THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 2, 1994 TAG: 9411300187
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 184 lines
Sterling Point and Green Acres might not be the most historic neighborhoods in the city. But they certainly rank as two of the most original and eclectic communities.
The winding, pine-tree laden streets of the bordering Churchland neighborhoods are a showcase of architectural offerings from Colonial and traditional to the contemporary styles that have emerged over the last four decades.
So when someone yells ``open house'' in that neck of the woods, home tour lovers are always in for a treat.
This year the Sterling Point and Green Pine garden clubs have teamed up for the first time to show off their community while displaying their own artistic talents.
``What's so funny is you don't think of Portsmouth as having anything compared to the Beach, and they really do,'' said Sandy Burgess, chairwoman of an ``Old-Fashioned Holidays Home Tour.''
On Saturday, visitors will see the interiors of five very different homes, each serving as the backdrop for the garden club's Standard Flower Show.
``People love to come and see how other people have their homes decorated to get ideas,'' Burgess said. ``It's the same reason they go to Homearama.
Burgess, of the Sterling Point Garden Club, said this is the third home tour her club has sponsored in recent years. The Sterling Point club branched off from the older Green Pine Garden Club in 1954.
Burgess got the idea for a joint show with the neighboring Green Pine club as a way to get the two clubs working together again.
``We're such close neighbors and it takes so much for one club to do anything any more,'' she said.
Burgess hopes this effort will build a good fellowship between the two clubs, as well as a ``working partnership to build a relationship with our neighborhoods.''
Burgess is particularly pleased with the variety of the five homes.
Like so many of the homes in the two old Churchland neighborhoods, each of the five is unique.
``They're not square houses where you walk in with the living room on one side and the dining room on the other side,'' she said. ``The architecture is different, with layouts that are sprawling.''
Three of the five have ``breathtaking'' views of the Western Branch of the Elizabeth River. Some have pools. Most have been renovated in recent years to reflect the personalities and needs of new owners.
The homeowners and the homes on the tour include:
WILLIAM AND HELEN MURDEN, 4401 Faigle Road - The home, designed and built in 1964 by the original owner, was ``styled in the Colonial Williamsburg tradition,'' according to information provided by the garden clubs.
It has built-in china cabinets in the dining room and two arches in the foyer that were cut in Wisconsin and shipped to Portsmouth in one piece.
The Murdens bought the house in 1991 and have filled its rooms with numerous family antiques like the pier mirror and dresser in the foyer.
The couple also has purchased interesting items in the home including a grandfather clock and four Ansel Adams photographs, bought in California.
STANLEY AND KAY DOBSON, 4201 Manchester Road - The Dobsons first saw the two-story contemporary home, built in the late 1950s, from their boat.
They had been looking for land to buy when a friend told them the house was about to go on the market. Sitting on more than two acres the house is situated off a long drive that makes it seem more isolated from other homes nearby.
``I call it a comfortable house,'' Kay Dobson said. ``Every room is very different. It struck Stan that way the minute we walked in.
``I think really what got him was the property and he knew what could be done with the house.''
The Dobsons purchased the house four years ago and took about eight months to turn it into their dream house.
Originally the house had a flat roof with a catwalk all the way around it. The Dobsons took the catwalk off and put a pitched roof of aged copper on top of the house.
They knocked down the walls of the three bedrooms that looked out to the river and put up new, larger windows across one huge bedroom with a step-up tub, a three-sided fireplace and a deck off of the sitting area.
A brick wall was moved from the center of the living room and replaced by windows to allow a better view of the water and the kitchen was completely remodeled, including converting a woodstove to a gas fireplace.
``The problem for us was we both like to get in the kitchen and cook. The stove and sink and refrigerator were all in one little spot and we were walking all over each other.
``We opened everything up and made it spacious and easy to move around.''
