Cincinnati Iron Fence Co / Stewart Iron Works

I was on a quest to find out further information about Cincinnati Iron Fence Company. The cemetery iron historical sites gave mention to the company but listed them as having no corporate history available. I was afraid I had hit a dead end until I found a book in Google Books called “A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians Volume 2”bBy E. Polk Johnson, Lewis Publishing Company. In it, I found this tidbit:

“CLARENCE LeBus was born December 29 1862 near Oddville Harrison county Kentucky the second child in a family of seven children. His father Lewis Lebus born in Columbiana County Ohio came in 1855 at the age of twenty one years to Harrison County Kentucky where he demonstrated extraordinary business ability in amassing a large fortune partly in Kentucky and partly in California. His mother was Martha Cole Garnett Lebus eldest daughter of Edward and Elizabeth Garnett .

(snip)

While specializing in farming and tobacco trading Mr LeBus has other large business interests. For many years he was president of the Electric Light Company in Cynthiana. He has given considerable attention to banking being the chief promoter and organizer of the Harrison Deposit Bank Cynthiana the Stock Yards Bank & Trust Company Cincinnati and the Union Bank & Trust Company Lexington. In each of these banks, Mr LeBus is a director. He is president of the Cincinnati Iron Fence Company, a phenomenally successful enterprise and a stockholder in numerous other enterprises. However Mr. LeBus is best known by his career in the tobacco world. Notwithstanding the risks and hazards that have always beset the tobacco business he has been uniformly successful. A prominent Cincinnati tobacconist and warehouseman once said of him “Le Bus never loses his head nor any of his money.””

A guy in Kentucky is the president of a Cincinnati fence company? This made more sense when I found an article about safeguarding cemetery iron. It mentioned that Stewart Iron Works, a company still in business, was the biggest fence company and supplied products to many companies, including Cincinnati Iron Fence Company and Sears & Roebuck, who simply attached their plaque to the fences.

Jackpot! I immediately navigated to their site and was beyond thrilled to see OUR fence listed in their catalog! No way!

Their website includes this history:

More than 120 years ago brothers Richard C. and Wallace A Stewart formed the Stewart Iron Works Company. From their roots as Stewart family blacksmiths they began a company that would soon produce wrought iron fence and furniture for the entire country.
This company would become known as the "World's Largest Fencemaker" and in 1904 at the St. Louis World's Fair, it was awarded the Grand Prize and Gold Medal Merit for iron fencing and lawn furniture.

Mystery solved… and we will get a quote from them about replacement picket tops and maybe a few more posts. It will be way cheaper than having new ones cast from sand molds.

Source List: Last House Series

I will put all the source lists for the Last House on the Left series in this post. Refer back to this for updates. :)

Kitchen:

Last House on the Left kitchen

As I mentioned in the interview post, I will be studying several of the rooms in Last House on the Left, providing details and sources when I can. Of course, I had to begin with the kitchen because it is my very favorite room of that house.

The kitchen seems to be the heart of this house, since the majority of the scenes take place here. Isn't that just like real life? Everyone always seems to congregate where the food is!

The first thing that struck me about the kitchen was the gorgeous wall color. Johnny Breedt said they used a Dulux color, influenced by a Martha Stewart color. My best guess would be colors from Martha's Araucana Collection, my favorite being Araucana Blue. Here is a sampling of Martha's colors:

I mentioned the interview that Breedt used a basic stainless sink instead of a pricey designer sink. I think it is completely appropriate as this is a vacation house, and a family might not be willing to put designer items in it. Isn't it more fun to collection items over time for such a house? I also love all the spice racks in the kitchen - I spotted at least 4! I'd hit Etsy for vintage spice racks.

Luckily, Monica Potter, "Emma," is so lovely I don't mind her popping up so much in the shots. I chose the shot below to show the decorative plates she has in display in the dish rack. It is a shame to buy such pretty plates and hide them away in a cabinet. It is a great idea to leave them out.

