Who, what, when, where and why are classic questions to be answered in solving a mystery. A brown architectural drawing in the archive of the museum is titled “New Pedestal” but nothing more was known about this artifact of the colonial restoration of the house.
Who? O.R. Smith and N.M. Isham are named. Orlando R. Smith inherited the Babcock House in 1934. He engaged the well-known architect Norman M. Isham to plan the colonial restoration of the house.
When? May 4, 1926, is the date on the drawing. Dates on blueprints by Isham for the house range from 1925 to 1930 indicating that the planning and restoration work took several years. Colonial Revival had its roots in the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, but it became a major architectural style for new homes in the early 1900s. The late 1920s also saw restoration started on Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Whether restoring original buildings or building new homes, colonial was back in fashion.
Pedestal for what and where? Lido Mochetti, who has been involved with the house since its earliest days as a museum, recently joined Board members Ellen Madison and Hugh Barton to look at the blueprints and drawings in the basement archive of the Carriage House. “Pedestal” is a term used to describe an exterior architectural feature Lido indicated. A walk around the house was needed to search for the pedestal.
When we looked at the front door we had success. Its bold curved pediment above and fluted pilasters on either side have been a signature of the house since its construction around 1734 or shortly thereafter. At the bottom of each fluted pilaster – “A rectangular column with a capital and base, projecting only slightly from a wall as an ornamental motif” according to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition – was the “new pedestal”.
Identification of the pedestal also explained the odd but carefully cutout section of the drawing on heavy brown paper. It was the profile of the three curved wood sections above the rectangular raised panel of the new pedestal. Apparently, the drawing had been used as a template for the preparation of those pieces of wood.
Why? Finally, we looked at the exhibit in the Gertrude Smith room off the keeping room at the back of the house, where today’s visitors enter. A photograph from about 1900 shows the exterior of the house following its 1884 Victorian renovation. With The Smith Granite Company prospering, the family had brought the home up to the standards and styles of the day. A broad porch was added to the front of the house as well as moving the entryway forward to enlarge the entrance hall. The signature curved pediment is obvious atop fluted pilasters on either side of the front door. The colonial restoration undertaken by Orlando R. Smith with the architectural input of Norman Isham removed the porch and the second-floor balcony above the entrance. Undoubtedly, Isham drew on his wealth of experience working on colonial period homes as well as his own aesthetic sensibility to propose the “New Pedestal” to provide a more emphatic base for the pilasters. Now we knew the who, when, what, where, and why!
To celebrate 100 years since the colonial restoration work of 1925-1930, members of the Babcock-Smith House Museum are researching this major event in the history of the house. Future blog posts will describe findings as the research continues. An exhibition and presentation are also planned. If you have information or questions about the colonial restoration or wish to join our scavenger hunt through history, we encourage you to contact the museum.
