Thornton Residence

This house in Huntsville’s Twickenham district with its intricate ironwork porch, its crowning belvedere, the parapet walled garconiere, and its stately statues flanking the front, had appeared to be a Grand Dame from the street for as long as anyone could remember. There were, however, some oddities. The house was dated to 1823, yet its appearance suggested that it was a Victorian Italianate. Beyond this incongruity lay a myriad of renovations, additions, renovations of additions, and yet more additions that had been done over the last 70 years. Many of these additions and renovations had been done poorly, and left the house with a tiny kitchen, a family room that still felt like the garage it once was, undesirable bathrooms, and a traffic pattern that severed the old house from the additions.

Bill Peters Architects was hired to renovate the house to create modern living and convenient spaces that flowed with and respected the old house. We discovered that in 1860 the house had undergone an extensive and well executed renovation converting from the 1823 Half Federal to the Victorian Italianate. A decision was made to demolish the poorly executed later additions to make way for new additions that would respect the Victorian character, and would provide modern living, cooking and bathing accommodations without compromising the integrity of the historic original spaces. We were actually able to find an exact match of the mold that produced the iron work on the front of the house – a mold that had been out of production for over 100 years.