Here, Mr. Collingwood works on the rather-dated microwave. I included the shot to show you the pretty lace sheer on the door. And the pocket-hanger-thing on the door. Also a nice shot of the Shaker-style cbainets. I nice change of pace from beadboard sometimes. Bin pulls are always my favorite kitchen hardware. And probably the only shot of the kitchen flooring in the movie - hardwood, of course.

The couple preparing dinner on a small island (table!). This would be positioned in front of the stove.

And the stove! This is the fullest shot I could get of the stove. This scene is after the lights go out, so it is a bit dark. But I wanted to show just how wide the stove was. Johnny called it a thing of beauty, and I agree. I love vintage appliances!

A little brighter shot of the stove. We see some more of the great knick-knacks that truly give this house a lived-in feel. The under-cabinet lighting gives a nice glow.

You would think the wood counters received their patina from years of use, but we know this was courtesy of Johnny & team. Aren't they beautiful? I just read about a company called Perfect Plank that has very reasonable rates for similar counters. I am looking into them for my own kitchen.

Curtains in my house have to be breezy and sheer. I am not a fan of blocking out natural light or pretty views. I really liked these curtains in the kitchen. They look to be light and sheer, with green floral embroidery. I ordered these curtains, which appear to be very similar.

The tin canisters caught my eye the first time I watched the movie. I blogged about a similar (new) set months ago. Typhoon has a Vintage Collection in cream that would give a similar look. Check out Amazon.


A little more detail on the curtain and yet another spice rack.

The only shot to give us a glimpse of this corner in the kitchen. It is probably like the little stool in my kitchen corner that no one ever sits on!

Here we see "Emma" in the hallway that connect the ktichen to the dining room. I like the baby blue chalkboard over the wine rack.

This fuzzy shot is the only shot in the movie of the pendant light over the island. See the blurry silhouette to the right of the white lampshade? The cheapest, yet nice-looking, ones I have found are $30, in stock, at Lowe's.

Don't you love glass-front cabinets? And in this final shot, we get a glimpse into the dining room. See the floral curtains over his shoulder? The dining room only makes a short appearance in the movie, but I will be goign through it, as well as a few other rooms, next.

I hope you enjoyed this kitchen as much as I did. Stay tuned!

interview with Johnny Breedt

It isn’t often that you can be watching a horror movie and lean over to your spouse to say, “That is the light fixture I want for the kitchen?” Or “I love the beams on the ceiling!” Yet that was what I found myself doing all throughout Last House on the Left.

Now, Steven and I loved the original version so, of course, we saw the remake right when it came out. Which is pretty rare for us since we have 4 kids and don’t get out very much. We immediately fell in love with the gorgeous farmhouse. We could not wait for it to come out on Blu Ray so we could see the house again. Thankfully, the movie came with a digital copy so I could capture some great screen shots of the movie.

I decided to dig a little further and found that the seemingly historic house, with all its gorgeous patina, was not old but, in fact, new. Modeled after an existing house in Martha’s Vineyard, the house was the creation of production designer Johnny Breedt. The house was built in Cape Town, South Africa in a reserve, which accounts for the drop-dead gorgeous scenery!

Of course I had tons of questions for Johnny. Imagine my excitement when he replied to my email, with pictures of the under-construction Last House! Johnny was kind enough to participate in some Q&A with me. I hope you enjoy his answers as much as I did…

Sarah Beth:
The kitchen you created feels very "attainable." By that I mean, it seems like something anyone could readily afford. You didn't go for the $1000 Shaw apron front sink, and instead, a simple stainless. Can you tell me a bit about your thought process on this? Did you have a particular family in mind when you designed this, and if so, can you elaborate on their lifestyle?

Johnny:
When designing a film one must take the characters into consideration. This together with reference material on similar styles, will determine the outcome. The sink was probably the closest "American" sink we could find. Obviously we had some input from the American crew members on certain items, but most were selected by myself and/or the decorator.

Sarah Beth:
I love that the kitchen has a lived-in, family feel. Many kitchens, in design magazines and movies, feel very sterile. The Last House kitchen has many things that make it feel more "real," such as the wooden spice racks, tin canisters, knick-knacks, etc. How did you go about finding these treasures? Did you have particular objects in mind, or did you find random things to include?

