Few opportunities come about to design/ renovate a home designed by St Paul’s own Clarence H. Johnston. 785 Dayton, is the only known residential Greek Revival commission by Minnesota’s most prolific architect. Johnston, designed at least 42 mansions along St. Paul’s Historic Summit Avenue.
Looking for additional assistance, the new homeowner’s found Castle to help them design and renovate a main floor ½ bath and create a new master bathroom in the existing 2nd floor master bedroom. Creating spaces that married with the original style and aesthetic of this historic home was essential.
The main floor bath was renovated with new hardwood floors and dark millwork to match the maid’s side entry/stairwell of the home. Plumbing fixtures were selected to match the era of the home including: a new, historically designed toilet, a restored and hand-picked marble sink, and new historically designed faucets.
Minnesota Architect: The Life and Work of Clarence H. Johnston, by Paul Clifford, 1996. Described as: “In 1894 Johnston wandered from his usual path long enough to produce a single Colonial Revival design of a monumentality that approached flamboyance. The Susan Welch house continues to address its neighbors with the air of a temple rising above its lowly dependents.”
For more information about how Johnston’s aesthetic legacy shaped the state of Minnesota please visit: http://video.tpt.org/video/2257001058/
