As in the rest of the house, all of the woodwork in the parlors in the Beardsley-Cartwright House had been painted, the face-nailed oak floors with striped borders worn and scuffed, the windows covered with filthy old white Venetian blinds that hung askew. The little room off the back parlor (a sewing room for Mrs. Cartwright) had been made into a bathroom when the house was duplexed, separated from the parlors proper by large double plywood doors, painted pink.
Work on the parlors took decades to complete. The rooms were painted, the windows repaired and the floors refinished.
The little room became a music room, the plywood doors replaced by antique velvet portieres. Doug Moore created a spandrel with a lyre to put above the portieres.
The previous owner hadn’t been in the attic for years and didn’t know or care what was in there. When the owners explored the attic, they discovered the top of the mantelpiece and a fretwork spandrel from the front bedroom. The pink paint was stripped from the bottom of the mantelpiece and the top brought down and fitted over it. The fireplace had no damper or cover, allowing warm air to be sucked right up the four-story chimney, so glass doors were installed.
The stripping and refinishing of the pocket door and ash woodwork in the parlors were not completed until 2009. In the process, evidence of the size and placement of the fretwork spandrel between the parlors was discovered. Re-enter master carpenter Doug Moore. Since there were no photos of the original, Moore designed one based on the style of the existing woodwork. Again, he built it in his shop, and when he put it up, it (again) fit perfectly.