Johnny:
Once again we did try and match certain styles from references, but often we would find something in a second hand store or from a rental company that was just perfect.

Sarah Beth:
I do love the paint color in the kitchen. It is very similar to the pale robin's egg and duck egg blues and greens featured in the design magazines this Spring. But I assume you have more of a theater or production background than interior design. Can you share a bit about your background, and how one becomes a production designer?

Johnny:
My background is theatre and film. I studied a theatre design course for five years and a film course for 2 years. I also did various short courses including SFX make-up and wardrobe design. I cannot recollect the exact colour used in the kitchen, but I think we may have based it on a "Martha Stewart" colour. The colours were all chosen from a local paint range called Dulux.

Sarah Beth:
I love the beamed ceilings. I have noticed this in several rooms of the Last House. How much of the house were you responsible for? Was everything your idea?

Johnny:
As I said before, I was responsible for the entire look and design of this film. The beams were not only aesthetically pleasing, but also were a necessity for structural purposes as the upstairs was a fully practical set.

Sarah Beth:
I absolutely love the vintage stove you chose. For once, I feel a kitchen has some flavor and retains the vintage feel.

Johnny:
The stove was a thing of beauty. It was a collectable that was hired from someone in Cape Town and I haven't seen many like that one that still works.

Sarah Beth:
The patina on the barn-red boathouse is amazing. I watched the movie, sure that you must have found an existing home to film in. When I read that it was completely new, I was in awe. Can you tell a little bit about the process to make everything look aged? (Without giving away any of your industry-secrets!) What the house built fully functional? What became of the house after the movie was finished?

Johnny:
Thanks for the compliment. We aim to achieve authenticity whenever we create sets and I guess I have to give my crew most of the credit for that. My head scenic has been doing ageing and scenic painting for 36 years and is probably one of the best in the business. All of the sets were created from new materials and were then aged by the scenic dept. The house was built in a nature reserve and had to be removed after shooting. The materials were salvaged and donated to homeless people whilst most of the furniture and fixtures were sold to recover some costs.

Further information on Johnny’s Last House on the Left, Excerpt from The Last Broadcast, The Last House on the Left Making Of:

“After weeks of fruitless searching, the team discovered a pine-forested parkland reserve that was conveniently located 45 minutes outside of Cape Town. The last house on the left—as well as guesthouse and detached garage—would need to be built from scratch on the reserve property.

The plans for the Collingwood house and guesthouse were loosely based on a century-old updated farmhouse nestled on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Careful consideration had to be taken with every detail of their design and execution. With hundreds of researched photographs scrutinized, Breedt and his design team imagined the ideal American getaway.

At a rapid pace, the crew constructed the Collingwood compound—main house, guesthouse, detached garage and extensive grounds—in just a few months’ time. To top it off, every surface needed to look as if it had been gently weathered from years of exposure to Mother Nature.

Through years of trial and error, Breedt and his staff came up with ingenious techniques for creating the illusion of antiquity, which they utilized for the compound. “If you give a house history, it gives a film layers,” reports Breedt. “It’s quite an old house, and it’s been renovated throughout the years. If you look at the exterior of the house, it’s aged very cleverly. It looks like it’s been painted repeated times, but in fact it’s only been painted with a base coat and a final coat. We have a technique to use plaster that you trowel on. Then you paint it, scrape it all off and lightly touch it up with a magic brush. When people came to the reserve and knew nothing about the house, they thought it had been here forever.

With snapshots in hand, the production designer sent his team scouring the secondhand shops and flea markets of Cape Town in search of quintessential American building materials, household furnishings and accessories. Although the crew combed the city in search of familiar Americana, much had to be shipped over from the States. Tiny details, from light-switch plates and plugs to blankets and dishtowels, would make the difference to the audience’s belief they were in America.”

Stay tuned... I will be studying several of the rooms from Last House and giving all the gory details here!

images:

under construction photos courtesy of Johnny Breedt

still captures are from the film

Hollywood Regency chairs from KC's Hotel for Presidents

On a treasure hunt to pick up a washbasin for my potting shed, I spotted an ad on Craigslist for a moving sale. One of the items listed was a pair of Hollywood Regency style chairs from the old Muehlebach Hotel for $20 each. After picking up the basin and lunch, Steven and I swung over to Overland Park, Kansas to the sale.

