Tavistock Beauty

A Venerable Edifice is No More

For as long as I can remember, I've driven by this house south of Shakespeare, dreaming of fixing it up. Such beautiful bones - big spaces, loads of light. Grand.

By the end of the day, the house will be gone.

To be clear, it was gone for years. Left to ruin for too long, it was well beyond repair many years ago. The brick was soft, the wood rotted out, holes in the roof allowing water in. Nonetheless, her glory was still visible inside and out.

Here are some shots of it's last days.

Your basic 6 panel doors - unusual that the upper panels are larger than the middle.

Hand planed wood but cast iron thumb latches.

Incredible wear - this was the paint finish on the door in the last room in which someone lived.

Split lath on the ceiling and under all the plaster. This laborious method to make lath stemmed from the lack of a local mill where the more common strip lath could be made.

The early stair showed unusual features for this area - a simple newel with a roll over rail.

Even more unusual was the upper newel - like a wooden cylinder.

The once grand entrance had been continually abused - as had much of the house, having sat exposed for years.

The basement cook fireplace was the central part of the working basement with storage rooms, drying racks and a ground level walk out.

This profile shows the clear lines of the Georgian architecture - a style that had faded by the time this house was built (late 1850s).

The attic was spacious and attractive with wide floor boards and pinned rafters. I could stare at the swoop of the chimney all day.

This is how she looked the last time I saw her but it's the shot at the top that I will always remember.