Hewitt House / Inn Buffalo - Table of Contents
Hewitt
House / Inn Buffalo - Table of Contents
Formal Parlor /
Library / Music room
Herbert H. Hewitt House - Inn Buffalo/Off Elmwood
619 Lafayette Avenue, Buffalo, NY
Inn Buffalo/Off Elmwood - Official Website
| 2015
Photos Formal parlor   Fireplace  Foliated silk damask wallpaper stretched over felt(?) and tacked on furring strips ... Note tacks which were spit out of the artisan's mouth onto a magnetized hammer and then tacked  Fireplace: onyx detail  Fireplace onyx head (top) and jambs ... Original gas logs ... Hexagonal mosaic hearth  Pocket doors  Red mahogany pocket doors and baseboards with a French rub finish  Pocket doors  Kittinger Jacobean Revival table features elaborately turned legs and X stretchers on loan from the J. J. Marotto collection |
Library  Bookcases are not original, but this was the original library. Evidence (not illustrated) is that the quarter-sawn oak flooring stopped a foot or so away from the wall indicating that there were original built-in bookcases.  Looking into the front hall ... Wainscoting  Facing the street  Stenciled medallion on gilded ceiling ... Process: Plaster walls covered with canvas while the plaster is still wet ("tender.") The canvas is either painted or gilded - as in this room - or has furring strips added in order to tack on silk damask wallpaper - as in the formal parlor illustrated above - or tapestry - as in the music room illustrated below... Empire style Swedish chandelier is not original to the house  Stenciled medallion on gilded ceiling - detail  Stenciled medallion on gilded ceiling - detail  Stenciled medallion on gilded wall  Oak wainscoting  Gas radiant heater probably not original ... Glazed brick hearth  Adjustable music, lectern, book stand made of oak and brass with metal wheels |
2015 photos except where noted Music Room Evidence that this originally was the music room: The scenes in the tapestries involve music  2014 photo ... Artisans removing white paint to reveal the original stenciled gilding. Photo courtesy of Ellen & Joseph Lettieri  2014 photo ... White paint being removed to reveal the original gilding. Photo courtesy of Ellen & Joseph Lettieri  2014 photo ... Artisans removing white paint to reveal the original stenciled gilding. Photo courtesy of Ellen & Joseph Lettieri  Coffered ceiling ... Three details below:  Paneled ceiling detail #1: Uncovered stenciled lower section ... Wooden rosettes  Paneled ceiling detail #2  Paneled ceiling detail #3: Uncovered stenciled middle section  Note tapestry at right (in center, below:)  Note center tapestry music scene, detailed below:  Note bottom and top plain sections where tapestry is tacked onto furring strips   Closeup showing furring strips, canvas, and tacks  Walls were originally plastered, then covered with neutral colored canvas, and then painted or gilded ... Note unglued canvas  Identical tapestries with music scenes on opposite wall  1871 Boston Chickering piano made of rosewood ... This style piano was a precursor of the grand piano ... Style: Rococo Revival   |