The sale was being held by an older couple. They told us they were selling their home as they were moving on to a change in their life. Steven spotted an automotive trade magazine from 1983, and the woman said that she had retired from GM. The magazine was a special edition for GM's 75 birthday. Being car buffs, we snapped that up for a buck. I also got a set of gorgeous blue melamine dishes for $2.50. Meanwhile, I never took my eyes off the the chairs.

The couple's daughter told us that when the Muehlebach was closed, her mother had outfitted their entire cabin in treasures from the hotel. I was instantly in love. Steven looked a little perplexed as to why I wanted the chairs. They were heavily laquered in paint that perhaps once was white, and the upholstery was dark orange. I told them I had a vision, and that the chairs had HISTORY.

Once home, I started researcing the Muehlebach Hotel and was so excited to have picked up the chairs. (At half-off since it was late in the day, mind you. $20 for both chairs). So, here I will give great detail on the hotel... for those interested in historic hotels, for the KC people who might wander on to this blog later, and for my own records since I think it is a really neat story.

When people think Kansas City, they don't think glamour or glitz. But back in the Jazz Age, KS was the place to be. Heard of Charlie "Birdman" Parker or Count Basie? Well, they were here in KC. What I would give to spend a day in KC back then. Dreamy! Anyway...

In downtown Kansas City stands the historic Muehlebach Hotel. Known as "Kansas City's Hotel for Presidents", every president from Teddy Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan has visited the hotel, and every president from Woodrow Wilson to Richard Nixon has stayed in the Presidential Suite.

Presidential Suite, 1979

Truman and his associates apparently called it, simply, "the penthouse." It served as Truman's headquarters in Kansas City from the time of his vice presidential campaign in 1944 until he left the presidency in 1953. The hotel has also serviced many celebrities including Babe Ruth, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, etc.

Truman party at the Muehlebach Hotel

In mid-December 1917, Ernest Hemingway wrote home from a press room in the Hotel Muehlebach. He expected a raise. "All the fellows say there ought to be one coming to me,'' he said. Sometimes, working late on assignment and too tired to ride the long trolley car home to Agnes Ave., Hemingway would sleep in a bathtub in the Muehlebach's pressroom, using towels for a mattress. He later glorified the hotel's beds, not its bathtubs, in the novel "Across the River and Into the Trees."

Old Guest Register

The Muehlebach was built with funds from the estate of George Muehlebach, who came to Kansas City from Switzerland in 1857 and opened a saddle shop. His farm and vineyard were west of Westport. Later he established a brewery, Muehlebach Beer,first located at 18th and Main. The hotel, erected after his death, was leased to the Trianon Hotel Company.

Postcard from 1916, right after opening

The lobby of the Hotel Muehlebach, with its thick Oriental rugs, writing desks, tall lamps, potted palms, lounge chairs and a roaring wood fire, is pictured on an old promotional post card, one of a set, put out by the hotel shortly after it opened in1916.

George E. Muehlebach, Jr., started working for the brewery after his graduation from Spalding's Business College. In 1905 after the death of his father he became president of the brewery.
As a teenager, George had played first base on the Muehlebach Brewing Company’s Pilseners baseball team, spawning a keen interest in the sport. He owned the Kansas City Blues, twice American Association champions, from 1917 to 1932. Muehlebach built a half-million dollar ballpark at 22nd and Brooklyn in 1923, the only park in its league free of billboards. Under various names, Muehlebach Stadium was Kansas City’s ballpark until the Truman Sports Complex was built.

Street-view, 1930. Aren't the cars a hoot?

