Documenting the Interior of Codman House: the Last Two Generations

Documenting the Interior of Codman House: The Last Two Generations RICHARD C.NYLANDER he interiors of the Codman House Ogden Codman, Sr. and his wife Sarah present today’s visitor with the ap- Bradlee Codman purchased the house in T pearance of an ancestral home. The Lincoln apparently with the intention of accumulation of family furniture, paint- using it as a year-round residence.’ Since ings, and decorative objects dating from the househad changedlittle since the death the early eighteenth century to the present, of John Codman III in 1803, Sturgis combined with obvious changes in ar- was hired to make certain architectural chitectural styles, create the image of a changes, as well as to introduce new heat- house continuously lived in by several gen- ing and plumbing systems. Furnishing the erations of one family. However, the pres- rooms presented another challenge. A ent character of the interior did not evolve quantity of new furniture was required, as in this manner so typical of many housesin the Codmans had lived with her parents, New England. It was created primarily by the Josiah Bradlees at 34 Beacon Street, two men-both named Ogden Codman- Boston, since their marriage in 1861, and members of the last two generations of the their “new” old house was empty when family to occupy the house. they bought it. When Ogden Codman, Sr. (1839-1904) Sarah Bradlee Codman’s diary mentions purchasedhis grandfather’s house in 1862, that her husband and Sturgis took many he soughtthe assistanceof an architect and trips to Lincoln from Boston in October a decorator to remodel and furnish the 1862. Plans for the intended changes and house in accordance with the taste of his ideas for how certain rooms were to be time. His son, Ogden Codman, Jr. (1863- furnished must have been fairly well- 1951),by profession both an architect and a developed when the Codmans left for a trip decorator, imposed his own taste on the to New York on 17 November.z By the family home. The latter’s lengthy corre- time of their return, they had obtained an spondence with his brother Tom and his estimate for items chosen at the warehouse sister Dorothy in the 1920sand 1930sdoc- of the New York decorating firm of Leon uments the furnishings which came into the Marcotte. The estimate is dated 21 house in the twentieth century. Identifica- November 1862,3 the day before their re- tion of the objects described in these let- turn to Boston. By all accounts, Marcotte ters, compared with a series of late- was “New York’s most noted decorator,“4 nineteenth-century photographs of the and he no doubt could provide more up- interior and bills for the purchase of furni- to-date imported articles not available ture by his father in the 186Os,enables us to from Boston decorating firms at the time. separate the work of the two men and to The designs of the interiors of Codman determine to some degree how the house appearedafter the work of Ogden Codman RichardC. Nylanderis SPNEA’s CuratorofCol- and John Hubbard Sturgis, the architect- lections, and has published several articles on decorator hired by Codman, was com- historic wallpapers, textiles, and interiors in pleted. Country Life and The Magazine Antiques. Documenting the Interior of Codman House 85 FIG. 54. “SWAN PATTERN” CHAIRS AND “LOW SIDEBOARD.” These were purchasedfrom Marcotte and Company for the dining room. Sturgisdesigned the sideboard. In the twentieth century, the original “wood figured enameled Cloth” upholstery was replaced with patterned horsehair. (SPNEA, photographby J. David Bohl.) House were not the concept of Leon Mar- and a bedroom over the latter. Additional cotte. Rather, he was a supplier of certain items were selectedby Sturgisand Codman materials neededby Sturgisand Codman to over the next year, and the bill of 22 Oc- carry out the decorative scheme upon tober 1863 includes these additional pur- which they had previously agreed. Mar- chasesfor the other rooms connected with cotte never visited the house in Lincoln, the redecoration-namely the central nor was his firm responsible for the instal- stairhall, the billiard room, the drawing lation of items purchasedfrom him.5 How- room, and the bedroom over the billiard ever, those items still form many of the room.6 In both the estimate and the bill, the basic furnishings of the house, and there- dining room assumesthe place of most im- fore, his bills are paramount in understand- portance. It is the only room having a uni- ing the original decorative concept. fied concept of design in which the furni- The Marcotte estimate lists selections of ture was designedand chosen to reflect the furniture, carpeting, wallpaper, curtains, architectural changesmore fully described and upholstery fabric only for the dining in Margaret moyd’s article, this issue. room, the library (now the paneled room), Today the room remains the least changed 86 