PRESERVATION AND ADDITION TO THE DAVID TOWNSEND HOUSE
David Townsend, a prominent banker and noted botanist, built a 2-1/2 story Federal Style house in 1836 as a large addition to the 1768 farm cottage of Isaiah Matlack. A wood frame addition was added to the rear in 1849 and a third story in 1874. The 1836 house faced the railroad corridor to the south, with its side elevation along Matlack Street. The exterior brick walls of the 1836 addition were faced with scored stucco to imitate ashlar stonework. The plan of the addition was a side-passage plan with two large rooms flanking the hall on each floor. The earlier house served as the kitchen and service wing.
The property was listed on the National Register in 1971, one of the earlier nominations in the county. The Chester County Historical Society acquired the property and operated it as a house museum until lack of visitorship forced the Society to close the house museum and use the main house as a furniture collections storage facility and the early service wing as a rental apartment. The property was acquired by George and Adriana Trajtenberg in 2002, who wished to expand the dwelling as a private residence and donate a conservation easement to protect the well-known garden.
The design challenge of the house was to create a 6-bedroom house with attached 3-car garage without impacting the historical integrity of the house and garden. This was achieved at both the exterior and the interior. At the exterior, the new one-story family room addition and garage were built in a line along the south property line, with the driveway re-establishing the old railroad alignment. This one-story row buffers the garden from the town house development to the south and through the use of low walls and a slate roof, serves as the south closure of the garden. Inside the house, the original floor plan of the side-hall house is preserved at all floors. At the ground floor, the south porch was reconstructed and the main entrance door restored. Flanking the entrance hall are two parlors, each with their original Valley Forge marble surrounds and hearths. The kitchen was built in the 1849 wing, facing inwardly to the garden, and is connected to the family room, laundry, and garage. The ground floor of the 1768 cottage became a master bedroom suite, including an addition to the north that repeats the steeply-sloping shed roof form. In the main house, the second and third floors repeat the floor plan of the ground floor, except at each floor a bathroom is constructed in foyer-end of the hall (a pre-existing condition at the second floor that was simply replaced and repeated on the third floor). Closets and vertical duct chases are concealed in each bedroom in a continuous row of paneled closets that back up to the hall. Because of the large size of the parlors and chambers above – nearly 16-feet square – the 2-foot loss for the closets and chases is unnoticed.
David Townsend, a prominent banker and noted botanist, built a 2-1/2 story Federal Style house in 1836 as a large addition to the 1768 farm cottage of Isaiah Matlack. A wood frame addition was added to the rear in 1849 and a third story in 1874. The 1836 house faced the railroad corridor to the south, with its side elevation along Matlack Street. The exterior brick walls of the 1836 addition were faced with scored stucco to imitate ashlar stonework. The plan of the addition was a side-passage plan with two large rooms flanking the hall on each floor. The earlier house served as the kitchen and service wing.
The property was listed on the National Register in 1971, one of the earlier nominations in the county. The Chester County Historical Society acquired the property and operated it as a house museum until lack of visitorship forced the Society to close the house museum and use the main house as a furniture collections storage facility and the early service wing as a rental apartment. The property was acquired by George and Adriana Trajtenberg in 2002, who wished to expand the dwelling as a private residence and donate a conservation easement to protect the well-known garden.
The design challenge of the house was to create a 6-bedroom house with attached 3-car garage without impacting the historical integrity of the house and garden. This was achieved at both the exterior and the interior. At the exterior, the new one-story family room addition and garage were built in a line along the south property line, with the driveway re-establishing the old railroad alignment. This one-story row buffers the garden from the town house development to the south and through the use of low walls and a slate roof, serves as the south closure of the garden. Inside the house, the original floor plan of the side-hall house is preserved at all floors. At the ground floor, the south porch was reconstructed and the main entrance door restored. Flanking the entrance hall are two parlors, each with their original Valley Forge marble surrounds and hearths. The kitchen was built in the 1849 wing, facing inwardly to the garden, and is connected to the family room, laundry, and garage. The ground floor of the 1768 cottage became a master bedroom suite, including an addition to the north that repeats the steeply-sloping shed roof form. In the main house, the second and third floors repeat the floor plan of the ground floor, except at each floor a bathroom is constructed in foyer-end of the hall (a pre-existing condition at the second floor that was simply replaced and repeated on the third floor). Closets and vertical duct chases are concealed in each bedroom in a continuous row of paneled closets that back up to the hall. Because of the large size of the parlors and chambers above – nearly 16-feet square – the 2-foot loss for the closets and chases is unnoticed.