The original 12-story building was constructed in 1915, designed by Holabird and Roche. The site used for the hotel was one formerly occupied by the old First Baptist church, a frame building built in 1880, the gift of Col. And Mrs. W. H. Harris. Land and church cost $30,000.Services were held there until 1908, when the congregation sold the church and site for $150,000, took their pipe-organ and moved temporarily to Thirteenth and Broadway. They later built a new stone church at Linwood avenue and Park street at a cost of $100,000.For five years the old Twelfth street church stood empty, used only for ballyhoo, annual shows, an occasional menagerie and whisky advertisements.

Side-View, 1928

The Muehlebachs started tearing down the old landmark in June, 1913, and financing their plans for a big hotel.The hotel was extended west to Wyandotte street in 1952 and four years later the 17-story Muehlebach Towers was added on Wyandotte. The hotel was remodeled in the 1970s and closed in the 1980s. Marriott bought hotel in 1996 as an annex to their downtown hotel. Two years and millions of dollars were spent restoring the hotel in accordance with historic preservation guidelines as the hotel is both a state and federal landmark.

After all that... NO! You don't get to see the chairs yet. That is in my next post. :)

Sources:
Emporis
Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City Star, A Writer's Haunts: Where He Worked and Where He Lived.

3 R's: Restoration, Renovation and Remodeling

Reading blogs, listening to fellow DIYers, you will hear people throwing around restoration, renovation and remodeling around a bit, using them almost interchangeably. Actually, these are three very different ideas and I thought it would be helpful to take the time to clarify.

Restoration is sometimes referred to as preservation. It is the most ambitious (and expensive) home project ever. It is also the most restrictive in terms of individuality and owner input. There is a book I often refer to called Renovating Old Houses. The author, Nash, refers to restoration as "the processes by which a structure is stripped of all later additions and returned to its original condition."

An example would be, removing a porch that was added on to the front of the house. This can be a huge ordeal. Imagine your house originally had a second story sleeping porch that was later converted to a bedroom, complete with siding and windows. A true restoration would revert all these changes back to its original design.

A restoration can be rather limiting as far as materials go... Forget using all those fancy ceramic tiles in your bathrooms or kitchen. And don't you dare paint your woodwork! You will quickly find out how expensive antique plumbing is as well.

OK, next is renovation. This is where I tend to be, even as a historic preservationist. Renovating my house has given me an appreciation for the history of the home, I always strive to honor the integrity of the home and the builder, but I don't feel so confined that I cannot make some tasteful updates. And example would be the aqua-blue hardwood floor in my bathroom. Of course, an period-correct bathroom would have had hex tiles. (Our builder, Spurgeon, always used hex tiles in his bathrooms.) However, since this room was added on to in a 1940s remodel, it had hardwood floors. When riping out the damaged floor, I decided to keep it hardwood and out in new oak flooring. (Nope – not engineered wood.) Our project was an emergency one with little budget, else I might have put in fancy aqua Ann Sacks penny rounds... At any rate, the blue paint gives it a modern feel against the Victorian baseboards. Renovation gives you the freedom to integrate your personal tastes into the original design. And you can save a bit of money, and still get a beautiful room, with reproduction pieces.

Now for remodeling. Shudder. OK, on one hand, someone buying an old home that might have been completely demolished is a good thing... but sometimes people “make the house their own” so much that very little of the original house remains. Sometimes people do this with the best of intentions without even realizing they are remodeling and not renovating.

Here is an example... there is a house down the street from me that, when you first look at it, you think, wow – that is a gorgeous house. But then, if you look a little closer, you realize the owners gutted the house and completely changed it. They made it look great – but it is nothing like the house it once was. A Folk Victorian with a tasteful bit of gingerbread is now a stone-facaded Italianate. It is lovely, yes. They saved a house that might have been knocked down. But the original house is pretty much gone.

I say all this just to educate. Do not feel bad at all about wanting to make something your own. Some preservationists would just die if they knew I spray painted one of my original-to-the-house brass light fixtures. The fixtures in black just POP like mad against the pale blue walls of the entry way. The black makes a statement. It reflects my tastes. Is is historically accurate? No. But, I don't intend to live in a museum. (And with four active little boys, I simply couldn't if I tried!)

a historic preservation approach to guttering...

