Historic Garden Week in Virginia

SUFFOLK
“If These Walls Could Talk”
A Historic Walking Tour

Sponsored by The Nansemond River Garden Club

Friday, April 25, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Chairman:
   Penny Birdsong (Mrs. Warren L. Birdsong)
   345 S. Church Street
   Smithfield, VA 23430
   (757) 365-0639
   pnutty12@aol.com

Co-Chairman:
Pixie Russell (Mrs. W. Douglas Russell)
   919 E. Riverview Drive
   Suffolk, VA 23434
  (757)925-4314
   pixierussell@charter.net
 
Ticket Sales Chairman:
  Jane Moore (Mrs. James A. Moore)
  109 Bosley Avenue
  Suffolk, VA 23434

FULL TICKET:  $20; single house admission, $5; children 13 and older, full price; ages 6-12, $10; ages 5 and under, free of charge.  Advance ticket: $18 (purchased by April 15): Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to NRGC-Garden Week at P.O. Box 344, Suffolk, VA 23439-0344.  For an additional charge, tickets may be purchased in advance with a credit card by accessing www.VAGardenweek.org.  Tickets will be available at each house on the day of the tour.

DIRECTIONS:  From East I-64, take the exit to I-664 S. in Hampton to the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge Tunnel.  From I-664 S., take exit 58/13/460 to Suffolk.  Continue to Downtown Suffolk exit (just past the truck weigh station) onto Portsmouth Blvd.  Portsmouth Blvd. becomes Constance Rd. at Wilroy Rd.  Continue on Constance Rd. to the intersection of Constance Rd. and Main St. (Rt. 460).  Turn left onto Main St. and follow the green arrows.  From Rt. I-264 from Norfolk, at Bowers Hill following the same directions as above to Rt. 58/13/460 W.

PARKING:  Available for cars and buses in the parking lot behind Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, located at the intersection of Finney Ave. and N. Main St.

BUS SERVICE:  Shuttle service is available to visitors beginning at 10 a.m. from the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts parking lot.  Parking is limited on S. Broad St, and adjacent side streets.  Buses may be boarded at any location on the tour.

Maps will be available on the day of the tour, at all ticket purchasing locations, indicating locations of public restrooms and downtown restaurants offering tour day specials.

SPECIAL EVENTS for TICKET HOLDERS:  At the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, there will be an ongoing demonstration by Sandy Hart and Wanda Hall on period flower arrangements; faux-painting demonstrations by Susanne Collins on techniques and colors for marbleizing, wood graining and stenciling walls and moldings; and a workshop by Paige Pollard on Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits, with emphasis on the benefits to our communities for preservation of historic homes and buildings.

POINTS OF HISTORIC INTEREST IN DOWNTOWN SUFFOLK:

ADDITIONAL POINT OF INTEREST:

         HISTORIC ST. LUKE’S CHURCH.  Located at the intersection of Rt. 10, Rt. 32 and Benn’s Church Blvd. in Smithfield (Isle of Wight Co.).  Historic St. Luke’s (c. 1632) is the Nation’s oldest church of English foundation, believed to be the only original Gothic church in America.  The grounds were enhanced by noted landscape architect Charles F. Gillette in the 1950s.  St. Luke’s is a restoration project of The Garden Club of Virginia with funding from Historic Garden Week tours (dedicated in September 2007).  The church is a National Historic Landmark, on the Virginia Register of Historic Places and on the National Register of Historic Places.

   102 SOUTH BROAD STREET.  This house, built in 1890, was once located at 104 South Broad Street and was later moved to make way for the Darden mansion next door.  It has been renovated from a five-unit apartment into a lovely one-family home.  The original house was a four-over-four.  Much of the original woodwork and original floors still remain.  The original kitchen is now a cozy sitting room for the family.  A new and spacious kitchen was added during the renovation.  Please note the c. 1880 mahogany baby grand piano in the living room and the Victorian antique settee set.  One of the fireplace surrounds is original to the home, as is the outside privy on the back porch! On tour day, guests will enjoy the lively tunes being played on the large wrap-around porch.  Open for the first time.  Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Russo, owners.  

