THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 29, 1996 TAG: 9610010485
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JEANNE MOONEY, SPECIAL TO HOME & GARDEN
LENGTH: 175 lines
MANY PEOPLE would agree that you can't get far on $3. But this week that small sum will buy you a sampling of Old World Europe, the Far East, South Africa and beyond.
Put on your flat-sole shoes. The Virginia Beach City Union of the King's Daughters is hosting a tour Wednesday of Church Point Manor House, a bed and breakfast that pampers its guests with an eclectic mix of antiques, art work and furnishings from around the globe. Proceeds from the tour will be given to charity.
Make no mistake, Church Point Manor House is not just another pretty place on the house tour circuit. It is an 1860s farmhouse rescued from ruin by developer Jahn W. Summs and his wife, Leslie, and redone with comfort, decor and architectural style.
In the 10-bedroom inn, visitors will find a music room, parlor, dining room, tea room and two-story conservatory, furnished with 17th, 18th and 19th century paintings and pieces. They will find a rustic pub and taproom in what was once a root and coal cellar. From there, they can step into the newly dug addition and find a billiards room, smoking room and Old World European-style restaurant, The Cellars.
Three years ago, a forlorn farmhouse stood on the Manor House site. ``It was a crumbling-down mess,'' says Nonie W. Waller, the interior designer and decorator who led the refurbishing.
The Summses gutted the house and began anew. They also added a wing with five bedrooms and connected the new and old sections with a spacious conservatory. They spent more than $1 million bringing back to life what is said to be the site of the first court and first church in Princess Anne County, according to a spokesman.
Today, the Manor House is a $185-a-night bed and breakfast and has won a city award for design. Couples honeymoon here, social circles take tea and scones in the tea room, and notables such as actor Cliff Robertson, and Ava Astaire McKenzie, daughter of Fred Astaire, come for a retreat. The Summs family resides here, too, as well as in Cape Town, South Africa.
Recently the family built a three-bedroom carriage house, suitable for meetings, bridge clubs and mahjong parties, on the Manor House property. The Summses also developed a conference room and suite. Both buildings blend with the Manor House's Victorian exterior.
Standing on the wide porch that wraps around the Manor House, Waller mused of the days long ago when the residents of the working farm sat for a leisurely moment on the porch, enjoying a cool drink, the quiet and the view.
The scenery has changed, to be sure. In the upscale Church Point neighborhood that borders the Manor House, huge new homes have taken shape on the open land. Several are still being built and crews can be seen in action, gunning shingles to rooftops.
But the clamor of the modern world seemingly melts away at the Manor House. For instance, one does not simply turn off Church Point Road and pull up the driveway. This is a place to putter up the drive, past the flowers, the flickering gas lantern and the shady linden and oak trees.
You climb from your car and enter, perhaps, through the reception room. Wide and airy, it is appointed with 100- and 200-year-old pieces. That's a Dutch display cabinet ahead, with decorative inlay, made around 1780, and a mahogany reading table and lectern over there, made in England around 1835.
You continue walking and peek into two of the bedroom suites. They are named, as all suites are, after the regions in Scotland, England and France where the Summses have interests in property, or in deference to the international influences they favor.
The bedroom suite Cumbria, named after a county in northwest England, is handicap accessible. It has a four-poster maple bed covered by a hand-crocheted heirloom bedspread. Across the hall, the bedroom suite Caledonia, given the poetic name of Scotland, is dressed with plaid fabric drapes.
Ahead, you find the gallery hall, a triumph to trompe l'oeil done well. An antique crystal-and-gilt chandelier hangs from a recessed, pan ceiling that is faux painted to look like marble, granite and a rosette medallion. Antique sconces repose on the walls, and there's a pair of carved wood doors from a 16th century Burmese Buddhist temple.
A double stairway climbs to a second floor, where guests can stay in three bedrooms: Brittany, Provence and Alsace. Popular among romantics, Provence is furnished with a canopy bed draped with a rich French print.