Photo: Alpine Rain Gutters

Jayhawk Guttering visited today and did a fabulous job installing our new copper-metallic flake gutters and round downspouts. I thought it would be a great time to talk a little about gutters, downspouts and historic preservation...

Some houses were built to not have gutters... but here in the Midwest, with our wet Springs, that would not be advisable. Your foundation and landscaping would not be happy.

There are 2 styles of gutters. K-Style and Half-Round. A K-Style gutter is what is most used. It is the angular style of gutter meant to be flatly mounted to fascia boards. Flat mounting if the key here. Most applications use 5 inch, but for a large roof a 6 might be used. (We used 6 inch.) Half-round gutters are, well, gutters that look like a tube cut in half. They are meant to be used in situations where there is no flat fascia board for mounting. The gutter would hang free of the roof and trim, by a bracket.

Photo: Benchmark Roofs (K-Style Gutter & Rectangle Downspout)

Some houses had built-in gutters - and actually a few of the old Spurgeon houses around here still have the built-in gutters. They work well if the owners keep them properly maintained and free of debris.

Photo: Gutter Supply (Halfround gutter and round downspout)

I should mention that if you were going totally old school, you could have wood gutters installed... but man, that would be expensive!

Now downspouts. There are 2 kinds - rectangular and round. K-Style gutters usually have rectangular gutters, and half-round and built-in gutters usually have round downspouts.

At the Cottage of Stone, I fudged a bit on this. We originally priced half-round gutters, and it would have doubled the cost of materials. And really, our house would have most likely had built-ins that were changed to K-Style with the 1940s remodeling. So we went with some upgraded K-style gutters but chose round downspouts. We thought it gave it a little more curb appeal and looked more in keeping with what we are going for. Since this is not a preservation or restoration but a renovation, I take a little creative liberty. (As we will when it comes time to re-roof!)

Cottage of Stone - Copper-Metallic K-Style Gutters

Cottage of Stone - Round Downspouts

a diamond in the rough...

I fell in love. Seriously. You all *might* think I am crazy and all you see is a dilapidated old house... but I can see past the plaster repair, the peeling wallpaper, etc... and see great bones, huge rooms, gorgeous woodwork. (The exterior of this house I will post later... it is the area of concern). I wish I won the lottery because this would me mine, all mine.

Yesterday, Steven and I were houseshopping for his mother, when we came across this 3 story Victorian built in the 1860s... here are a few interior shots...

With the level of craftsmanship in this fireplace, I am betting it was created in a big city like Chicago and shipped here. The wood is in perfect condition. The tiles just need a good scrubbing (The relief is still gorgeous). And the ornate insert is so much more ornate than the Humphrey I found in my basement.

A slightly blurry shot of the tiles and Humphrey.

The fireplace room, perhaps at one time a cozy parlor, has 3 sets of amazing pocket doors. Note the millwork above this one. Gorgeous!

Here is the main stairway. This house has stained glass windows everywhere, but this is the largest one. I wish the sun wasn't blazing through it. This entire window is stained glass. The glass panels were perfect and just needed to be releaded.

The leather pads on the stairs were in perfect condition! Many of the stairs still had the original brass corner dust guards! (See the middle step - to the left... that triangle is the dirty brass plate.)

Looking down the stairs. All the spindles are there, which is nice.

Every door had a transom and the hardware is all in perfect working condition!

This was likely the master bedroom. (All the bedrooms, except for servant quarters, are on the second floor). It has a little sitting area you can see to the left. Oh, most of the shutters are in the house. I recall maybe one or two missing. And that is a lot of windows!

Here is the dumb waiter on the second floor. Also note, the outside corners all have this beautiful trimwork to keep the plaster from being damaged.

Here are the servants' stairs. Not a bad stairway for the help at all. The pads on these stairs are also perfect.

The attic is the entire 3rd floor... jsut massive. And beautiful. The light was streaming in, illuminating a few hidden treaures. This space could easily be finished as a child's play room.

A little silver pitcher in the attic.

A pile of brass crown molding. Just needs to be matched back up and reinstalled.

A little suitcase I was brave enough to open. I imagined a big mouse popping out! It had the owners name and address on the label. What a darling little case!