by Peyton Jenkins and Clara Kiker

(Left)The historic home in Crawford taken in 2022. The Sheridan couple repainted the home purple because it is the wife Sandra’s favorite color . Photo/Peyton Jenkins (Right) The home in Crawford photographed in 1901. The couple had this framed image hanging in their house to show the deep history of the house. Photo/Clara Kiker

Tom Sheridan has spent 15 years uncovering the beauty of his Crawford home, which was covered three times over in white paint and now has hues of lavender and seafoam green that draw attention from the street and give the home charming curb appeal. 

Though describing himself as “a non-historian,” Sheridan, the former owner of an engineering design company, poured his time and resources into uncovering the history within the house. He educated himself about why each item in the home was chosen and what they meant at the time, from the pine walls to the pocket doors to the butler’s pantry.

“There’s a lot of craftsmanship that went into this building,” he said, adding. “To reconstruct this house right now would probably cost you $3 million. At one time there was over a million dollars worth of this pine.”

When he and his wife, Sandra, purchased the Victorian home, all of the detailed woodwork was hidden. It took them over a year and a half to strip the paint from the woodwork throughout the home, uncovering details such as a lion motif above the door in the dining room.

“It was completely painted over, there were so many coats of paint on this house you would not believe it,” he said.

He discovered that “Barber’s Turn-of-the-Century Houses” was the catalog used for the floor plans for some homes in the county since the 1900s. Fireplaces, shutters, and paneling used for walls and ceilings were some of the home’s elements that were included in the catalog. They refinished the rare copper ceiling that now casts a shine in the dining room.

The refurbished wood-paneled rooms, such as separate men’s and women’s parlors near the entrance, and relevant time pieces, such as a portrait of King Louis XIV of France, now serve as a history lesson for guests.

“This place was a mess,” he said. “It’s all been painstakingly put back the way it should have been.

ABOUT THE HOUSE
Size: Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, 3,693 finished square feet plus another 2,000 unfinished square feet on the third floor. 

History: Jack Stokley, who was known as a “master builder,” worked with architect Frank Barber on the home, which began construction in 1900 and took around two to three years to complete the project, Sheridan said. The home has gable trim that runs along the steeple and in the floor plan and paint color enable each room to be “completely different from the other.” Sheridan said. The Sheridans purchased the home in 2005. 

Favorite design elements: Having high ceilings that were the same height throughout the home was important to the Sheridans. In other homes built during the same era, “you would have a 10-foot ceiling and a 12-foot ceiling and then in the next room your head hits the ceiling,” which was mainly due to poor construction and financial constraints, Tom said. Copper ceilings in the formal dining room are rare, he said. 

Favorite room: Sheridan said his favorite room is the men’s parlor located on the left side of the entryway. Large floor-to-ceiling pine doors would close the men’s parlor off from the rest of the house after dinner parties so that the after-dinner cigar smoke would not bother the women, he said.

Tom Sheridan poses for a photo on Oct. 10 on his front porch in his Crawford home. The porch was repainted by the Sheridan family in a mix of pinks, greens and purples because it is Sandra Sheridan’s favorite color. Photo/ Peyton Jenkins

The Crawford home is one of many in the area that used the Barber’s Turn-of-the-Century Houses” catalog to design their home and floor plan. Tom Sheridan shows one example of what can be found in the catalog, which lists descriptions and pictures for what builders at the time could purchase. Photo/Peyton Jenkins

One of the many elements uncovered by the couple was the lion that was featured above the door in the dining room. Tom Sheridan said these had even been painted over by the previous homeowners, and they had to be stripped down and replaced. Photo/ Peyton Jenkins