Suffolk—104 South Broad Street

   104 SOUTH BROAD STREET.  With its eight massive Corinthian columns and tiled porch, the J. M. Darden mansion is a magnificent Suffolk landmark, begun in 1911 and completed in 1914.  Blueprints for the structure were discovered in the attic by the present owners when they purchased the property in 2000.  Mr. and Mrs. Boyette are the fourth family to reside in this home, which they have restored to its former grandeur.  The lovely mahogany raftered ceilings were falling down, and the inlaid rosewood keystone pattern on the floors had become obscured over the years.  The beautiful mahogany wainscot, columns and floors were painstakingly cleaned by hand with lacquer thinner to restore the wood to its former luster.  A large foyer, with fireplace, has a grand staircase which guides the eye to the Louis Comfort Tiffany Palladian window on the second-floor landing.  Note the unusual bow on the lower section of the banisters of the staircase.  The original staircase was moved to a back entrance area when Mr. Darden felt it not stately enough for his mansion.  Above the foyer staircase is the splendid Tiffany-domed skylight.  On the roof of the house, the dome is covered by a metal cage that contains a sheet of glass above the dome.  Mr. Boyette constructed a “walking-board” scaffolding over the dome and cleaned the entire structure by hand.
  The original pocket doors with beveled glass on each side of the foyer provide a grand entrance to the music room and the front parlor.  In the music room is a pianoforte once owned by Virginia Governor Littleton Waller Tazewell.  Note the lovely girandole set on the mantel.  There are eight working fireplaces and nine bedrooms in the mansion.  The dining room is grand in scale and has the original chandelier, as well as small fan windows thought to be made by Tiffany.  Guests will see on an exterior door in the dining room (one of 16 exterior doors on the house) buckshot pellets accidentally discharged when Mr. Darden was cleaning his shotgun.  The second parlor, located off the foyer, was originally known as the library/learning room.  The Boyettes use the room as a family area.  Please note the tiger-oak paneling and the dentil molding.  A small room, now used as an office, was the bar/hunting room.  The door to the bar cabinet is also believed to be the work of Louis C. Tiffany.  One of the original “in-house” phones is located in this room. The Boyettes have been fortunate to have gained much of the history of the house, and how the rooms were utilized, from one of the Darden daughters, Mrs. Frances Musick.  She informed them that the large tiled area in the rear of the house, beside the kitchen, was the “slaughter room.”  Mr. Darden was an active hunter who dressed the meat in this room, then used a basement area for curing the meats.
  The original garden has been documented as one of landscape architect Charles F. Gillette’s earliest commissions.  Little remains of the original plantings, as a large garage and brick drive were added later.  The Darden mansion was featured on the HGTV channel and in Virginia Living magazine.  Open for the first time for Historic Garden Week.  Mr. and Mrs. Mickey Boyette, owners.

   114 SOUTH BROAD STREET.  A refreshment station will be located on the front porch of the home of Mr. and Mrs. John R. Taylor, Jr.

   201 LINDEN AVENUE.  This stately Victorian clapboard house, with an inviting front porch and etched-glass front door, was begun around 1908.  All the woodwork is original, including the elaborate gingerbread carvings over the doors.  The beautiful hanging brass lamps in the parlors and dining room are original and were once gas lighting.  The owners’ collected English and American antiques add an Old World charm to every room.  Throughout this beautiful home are collections of Oriental art acquired on the owners’ travels to China.  Please note the framed Chinese children’s sampler quilts located in the back hall.  The outstanding different-patterned parquet floors in the foyer, two parlors and dining room are original.  Also original to the residence are the magnificent indoor dogwood-motif columns flanking the entrances from the foyer to the front parlor. Between the two parlors, the dining room entrance features original pocket doors.  The dark-stained, heart-pine curtain rods over these entrances are also original to the home.  In the parlors, guests will enjoy seeing a beautiful mahogany c. 1820 Empire card table and a Victorian settee set c. 1880.  An unusual c. 1880 inlaid sewing table, purchased at auction, is in the front parlor.  In this room, and adding to the Victorian ambience, are two ebonized fern stands with tile inlay.  A focal point from the foyer is a clock within a carved soapstone base topped by a brass figurine. The dining room features a late-1800s French bookcase used to display crystal.
  The present owners started remodeling in 2006 with an eye to bringing back the original grandeur of the house by incorporating distinctive features throughout the first floor, as well as altering earlier changes to the structure.  In the hall area across from the kitchen, the addition of an antique oak butler’s pantry, purchased at auction, has enhanced the recently renovated bar area.  One kitchen renovation consisted of removing the old linoleum floor to expose a wood floor that, in keeping with the patterned floors, has been stained to denote a darker border area.  Handmade cherry cabinets, with beaded drawers, reach to the 11-foot ceilings.  A handmade rolling library ladder affords access to the tall cabinetry.  The butcher-block island sits atop a 1907 railroad safe.  Modern granite counters and a magnetic induction cook-top fit beautifully into this well-designed kitchen.  A light-filled sitting area, once an open porch, has a pass-through to the kitchen.  This inviting area is appropriately furnished with American oak antiques that add to the warmth of this room, and to the beautiful kitchen.  Open also is a handsome screened area attached to the newly constructed garage.  This new outdoor room is a perfect retreat for family and guests alike.  Open for the first time.  Mr. and Mrs. Marcus R. Pollard, owners.

  MAHAN STREET.  The c. 1802 Cedar Hill Cemetery is a 37-acre garden spot in downtown Suffolk.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and on the Virginia Register of Historic Places.  The Nansemond River Garden Club won the prestigious Garden Club of Virginia Common Wealth Award for their civic project begun in 2001 to help restore and beautify this grand old cemetery.  The NRGC gave the Heritage Garden, a Jamestown Legacy Project, as a gift to the City of Suffolk.  The garden is festooned with native and fragrant plants.  It was designed to be handicapped accessible, and there are signs, also in Braille, giving brief descriptions of this area’s historic significance to Suffolk.  Other projects in the cemetery, contributed by the club, include the addition of a scatter garden surrounded by a Victorian-era fence and the restoration of the 19th century marble fountain.  This site is the location of the home of the original settler in the area, of the post-Revolution Union Church, and of an occupying Union encampment during the Civil War.

  Two different activities with Victorian-era themes will be available here for guests of the April 25 Suffolk tour:
.   a discussion interpreting the symbols on the extensive variety of headstones
.   a short walking tour emphasizing funereal history and practices.

  Public restrooms are located at Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, the Main Street Train Station, the Prentis House Visitors Center and Riddick’s Folly.

NOTE:  Interior photography and cell phone use is prohibited within the homes.  As a courtesy to homeowners, shoes with high or sharp heels are not allowed; comfortable, low-heeled shoes are recommended.