Martinsville, Virginia

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Art In Bloom: Two Homes, Two Worlds

One home, erected in 1956-1957, pays homage to houses built several hundred years earlier on the James River. The other home was once a dance hall and offices on the second floor of an uptown building, a dwelling that is as much a museum as it is a home.

Together, the two abodes will offer a varied experience to visitors on April 26, Martinsville-Henry County Garden Day. The homes and other tour sites will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Retired attorneys Walter and Melinda Penn live in “Chellowe,”a Georgian Colonial designed by architect William W. Patterson of Danville, and built for Thomas N. Barbour and his family. The back-facing house echoes historic homes that faced the James rather than the road.

Urban pioneers Dr. Mervyn and Virginia King live on the second floor of the Pythian building on Courthouse Square. The couple lives with thousands of items carefully collected over decades.

King Uptown Loft
The Knights of Pythias, a secret society, was the first fraternal organization to receive a charter through an act of Congress, granted in 1864. Within a decade or two, the golden age of fraternalism dawned, and membership grew.

In Martinsville, the Pythians were able to build in 1927 on prime real estate facing the Henry County Courthouse, epicenter of the community.

The Pythians had their meeting lodge on the third floor. The second floor had offices and a dance hall. The first floor had retail space the Pythians rented out. Fraternalism dwindled over the intervening years. That changed the fate of the Pythian building. The Kings eventually bought it and eventually made its second floor their home.

The second floor offices took on new lives, such as guestroom, exercise room, library, and music/sewing room.

Three other offices have been repurposed as museum rooms. They showcase the couple’s collections: Native American items, American West artifacts and antique toys.

The Kings’ Native American items range from antique beaded moccasins to wraps decorated with myriad shells. Out in the hallway hang original lithographs of George Catlin’s portraits of Native Americans. During five trips he made during the 1830s, he visited 50 tribes, peoples he realized were vanishing.

The Kings have collected all manner of items from the American West: from a silver saddle to hand-tooled antique leather cowboy boots. In the loft’s entrance hall, visitors come upon the cast of a statue by the artist Frederic Remington. His famed works depict the American West. (He was related to Catlin, as it turned out.) And the third collection room is a wonderland for children of any age. It is filled with antique toys.

Many were made around the turn of the last century by the Marklin Toy Co. --“the epitome of toys,” in Dr. King’s words. The Marklin toys range from toy trains and a charming train station to boats. All are exact down to the last detail. The toy collection includes “live” steam engines, toy engines that actually run on steam.

The Kings also collect other things:

  • Scrimshaw. These are the real McCoy, with some unusual things sailors carved while away at sea, such as pie crimpers and scenes they were seeing carved into whales’ teeth.
  • “Defense canes.”Oh-so-James-Bond. When one pulls the beautifully carved dog’s head off one cane, it offers two forms of defense: a gun and a knife. Another contains a sword.
  • Early American painted boxes. Many came from the Shenandoah Valley.
  • Gold and silver pocket watches, plus belt buckles. These are housed under glass in what is actually the dining room table. There are also belt buckles, including a 24-karat gold one that belonged to Pernell Roberts, one of the stars of the TV show “Bonanza.”

Speaking of dining, the dining area, plus the living area, the kitchen, the master bedroom and bath occupy what was once the dance floor.

The Kings designed the living area to include built-in shelves around the fireplace. The shelves showcase the best of the toy collection.

The master bedroom, which opens right into the living and dining areas has a painted chest, and an original Currier and Ives print hanging on one wall. The master bathroom is a unlike any other. The tub is an old physical therapy tub the doctor got from the hospital when it was being remodeled. And the stainless steel sink was once a pharmacy counter.

The bathroom floor is heated. No surprise, then, that it’s the favorite napping spot for the couple’s cat.

‘Chellowe’

The Penns’ house is called “Chellowe’ because it is “just like his grandfather’s house,” Melinda Penn said. That’s the name of Walter’s grandfather’s house in in Dillwyn, Virginia.They toyed with the idea of buying his grandfather’s “Chellowe,” but Martinsville was home.

Between them, the Penns have nine grandchildren. So rather than downsize, the couple upsized to the house on Knollwood Place. With several twin beds tucked under eaves in converted closets, they got in enough beds to accommodate the 17 heads of their family members.

Melinda had been married before to a member of the Carter family, who died. She married Walter, her first husband’s second cousin. “I love the family,” she said.

After her first husband’s death, she went to law school. She spent 15 years practicing law, mostly as a prosecutor. Walter, too, was a lawyer.

The house has echoes of family all around. Notable are the portraits of family members all around; some limpressive examples line the walls of dining room.

Not all of the art is family-related. An original oil by Russian artist Oleg Gurba creates the focal painting in the living room. The entrance to the house opens into a foyer featuring a partially rounded staircase and walnut parquet flooring. Family antiques grace most of the rooms in the home, including a cradle used by several generations of Carter children. When the Penns moved in in 2000, they left the house intact, except for upgrading the mechanics. The kitchen had just been renovated in 1998. And a ground-floor master bedroom had been added in 1990.

While the house does have a traditional sensibility, large, floor-to-ceiling windows make the high-ceiling rooms feel even more open. And the windows create the sense of bringing the outdoors in.

“One of my favorite things about the house is looking out into the trees all around the yard,” Melinda Penn said. The Penns have a table in front of just such a window in their kitchen, where they eat breakfast looking out into greenery. The design of landscape architect Robert G. Campbell of Kernersville, N.C., remains intact. It features now-mature oaks, magnolia, boxwood, and dogwood.The two-story back porch means there’s an upstairs porch that further reduces barriers between outdoors and indoors. “I love sitting on the upstairs porch,” she said.


 

FYI
What: “Art In Bloom,” Martinsville-Henry County Garden Day 2017
When: April 26, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Where: Piedmont Arts Association, tour headquarters, 215 Starling Avenue
Who: The Martinsville Garden Club and Garden Study Club, hosts
Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 on tour day. On tour day, buy at any site or at tourheadquarters. Advance tickets at www.vagardenweek.org. Available locally Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce, Martinsville-Henry County Visitor’s Center, Piedmont Arts Association, the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce, Janice Cain Stationery and Hamlet Vineyards.
Lunch: Piedmont Arts Association, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; $14 per person. Reservations required by April 25. Contact Lynne Beeler, 276-638-1030, ldcb@comcast.net.
Sponsors/Supporters: Everything Outdoors, LLC, Stifel, Hamlet Vineyards, Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce, Virginia Tourism / Martinsville-Henry County Visitor Center, Piedmont Triad International Airport,First Baptist Church, Piedmont Arts Association, Virginia Natural History Museum, Historic Henry County Courthouse Heritage Center & Museum, Fayette Area Historical Initiative, Sunnyside Communities King’s Grant, and Norris Funeral Services.