The homeowner bought the portrait of Petersburg native John Mingle Dunlap at an estate sale to keep him local.
It was an opportunity too good to pass up.
When the 1916 Colonial Revival house in her Petersburg neighborhood came on the market, the homeowner knew she had to act.
A lover of historic architecture and design, the homeowner was drawn to the house’s stately and symmetrical exterior, the work of Norfolk architect Finlay F. Ferguson, whose firm also designed the original building for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.
The architecture of the house is an amalgam of styles: Colonial Revival mixed with Greek Revival-style decorative elements on the exterior and Adamesque on the interior. She knew some inappropriate changes had been made to the house over the years — the two-story columns and pilasters on the front porch were brick, not the Greek Revival-style Corinthian columns originally featured — but she was unprepared for the interior.
“The house was so dingy, [likely] from a smoke event,” she says. “Everything was gray. People came through and saw it needed a lot of work, but the seller wanted [a buyer] who he knew would take care of it.”
The homeowner set about restoring the house to “exactly the way it was,” holding firm when it was suggested it would be easier to remove the rooftop balustrade rather than fix it. She gratefully accepted the seller’s offer to leave the large Oriental rugs that fill the main floor rooms, knowing the high cost of replacing them. Best of all, they’re the perfect size to reveal the Greek-key corner inlay on the original oak floors.
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The colorful floral chintz on the sitting room chairs and drapes evokes the warmth of English Country style.
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A stained-glass skylight on the second floor allows natural light to flow through the house.
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The 1916 Colonial Revival house has been restored to its original appearance.
A subscriber to Architectural Digest since her early 20s, the homeowner began filling the Adam-style interior with period-appropriate wallpaper and furniture that would complement, not compete with, the detailed woodwork and generously proportioned rooms. As a young child living with her military family in Japan, the homeowner developed a deep appreciation for Asian art and furnishings, and she incorporated these into the home’s decor.
“I’ve always been a fan of English Regency style; they were importing porcelains and lacquered furniture [from Asia],” she says. “Because I like the Japanese influence, I never had a moment’s thought that it wouldn’t mix.”
The blend of traditions starts in the front hallway, which is dominated by a large central staircase and features a European crystal chandelier the homeowner relocated from her former house. Japanese prints frame a late 18th-century bookcase, found at a Georgetown antique shop in Washington, D.C., that now holds a mix of Regency silver, a carved cinnabar vase, Japanese dolls and other collectibles.
Above, a sunburst stained-glass ceiling provides light for the entry as well as the square second-floor walkway via a clear skylight in the attic roof. Aside from a few pieces of glass that had to be replaced after childish shenanigans years ago, the window is original.
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In the front hallway a boxwood kissing ball adorns an antique crystal chandelier from the homeowner’s previous residence.
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The antique coromandel (Chinese lacquerware) screen is one of the homeowner’s favorite finds.
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To the homeowner, the Mottahedah Tobacco Leaf pattern dinnerware speaks of sojourns in the Far East and a family tobacco farm in South Hill.
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The ceramic elephant garden stool is one of 50 the homeowner’s father found and shipped home from Vietnam during the war.
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An 18th-century bookcase displays a collection of cherished mementos.
In the dining room, late 18th- and early 19th-century furniture collected in Virginia — an early Federal walnut dining table, a bookcase bureau and a mahogany side table — and Asian decorative pieces are enhanced by the celadon grass cloth on the walls. The half-electric/half-gas crystal chandelier was salvaged from another historic house in Petersburg that had been converted to apartments.
To ensure safe transport of the Chinese vase atop the bookcase bureau, the homeowner carried it on her lap when she flew home. “I loved it,” she says. “I can never have enough Asian porcelains.”
A Japanese scroll purchased by the homeowner’s mother and framed by her sister, who owns an art gallery, adorns one wall. An eight-panel, 9-foot-tall coromandel screen, dating to the late 19th or early 20th century, commands attention behind a gleaming mahogany side table laden with silver lamps and candlesticks. “It was just what I needed for that long wall,” the homeowner says. “It’s my favorite find; I couldn’t leave without it.”
The large family room features an antique crystal wedding cake chandelier original to the house and a classic Adam-style fireplace, topped by a portrait of Petersburg native John Minge Dunlop that the homeowner purchased from an estate auction. The Dunlop family and the Maclin family, who built the house, owned competing tobacco companies in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. “I bought him to keep him local,” she says. “The Maclins win out.”
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The elegant split staircase adorned with a classic wreath
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The breakfast room features Windsor chairs, a Federal-style table, a vintage oil lamp and primitive cupboards that house a collection of Chinese export porcelain.
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The grandfather clock is a family piece that dates to 1775 Pennsylvania.
When the children were younger and still living at home, every year during the holidays, the family would embark on a hunt for the perfect fresh tree for the living room. “We needed a tall tree,” the homeowner says. “It was a major quest to find one.” Now the homeowner and her husband go for an artificial tree — “so easy to put up,” she notes — but decorate with trimmings collected over the years: Christopher Radko Old World blown-glass ornaments, reproduction Fabergé eggs and other baubles from England, Guam and Japan. “Eventually, I began to call it the International Tree,” the homeowner says.
Other seasonal decorations include wreaths on the first-floor windows, a boxwood kissing ball in the main hallway, and floral arrangements and poinsettias throughout the rooms. Greenery dresses fireplace mantels, highlighting their clean, elegant lines.
From the beginning, the homeowner felt drawn to and a responsibility for the historic property.
“I understood what the seller wanted, and I feel the same way,” she says. “You don’t want to have someone who doesn’t understand what the house needs and the cost involved.
“When I first saw the house, I said, ‘That’s my house,” the homeowner says.
