The Silver Lining House

Was Placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the US Park Service Feb. 4, 1975 

It is listed as the "Ormand-Little House" in its historic places Directory

Gardening

A singular "historic places" as seen on the HGTV Show "If Walls Could Talk"

 

This historic home (first built 1836), has had just 4 Owners. The house was reputed to be "haunted", and had "hidden treasures". See the link to the HGTV show and the details on the "About" Page.

Featured on The HGTV Show:

The HGTV Series "If Walls Could Talk" featured this home in segment WCT 1812 H that first aired on Jan. 28, 2008.

 

Since the show is no longer aired, and the segment is now not available, the Rehabilitation, now former,  Owners have uploaded the segment to be able to add it's information to the educational value of this site about the Silver Lining House. It takes 12 seconds after clicking on the link below to begin.

 

Click the link here:

HGTV Series House Segment

 

This segment copy is the personal copy of the former Rehabilitation Owners. Please do not violate the copyright of the producers of the show by copying, linking, or otherwise making use of this segment for commercial purposes.

Why the name "The Silver Lining" ?

The Rehabilitation Owners traveled to England and Scotland many times. During these trips it was discovered that the home was actually built, after the Nichols design (see about page for more details), to English Manor home plans found in two books published in the 1820's about how to build a house.


After the "hidden treasure" was found to be the silver door knobs, the rehab owners decided to carry out the silver theme throughout the house, and to match its original door and ceiling moldings, et.al. During these trips, the door hardware, chandeliers, ceiling medalions, and various furnishings were restored and/or acquired with components from original English and Scottish hardware molds. The chandeliers and other hardware were restored using old-style "butler's silver" chemical electroplating in Edinbourgh by one of the last masters of this technique in the world.

 

When the HGTV Show filmed the segment featuring the house in 2008, the show decided to name the half hour segment "The Silver Lining" House.

------------------ Restoration Overview -----------------------------

 

 

As of 1929

 

The 1st photo on the left is of the the house in 1929. This is the view of the house as it was when surveyed during the Depression in 1934; see the HABS survey materials ( on the about page) for details of it's "then" configuration as of that date. The balustrade, already partially missing in the 1914 photo below, is now gone. The house was in substantial disrepair when purchased in 1991; it took 27 months of structural restoration to get the home, including taking down and then putting back up a rear brick wall, to turn the home into a livable, or "certificate of occupancy", status house. From that status the restoration then began.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As of 1914 - Julia S. Tutwiler Visiting 

 

The photo on the left shows Mrs. Tutweiler, in her horse and buggy, visiting the Little Mother (on the porch), and the 3 spinster sisters (standing in front). Notice that the balustrade is partially missing. The picket fence was gone in the 1929 photo.

Restoration Details

 

Restoration of the home has been extensive, but also carefully done over the last quarter century. A master plaster spent 5 months in the house restoring ceilings, medallions, and the front and side porch ceilings.The 4 Italian black gold marble downstairs fireplaces, made from slabs of this unique marble from the same Italian quarry, in operation for a couple of millennia, that opens once every ~ 5 years for a couple of months, were repaired using 2 pieces from this same quary, after almost 2 years of waiting, and all were re-polished to remove coal residues.

 

Other restoration features include:

 

  1. complete re-pointing of the mortar in the brick walls; it took a team of 5 men over 12 weeks to complete this effort
  2. restoration of the original front porch roof (there were 5 layers of roof, including a portion of the sail canvas and tin first roof), columns and decking
  3. restoration of the side porch roof, unique curved underside, and its columns and decking
  4. cleaning and restoration of the original heart pine planked floors throughout the home; they have never been refinished and so you can see the chisel marks in them from when they were first crafted almost 200 years ago
  5. replacement of the north porch with a outside/inside kitchen designed to sustain its original appearance, with large Alabama marble counter tops and unique period cabinetry
  6. installation, without changing the appearance of the home's exterior or interior, of modern utilities ( including 2 temperature and moisture contol systems with ozone and electro-static air cleaners) needed to properly sustain the home and its interior furnishings 
  7. addition of a Charleston Single House style garage to replicate the prior carriage house, lost in the 19th century.

Got some ideas? Have questions? We're ready for them.