellow and white would make a lot more sense than all white. It's good the curators are working on investigating it. Historic restoration is a so much more work than your average reno.

To Roundabout,
I'm more of an 1800s type of man, so I don't know of any specific contemporary titles offhand. I would look for decorating guide books from that time at the library. House and Garden type magazines were fairly plentiful by then and magazines publishers would often put out books of articles compiled from the magazine. If you are really lucky your library might even have bound editions or microfilm copies of old magazines that you could browse.

The Great Depression put a damper on really extravagant decor and building, so being a less stylistically glamorous decade it hasn't garnered as much popular attention yet. The Colonial Revival was popular then. Princeton Architectural Press has a book called Colonial Revival Maine by Kevin Murphy if that style interests you/matches your house. The Colonial Revival was most popular in New England, other parts of the country had their own particular regional styles.

Thanks for your response, Kyle. Your suggestions sound like a good place to start.

And Kyle said exactly what I was going to say... everything I know about the 1930s comes from decorating books of the period.

Not knowing off-hand where you are... really big public libraries often have decorating books from the 1920s and 1930s, and if that fails, colleges that historically have a Home Economics department (now often renamed to something else) often still have some of the books. Sometimes you have to get permission to browse, esp. at private colleges, but it's often a routine matter of filling out a form and promising to behave.

If you can find 1930s decorating magazines (or women's magazines), pay attention to the ads! Ads preserve a lot that articles didn't bother with.

Anyone who would be 'insulted' by a temporary installation of neon chandeliers while the original gasoliers are out on important historical refurbishing needs to get a life. I felt the 'shocking' contrast between the fixtures and the rest of the original furnishings (which are extraordinary!) helped me see just how marvelous the old antiques are, and how special the gasoliers (which I saw in the pictures) seem to be. I'll definitely be back to see them in place when they're reinstalled next month. In fact, I'm going to join as a member, just because of those neon replacements! So, to each her own, I guess. Thanks, Merchants House! You're a cool institution.

Kevin Murphy was my grad school professor--a fine scholar and a stand-up guy. He's very astute about preservation issues & I trust his writing immensely. (plug over) No other insights--just wishing you luck!

I'm on line with Candy - - thinking the neon chandeliers are cool... just proves to my mind that this is the most happening historic house I've ever been in, and I'm gonna be back. I found out about all the really awesome events they have going on throughout the year - - this place makes history fun!
Loosen up, naysayers!

What "neon" chandelier? I don't see what you guys are whining about.

Speaking of houses going to pot in NYC -- does anyone know details about the officers' homes on the southern end of the Brooklyn Navy Yard? Built in the nineteenth century, some with mansard roofs, gracious porches -- absolutely gorgeous and (as far as I know) rotting.

Duncan - you can see the neon chandelier in the 12th picture in the slideshow. It's neon-light tubing bent into a chandelier shape, suspended from the traditional ceiling rosette.

RE Admiral's Row (to happilyeverafter): I happened to have met with someone from the Navy Yard last week, someone with an interest in the history of the place, and asked about the future of these once fine houses. The short answer is that they will indeed be demolished. They were put under the "care" of the Army Corps of Engineers over 25 years ago, which resulted in nothing more than complete and utter neglect. As my colleague remarked, "nature reclaims very quickly," and owing to their advanced state of deterioration the houses would need to be almost entirely reconstructed to be made viable again. This would amount to a cost that would be near to impossible to recover as commercial venues. How much would it have cost to have kept the vines and trees cut back? Yet another feather in the cap of incompetence for the ACE.