If you haven’t seen it, there’s an article on a restored home in the Van Wyck Brooks Historic District. The article, written by Kimberly Jackson of The Star-Ledger, appears below. Click here to see the full article and photos.
Published: Thursday, September 20, 2012, 2:58 PM Updated: Friday, September 21, 2012, 7:38 AM
This Queen Anne Victorian mansion, among many in Plainfield, is known as the Craig Marsh house after its first occupant. The W. 8th Street home has been meticulously restored by its present owners, John Stewart and Craig Bowman.
As a student of design living in London, John Stewart envisioned his future home as a contemporary loft apartment with spare, modern furnishings in some urbane locale.
What he got instead is a sprawling three-story Victorian mansion built in 1893 on West 8th Street in Plainfield. It came with elaborately bordered oak floors, hand-carved fireplaces, coffered oak ceilings and a turreted facade that recalls ancient European castles. Four intricately curved stained glass windows, each measuring six feet tall, adorn the largest column.
“When we saw that, it just took our breath away,” Stewart says of the leaded glass panels that bathe the home’s vestibule and its imposing staircase in soft, colored light. “That was the ah-ha moment when we first came in the house.”
Lots of work is usually part of package for a home that’s aged more than one hundred years, and that was the case in 2005 when Stewart and his partner, lawyer Craig Bowman, bought the house with Michelle Riley, another lawyer friend. The windows that sold them on the house would also require extensive work. They were removed and restored piece by piece by Michael Melia of Saint George’s Art Glass Studio in Rahway.
The home’s largest stained glass windows are set in a turret. Each of the curved 6-foot-tall panels was removed and reassembled piece by piece with new leading.
“It took a lot of work and a lot of vision,” Stewart said of the years-long process working with Plainfield Restoration to convert the house from four units and return it to its original splendor as a single-family dwelling. “We were very fortunate that the house was featured in an issue of Scientific American.”
The home’s original floor plan was reprinted in the publication’s April 1893 issue along with a description of the many impressive features prominent architect Charles H. Smith incorporated for the home’s first owner, Plainfield city attorney Craig Marsh. An 1894 New York Times article describing the home also provided clues that helped guide the restoration.
The 7,500-square-foot house now has seven bedrooms, three bathrooms, a powder room and two kitchens, including a third-floor cooking and dining area. “We suspect that the servants were on the third floor,” Stewart said. Additionally, there is a stunning library with the heavily linear Arts and Crafts elements that were just coming into vogue. A parlor decorated with curvier Victorian furnishings is appointed in a manner that would have pleased the lady of the house and her guests.
Despite the scope of the renovation, the home’s original woodwork and many of its finest details endure. The updated main kitchen and a temperature-controlled wine cellar for 1,200 bottles are among more modern features. Yet there are nods to the past in such playful touches as the peep hole in the cellar’s teak door that recalls a Prohibition-era speakeasy.
“It’s a very inviting and warm place to be,” says Stewart, 42. “The craftsmanship that you had then, you don’t have now. There’s a marriage of stone, glass and wood — high quality materials coupled with a high level of artistry.”
John Stewart, president of Plainfield’s Van Wyck Brooks Historic District, in a three-season porch on the second story of his restored Queen Anne Victorian mansion.
Beyond the cachet of living on a street locals have dubbed millionaire’s row for the prosperous former residents who populated it with grand homes, Stewart has become a passionate preservationist. As president of the Van Wyck Brooks Historic District in which his house is located, he is an action-oriented advocate.
“I am always trying to push for our district,” he says of the area named for the Pulitzer-prize-winning author whose childhood home still stands at 563 W. 8th Street. “I very much want to share with the world the architectural heritage and treasures we have.” Stewart contacted This Old House last year, and the numerous photos and information he submitted about the district resulted in it being selected for the magazine’s 2012 list of the nation’s best old-house neighborhoods. The district, added to the national historic register in 1985, is roughly bounded by Plainfield Avenue, W. Eighth Street, Park Avenue, W. Ninth Street, Madison Avenue and Randolph Road.
The artistry and craftsmanship of bygone days continue to draw buyers who seek spacious dwellings with luxurious features, diverse neighborhoods and a reasonable commute to New York City, all at a relatively affordable price. And with the massive effort and expense required for restoration, Stewart says the sense of community is another benefit of living in an active historic district with more than 150 registered properties. “Collectively in this district we’ve done everything,” he says. “There are people who have renovated a house end to end, and there are people who have done it piece by piece.”
An early photo of the Craig Marsh house, built in 1893.
What is always consistent is the willingness to share knowledge, he says. “You don’t have to make the same mistakes that others have made. In a neighborhood district meeting, you have discussion centered around wood windows and tiling a bathroom.”
The district’s website, vwbhd.org, highlights community involvement with fundraisers, an annual picnic and other events. Also discussed in legislation of interest to owners of historic homes.
“Everyone’s a volunteer,” Stewart notes. “We come together after work and on weekends. We work very well together, we work very hard together. We have the same goal, which is preserving the history and architectural heritage of Plainfield, and making it a better place to live.”
LOOK INSIDE
To see more photos of the house, click here.
Kimberly L. Jackson may be reached by e-mail.