DR. GLASS HOUSE
WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA

Built in 1893, this house is a masculine, heavy, Queen Anne brick house. On both levels, the original house had three large front rooms, two small rear ones, and a grand stair. A later, rear addition contained many small rooms on the first floor, and a semi-conditioned, low ceilinged, glassed-in porch on the second floor. The kitchen was undersized and cramped, and didn’t easily accommodate more than one person. The house is known locally as the Dr. Glass House, because its second owner was a doctor whose medical practice was located in the south side of the first floor, with a separate side door for patients.

The project involved removing the old rear addition, and building a new, first floor family space, with a master bedroom suite above. The hip roofed, two story addition is connected to the old house via a two story, flat roofed hyphen. The hyphen portion uses Victorian patterned, pressed metal ceiling material as wall siding. The two story family room and master bedroom addition is clad in cedar shingles, in a pattern of four courses of fish scale, and one course of half cove. The pattern references the decorative slate roof of the original house, as well as the shingled, attic level sleeping porch on the front facade.

The kitchen in the old house was completely redone in the renovation. Walls adjacent to the kitchen were removed, in order to open it up to the family living areas in both the original house and the addition. Custom kitchen cabinets were designed with simple, clean details. The new cedar arbor echoes the characteristics of the Queen Anne house in scale and detailing, yet reflects a modern craftsman sensibility. The renovation and addition respect and preserve the old house, while incorporating a modern reinterpretation of materials, and utilizing a plan more conducive to contemporary family living.