THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604160125
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 203 lines
WHEN CINDY STONE hangs the picture of her two teenage children over the antique china press in the dining room of her Ghent home this week, she'll finally be ready for the visitors.
Caroline ``Huffy'' Furr just wants the weather to start cooperating so she can finish pruning, weeding and manicuring her garden. The inside of her West Ghent home, including her husband's collection of Civil War memorabilia, is already polished and dusted for inspection.
Over on West Princess Anne Road, Furr's cousin-in-law, Mary Furr, also is counting on Mother Nature to cooperate and transform her back yard into a blooming paradise just in time for the April 25 Norfolk Home and Garden Tour. Dozens of famished visitors will refresh themselves on iced tea and cookies in her side yard after a day spent viewing five Norfolk homes on this year's tour.
Even to such entertaining veterans, opening their homes and gardens to dozens of prying eyes - albeit appreciative ones - can be daunting.
``I'm not sure why I said I'd do it,'' mused Huffy Furr, a member of the Garden Club of Norfolk. ``This has probably been one of the worst winters possible for gardens. But it is fun.''
``I'm doing it for my mother-in-law,'' noted Stone, whose home has been in her husband's family for three generations. ``She loved gardening, and she loved this house. She would be so pleased and proud that the house she grew up in is on the tour.''
This year, five Norfolk residences will be featured on the annual tour, sponsored by The Garden Club of Norfolk and the Harborfront Garden Club. The Norfolk tour is only one of dozens that will be held throughout the state during Historic Garden Week in Virginia, April 20-27.
Proceeds from the tours go toward restoring historic gardens and grounds throughout the state. Locally, the state garden clubs have restored the grounds of the Old Courthouse in Portsmouth and the Adam Thoroughgood House in Virginia Beach. Other projects have included restoring the gardens at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello home.
``This is for such a good cause,'' Mary Huff said. ``Of course I wanted to help.''
The homes on this year's Norfolk tour include several that have been in the homeowners' families for generations.
The Stone residence, located at 916 Blow St., was built in 1917 by Stuart Stone's maternal grandfather, Calvert Rogers Dey, a descendant of the illustrious Lees of Virginia. The owner of an insurance company, Dey and his wife raised their two daughters in the Ghent town home.
After the daughters grew up and left home, the couple converted their two-story brick house into a duplex. They lived in the downstairs and rented out the upstairs.
When the couple died, Stone's unmarried aunt moved back into the home and lived there for another 20 years.
After her death in 1979, Stone and his young family acquired the home. One of the first things the Stones did was restore the home to its original single-family structure. They opened up a front entry stairway, which had been closed off to the second floor, and converted a downstairs bathroom into a breakfast nook overlooking their city garden.
The hardwood floors were refinished, and new coats of paint and wallpaper were applied.
``But basically the house was intact,'' Cindy Stone said.
Subsequent projects have included modernizing the kitchen, installing central air conditioning and landscaping the back yard into a bricked patio garden with a small pond and jasmine-covered arbor.
As a result, ``We have the charm of the old house, combined with a very up-to-date house for the 1990s,'' Stone said.
The interior design aptly reflects the homeowners' love of family tradition. In fact, the Stones have displayed many antiques that have been passed down through generations of both sides of the family. The China blue dining room, for example, is furnished with a Cuban mahogany table from the 1850s, a Sheridan sideboard, an Empire glass-front china press and an 18th-century Virginia hunt board - all from Stuart Stone's ancestry. Family portraits, some dating from the 1800s, also are displayed throughout.
An enclosed sun porch with ceiling fans and an adjacent library, or family room, epitomizes the family's philosophy of combining antiques and contemporary furnishings to create a traditional, yet functional home.
In a family steeped in tradition - not only does Stuart Stone run the family business with his brother, but his children also attend the same school he and other family members did - it's not surprising that the current generation wants to leave its mark.
Right before the tour, Cindy Stone plans to hang a newly commissioned portrait of her son and daughter in the dining room alongside those of their ancestors.
``I have no doubt the family home will be passed down to our children, and all this tradition will continue,'' she said. ``My son, especially, eats all this stuff up.''
Like the Stones, Carter and Caroline Furr have combined family heirlooms with contemporary touches in their home at 1418 Graydon Place in West Ghent.
The Georgian-style brick home was built by Carter Furr's parents in 1936. He has lived in the home most of his adult life.
Since acquiring the house, the Furrs have stamped their own style on the home. Huffy Furr's favorite colors of yellow, blue and green are incorporated throughout the home's English country house decor, from the canary walls of the living room to the blue and yellow pansies in the backyard garden.
``They're happy colors, and it makes me feel good to be around them,'' said Furr, a native of Birmingham, Ala.
