Author: John Griffin

It seems after World War II we had a conservative backlash, and it was Colonial, Colonial, Colonial. I guess we are in a slightly more open mode today since it s now all about French Country.

In any event, Memphis homeowners have rarely embraced contemporary architecture. You know, clean open spaces, lots of uninterrupted glass with little traditional details. The mere thought of no shutters sends a chill to the very depths of our real-estate bones. There remain, nonetheless, a few exceptions that offer a fresh take on living and suggest that, yes, Virginia, there is a small contemporary movement in Memphis, Tennessee.

This one-story home at the north end of Leonora Drive is all about space and light. The deeply overhanging gable roof, certainly a Craftsman influence, shelters triangular ends filled with glass. The interior ceilings are vaulted and follow the roof line, giving each room a sense of volume, lots of wall space for furniture, and scenic tree-top vistas. You expect to walk outside and be in the Ozarks, not a cul-de-sac in East Memphis.

The exterior ends of the house are finished in brick, whereas the front and rear elevations are done in painted vertical wood. There is a fenced backyard with a handy storage shed, and the parking area by the house has hot and cold running water to make washing your car off-season a lot more appealing. There are trees around the house. The front landscaping is extremely simple with a Zen-like arrangement of lichen-covered rocks in a bed of gravel adding interest as you approach the front door.

The interior has been fully redone. The original parquet floors are oak, which have been refinished. The kitchen and dining areas have a new ceramic floor that looks like Mexican tile. All the walls and ceilings throughout the house are painted a soft off-white, and the new hanging, opal-glass globed lights look period-appropriate. The kitchen and appliances are all brand-new. There is lots of work space and a breakfast bar too. The color scheme here was kept neutral with white cabinets, stainless-steel appliances, and a mottled charcoal countertop. But the high point here is all the light pouring in above the cabinets.

The interior plan was rearranged and improved in a recent renovation that created a new laundry room. The original two bathrooms are nicely scaled with neutral ceramic tile and their own linen closets. New pedestal sinks, toilets, and light fixtures complement the original chrome and sliding glass-door medicine cabinets, which have been refurbished meticulously an unusual but laudatory attention to detail.

Unexpectedly, the three bedrooms have comfortable, scaled closets, and even the hall closet has room for off-season clothes as well as additional linen. The current renovation has replaced the heat and air and the water heater, upgraded the electrical panel, and installed a new roof. It doesn t hurt that the property falls within the Richland Elementary and White Station High School districts. Should you own an Eames chair or a Wakefield sideboard, this home is certainly the right space to show it off. But enough of the boring facts. It s the space and light, remember?

We live in a police state. We are encouraged to police our every possession. The Fashion Police would have you clean out half your closet every year or two and update your wardrobe. The Housing Police currently mandate granite countertops lighted by halogen pendants. The Auto Police still suggest bigger is better, damn the price of gas.

It is rare to find an old house that hasn’t been the victim of serial updates. In this house’s 100-year existence, it has been inhabited by only three families. The current state of the house suggests they all wore very sensible shoes. Sure, there are now three bathrooms (none of which is original), and the kitchen was last updated when dark wood cabinets and avocado were the height of fashion. The biggest crime on the scene is the installation of sheet paneling (probably when the avocado kitchen went in) in the kitchen and dining room. However, restitution is simple. Rip the paneling off the walls, fill the small nail holes, and the evidence is gone.

The style of the house is distinctly Queen Anne. On the outside, there is a wraparound porch with a round pavilion at the corner covered by a turreted roof. Decoratively cut cedar shakes fill the front-facing gable and dormer. The main pyramidal roof with front-facing gables and multiple dormers is conclusive proof of the style.

Inside, the ground-floor rooms all have 12-foot ceilings. Tall, four-panel doors with transoms above still have their intricately cast doorknobs and escutcheon plates. Some of the floors are narrow oak, but even they appear to be over earlier heart of pine. The front door and sidelights have very ornate leaded and beveled glass panels. There are six major rooms downstairs: living room, dining room, kitchen, and three bedrooms. There is also a large pantry, two bathrooms, and a glassed-in back porch. I would deduce that the two bedrooms in front of the dining room and kitchen were originally a double parlor connected by pocket doors, which may still be in the walls. It would be most elegant to return the house to this plan, but you would sacrifice one bedroom downstairs.

Upstairs are two rooms tucked under the multiple gables and dormers. The floors are pine, and walls and slanted ceilings are finished with tongue-and-groove beadboard. The staircase has a massive newel post at the bottom and a wide landing that overlooks the front entry with its original art-glass light fixture.

The yard is huge by today’s standards, most of it in the rear. The backyard is privacy-fenced with a single-car garage and large workshop. A white picket fence separates the rear yard from the front. The landscaping is as classically simple as the interior: There is a row of ancient boxwood at the drive, one large oak in the front yard to the west of the house, one cedar tree, and one holly. All that’s missing is a bed of peonies.

It would be a crime to buy this and knock out a lot of walls to make a modern interior. The proportions of the rooms are too fine and the architectural details too numerous. An elegant restoration of this house would not handcuff you to a period Victorian interior. If you dream of escaping a boring interior, minimal furnishings within these grand rooms might set you free.

Charm is what this cottage in the east end of Central Gardens has got going for it. Even from the street the turned porch posts and balustrade are an inviting three-color paint scheme. An old brick walk leads from street to porch, and the grassy front yard is bordered by masses of azaleas.

