Modern art, contemporary colors keep 1860s home fresh

Entering Gae and Deane Richardson's house at 1414 Eighth Ave. in Marion is like walking into an art gallery.

Sculptures, art and mementos are everywhere. Each one has a story - most with a Marion connection.

'I am all about Marion,” says Gae Richardson, owner of The Chocolate Shop just around the corner on Seventh Avenue in Marion. 'The art is from Campbell Steele Gallery or the Marion Arts Festival. Or it's from myself or friends. It's all very personal.”

The Richardsons' home is 155 years old, but Richardson refuses to let the structure's age determine its style. Former owner Deb Witte - one-time owner of another uptown Marion business, Witte's End coffee shop (it's now called Witt's End) - gave the space a bold paint palette with blue-grays, earth tones and burgundy walls, with touches such as modern light fixtures and black granite countertops in the kitchen. Richardson has kept Witte's paint and fixtures and added color with her extensive art collection.

'A house is a beautiful historic shell, but that doesn't mean you have to fill it up with antiques. You can live in a historic house contemporarily,” she says.

She and her husband bought the Marion house in June to be closer to their business. Richardson loves walking two blocks to work each day and coming home for dinners on their front porch.

'I love to sit here and say, ‘Look at all these castles,' ” she says.

She's referring to her neighbors' homes. The neighborhood has some of Marion's oldest houses. Seven of them, including the Richardsons', will be featured on an upcoming Marion Historic House walk, which will benefit the Marion Heritage Center. Participants will be able to tour the homes and learn about their history.

Richardson loves the unique character of each home on her block.

'It's kind of like being a caretaker. I know if I walk into my neighbors' houses, nobody's is going to look the same,” she says.

The Richardsons' home was built in 1860, a year before the Civil War began and 21 years after the town of Marion was founded.

By the 1920s it had been converted into four apartments. Over the years it fell into disrepair. Then in 2006, Tim Neenan bought the structure and brought it back to life, restoring many original features and turning it back into a single-family home.

The house's history is evident in details such as wide baseboards and woodwork. While most of the windows have been upgraded for efficiency, a few antique multi-paned windows remain. The entryway boasts French doors leading to sitting rooms on either side of the hall. Between the French doors and the windows around the front door, the space has 130 individual panes of glass.

The true age of the house is most keenly felt in the basement, where uneven stones line a portion of the walls and rough-hewed logs that still carry their bark serve as floor joists. Richardson believes they are part of the original base of the house.

'The reason I love this house is because my whole life is all about creative reuse, in my dress, in my art. I would rather take a house that already exists and turn it into a something for myself,” she says. 'Everything I have in my house has a story, and the house has a story.”

At 2,000 square feet, the home is smaller than their previous house, which had five bedrooms and sat on a large lot. This house has just one bedroom. They've turned the second into a comfortable second-story family room. There is very little yard at this new house, which is just how Richardson likes it.

She says they considered moving into an even smaller home, but realized that would mean getting rid of a lot of their art.

'We weren't ready to give up the furnishings and art,” Richardson says. 'We were just ready to give up the yard.”

With statuettes lining windowsills and paintings on every wall, she admits she's had to slow down on buying new pieces in recent years. There's a balance, she says, between just the right amount of decorating and too much.

'You can fall into the danger of being cluttered really quickly. It's very important to have a nice flow,” she says. 'Usually when I buy art, I know right where I'm going to put it.”

IF YOU GO

What: Marion Historic House Tour

Where: Begin at any home on the tour: 1414 Eighth Ave.; 1372 Eighth Ave.; 1308 Eighth Ave.; Victorian Thyme Beauty Boutique, 1310 Eighth Ave.; Memorial Hall, 770 11th St. and 5540 Hunters Ridge Ct.

When: 1 to 4:30 p.m. May 3

Cost: $15 or $20

Tickets: Available at the Marion Heritage Center, 590 10th St.; The Chocolate Shop, 1244 Seventh Ave.; Victorian Thyme Beauty & Boutique, 1310 Eighth Ave. and Skogman Realty - Marion, 341 Eighth Ave.