Just steps away awaits what may be the crown jewel of the Manor House: the conservatory, a bright and cheery solarium with arched windows and walls washed in pale salmon hues and painted swags abundant in fruit and flora. Above, hangs a wrought-iron chandelier from an old Mexican hacienda. The chandelier has been ``electrified,'' Waller says, but once held candles that someone probably lit after lowering the chandelier by pulleys.
Underfoot are terra-cotta tiles imported from Peru. And large paintings hang on two walls. One is an oil-on-canvas, possibly of King George III of England, his Queen Charlotte and their two children. The painting is not signed but believed to be of the school of Thomas Gainsborough, an English painter.
``If it is (his), it's probably the only Gainsborough in private collection for hundreds of miles around,'' says Waller, president of La Galleria, a Virginia Beach interior design and decorating firm that sells international furniture, accessories and antiques.
From the conservatory, you enter the first-floor kitchen, a rustic room where some of the farmhouse's original brick is laid bare. This room is functional, to a point, but the real food preparation is done in the cellar galley. Here, a visitor may note the painting, ``Still Life With Fishes,'' attributed to a 17th century Dutch artist, Pieter de Putter.
Moving to the front of the house, you find the music room, parlor and dining room. The music room is furnished with a baby grand piano, which some of the Summses' six children play, and an 18th century boat drum from Thailand that has been converted to a planter. Waller uses reds, blues and yellows to give the room a lively feel and employs a monkey theme in the draperies and chandelier.
The parlor is a place to linger and study the decor, which includes mahogany furnishings, a collection of Chinese porcelain and a 14-drawer chest on stand known as chinoiserie, which was made in England around 1750.
The dining room offers the feel of a European manor with its antique Queen Anne chairs, a 19th century solid brass chandelier from France and the inner workings of an antique clock that outlived its casing.
Those who climb to the second floor in this original part of the Manor House will find two bedrooms. Cathay is furnished in a Chinese motif and the other, the master suite and sitting room, is decorated with English and South African influences.
Those who climb a narrow flight of stairs to the third floor will find three more bedrooms. Most unique, perhaps, is Normandy, which features an upholstered ceiling and walls and two 18th century French panel beds, or box beds, ensconced in oak.
``You'll go in many houses in France and they still have these,'' Waller says of the beds.
Of course, one need not travel to Europe, South Africa and the Far East to see such unusual treasures. The Summses and the Virginia Beach City Union of The King's Daughters have put them at your fingertips for a day. ILLUSTRATION: COLOR PHOTOS BY RICHARD L. DUNSTON/The Virginian-Pilot
Jahn Summs turned a decaying 1860s farmhouse into a bed and
breakfast.
The parlor entices visitors to stay awhile with its mahogany
furnishings and varied collections and antiques.
A two-story conservatory, with lots of light and salmon-washed
walls, joins the old and new sections.
PHOTOS BY RICHARD L. DUNSTON/The Virginian-Pilot
The Normandy room features an upholstered ceiling and walls and two
18th century French panel beds ensconced in oak.
Michael Dulong, right, and John Hailey sit in The Cellars, a
European-style restaurant in the Church Point Manor House. Dulong is
in charge of food services for the pub and dining room.
Map
Directions: From Independence Boulevard, turn on Pleasure House Road
and bear right onto First Court Road. Turn right at the signs
marking Church Point development and left onto Church Point Road.
Follow to Church Point Manor House.
Graphic
WHAT IS THE KING'S DAUGHTERS?
The King's Daughters is an international charitable organization.
Approximately 200 members in 12 clubs, or circles, comprise The
Virginia Beach City Union of the King's Daughters. Each year, the
circles work independently and together to raise money.
The house tour is one of their joint efforts. Last year, the
group contributed about $60,000 to the community; about $13,000 of
that sum was generated by the house tour. In its 30 years, the group
has donated more than $1 million to charities.
Proceeds from this year's house tour will be donated to Candii
House, the Children's Aids Network for Interfaith Involvement,
which provides services to children and families affected by
HIV-AIDS; Habitat for Humanity, which builds affordable homes for
working families with low incomes; and Operation Smile, a private,
nonprofit volunteer medical services group that performs
reconstructive surgery and related health care to indigent children
and young adults.
In addition to the tour, plants, baked goods and decorations will
be sold to raise money. by CNB