Restoration Notes for Holt House


North Façade

1-2. Windows. The present ground floor lower two doors on either side of the vestibule possibly replaced what were originally windows. They are higher than the other windows on the ground floor, but echo the higher windows of the main block of the house on the second floor, which is approximately one foot higher than the connecting hypens and wings. In 18xx, then owner Dr. Holt divided the house into two halves, one for each son and may have added the doors to serve as separate entrances. Windows in the south sides of the hyphens were also converted to doors, accessible by stairs leading from the ground to railinged balconies.

3. Hyphen Cornices. The hyphens originally had dentculated brick cornices that have been restored here.

4. Lower Windows - West Wing. The original 6-over-6 lite windows were replaced by the NZP with casement windows. These three windows are the only ones that originally had interior shutters with the window openings in the wall cut back at an angle to accommodate them. The fact that ground floor of the west wing and the connecting hyphen was originally built to accommodate interior shutters suggests that this part of the house predates the center block and the east wing.

5. Stucco. The present "pebble-dash" stucco dates to NZP ownership after 1889 (HABS, 38). The original stucco coating was a smoother, lime-based coating, possibly with Ashlar scoring. (Meyers, 29-21)

6. Gable Arches (north and south). While presently these two arched openings in the gables are bricked in ("blind arches"), they may have originally held glazed windows.


Northwest View

 

1. Portico Porch. The extending north vestibule is not original to the house, and records show that a smaller Victorian-period enclosed vestibule was added at a later point in the 19th-century.  This vestibule is flush on both sides to the front windows, and was accessed by  a heavy, wooden staircase.  The width of this vestibule suggests that it was a fill in of an earlier open porch  that extended to the two windows on either side of the main door.   In 1899, the Zoo decided to enlarge the north vestibule.   Extending the first Victorian vestibule required that a new base floor be cantilevered out above the empty space where the Victorian stairs had been. 

2. Stairway. The removal of this stairway with the extension of the vestibule by the Zoo dramatically altered the approach to what was the once main entrance to the house.  Previously, the main entry to the house would have been on the north side, up a  staircase onto to a porch, and then into an entry hall on the second level. Not replacing the stairs limited any access to the house in the north to the ground level.  The stairs were never replaced.  In the reconstruction of the north entrance, we removed both phases of the vestibule and replaced them with a period, columned portico porch.

3. Frieze. Originally, a single course of projecting brick was carried around the main block of the house to form the base of a frieze zone but no traces of the frieze remain. For this restoration, a denticulated frieze was added above the brick band.

4. Vented Gable Windows. These windows were added after the Zoo in the 1890's. Originally, there would not have been a need for glazed windows as there was no attic space under the roofs.

5. Shutters. While the house currently does not have shutters, historic photographs show that the windows on the south side were shuttered. As this is the north side of the house and the wings housed sleeping rooms, shutters would have proven almost necessary.

 

South Façade

1. Main Level Windows. The Wyatt (tripartite) windows in the south elevation appear to be original and were maintained in this restoration. Shutters were added as they appeared in photographs at the time the Zoo acquired the house. Each shutter was bi-fold, allowing the smaller size windows to be covered only, as well as the entire three windows when completely closed. The shutters were later removed by the zoo.

2. Lower Level Windows. The four windows on the lower level of the south face were lengthened and the grade was lowered 8" to accommodate longer windws. The original windows recreated here were 6-over-6 panes for the center window and 2-over-2 pains on side windows that were probably originally the same size as those in the two lower side walls of the south vestibule (Meyers, 22-23).

3. Lower Level Windows (southwest and southeast walls of main block). The present window openings here were added by the Zoo in 1901 (HABS, 42).

4. South Porch. The present two-story vestibule on the south side of the house does not appear to be original.  Like the vestibule on the north side, this addition distorts the classical dimensions of the original house. This two-story vestibule sits slightly inward on top of a wider flat stone and brick platform.   The brickwork filling in the porch appears to have been done quickly and cheaply, and does not match the masonry of the main house. It is only one course deep around its basement level door and the corners do not join, suggesting difference phases for the fill in.  It enclosed  a door that matched the one on the north side.  With no source of sunlight in the main room of the house, skylights were added by the National Zoo around 1890.   In this restoration, removing the south vestibule and replacing it with an open, Classical Revival-style porch restores the classical proportions of the house.

 

South Porch

 

1. Spiral Stairs. An 1898 letter from the Superintendent, NZP references the 'stairways' to the upper room. This most likely refers to a pair spiral stairs that originally went through the floor of the second level of the porch to the lower. The framing for the spiral staircases is still in place.

5. Vestibule Roof. An 1889 photo (also including Dr. Holt) shows a flat, Palladian-style, parapetted roof. The current gable roof was built by the NZP in 1896, after the original roof suffered sever storm damage. 

 

West Wing (West Wall)

 

1. Door. While there is presently no door on the west wall, evidence of an older door is exposed with the deterioration of the stucco coatings. The opening was infilled with stone and stucco-covered, possibly after the upper wall collapsed and was rebuilt by the NZP.

2. Upper Left Window. There is presently no evidence that a window existed here. If there originally had been a window over the door, any evidence of its existence disappeared with the collapse of the west wall.

3. Upper Right Window. Scarring in the stucco and the under laying masonry suggest that there was an older window opening here.

4. Lower Right Window. While this window opening was reinforced with concrete (probably to help reinforce the wall), there is no data that suggests that this window opening was added by the NZP.

Some scholars have suggested that the west wing was constructed first, possibly as a stand alone house. The construction of the west wing differs significantly from that of the east wing. The majority the composition of the ground level walls of the west wing is stone, whereas the east wing is mostly brick. The west wing has an external chimney, whereas that of the east wing is internal. Only the ground floor of the west wing and the window in the adjoining hyphen have window openings cut to accommodate internal shutters. These features, combined with evidence of an door opening and additional windows, suggests an earlier construction date and use of the wing.