(From the Bexley House and Garden Tour Guide Book, June 5, 2022. Family names redacted for privacy.)
The blue front door welcoming you to the 1932 Tudor home is your first introduction to a home that exudes a sense of luxury, beauty, and southern coastal charm. The family bought the house in 2016. After a two-and-a-half year renovation that included an addition, new floor layouts, and an outside space redesigned for family life, their home is nothing if not a labor of love.
The current homeowners almost completely remodeled this home though they intentionally preserved the traditional layout, most of the original glass doorknobs, and arched doorways. They kept the traditional dining room, now decorated with coffered ceilings and walls finished in a combination of white wainscotting and blue damask wallpaper. The formal living room features the original limestone fireplace. In the southwest corner of the living room is the family’s fully restored player piano, a treasure that once belonged to the homeowner’s grandmother.
… Upstairs, walk through the bookshelf-lined study and down the hall, where you can take a loop through a bathroom, bedroom and back around to the study. Originally, this walk included access to a back stairwell and the original primary bedroom – removed to accommodate a more natural flow through the rooms in this part of the house.
The other half of the upper floor is home to the remaining bedrooms:
- A “Jack and Jill” bathroom connects the nursery to an additional bedroom. The “Jack and Jill” bathroom was expanded and updated by replacing a closet with a bathtub and redoing the floors with traditional hexagonal tile.
- To create the new primary bedroom, two original bedrooms were combined (closing off one door) resulting in an en suite bathroom and built-in closet.
Back downstairs in the kitchen, you’ll find the original wooden French doors from the living room, now repurposed as doors to the large kitchen pantry. The kitchen layout was changed to make it more spacious and functional. While the original leaded glass windows could not be saved, the new glass-work in the cabinets and windows is reminiscent of the era in which this home was built.
The living area just off of the kitchen is the favorite “hangout” spot for the family. They enjoy the seamless flow from this living area, through new French doors, out onto the new covered patio. On chilly autumn nights, the family enjoys the outdoor fireplace and in the spring and summer the space is brought to life with magnolias, hydrangeas, service berries and Japanese maples.
We thank the Bexley Women’s Club for permission to reprint this entry from their 2022 House and Garden Tour.
Find more information about the activities of the Bexley Women’s Club at bexleywomen.org.
This property has had 14 owners. However, it appears that 3 transfers were a result of inheritance and settlement (1948 and 1965). From the Franklin Country Auditors site the owners are listed as:
- 1920 – Forest Realty Co
- 1930 – Orrin Rose
- 1933 – Anna Power
- 1948 – Earl and Harriett Krieger
- 1965 – Sheron Keller, et al (4)
- 1965 – George & Joan Krieger
- 1983 – Steven & Elaine Grossman
- 1985 – Richard & Mary O’Brien
- 1998 – Gary & Patricia Sullivan
- 2004 – Michele Brower
- 2005 – Michele Brower & David Burkhalter
- 2011 – Dollar Bank FSB
- 2011 – Jennifer Madison
- 2017 – Current owners
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