By Susan Shinn
For The Salisbury Post
Dick and Dale Huffman have made some changes in their beautiful Queen Anne home on 228 W. Bank St. since it was last on OctoberTour in 1995.
Six years ago, the couple enlarged their kitchen, added a sunroom and put a cozy den where a workroom once was.
Dale worked daily for two years to design exactly what she wanted.
“I wanted every step you could take in a kitchen to be covered,” she says.
Her design includes two sinks right across from one another ó she says she uses both equally ó and an expansive, square work island. Countertops are butterfly green granite.
Dale’s brother, Jeff Palmer, who owns Rolling Hills Millwork in New London, built magnificent cabinets of African ribbon mahogany.
Dale points out that it is not an endangered wood, but Jeff did have to go to Charleston to fetch it from the ship.
Dale wanted additional cabinets for another wall until she found a massive Old English sideboard at an antiques show in Charlotte.
“I turned and saw it, and that was all she wrote,” Dale says.
The couple agrees that it’s the way they’ve found many of the antiques they love.
“We go into places and say, ‘Ah!, that’s just the thing we were looking for,’ ” Dick says.
Two small lamps sit on the sideboard. They were wired by Dale’s grandfather, and Dick’s parents made their stained-glass shades.
The couple has purchased nearly a half-dozen chairs over the years from the Historic Salisbury Foundation’s ABC sale.
“We don’t know how to buy new stuff,” Dale says.
Another nice touch in the house is its variety of stained glass. Two oval windows accent the turret in the front of the house, which serves as the living room.
Dale chose the pattern of Macintosh Rose for the kitchen window, and found matching tiles online.
“I was thrilled to find those,” she says.
Most of the stained glass in the home comes from Franchot Palmer’s shop.
The sunroom, which is about 18 feet by 35 feet, overlooks the pool.
“This is the best workspace,” says Dale, who sews attractive pillows and window treatments that adorn their rooms.
Dick’s pub table, which he had when they got married, is found in this room, as is a beautiful light above it featuring reverse painting done by Connie Sweet of Charlotte.
Visible in its bowl are both the house as well as its stained glass windows in front.
Both the kitchen and sunroom have light hardwood floors.
A pool house, which will not be on tour, was also added during the additional renovations for pool equipment and a half-bath.
The pool house’s back windows belonged to Dale’s grandfather, and she couldn’t part with them. The weathervane atop the pool house was his, too.
“We are salvagers and recycler people from childhood,” Dale says.
Also visible from the sunroom is what Dale calls her Hebe garden ó a hidden space of brick watched over by a statue of Hebe. She’s the Greek goddess of youth and a water bearer.
Master Gardener Sherry Beck of Troutman designed the garden and her husband, Steve, an accountant, installed the brick.
“You’d be amazed how quiet it is here,” Dale says.
“Peaceful,” Dick adds.
“It truly is a quiet place in the middle of town,” Dale says.
The Becks also added crape myrtles and other plantings to the property.
Dick and Dale had only owned the house for a year before putting it on OctoberTour the first time.
The couple has been asked several times to be on the tour again. Dick recently had some painting done and thought, “You know, it’s looking good.”
“We thought about it a while and decided to do it,” says Dick, a local attorney. “It forces you to do a lot of things you need to do anyway. It gives you an excuse to get things done.”
Dick has kept busy with touch-ups and minor repairs, hanging ceiling fans, restaining spots in the woodwork.
The Huffmans marked their 26th anniversary this summer, but didn’t go anywhere because they were getting ready for the home tour.
“You need three months at least,” Dale says, “but four weeks out, I wish we had six months!
“I’m glad we’re able to do it.”
“Historic Salisbury Foundation has done so much for this city and made such a huge difference in the community,” Dick says.
In fact, this home, built by Dr. William Whitehead McKenzie, was saved from demolition by HSF’s fledgling Neighborhood Revitalization Program. It was the first residence to be saved.
Since then, the fund has saved nearly 100 historic properties within the city.
The Huffmans purchased the home after Dale saw it in Preservation North Carolina.
They were living in Charlotte at the time, and wondered why such a wonderful house was for sale.
It had been empty for a couple of years following the deaths of the Weinhold family, its previous owners.
Dick drove with Dale to town just to “humor her.”
“We walked in the front door and this was it,” he says. “We love Salisbury and we love the house.”
Dick’s law office is at The Plaza, and he walks to work whenever he can.
He plans to be a docent for the tour, while Dale admits she’ll probably take the day off.