Stately Elegance

The Newtown (Pa.) Historic Association presents its 43rd Annual Open House Tour.

By: Megan Sullivan
   In 1884, a woman named Sarah Cernea had her house built in Newtown, Pa., on a sizeable plot of land purchased for $600. The necessary materials to build her elegant home cost just more than $4,000. When walking along East Washington Avenue today, it’s hard to believe such a gorgeous Victorian Gothic-style house cost so little to construct.
   The Cernea House is one of 11 stops on the Newtown Historic Association’s 43rd Annual Open House Tour Dec. 3. Current owners Gerard and Bridget O’Malley bought this distinctive home in 2000 after many owners came and went. After painting every square inch of the house and adding personal decorative touches, the house truly has become their own.
   More than 120 years have passed but the Cernea House, where the O’Malleys live with their three young daughters, a rabbit and a bird, has undergone little structural change since it was built (save the addition of a family room and a remodeled kitchen in the 1980s).
   Antiques, like a beautiful hand-painted cabinet the O’Malleys purchased in 1992 while living in Germany, are sprinkled among modern furnishings. Mr. O’Malley’s love for history is evident, as an original print of President William McKinley with his authentic autograph hangs on the deep garnet red living room walls. "We have a mix of old and new things, but we try to complement it with our taste and the house," Mrs. O’Malley says. "Some of it is older because it’s passed down in the family and some of it we find at places like flea markets."
   The stately feel of the dining room, furnished with a large table believed to have been used as a boardroom table at a Reading (Pa.) bank in the 1930s, is offset by three historic impersonator photographs by Newtown resident David Graham. In one of the photos, a man dressed as a Hessian grenadier stands nearby a stair stepper exercise machine.
   The large home has three floors, with three bedrooms and two baths on the second level and two bedrooms on the third floor. On the wall of the winding stairway, hiding in the corner of the kitchen, hangs an inscription uncovered when previous owners were redecorating. It reads: G.S. McEwen, April 17, 1891. Mr. McEwen was a Newtown paperhanger who succeeded in leaving a permanent mark at this Washington Avenue home.
   Nearby on North State Street, Peter and Carolyn Gabbe recently moved into another distinct Victorian Gothic-style home. The Gabbes had the Bean House, circa 1866, extensively renovated and moved there in June after six months of laborious work. Beautiful, original pumpkin pine floors run throughout the entire house, which is decorated with artwork by Pennsylvania artists.
   Like the O’Malleys’, this home also is spiced with antique items, like a handsome Wellington secretary in the dining room. While Mrs. Gabbe swears by eBay, she has also found some of her furnishings, like her kitchen table, at antique shops. "I looked from here to Allentown (Pa.) and back and I couldn’t find anything, walked across the street and there was the table," she says of her mission to track down the perfect piece.
   Ms. Gabbe has acquired a collection of interesting items while completing renovations and planting shrubs outside. "I was planting a blueberry bush and this little foot popped up," she says as she holds up a small baby doll leg. Old bottles, a copper belt buckle, Barbie sunglasses, even a Camfield underarm dress shields advertisement were among the other discoveries. "We also found a mummified squirrel, which we did dispose of," she says.
   If one thing is evident about the tour, it’s that people are extremely proud of the many artists who have come out of Newtown. Works by locally and regionally known artist Jack Foster, who died in 1989, will be on display in Borough Hall on North State Street. Mr. Foster’s former home, where John and Colleen Malzone live, also will be on the tour. His artwork decorates the 1869 home — their kitchen, in fact, was Mr. Foster’s painting studio. "I think Jack Foster is one of the artists that typifies the Newtown area," says Patti Lovi, a Newtown Historic Association member and owner of Lovi Visual Arts (also on North State Street). "He loved Newtown."
   Down the street, Robert and Margaret Anderson live in a home circa 1800-1829 that was formerly owned by well-known local artist Katharine Steele Renninger. When Ms. Renninger first moved there years ago from Feasterville, Pa., she brought along a mural salvaged from her childhood home. Ms. Renninger had the 1850 work reapplied on the staircase wall, a replica of her former staircase. While a lot of the artwork decorating the rest of the Anderson home was done by family members, or are pieces from their ancestors’ homes, they also have an Andrew Winter painting that hangs above a 1900 Empire Revival server.
   Other stops on the tour include the Stocking Works, a brick knitting mill; Newtown Movie Theater, a Romanesque Revival building; the Brick Hotel, dating back to 1764; and the Court Inn, one of the oldest and most historic buildings in Newtown. Headquarters of the Newtown Historic Association since 1962, this circa 1733 building was the original cottage of Margaret and Joseph Thorton and his popular tavern. The second floor now houses a research center with more than 100 years of history on microfilm, as well as files filled with old documents and photographs.
   Although Newtown was founded more than 300 years ago, its history still echoes down each street and through each old building, telling tales of days come and gone but most certainly not forgotten.
The 43rd Annual Open House Tour presented by the Newtown Historic Association will take place Dec. 3, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tickets cost $20 and can be purchased the day of the tour at the Court Inn, Court Street and Centre Avenue, and at the Stocking Works, 301 S. State St. For information, call (215) 968-4004. Newtown Historic Association on the Web: www.newtownhistoric.org