Eddie Beaver’s construction company can build 100 new homes a year.
But he says the restoration of the 1882 Bernhardt House on East Innes Street proved to be his toughest single job ever. Not that he’s complaining.
‘‘It all turned out pretty neat,’’ Beaver says, standing outside his finished product.
He’s inviting the public to tour the Bernhardt House from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday. Visitors will see how Beaver transformed a neglected, endangered hulk of a house to an attractive 5,000-square-foot office building – an example of how the adaptive reuse of historic structures works.
At first glance, renovating the Bernhardt House stood as an extremely cost-prohibitive venture.
‘‘It must be a labor of love,’’ says Salisburian Charlie Peacock, who grew up next to the Bernhardt House. ‘‘He must have had something inside that said to do it, because he’ll never get a nickel out of it.’’
But Beaver took advantage of tax credits available for the renovation of historic structures to offset more than 50 percent of his costs, making it a viable project. It now serves as home for First Carolinas Realty and a display center for Anne Marie Isherwood’s Exquisite Interiors.
Beaver bought the Bernhardt House at 305 E. Innes St. from a more-than-willing seller, the Historic Salisbury Foundation, which took care to protect the house’s historical integrity.
Beaver looked at the rundown house tucked precariously close to the railroad tracks and Innes Street bridge and saw something more – a highly visible property for the real estate and marketing arm of his family’s construction, development and property management business.
‘‘Obviously, this is no place for a residence,’’ Beaver says. ‘‘But I think it’s going to be a pivotal place for a realty company.’’
Interesting structure
The 10-office house is rich in history, sitting at the front part of the historic Confederate Prison site and once housing one of Salisbury’s more noted families, the Bernhardts.
_‘‘I have a lot of interest in old things,’’ adds Beaver.
The renovation project began with major structural repairs, from the floor to the roof. Beaver’s crew disassembled any wooden ceilings that were salvageable to install new joists and fire-rated material, before putting back the original ceiling, as requested by the foundation. Workers used the same nail holes for the old boards.
The house received all new plumbing, wiring, heating and air-conditioning. Beaver purchased a machine that would reproduce much of the house’s woodwork on site. The machine’s chisels were milled so that carpenters could match the surviving woodwork.
Beaver returned the exterior to its original colors – mostly a Victorian shade of yellow with terra cotta trim and gray accents. ‘‘We call it Bernhardt yellow,’’ Beaver says, and his crews prepared the wood without sandblasting.
Beaver basically set out to meet two requirements: Return the house to its original appearance as much as possible and meet all the non-negotiable Department of Insurance standards for a multi-office building, complete with non-historic features such as fire alarm systems, rear fire exits, fire doors and handicap ramps.
Beaver’s crew only treated the original wooden floors – again, as the foundation required. All the fireplaces were rebuilt, or restored. Most of the interior doors are original to the house, except for a fire-rated door in the corridor.
Designing the interior
Isherwood lived out an interior designer’s dream, as Beaver gave her carte blanche approval to design and supply furnishings for all the interior and, to a large extent, the exterior.
_‘‘We wanted it to look like it was 100 years ago,’’ Isherwood says.
In several rooms, she relied on some of her English background, employing an anaglypta ceiling – vinyl wallpaper that can be glazed and painted to return a rich, aged feel to the house.
She also turned to lincrusta, the painting and glazing of wallpaper to create borders resembling cornice work along the ceilings.
Reproduction gas lighting, period furniture, bold wallpaper, plush area rugs, flowers, fittings, photographs and mirrors recreate a feeling throughout for the late 19th century period of the house.
With the wallpaper, paint and glazing, Isherwood called on a Victorian pallet of colors – blues, reds, greens and golds.
Beaver wanted to emphasize a lavish eloquence downstairs, as seen in the trappings of his front office, a finely appointed conference room, an Exquisite Interiors showroom (done as a Victorian bedroom), broker Carrol Casey’s office, bathrooms and hallway.
‘‘All the money goes up front,’’ Beaver explains.
An expansive upstairs hall, which seems like a good-sized room itself, leads into practical offices, where Isherwood again paid attention to Victorian themes and treatments on the walls and ceilings.
In the downstairs hall, a spandrel (a spindle-work screen hanging from the ceiling) calls attention to the house’s dominant feature, a stairway that ties the house together structurally. Both the spandrel and stairs are painted and gilded.
A stained glass window in back came from a local antiques store and was put together like a jigsaw puzzle to fit its spot.
Outside touches
Outside, Beaver provided a new parking lot, high wooden fencing, handsome light poles and Victorian-styled gardens on the side and in the front. He also added a back porch.
_The house’s back section dates to only 1948.
In the front, Beaver supplied specially designed iron railings and covered concrete steps with tile. The landscaping tries to pick up the terra cotta color of the wood trim on the house.
The house was built for Paul and Mary Jane Leake Bernhardt in 1882 and remodeled to its present appearance by 1902. Various Bernhardts occupied the house until 1947.
When the house was sold in 1948, the new owners (the Rufty family) converted it to rental apartments and added the back section for extra kitchens and dining rooms.
The Rufty heirs conveyed the property to the Historic Salisbury Foundation in 1990. The foundation spent considerable funds stabilizing the property as best it could before selling it to Beaver with protective covenants.
Noted historian Davyd Foard Hoard wrote the nomination for the house’s inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
Some challenges remain for Beaver: He would like to acquire property for a back vehicle entrance, anticipating state plans to replace the East Innes Street bridge over the railroad tracks in coming years.
That project plans to raise the bridge and street level by a foot, threatening the front and – for now – only entrance to his office building by automobile. Beaver already has talked with Department of Transportation officials assured that something can be worked out.
That probably will seem easy compared to the Bernhardt House’s renovation. Not that he’s complaining. est |
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