2647 Berkshire Road (1991)

This house, built in 1916 for Wilson Hickox by Cleveland architects Frank Meade and James Hamilton, has had only three owners. The current owners bought it in 1989 and have been restoring, remodeling, and building ever since.

The original blueprints and contracts, in the possession of the current owners, describe a house planned on a luxurious scale, with a large, airy central hall; large living and dining rooms, one on either side of the hall, with many windows and glazed doors; gas fireplaces; steam heating; built-in linen and clothes closets with shelves, drawers, and trays; built-in cupboards and wine racks in the basement; a sleeping porch on the second floor; and "instant hot water."

The present owners have done extensive restoration work. Among the more painstaking jobs they undertook were the replacement of all the plaster moldings with wooden moldings and the scraping off of the pea-green paint that opaqued all the glass in the French doors and windows above them, that separate the living and dining rooms from the central hall. All the walls were replastered. On the second floor, two bedrooms on one side were made into a new master bedroom, another bedroom was combined with the sleeping porch into a large, bright study, and one of the bathrooms was converted into a laundry room. The third floor was redecorated to become the children's private domain; skylights were added in their common room.

The kitchen was enlarged by incorporating the old pantry, and was completely modernized, with state-of-the-art appliances and storage. A delightful corner seat was installed under the original windows in the kitchen.

A large sunroom/study and terrace have been added at the back. Both the addition and the remodeled kitchen were designed by the owners' son, an architecture student.