Friday, May 1, 2009 10:13 PM CDT
Restoration effort brings Lord mansion back to its old glory
By ROB STROUD, Staff Writer
rstroud@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — Restorations of the long-neglected home of Eastern Illinois University’s first president were bound to generate some curiosity in the community.
Restorers Tom and Salisa Olmsted of Painted Lady Properties, based in Gays, said they have seen many curious residents peak in the windows of the former Livingston Lord home, 838 Seventh St., since their work began last summer.
Now that nearly all of the restoration has been completed the Omsteds have scheduled an open house for 1-4 p.m. Sunday.
The couple said they do not anticipate being able to sell the house in the near future due to the bad economy, but still want to open this historic structure to the public. They plan to retain the house for special event rentals, and bed and breakfast use.
“We have had so many people who have asked, ‘Are you going to have an open house,’” Salisa Olmsted said. “We feel like we owe it to the community because we have restored a historically significant property.”
Lord, who served as Eastern’s president from 1900 to 1933, is thought to have resided in the house from 1903 to until his death in 1933. Copies of photos of Lord and Eastern obtained with the help of the university’s archives decorate the home, which the Olmsteds have furnished with Victorian-era antiques.
During the middle of this decade, the house fell into disrepair and the yard of the privately owned property became overgrown. In 2007, the city notified the owner at the time that the vacant property was a hazard. If the owner did not repair or demolish the leaky house, the city would have demolished it.
Jerry Brimner of Charleston purchased the property and made some repairs and then the Olmsteds bought it from him and began their restorations to the two-story house, which has more than a dozen rooms.
“Restoring Victorian homes is what we are all about. You are not going to find a house built today that is going to withstand time like the old Victorians,” Tom Olmsted said. His restoration business takes its name from the “painted lady” nickname for Victorian homes.
The Olmsteds have repainted the house’s exterior, exposed the original hardwood floors, uncovered a pass-through fireplace between the living room and dining room, rebuilt the kitchen and south porches, demolished a dilapidated garage that was not originally part of the house, and done much more work at the house.
Community members have aided in the restoration in surprising ways. Tom Olmstead said a woman brought them two square sections of light green porcelain with a vine design that had been missing from the parlor fireplace and someone else left two vintage-looking glass chandeliers in a bag on the front porch.
“Someone decided we needed the chandeliers to furnish our house,” Salisa Olmsted said, noting they were happy to use them in two of the upstairs bedrooms.
Salisa Olmsted said they removed the metal hardware from the windows, boiled the paint off, scrubbed them with steel wool and polished them while restoring the original windows. She said they needed to build an original-looking new window on the kitchen’s west side, which had been partially blocked by the former garage.
“Anything we had to have made we tried to match as close as possible,” Tom Olmsted said.
The Olmsteds have added modern amenities and infrastructure. The kitchen is furnished with stainless steel appliances, granite counters and cherry cabinets. The bathrooms are outfitted with a modern shower and fixtures, and antique claw-foot tubs. The bedrooms have new closets, not typically part of Victorian homes.
Regarding infrastructure, the Olmsteds have rewired the house and installed a new air handling system. They have also installed cellulose insulation in the exterior walls and a new 12-inch layer of insulation in the attic.
Ted Ostrem, president of the Coles County Historical Society, which operates the nearby Dudley House, said the Lord house restorations are a great addition to a historic corridor that has seen other improvements in recent years, including the opening of the Queen Anne’s on Seventh Street Bed and Breakfast.
“It’s just really nice to see the street being taken care of and the properties being taken care of the way they are,” Ostrem said, adding he plans on attending Sunday’s open house.
For more information on the Livingston Lord use, go online to www.lordhouse.us.com.
Contact Rob Stroud at rstroud@jg-tc.com or 238-6861.
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