The home was in complete disrepair. Windows shattered. Water-stained walls. Black mold covering the basement. Vandals had even broken into the home and stolen the portions of the original clay roof and fireplace. It was, for lack of a better description, a disaster.
But Matt Ewers, owner and president of Grandfather Homes, had a vision—and a passion for architecture. Beyond the stained floors and the waterlogged, dusty boxes left behind by the former owners, there was a foundation chock- full of character and craftsmanship not often seen in today’s homes. And Ewers saw it.
The nearly 5,100-square-foot home was originally owned by textile industrialist Charles Barnhardt, who enlisted renowned architect Martin E. Boyer, Jr. to design and build the Plaza Midwood estate in 1938. The Colonial property sat on fifteen acres of wooded land. In 1948, the home changed hands. Wealthy textile tycoons George and Elizabeth Cramer purchased the residence and resided in it for the next sixty-eight years. After the Cramers passed, the home fell into disrepair. In 2018, it was slated to be demolished before the Historic Landmarks Commission stepped in and purchased the home and land, designating it a historic home.
Ewers first laid eyes on the property in 2016 when he considered renovating the existing home for he and his family. “I was confident we could transform it into something really special,” he says. Ewers didn’t actually purchase the home until September 2019 when the sale price dropped. He worked with architect Bryan Mermans to facilitate the renovation as well as design an addition that would allow for a more contemporary, open floor plan in the public spaces. “When I first saw the home, it was kind of a mess,” laughs Mermans. “But structurally, I didn’t see any issues. I saw nothing but opportunity.”
The home itself was built like a fortress. The entire house was cast in solid masonry or poured concrete, including the attic floor. Architectural details like hand-carved plaster especially stood out to Mermans. “In the kitchen, you can see that someone used the back of a spoon to create the details in the plaster,” he says. “There are only so many artisans who can do that level of craftsmanship. If we were to budget for that kind of work today, it would be extraordinary.” Preserving those details and maintaining the integrity of the home’s history were of utmost importance, but so was modernizing the home. Mermans designed an addition off the side of the house that both preserved and updated the residence.
The glass and steel modern structure is contradictory to the Colonial revival architecture of the original home—and for good reason. “Rather than trying to design an addition that matches the home’s original architecture, I felt it would be better to do something that completely contrastsit. Visually, there’s a clear separation of what was existing and what’s new,” explains Mermans. “It doesn’t overpower the original architecture.” With its oversized glass windows facing the courtyard and pool, the 1,500-square-foot addition glows with natural sunlight while the adjacent kitchen with its magnificent eighteen-foot ceiling feels grand yet warm. (An additional 448 square feet was added to the owner’s suite closet, as well.)
Ewers’s wife Gretchen and her mother, Peg Hollifield, complemented Mermans’ architecture with their interior design. Designer Tammy Coulter worked on the hard goods like the cabinetry, architectural details, lighting, and flooring choices. A clean and modern, albeit “funky in some places” aesthetic, laughs Coulter, astounds throughout. “Matt really wanted to maintain the traditional historic elements of the home,” says Coulter. “But he also has a really fun personality and wanted to weave that into the design.” In the dining room, an abstract piece by artist Amanda Moody was transformed into wallpaper and now lines the ceiling like an oversized piece of art. The den is swathed in a deep plum paint while a contemporary painting by Windy O’Connor hangs above the original fireplace, which is flanked by a midcentury-modern leather chair and ottoman by Regina Andrew.
The home is a lesson in meshing old and new, preserving the rich history of a property while injecting the interiors with a modern flare. Like its facade, the white Colonial’s story has ebbed and flowed over the last eighty years, narrowly escaping the bulldozers that were waiting to tear it down. All it took was a vision to save it from being razed and erased from history. A great escape, indeed.
