1 of 8
Jeffrey Williamson, Susan Wynne and family dog Ripley in the library. The wing chairs are vintage, the oval spoon-foot table is an antique they found in Maine. The bronze bull sculpture is by Rubin Peacock. The painting over the mantel is by Jo Kennedy. The crystal chandelier is one they created by marrying two antiques — a wedding cake chandelier and an amber glass fixture.
2 of 8
The foo dogs on the mantel in front of the Harvey McWilliams original print are among the first Wynne bought for Williamson when she decided to start a collection for him. The glass-front cabinet is antique Swedish Biedermeier; the dining room table and tapestry covered upholstered chairs are vintage. The abstract painting is by Wynne.
3 of 8
One of a pair of houses designed and built in 1843 as rental homes for John Van Lew by architect Otis Manson, one of the first architects in Virginia. Manson also designed and built Carrington Row, a row of Neoclassical-style homes in Church Hill, in 1818.
4 of 8
Ripley surveys the front hallway. The late-18th-century grandfather clock was made for Cragfont, the house Wynne’s ancestor Gen. James Winchester built in Tennessee beginning in 1798. The paintings are by Peter Fowler and Josh George, and the antique console table was purchased at an estate sale at Richmond’s Ellen Glasgow house.
5 of 8
In a corner of the living room, a Chinese morning coat Wynne inherited from one of her great-aunts is displayed over a writing table that once belong to her ancestor Col. A.R. Wynne. The brass dog bookends are antique, the painted skull is from Mexico City, and the folk art dog is papier-mache.
6 of 8
The taxidermied moose head in Williamson’s study is a trophy from a childhood hunting trip with his father in Canada. The moose is wearing Williamson’s honorary membership ribbon to ASTRO, the American Society of Therapeutic Radiologists and Oncologists. The late-Victorian book cabinet below was previously owned by Wynne’s great-aunt.
7 of 8
The couple found the drop-front English walnut desk — comprised of late-18th- and early-19th-century pieces — in a shop in Williamsburg shortly after they moved to Richmond. The desk chair is from Wynnewood. Wynne bought the carved wooden dog on top of the desk from an African vendor on Broad Street.
8 of 8
The painting is by Peter Fowler. The sculpture of carved red volcanic stone finished with bronze casting is by Rubin Peacock. The coral and cinnabar pieces were once owned by Wynne’s great-aunt, and the Mezo American figure was purchased on a trip to Guadalajara, Mexico.
You might say their meeting was serendipitous. Susan Wynne and Jeffrey Williamson were living in St. Louis at the time. They both loved big, old houses — each owned one that they were furnishing with antiques and vintage thrift store finds — and they both loved dogs.
“It was interesting … when I met Jeff,” Wynne says. “The first time I went to his house, I didn’t know what to expect going to a single man’s house. I was surprised. There were antiques. There were oriental rugs on the floor, and plants. And he’d bought all of it; his ex-wife didn’t like old stuff.”
It was kismet.
“We had the most exquisite 1897 home in St. Louis. Oh, my God, everything was there. And I loved it so,” Wynne says. There the couple merged their antique and vintage collections and began adding to their decor vintage carpets and other pieces that spoke to them. They also combed the local antique and vintage shops in St. Louis and those they encountered on their travels for crystal chandeliers and sconces, antique furniture, ceramics, sterling silver, and more.
When VCU recruited Williamson to join its radiation oncology program in 2002, the couple relocated to Richmond, installing their collections in one of the historic mansions on Monument Avenue.
In 2012, they made the decision to purchase a smaller home. Wynne says she was enchanted by the Church Hill house from the moment she saw it. In addition to rooms with generous proportions, original architectural details and a large garden, the house has its own intriguing history. It is one of a pair designed by architect Otis Manson and built for the merchant John Van Lew — father of noted pro-Union Civil War spy Elizabeth Van Lew — as rental properties in 1843. Elizabeth’s brother, also named John, who assisted with her espionage, later inherited the house. There is a hidden space on the lower level, accessed through a door in the current powder room, that has generated much speculation as to what might have gone on behind its walls, Williamson says.
Warm coral colors are prominent throughout the house, where cherished family mementos and antique and vintage pieces mix with modern art and artifacts from Indigenous cultures around the world, blending in a unique harmony. The couple share a preference for American country-style Federal furniture from 1800 to 1830, described by Williamson as kind of a country estate style rather than formal furnishing. And while they had many interesting pieces individually, together they have acquired more.
Their shared aesthetic and eclectic style are evident throughout the house. In the dining room, for example, a glass-door cupboard and sideboard Williamson purchased before meeting Wynne share space with an antique cherry corner cupboard from Wynne’s collection, an antique her grandfather purchased for Wynnewood, an 1828 log house her family called home for almost 150 years (1834-1975) that’s now a Tennessee state historic site.
A crystal chandelier, one of many collected in St. Louis when outfitting their first house and brought with them to Richmond, hangs over the large vintage dining table. When they bought it, the crystal prisms were missing, so they found some in another shop and added them to the fixture. In Williamson’s study, the crystal chandelier and sconces are ornamented with deer antlers, keeping his taxidermied moose head trophy company. The large crystal chandelier in the living room was purchased for the dining room of their Monument Avenue home. “We were looking for something big and imposing,” Wynne says, “and we kept asking antique dealers here until somebody finally said, ‘I know a dealer who’s got one hanging in a jewelry store in Smithville.’ And we went to see it, and that was it.”
Today, the canine collection that started with a pair of foo dogs purchased in St. Louis has grown to include paintings, prints and sculptures — in bronze, papier-mache, ceramic and wood — that are displayed throughout the house. “When I first met Jeff, I was taken with what a dog nut he was,” Wynne says. “And so I said to myself, ‘I’m going to start him a dog collection.’ Once I started this off, Jeff picked up on it. We probably have more of these [dog] bronzes than we need.”
Cherished family heirlooms such as the Chinese morning coat displayed on the living room wall enhance the eclectic interiors. Wynne says of the coat, which once belonged to a great-aunt who lived in China in the 1940s, “I only wish that I had known her when I was an adult and could ask more questions. ... She used to wear it to drink coffee and smoke cigarettes. She had a bunch of them, but I feel very happy to have this. And I used to wear it. But it’s very old and the silk is fraying, so I’ve put it on display instead.”