Queen Annes were built in the latter part of the Victorian era, and the formality of the period is expressed here by an entrance hall where you can greet guests before admitting them to the public rooms. The entry is also the point at which a staircase rises to the finished second floor and is large enough for a sizable table or maybe even a piano.

The living room has one of three original fireplaces. These were built narrow for the use of coal and won t work for wood. However, there are gas coal-grates available (like gas logs), which would be another charming touch. The original tile at hearth and surround is wonderful, as is the oak overmantel with its beveled mirror.

The living and dining rooms are connected by a pair of French doors that add yet more interest to the house. The dining room features the second fireplace and gains additional floor space and light from a broad bay with three tall windows on the west side. The original pine floors are in excellent condition and colored a rich brown tone.

The kitchen is larger than I expected. It easily accommodates a good-sized table, but I d opt instead for a smaller one (after all, the dining room is next door) so there d be room for a comfy chair or two for guests. New cabinets and appliances were recently installed, and the prep/clean-up area is ample and well-laid-out. The stove, however, is sited by its lonesome. But by moving it to the adjoining wall, a side cabinet could be added as a staging area.

There is a master suite downstairs. It has a private bath with shower, and the bedroom is graced with the third fireplace. The closet is small, but the stairs to the second floor cut through an upper corner of this room and an armoire would fit well there or you could wall off that floor space under the stairs, creating a large closet. The full bath on this floor has a deep, footed soaking tub. There are two back rooms, one best for an office and the other a sunny bedroom that overlooks the well-groomed backyard.

Upstairs has been finished by the current owners and is now the largest bedroom in the house. There are huge walk-in closets but no bath on this floor. That s the next project that would most benefit the house, and there is certainly plenty of room to create a very spacious bathing suite without compromising the second-floor bedroom or the closet space.

As for the rear yard, it s picture-perfect. There is an old brick terrace behind the house with a low, serpentine brick wall and steps down to a bucolic central lawn. Meandering beds of hosta, fern, hydrangea, and camellias are all bordered by cobblestones, which surround the lawn. A stone-edged water garden is set slightly off-center in a sunny spot, which permits a colorful display of aquatic plants to be enjoyed all season from the rear terrace of this quaint Queen Anne.

It’s rare when the designs of the outside and the inside of a house are equally well thought out. The builders often think, Oh my gosh, we lavished all this attention on the front, the inside can just have nice furniture. In this instance, the lavish attention was on the interior. In retrospect, this seems the wiser choice because the exterior is easily improved, whereas matching the interior trim detail today would require hitting the jackpot at the racetrack.

This house sits on the corner of Vinton and Cleveland. The location gives it unobstructed light on three sides, and mature evergreens on the Cleveland side filter the noise of traffic. The house, in the Arts & Crafts tradition, combines several exterior materials with rough stucco in the gables over brick below. The full-width and extra-deep front porch is one of the most inviting entrances I’ve encountered.

A new exterior paint job would do wonders. The Craftsman style emphasized natural materials, so earth tones would be appropriate. The stucco should be a different color from the brick. Likewise, the window sash might be a different color from the trim. Trellises at each end of the porch would be a nice detail. The front door is eight feet tall, filled with large panes of glass and matching sidelights. It is also honey-colored oak in and out. Don’t even think of letting a paintbrush get close.

Inside, the clear winner in the public rooms is the amber-hued wood with meticulous joinery. Door headers and arched openings between rooms have hand-shaped pieces assembled with dowels crowning each passage like a fine furniture bonnet. The living room encompasses the whole front but is divided by an archway and a step-up to a cozy inglenook around the fireplace that’s also oak-wainscoted with integral glass-fronted bookcases. The fireplace is of a very distinctive, thin brick that emphasizes the horizontal and suggests the influence of the American Prairie School of architecture that originated in Chicago and was exemplified by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.

The elegant craftsmanship extends into the dining room. A wood window seat runs the length of the multiple-window unit, and the crown molding, usually at the wall and ceiling juncture, is pulled down about a foot (another F.L.W. trick), blurring the juncture and making the already 10-foot ceilings feel like they “float.” I couldn’t resist adding a subtle up-light in this cornice to further lift the ceiling and enhance the effect. Interior doors are eight feet and give you the sense of being Alice in Wonderland for a moment.

The breakfast room is unusually spacious. Often a token space better thrown into the kitchen, this one is quite workable and still has its glass-doored butler’s pantry. The kitchen has been renovated. The original pine floors were uncovered and refinished, and there’s a new commercial stainless-steel range. But the real front-runner is the countertops. They are hand-cast concrete with an ashlar face and have small pebbles and blue glass in the mix. This adds depth and color and is further enhanced by the cobalt tile backsplash. There’s even a walk-in pantry, and the laundry is conveniently located on the enclosed back porch. A large floored attic is handy for storage or as expandable space.

And there’s still more. The backyard has a brick patio and a metal hair-pin fence along the street. Amazingly, there is a garage with automatic door under the house now used as workshop space. And finally, the current owners turned the third, rear bedroom into a master bath. There is a jet tub, a double-headed shower, and two pedestal sinks in a privately sited sun-room setting.

By now I’m sure you can see the hidden values of this unassuming bungalow in Central Gardens. It may not have all the bells and whistles on the exterior, but in the heat of the rat race, this dark horse would be the one I’d bet on as eminently livable.