Graymont, the Mercer Family House in Richmond, Virginia
This article originally ran in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on April 25, 2003.
10 years ago, the enemy wrecking ball was practically at the gate of Graymont manor.
Yesterday, the 100-twelvemonth-old grand matriarch of the Cary Street Road corridor was the target of curious throngs who finally were able to pass through the storied fieldstone wall to tour the star allure of Richmond's Historic Garden Calendar week. At times, a line of visitors speckled with lime-dark-green and hot-pink spring attire stretched from the stuccoed business firm downward the long front driveway.
The largely local oversupply, fortified with Garden Week guidebooks, Allegra and hidden bottles of water, swelled to more than 100 past 9:30 a.k., a half-hour before the bout was to outset. Nearby parking lots, side streets and tour shuttle buses were full.
At 9:45, Garden Club officials decided to get alee and open the doors.
"I think it'southward wonderful that and so many people are finally getting to run into this house," said Lucy Trebour, who, with husband David, bought Graymont iii years agone afterward its extensive renovation.
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"I'm so glad it was saved," said Trebour, slipping out a side door as guests began filing into her 7,000-square-foot house. "All of this state would have been adult."
The public tour capped the rebirth of the $3.25 1000000 mansion after a decade spotted by sometimes bitter controversy. Judging by guests' comments, the bloom is back on the rose.
"It'southward so impressive," sighed Jean Leonard of Chesterfield County. "I can dream!"
"This business firm is worth the toll of the whole [block] ticket," i woman said, admiring a new octagonal family unit room improver that overlooks the lawn pool.
Visitors, given the run of the first two floors, noted the Trebours' drove of animal-shaped furnishings and accessories and oil paintings. They admired the nautical touches in the office of David Trebour, possessor of the Haley machine dealerships - especially a model of the family yacht "Lolly."
They chuckled at a 5-foot-tall sunroom giraffe made of old musical instruments and the mammoth stuffed comport belongings a scrub brush in the master bath's garden tub.
Lush floral arrangements designed by the 3 Chopt Garden Club wowed the guests.
It was a pilgrimage of joy for neighbors who had watched in horror every bit Graymont decayed near to the signal of existence razed.
The home, built in 1902 by lawyer and tobacco heir Archibald W. Patterson, was the source of a feud among a prominent Old Richmond family during the early on 1990s. Longtime Graymont possessor George R. Mercer Jr. sold the property to Bruce C. Gottwald Jr., who in 1994 attempted to nullify the sale because of alleged termite and structural impairment.
Gottwald sued Mercer for failure to disembalm defects. The Mercers claimed to have no knowledge of problems. The families eventually settled out of courtroom, with Gottwald selling the gutted remnant to retired Northern Virginia businessman Paul Mahefky.
Mahefky spent two years renovating Graymont, and so sold it - furnishings and all - to the Trebours, who moved at that place from a contemporary in Brandermill.
Guests seemed delighted to detect light, airy, pastel rooms in the once-decrepit mansion. They marveled at millwork and middle-pine floor that survived in spite of being exposed to the elements for a year when the domicile's roof was severely damaged.
"I used to come up here when the Mercers were here," recalled Garden Gild hostess Pearson Gibson, directing traffic in the anteroom yesterday. "Information technology's prissy to see it in another phase."
The Trebours have made high-contour changes to the grounds designed originally by local landscape icon Charles Gillette. The driveway is flanked past new ponds with fountains, pagodas, benches and plantings resting on mounds of fresh mulch.
("It looks better from the house than it does from the street," one elderly visitor observed.)
Details aside, reviews of the new and improved Graymont were overwhelmingly positive.
"I used to drive by here when it was in awful shape," a woman remarked. "Nosotros need to thank the man [Mahefky] who brought it back to life."
From the archives: Graymont manor
GRAYMONT1
The crowd lined the driveway while waiting to get a await inside Graymont, an manor on Cary Street Route in Richmond, VA Midweek, April 24, 2003, during an open business firm event for the Richmond Garden Week bout.
GRAYMONT2
A sleepy-eyed waiter mannequin greeted visitors as they entered to get a wait inside Graymont, an estate on Cary Street Road in Richmond, VA Wednesday, Apr 24, 2003, during an open house event for the Richmond Garden Week tour.
GRAYMONT3
The sculpture of a boy with a fishing rod dominates the puddle area backside Graymont, an estate on Cary Street Road in Richmond, VA Midweek, April 24, 2003, during an open business firm issue for the Richmond Garden Calendar week tour.
GRAYMONT4
A mother duck and her dozen ducklings stroll across the backyard at Graymont, an estate on Cary Street Road in Richmond, VA Wednesday, April 24, 2003, during an open house event for the Richmond Garden Week tour.
GRAYMONT
The Graymont firm, owned now by the Trebour family, at 4811 Due west Cary Ctreet Road, every bit seen from Cary Street.
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View of the Gottwald's home at 4811 West Cary Street.
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The Mercer-Gottwald house, 4811 Cary Street, photographed Tuesday, Feb eleven, 1997. This shows the new stone wall and the restoration of the home that belongs to Bruce Gottwald Jr. Graymont.
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GARDEN WEEK
The primary bathroom on the second floor of the Trebour abode, 4811 West Cary Street Road.
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The living room, kickoff floor, in the forepart of the Trebour home, 4811 West Cary Street Road. (The left window faces Cary St).
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The master bedroom in the Trebour home, 4811 West Cary Street Road.
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The house at 4811 Cary Street Road is third on the million dollar list of homes in Richmond. Photograph taken Th, June 28, 2001.
Source: https://richmond.com/from-the-archives/from-the-archives-the-rebirth-of-graymont----throngs-pay-visit-to-grand/article_a8abb4cc-0630-55b7-9540-bda64b6d188b.html
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