Family heirlooms are displayed throughout. In the foyer sits a Queen Anne lowboy from Carter Furr's grandmother and an Adam chair from his wife's Alabama ancestry. The dining room also has many furnishings brought to Norfolk from Loudoun County, Va., by Carter Furr's father.
One of the most unusual rooms in the home is a side sun porch, which has been remodeled into a wood-paneled den. The room is filled with Carter Furr's prized collection of Civil War memorabilia, including a mourning veil worn by Mrs. Jefferson Davis, the wife of the Confederate president. It was given to him by a cousin.
In a glass-enclosed case of epaulets, Confederate money and other Civil War artifacts are several items Carter Furr inherited from his grandfather, a cavalry officer who fought in the war under Gen. Fitzhugh Lee. A Sharpe's carbine and canteen are two of Furr's most prized possessions.
Also on display are Mark Hopkins limited-edition bronze Civil War sculptures, Minie balls retrieved from the Battle of Five Forks (where Furr's grandfather was wounded), and portraits of Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant. The portraits of the two Civil War generals flank either side of the fireplace.
``As you can tell,'' Huffy Furr said with an affectionate chuckle, ``The Civil War has been my husband's lifelong passion.''
Just off the den, through French doors and past a brick patio, is Huffy Furr's garden sanctuary. Filled with roses, azaleas, dogwoods, camellias and other flowering perennials, the yard is ``very therapeutic for me,'' she said.
``I just love gardening. It's something generations of my family have enjoyed ... and I do, too.''
A few streets away, at 1216 W. Princess Anne Road, Mary Furr also relishes relaxing amid her garden of bridal's wreath, viburnum, dogwoods, oakleaf hydrangea, roses and camellias.
``I just love the outdoors,'' she said. ``It's so refreshing to sit out on the bench and watch the birds and the flowers.''
Mary Furr commissioned landscape architect Carter Winn to design a ``low-maintenance'' garden for her home 10 years ago in anticipation of her oldest daughter's wedding.
``I was married at an outdoor wedding ... and our daughter wanted one for her wedding,'' she said. ``It turned out to be just a lovely setting for it, too.''
Having the garden tour stop in her garden for refreshments won't be nearly as elaborate as a wedding, but Mary Furr is looking forward to giving a little repose to fatigued tourists by having them sit awhile in her garden.
``Hopefully, by then, the weather will warm up, and everything will bloom,'' she said. ``It really can be quite beautiful out there. All of a sudden, everything just comes to life.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
ON THE COVER
The cover photo, taken by staff photographer Richard L. Dunston,
shows the entrance to the Ghent home of Cindy and Stuart Stone.
Photos by GARY C. KNAPP
The home of Carter and Caroline Furr features a collection of Civil
War memorabilia, such as this statuette.
This is the outside of the Graydon Place residence of Carter and
Caroline Furr, which is one of the five stops on the annual Norfolk
Home and Garden Tour.
This is the Civil War room in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Carter Furr.
The Georgian-style brick residence was built by Carter Furr's
parents in 1936.
Staff photos by RICHARD L. DUNSTON
This is the fish pond in the backyard garden of the Ghent home of
Cindy and Stuart Stone. The residence has been in the Stone family
for several generations.
This is the patio area in garden of the Stone home, located at 916
Blow St. and built in 1917 by Stuart Stone's maternal grandfather,
Calvert Rogers Dey.
This is the backyard garden at the home of Dr. and Mrs. John Furr,
where refreshments will be served.
TOUR INFORMATION
The Norfolk Home and Garden Tour will be held from 10 a.m. to 5
p.m., Thursday, April 25.
Block tickets are available for $12. Admission to individual
homes is $4 each. Tickets are available the day of the tour at the
homes. For advance tickets, contact Mrs. Reuben McBrayer at 7447 St.
Francis Lane, Norfolk, 23505.
The homes on this year's tour are:
The residence of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Paul Conrad Jr. at 1219 W.
Princess Anne Road.
The residence of Capt. and Mrs. Peter L. Fullinwider at 1300 W.
Princess Anne Road.
The residence of Mr. and Mrs. Carter Furr at 1418 Graydon Place.
The residence of Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Stone at 916 Blow St.
The residence of Mr. and Mrs. Joe P. Covington Jr. at 626 Maury
Ave.
Refreshments will be served from 2 to 4 p.m. at Dr. and Mrs. John
Furr's home at 1216 W. Princess Anne Road. An 11:30 a.m. lunch,
costing $6.50, will be served in the parish hall of St. Andrew's
Episcopal Church, at 1009 W. Princess Anne Road.
For more information on the tour, call chairwoman Robin Ingram at
623-0749.
by CNB