BELMONT RESIDENCE
Massachusetts

With Susan Bienen Johnson, interior designer

This historic house was built in 1861 by J. Varnum Fletcher as a summer residence in the highlands of Belmont, Massachusetts. Fletcher was a wholesale meat merchant at Faneuil Hall who later became a state senator, bank president and philanthropist.

The house’s generous front porch overlooks terraced gardens with specimen plantings and water features. The main house has a center hall plan with a graceful curved stair. The well-proportioned principal rooms of the ground level have 12' high ceilings, tall windows to the floor, original custom moldings and quarter-sawn white oak floors. A glazed cupola provides views to Boston.

A rear wing, added soon after the original house was constructed, had been compromised over the years. Our scope of work includes structurally stabilizing, reconfiguring and renovating the wing. The main rooms and center hall of the house are also restored.

All the systems are replaced or upgraded, including fully air-conditioning the house. A service stair is removed, freeing up space for a first floor in-law suite. The suite functions as living space but can be closed off with a pivoting door during its occasional use as a bedroom.

An open kitchen and dining area with adjacent bar, pantry and mudroom provide amenities for modern family living and party giving. A new bay window overlooking the rear terrace brings in additional light and enhances views to the garden. Custom cabinetry combines quarter-sawn white oak lowers and upper cabinets painted in five complementary colors. Countertops are soapstone. The floor is ebonized quarter-sawn white oak.

On the second floor, all bedrooms are renovated to include en suite bathrooms. Two former rooms in the rear wing are joined into a single bedroom for a teenager with vaulted ceiling, study area, and a circular shower that creates a sculptural feature in the room. A laundry room is added where the service stair is removed. The third floor renovations include guest rooms and an exercise room in the old laundry airing room.