Old- Time New England since the 1862 alterations, and therefore is the best visual evidence of any of the decorative schemes of the 1860s(fig. 37). In the dining room, butternut is the pre- dominant wood for both the woodwork and furniture. According to the bill, the furniture consisted of 1 Butternut & black dining extension table with leaves & box for the Same- 1 do Low Sideboardas per drawing 1 do Etagbre do 12 Butternut & black chairs, Stuffed plain & coveredwith wood figured enameled Cloth. Both the bill (Appendix A) and the estimate indicate that the dining table and the twelve chairs, termed “Swan pattern” on the estimate, were selected from Marcotte’s existing stocksat his warehouse, while the sideboardand matching small serving table (“etagbre”) were to be executed at his fac- tory from designs provided by Sturgis (fig. FIG. 55. THE DINING ROOM, “THE 54). Like the distinctive chairs, the major GRANGE” (1899).This photographof a comer architectural element for the room, the of the room, taken by Dorothy Codman in De- mantel with carved lions’ heads and minor cember 1899, shows the wallpaper and carpet chosenby Ogden Codman, Sr. and Sturgisfrom overmantel, appearsto have been available the Marcotte warehouse. Plates were used as at Marcotte’s warehouse. However, it had wall decoration in the Codman residence in to be altered to fit the room. The fiieen- Dinard, France, and presumably this idea was light “Lackered Dining Room Chandelier” incorporated into the decoration of “The Grange” after the family’s return from France is the only item purchased for the dining in 1884.(SPNEA, Codman Family Photograph room for which no visual record has been Collection.) found.’ A photograph taken in 1899 by Dorothy Codman (fig. 55) records the carpet and wallpaper which appear on the Curtains “made with crimson Ground, Marcotte bilLa The carpet is described as a wood, green & Yellow Striped Pekirsade ‘Turkish pattern Moquette carpet”9 and reps”r’ to hang on rings from butternut the wallpaper as “Leather grd [ground], poles were chosen (fig. 56). Both the esti- green, red & gold.” A sample of the latter mate and the bill clearly state that these (fig. 56) found in the attic is not a paper were to be made for two windows, indicat- embossed to imitate tooled leather, as ing that the present bay was not planned at might be assumed from the description in the beginning as part of the architectural the bill. The term “leather” is used to de- changesto this room. It had been added by scribe the flat brown color of the ground. the time Edward Hixon and Company was The two-dimensional, stylized pattern, like hired in 1864 to install the articles pur- the incised decoration on the chairs, re- chased from Marcotte. Hixon’s year-end flects the style of decoration favored by the bill of 1864 includes charges for “Altering English designers Owen Jones and Chris- Dining Room Curtains” and “1 Oak Pole topher Dresser, and complements both no Ends.“‘* Each pair of curtains was the furniture and the strapwork on the sewn togetherto create two wider panels to ceiling.rO hang at the enlarged opening. The carpet, Documenting the Interior of Codman House 87 FIG. 56. DINING ROOM CURTAINS AND WALLPAPER (1863).This sampleof English wallpaper (1844inch repeat) was found in the Codman House. The striped reps curtains are edged with gimp and were held back with cord-and-tasselloops. These elementsofthe 1863decorative scheme were removed from the room when it was redecoratedafter Sarah Codman’s death in 1922.(SPNEA, photographby J. David Bohl.) - FIG. 57. TWO ENGLISH WALLPAPER SAMPLES PURCHASED FROM MARCOTTE (1863).The “green & brown varnishedpaper” (22 inch repeat) was chosenfor the billiard room (figs. 46,47) and the “buff varnishedpaper” with red and blue medallions(18 inch repeat) was usedin the three-story hall. In a letter of 11September 1863,Sturgis unsuccessfully wrote to Codman “about the Hall paper-1 should doubt whether it will look well-as the varnish on it seems to show the marks of the brush very decidedly-I have sent out word, if not too late, to stop it.-Marcotte has a new striped paper which I think would suit the colours of the Hall perfectly.” (SPNEA, photograph by J. David Bohl.) 88 Old- Time New England curtains, and wallpaper were the elements the others in late 1863, it remained without which gave Sturgis’s concept of the dining its principal piece of furniture until 1866, room a richly textured and elegant appear- when a billiard table manufactured by Phe- ance. Their removal in the early 1920s lan and Collender was purchasedfrom the greatly reduced the original scheme of a Boston warehouseof Howe and Kimball.” unified room in the English style, where the The butternut chandelier which appears in only discordant note, in terms of design the photographs of the room was ordered theory, had been the “L[ouis] XIII” style from Marcotte in 1869.

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