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Historical Kitchen Addition Remodel
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Awards
January, 27th 2010
Overbrook Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19151
Kitchen Addition
Submitted to:
2010 Preservation Awards : Submission for 63xx Overbrook Ave. Kitchen renovation/addition
It’s all about the pass through…
A small wooden door that seemed to disappear into the wall, one side facing the kitchen the other side located in the butler’s pantry. The intent originally would have been for the kitchen staff to pass food/items through to the serving staff without having to open the door to the kitchen, because of course no one wants to even have a glimpse of your kitchen. Hidden for at least 35 years behind the range on the kitchen side, the pass through door in the butler’s pantry opened to the back of the range…a hazard for small curious children. This kitchen renovation was all about keeping/restoring the pass through between the kitchen and the pantry…and keeping track of the pass through history.
Located in the historic Overbrook Farms neighborhood, this Neo Tudor property was designed by the architect William L. Price in 1894, the entire set of original plans, black ink on white linen, were identified among a handful of William Price drawings belonging to the athenaeum of Philadelphia. The plans for this home were part of a private collection held by the Price family, donated to the Athenaeum. It is one of several properties designed by Price in the Overbrook community. The property is listed as a contributing, neo Tudor in the Overbrook Farms application for historic designation. As typical of many Overbrook homes the exterior is a more eclectic style while the interior is almost entirely arts and crafts. The home was featured in 2005 on the Overbrook Farms Open House Tour, when the tour focused on architecture by William and Walter Price. William Price is the architect of several homes on the street, and his brother Walter Price (a lesser known figure) designed the house next door.
The home will be featured on the 2010 Overbrook Farms house tour, five years later, as an example of a mindful renovation. The new kitchen, powder room will be featured along with the restored butlers’ pantry. Original plans for the kitchen included a built in sink, one dresser, and a range placed directly in front of the exposed chimney (see attached plans). A prior owner renovated the kitchen in 1973, removing the built in dresser and sink, installing laminate floors and traditional kitchen cabinetry.
In addition to keeping with the style and period of the home, the current renovation required a kitchen to accommodate a family of 6. The goal being to restore/reuse original materials wherever possible both inside and out. Many of the features of the home have been restored to their original state, floors, moldings, mantels, doors have been removed striped, finished to match existing wood. Built in cabinetry and paneling were stripped in place. All the original cabinetry for the butler’s pantry remained intact including a top hinge cabinet listed on the original plans “for barrel”. The original kitchen dresser was located in the basement of the property and reinstalled.
The kitchen and adjacent butler’s pantry did not provide enough room for a workable kitchen space for a larger family. Many of the homes in Overbrook have lost their pantries in exchange for more space in the kitchen. The original house plans show a water closet located on the back porch which had long since been removed and turned into a closet, so in addition to a small kitchen the home had no powder room on the first floor. Costs were also a concern; budget for the project was extremely tight.
Ellen Pannell, Architect at Brawer Hauptman came up with a design for both the interior and exterior that met all the needs of the family. Increasing the size of the kitchen by more than 50%, with a 23’ by 8’ addition on the west facing wall, the plans also created a powder room on the first floor. Careful attention was given to reusing existing windows, built in cabinetry, flooring, molding, doors and closets. The new design provided a large workable eat in kitchen, old style cabinetry that matched the size, look and feel of the remaining butler’s pantry cabinets as well as maintaining the brick chimney, which remains a focal point for the space. In addition most of the walls would remain intact; one wall was removed and supported by two steel I beams. Amy Rivera of Rivera Structural was the structural engineer consulted on the project.
Before and After Interiors, Tony James was hired as the contractor to do our kitchen addition. His crew worked tidiously on every aspect of the job which came out beautiful. He in turn hired Amos Stoltzfus, an Amish cabinet maker who created the custom cabinetry. The renovation utilized the original windows, restored built in dresser (which was found in the basement) restored the sliding door to butler’s pantry, which had been hidden for years behind the stove. The original heart pine or yellow pine floors were restored from underneath the laminate flooring (additional boards where purchased from a company that salvages old pine beams and mills them into flooring, Just Heart Pine, Inc ). The kitchen cabinets were custom made to match the style, color and function of the built in dressers both in the kitchen and in the butler’s pantry. Lighting was located to match the style of existing fixtures in the home.
Tiles for the kitchen walls were salvaged 3” by 6” white subway tiles, as seen in many of the original kitchens remaining in Overbrook. The tiles were located at Restore, an architectural salvage company located in Northern Liberties. Approximately 500 tiles were salvaged, cleaned and installed for the back splash areas.
On the exterior, careful attention was taken to the stucco (stone dashing), designing the decorative half-timbering, and creating the stone base for the addition. In addition a detailed look at the placement of windows and the shape and size of the addition was taken to ensure the fit not only with the existing house but with neighboring dwellings. Tracings were taken of the existing half-timbering from the 3rd story exterior of the home and recreated in cedar to form a similar design on the new addition. The addition is visible from the street, even though it is in the rear of the building.
A few months prior to the start of the renovation a home burned down in Overbrook Farms. These salvaged stones, along with the stones that were removed during the demolition of the exterior wall of the house were utilized on the lower section of the addition, mimicking the look of the front of the house where a large two story dormer has a bottom 4’ of stone. The stones were sliced with a diamond edged blade taking off the face of each stone for later application as a façade to the addition. Wire mesh and cement were used to adhere the stone to the new addition. During the excavation a tool was found that the original mason must have used in creating the design on the mortar joints which is very distinctive to the house and neighborhood. That found tool was used to recreate the same mortar joints in the stone of the new addition as in the original part of the home.
The renovation took 6 months to complete.
Of note: Ms. Pannell and Ms. Rivera donated their fees for this project to the Independence Charter School at 1600 Lombard.
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