Newtown will host its 44th annual Open House Tour, featuring historic buildings, renovated private homes and works-in-progress.
By: Jillian Kalonick
You could say Bob and Tricia Linkenheimer have a taste for renovation.
After spending 14 years at their home on Washington Avenue in Newtown, Pa., which they put many years of work into, they decided to move just around the corner to South Chancellor Street, where they bought an 1868 Second Empire home.
"We wanted a bigger yard and a quieter street we had done everything we could do in the other house, and it was in our blood but now we’re cured," says Mr. Linkenheimer. In the past three years, they have redone the plumbing and the wiring, combined two rooms to create an expanded kitchen, completed a master’s suite finished in embossed Venetian plaster, and created a formal dining room with custom paneling and a new tile-framed fireplace.
The home, still a work-in-progress though it’s an impressive one, is on Newtown’s 44th annual Open House Tour, to be held Dec. 2. Five private homes and seven public buildings will be featured and decorated for the holiday season.
The Linkenheimers’ Washington Avenue home was once part of the Open House Tour, so the couple is familiar with the work it will take to get the new home ready. Their past experiences have also helped them plan their current house’s renovations.
"We have a big addition coming, probably in three years," says Ms. Linkenheimer. "The den, a back hall, a laundry room, the barn and sheds. This will keep us going. We’re on the 10-year plan."
The barn in the back of the house has been in use as a studio for one of their daughters they have 21-year-old and 19-year-old daughters and a 10-year-old son but now it’s mainly being used as storage. "The squirrels have had Mardi Gras in there though," adds Mr. Linkenheimer. "It’s covered in shells."
Another historic highlight of the home is a Palladian Window the Linkenheimers reclaimed from the mansion at Eugenia Hospital in Montgomery County. Set above the sink, it provides inviting light to the kitchen, with its Wolf range and rustic dining room table, once a barn door the couple discovered in Connecticut.
Though house tours rarely reveal the owners’ renovation nightmares, Bob and Tricia, who are excellent storytellers, might be cajoled into telling the tale of the Linkenheimer bats.
"The first thing I needed to do in the house was wallpaper scraping," says Mr. Linkenheimer. "The first day we were in there, I got to have a swing of the sledgehammer, and I took out a stud the very first time."
That proved to be the least of their misfortunes, as Mr. Linkenheimer’s nephew told him that a bat had come out of the hole.
"And the renovation came to a screeching halt," says Ms. Linkenheimer. The home was filled with Indiana cave bats, a protected species, as it turns out, so getting them out was tricky. When a specially trained exterminator finally arrived to get the job done, "We were expecting to see the sky darken with bats," says Mr. Linkenheimer. "There were probably about 30 or 35 of them, but from then on, every bat sighting in the neighborhood was the ‘Linkenheimer bats.’" And after that came the removal of guano by the gallon.
Also featured on the Open House Tour, and just a short walk away, is Jeff and Sheri Sturgis’ home, also built in 1868. Among the highlights of the décor is a Pissarro lithograph, a French grandfather clock made in the mid-19th century, and many family heirlooms. The tour includes a display of works by Bucks County painter Katherine Steele Renninger at Borough Hall, and a Colonial atmosphere at the Court Inn, where Dan and Sherie McAuliffe will be playing original innkeepers Joseph and Margaret Thornton. Colonial musicians the Out of Tuners will play period music, and Susan Plaisted will be giving Colonial cooking demonstrations at the two walk-in fireplaces. A large tavern sign painted by Edward Hicks will be on display, as will other artifacts by the artist.
Newtown’s 44th annual Open House Tour will be held Dec. 2, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. (inclement
weather date Dec. 3). Houses and buildings featured include the Balderston house
(232 S. Chancellor St.), the Ettinger/Bauman house (309 Washington Ave.), the
Linkenheimer house (101 S. Chancellor St.) the Sturgis house (23 S. Chancellor
St.), the Edmonds house (117 N. Lincoln Ave.), St. Luke’s Episcopal Church (100
E. Washington Ave.), Temperance House Lodgings (11 S. State St.), Newtown Fire
Association (14 Liberty St.), Newtown Library Company (114 E. Centre Ave.), Newtown
Borough Hall (23 N. State St.), the Stocking Works (301 S. State St.) and the
Court Inn (Court and Centre streets). Tickets cost $20 and will be sold in advance
at Newtown Hardware House, 108 S. State St., and at the Stocking Works and the
Court Inn on the day of the tour. For information, call (215) 968-4004. On the
Web: newtownhistoric.org