Email  Print  Feed

Subscribe to : Bryn Mawr Subscribe to : West Chester Subscribe to Main Line Today : Westchester Magazine Print Edition

History Remade

A couple’s passion for the past brings new life to an old home.

(page 1 of 3)

John and Doris Rudibaugh aren’t your typical empty nesters. While most of their friends were downsizing, they wanted a house even bigger than the one where they’d raised their four daughters.

As it turns out, the Rudibaughs prefer a full nest. So their new home had to accommodate visits from their daughters, sons-in-law and 11 grandchildren. It was a lifelong dream of John’s that led the couple to the well-known Edgewood estate in West Chester. “He always wanted to renovate a historic home,” says Doris. “At this point in our lives, we had the time and resources to do it.”

The Rudibaughs were in awe of the Victorian Gothic mansion high up on the hill. Then the one-of-a-kind property went on the market. “Never did we imagine that one day we’d own it,” says Doris.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Edgewood is on the site where, in 1777, patriots faced British troops in the American Revolution. In 1845, Charles Sharpless built Edgewood using local serpentine stone, giving the house its unique marbled, green exterior. The home changed hands once more before it was sold to the famed Biddle family in 1873.

The Biddles were responsible for adding Edgewood’s distinctive tower in 1889, presumably to provide a back staircase for servants. Its top lasted more than 80 years before it and the fourth floor were removed due to deterioration.

The interior of the home had many distinct features, including diamond-paned windows throughout; wide-plank pine floors in the living room and dining room; 12-foot-high ceilings; a walk-in safe room in the basement (said to be where the Biddle women kept their jewelry); and a hidden section of the basement thought to once be part of the Underground Railroad. A key feature in the living room remains the push-up windows with waist-high pine doors underneath that open to create easy walk-through access to the serpentine stone patio outside.

Though the Rudibaughs had renovated other homes, they weren’t quite prepared for the magnitude of the job ahead of them at Edgewood. “Even though this house was in poor condition, I immediately fell in love with it,” says Doris. “I thought it was an amazing house even before we did anything.”

Still, says John, “Everything had to be reworked, except the exterior walls.”

The Rudibaughs’ to-do list included installing new electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems, plus restoring six of the seven fireplaces and all original hardware. Old windows were repaired; woodwork was removed, refinished and reinstalled; missing plaster moldings were cast and installed to match what was there; and doorways were tripled in size to allow more light into rooms.

Another major undertaking: returning the tower to its original four stories, with the addition of a decorative mansard roof, a corbelled chimney and large modillion brackets at the eaves. John plans on moving his home office to the fourth floor of the tower. “It’s neat being that high up,” he says.
 

Continued on page 2 ...