HARLEY AND JANE PRUITT, 4106 Manchester Road - The rambling Z-shaped California-style house was built in the 1960s and had been on the market for more than two years when the Pruitts peered through the glass windows to the foyer and stopped house-hunting.
``When you're looking for something and you see it, you know it,'' Jane Pruitt said. ``I liked the unique features of the house. It was so different from anything else we had looked at.''
One can stand in the foyer and see the same dramatic features Pruitt saw in that first peek.
To the right a white marble floor with brown diamond shapes leads the way down a columned gallery looking into the open and living and dining room area. Three of the six large sliding glass doors on the poolside of the house are in those two rooms.
``We were looking for a place that had nice traffic flow for large groups of people'' for parties, Pruitt said.
Looking up several steps at the front of the foyer is the family room with a raised triangular fireplace. That room also has walls of marble stones built into an almost three-dimensional effect.
The Pruitts bought the home in 1987 and this week were putting the final touches on a newly decorated kitchen - the final phase in their renovations of the house.
One of the things the Pruitts did was to change the brown and orange hues in the home to pastels of teal and mauve that carry throughout the house, with touches of burgundy and plenty of white to make the rooms feel bright and spacious.
DR. DAE BEEN AND INSOOK CHOUGH, 3221 High Point Road - Like the Dobsons, the Choughs have completely renovated the contemporary home to take full advantage of their river view.
Much of the art in the house is the work of either Insook Chough or the Choughs' daughter, Shunnie, an art major at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Besides their own works, their Korean heritage is reflected in antiques and paintings collected by the Choughs, including a work of Nam Nong, a Korean painter.
Among the other pieces that will be highlighted on the tour are two vases - one the Choughs bought in Venice, the other a 13th-century replica by a Korean artist.
RACHEL BENZIE, 2604 Sterling Point Drive - Benzie didn't have to renovate her house to take advantage of the river view.
She designed and built her Colonial ranch 25 years ago, managing to draw up a plan that gave most of the rooms an eye on the water.
Benzie's home manages to provide an attractive gallery for family antiques from Colonial four-poster beds and 18th-century silver. But at the same time the house is bright, colorful and comfortable.
``I like it to look like a home and I like to live in it,'' she said. ``I always wanted my children to be very comfortable. My house is where the family gathers.''
She even designed her kitchen with a counter and kitchen sink that allowed her to do the dishes and still be in the ``middle of everything going on.''
The garden clubs lucked out when Benzie offered her home to the tour.
A member of both garden clubs, Benzie knows how much work goes into decorating the homes. So she and a friend are doing all of the arrangements for her house to free other members for the other homes.
They plan to use hollies and boxwood with cut stems of red, pink or white poinsettias all over the house.
In her garage, the garden clubs will conduct their country store sale of baked goods and crafts made by members.
The home tour itself usually makes enough money to last the club a good two years, Burgess said.
The proceeds go toward district and state garden clubs, and right back into the community for landscaping projects in the neighborhoods' entrances and triangles. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by MARK MITCHELL
Color on the Cover
Homes for the holidays
When two of Churchland's oldest garden clubs team up, tour lovers
are in for a treat - beautiful and unusual homes decorated to the
hilt for the holidays.
Stanley and Kay Dobson first saw the two-story contemporary home at
4201 Manchester Road from their boat.
The living room of the rambling, Z-shaped California-style house of
Harley and Jane Pruitt at 4106 Manchester Road.
The bedroom of the home of Rachel Benzie, who designed and built her
Colonial ranch 25 years ago to take advantage of river views.
The bedroom of Stanley and Kay Dobson, who said, ``We opened
everything up and made it spacious and easy to move around.''
ON THE TOUR
The tour will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday. Tickets,
available at each tour stop, are $8.
Tickets can be reserved in advance at $7 by calling 484-1312.
Tickets per single home are $3.
Admission is free to a horticulture and educational exhibit at
St. Andrew Lutheran Church, 4811 W. High St., where greenery and
plant materials will be judged.
by CNB