The Sublett Miller House

With later finishes removed, and the blocked-up opening restored, the room began to reveal its history. Layers of paint, wallpaper, plaster, and previous alterations exposed clues to the original architecture — and raised new questions about how the Front Parlor had changed over time.

Further investigation also revealed that a total makeover was in store for this room, as the flooring, sub-flooring, and joists had all been eaten away by termites. Fortunately, the hardwood flooring was a later addition, as the original floor-covering had been wall-to wall wool loom carpeting.

Removing the mantel allowed us to completely rehabilitate the firebox lining it with firebrick and ensure that the original cast-iron fireback was a perfect fit. The unfortunate loss of all of the Victorian tiles around the opening and on the hearth would have to be remedied, but for now, we were happy to have the original mantel back in place.

As luck would have it, incredibly, we found an exact match to the tile fireplace surround on the rear parlor. Perusing an architectural antiques store in Buffalo, New York, I opened random boxes while Tom took a phone call in the car. Stumbling upon a box of tiles, I was shocked when I pulled one out to find the exact tile we were missing, manufactured by American Encaustic Tile Company. I counted seventeen tiles and knew it was a complete set without having to lay it out (Five up on each side, five across the top, and two corner tiles is standard). We took it to the cashier feigning nonchalance, inquired about their return policy, and negotiated a good price. Needless to say, this traveled on my lap for the flight home!

At some point in the house’s history, the original carved wood mantel had been removed and relocated to the basement, while this marble mantel was installed in its place. Once the later wall between the two parlors was removed, the surviving architectural evidence made clear where the original mantel belonged. It was time to bring it home.

The fireplace hearth was a bit of a negotiation between old and new. Since the original was long-lost, we looked to the hearth in the rear parlor; broken and missing many pieces. In the end, we glued together all of the original tiles that were broken, carefully removed the intact ones remaining and took stock. After dividing the tiles into two piles, we added period tiles to each half, reworking each into a new design that honored not only the original, but also the Victorian period aesthetic. In the end, the hearths for the front and rear fireplaces would match once again. We did not hold out much hope for the tile surrounds, however. As long as we had been collecting Victorian tiles, we had never before seen that particular pattern, either for sale or in any of the historic house museums we had seen.

Subsequently, the front parlor went through a decade-long period of dormancy where it became storage for our collection, boxes of tile, construction flotsam and jetsam and random bits and pieces. The goal with an old house restoration is always to do the roof and gutters first, then systems, and finally surfaces. We had many systems to work on, pulling out all the old knob-and-tube wiring and getting the electrical system up to date/code, installing two new steam boilers in the basement, and a reverse-cycle heat pump on the third floor, as well as performing maintenance on the gas furnace in the basement. Yes, you counted correctly, this house has four heating plants and one cooling system. Not to mention five electrical breaker boxes (one main panel and four sub-panels. All water lines were replaced with copper, saying goodby to all of the old lead and galvanized pipes. Vents and waste lines, shutoffs and gas lines, expenses buried behind plaster and forgotten until they need a new bank account. So fast-forward ten years…

Finally the time has come to tackle the surfaces. For the walls we chose Anaglypta, a 3-D wallpaper. It comes white and you paint it to work with your color scheme. This choice was guided by the large fragment of wallpaper we uncovered during demolition, the original wallpaper seen in the 1880s photo. It was embossed (3-D) and hand-painted as well. The dado is a product called Lincrusta, a linseed-oil and wood pulp based material that is rolled out and impressed with a 3-D pattern. It works great with plater walls, as any future cracks in the plaster will not come through the material. Both of these materials are period-appropriate, in fact Lincrusta has many of their patterns going back to the 1890s. That, too, comes white and is hand-painted according to your color scheme.

The original Lincrusta panels over the doors had so many layers of paint that their patterns were almost unrecognizable on some panels. They needed some TLC to bring the details back and show off the depth of the pattern as well as the beautiful birds and flowers therein.

Each panel required the application of a very gentle stripper left on for a period of time, then gently brushed off. This process was repeated three to four times for each panel to gently remove each layer of paint without affecting the delicate substrate.

After removing the paint, they were thinly repainted with metallic paints to preserve the integrity of their patterns, as well as to integrate them with the room scheme. They were also stabilized and adhered to a solid surface before re-mounting them in their original places. One panel had been lost to time, so an imprint was made using an existing panel, after paint removal, to create a mold and produce a new panel.

After the termites, our next major setback occurred when we sent the original cherry carved mantel out to be stripped. Our agreement specified that it would be hand-stripped, even though it was the more costly option. We stressed that putting this piece in the heated dipping tank would destroy it, and that was to be absolutely avoided. Needless to say, they took our money and dipped our mantel, returning it free from paint, but in a million pieces. After holding the ruined mantel hostage until they received payment in full, we finally picked up the remains and found an expert who could steam and glue each piece back into place. After a year, we finally had our original piece back in place. Fortunately, Karma eventually caught up with the perpetrator of this crime against architecture.

With the architectural pieces finally back in place and the surfaces beginning to evolve, we developed the color scheme based on an 1890s strip loomed carpet we found in an old Masonic Temple in Frederick Maryland. True to the original look and feel of this room, with wall-to wall strip carpeting, textured surfaces, and the original light fixtures, mantels, mirrors, woodwork, etc. This was shaping up to look just as it should!