It felt like a stroll through Masterpiece Theater.
But this wasn’t a PBS back lot, or Victorian England.
Morristown’s Historic District threw open its doors on Sunday–eight doors, actually–for a walking tour that earned rave reviews from visitors and $28,000 for the Macculloch Hall Historical Museum.
“I want all of them!” enthused Maureen Smith, a Morristown resident who toured the eight homes with her friend Tracey Payne of Toms River.
More than 500 people came–eclipsing the 2012 fundraising tour by more than 100 people–with some traveling from as far as Pennsylvania and New York, said Alice Cutler, interim executive director of Macculloch Hall.
Alice said fans can look forward to an encore in 2016–just enough time for the weekend’s 100 or so volunteers to catch their breath.
“I think it’s a home run,” said Jock Clark, president of the museum board.
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Sunday’s self-guided tours started at Macculloch Hall, which dates to the early 19th century, and meandered to mansions built circa the Benjamin Harrison administration on Miller Road, Ogden and Farragut places, and Colles and Wetmore avenues.
There were 11-foot ceilings and six-car garages. And terrace fountains overlooking lush vales. The tour featured wine cellars to rival many spirit shops, enough stained-glass windows for a small cathedral and elegant dining rooms with ample settings for several branches of the family tree.
Humidor? Check. Original hardwood floors? Naturally. Fireplaces? Too many to count. A game of Hide-and-Seek at any of these venues could end with search parties and 24-7 CNN coverage.
The tour stirred memories for some visitors, who paid up to $45 for the privilege.
As a child, Kadie Dempsey of Morris Arts took dance lessons at the Jane Potts Dance School, which was next door to one of the showcase homes on Farragut Place–a home once owned by Jane’s father, the late Mayor Clyde Potts.
Clyde Potts designed water systems for the Morristown area and for Athens, Greece, among other places. He also was instrumental in creation of the Morristown National Historical Park.
The Rev. Elliott Lindsley, who made the tour on Sunday, recalled Clyde Potts as a “nice, genial person.” He also remembered tongues of flame lighting the night sky when the Potts household caught fire in 1934. The minister was 4 years old at the time.
After that February blaze, the upper floor was extensively remodeled. Those changes prevented the place from achieving “historic” recognition in the federal register, according to a history compiled by the present owners.
NO GINGERBREAD, NO VINYL
Mary Pellecchia of Basking Ridge said she was most intrigued by these back stories–histories of grand houses built as summer “cottages” with names like Good Rest and Vale Top, by Supreme Court justices and prominent New York doctors and descendants of George Macculloch, father of the Morris Canal and original occupant of Macculloch Hall.
These homes are much larger than historic Victorians on Cape May tours, said Mary’s tour companion, Wendy DeFeo of East Hanover.
“I’m just wondering why there are no Gingerbread houses here?” Wendy said.
Most owners of Sunday’s tour homes left such questions to docents, who included Morristown’s Fourth Ward councilwoman, Alison Deeb. But at least two sets of homeowners preferred a hands-on approach.
“One owner asked my name and hugged me,” said Jennifer Scilla, who enjoyed the afternoon with her mother, Judy Scilla.
Although the tour gave the impression that the livin’ is easy in Morristown’s Historic District, homeowners Peter Gordon and Debra King wanted visitors to know that grand homes are a great responsibility.
It would be cheaper and more convenient to replace drafty, creaky, five-foot high cranking windows–containing 246 diamond -shaped panes–with something more modern and energy efficient. But the couple would hear about it from the neighbors, Peter said with a wry smile.
“It’s not just a regular house,” added Debra, referring to their 1891 Victorian, which was expanded (by 10 feet) in 1928. “You have to really want it. When the paint was peeling, we sanded the whole wood down, to start from bare wood.”
Naturally. There is no vinyl siding on Masterpiece Theater.
