2555 Edgehill (1990)

Super Bowl Sunday 1985 is a day that will live forever in the memory of the owners of this brick center-hall colonial. On that day, only a few months after they took possession of the house, the heating system literally exploded, spewing a 70-year accumulation of sticky black carbon over every surface. This dramatic and traumatic event led to a more immediate renovation of the home than they had originally planned, much of it by necessity behind the walls.

In addition to replacing the heating plant, the owners installed all new plumbing with copper pipes, stripped the canvas covering from the downstairs walls, and replastered some walls. In the process they uncovered traces of the home's history, including a sketch of the original fireplace drawn directly on the living room wall. Another wall revealed the inscription, "James Johnson, Paperhanger, September, 1915."

An outstanding feature of the home is the "bridal staircase," whose darkly gleaming patina is a result not only of age, but of a recent and persistent application of steel wool and linseed oil. The casement windows on the landing are of beveled leaded glass with stained-glass insets.

At some time during the 40s and 50s the house was owned by a man who worked with tile. This fact is reflected in the hand-painted Italian tile outlining the fireplaces, as well as in the unusual tile treatment surrounding the window above the portico. The faux tile in the sunroom was designed and painted over wood flooring by the present owners, who also did the Adele Bishop stencils on the back stairs,

The lovely yard contains elements of the old and the new, from the very tall rose of Sharon shrubs on either side of the entrance walk to the new lawn and well-proportioned flower beds in the back yard.