Once-rundown Chestnut Hill house is transformed into an artistic oasis

When looking for a new house, Peg Feerick and Rebecca Kamen had three priorities: a yard to create a garden, space for an art studio, and a home where they could age in place. While the two-story mid-century Chestnut Hill home had possibilities, Kamen found it hard to see past the decaying structure, partially collapsed roof, and overgrown lawn.

“I said no way are we buying this house,” recalled Kamen, a sculptor and artist-in-residence in the computational neuroscience program at the University of Pennsylvania. “But Peg and I, as artists, are always about transformation. Peg is incredible at sometimes seeing an invisible truth with real estate that I don’t always get to see. At a certain point, it was about trust.”

Feerick had a vision and convinced Kamen that it was a project worth tackling. Moving from northern Virginia after they both retired from jobs as college professors, the couple bought the home in October 2017 and moved in a year later when renovations were complete.

“We chose Philadelphia because Rebecca was born and raised in Mount Airy, and I had taught at Penn for a year in 1998 and fell in love with Philadelphia,” said Feerick, a photographer teaching online iPhone photography classes through the Smithsonian.

» READ MORE: After a lifetime of moving frequently, couple settle happily in Chestnut Hill

The house was originally built in 1950 for local children’s book illustrator and author Carolyn Haywood, best known for the series B Is for Betsy. After she died in 1990, the home was sold but fell into disrepair.

With the help of architect Ed Barnhart of Always by Design in Queen Village, Feerick and Kamen created a plan that took advantage of the property’s bright light, gutting the inside and building an addition for a dining room and screened-in porch. They also added a small apartment with a kitchenette on the first floor.

“Ed would get up very early in the morning and spend time at the house, paying attention to where the sun was coming up and how the light was hitting the house,” Feerick recalled. “He arrived at a plan that opened up the kitchen, dining room and screened-in porch to directly address how the light transforms throughout the day.”

Said Kamen: “Any window you look out of, you feel like you’re in a tree house. We’re in the Wissahickon Watershed, and it’s like bringing the outside, inside. Even when the weather’s bad, it’s extraordinary.”

The home’s exterior hints of French provincial influences while the interior is mid-century modern fusion. The couple discovered the home’s original blueprints and architect’s model, one of Haywood’s pens, and the ink frontispiece for her book Betsy and the Circus. They created an homage to the writer in the foyer, incorporating these keepsakes.

The home, itself, is a work of art, where the artists in residence applied their talents. A stunning bookcase built by Village Handcrafted Cabinetry in Lansdale displays art, antiques and collectibles.

» READ MORE: Landscaping creates a bucolic setting for a mid-century modern house in Montgomery County

“I call it the cabinet of curiosities because it’s all of these wonderful objects that we collected on our life journey,” said Kamen, of their extensive travels that included Easter Island, Burma and Bhutan.

The kitchen’s focal point is the bright orange tile behind the stovetop hood, a “wow moment,” Feerick said, when she found the color after a painstaking search. The blue cabinets are a tribute to Haywood who had a lot of blue in the home originally. Hanging glass cabinets serve as a subtle room divider while allowing light to shine through.

“I have that pop of orange that’s sort of the fire behind the range, but the rest of the kitchen is a soft white because I like to allow the food to shine,” said Feerick, who enjoys creating meals for guests, from Asian, Indian and Italian dishes to such comfort foods as meat loaf and roasted chicken.

The primary bedroom is decorated in greens and oranges and features an orange upholstered Ultrasuede bed. The bedroom showcases the pair’s diverse interests, including their own contemporary artwork and those of friends, an ancient mandala from Nepal, and an Aboriginal print. Above their bed is Kamen’s painting Phases of the Moon.

When Kamen was a child, her mother took her to Germantown Avenue to shop for clothes and shoes. She fell in love with Chestnut Hill and dreamed of living there one day.

“There are very few people who get to realize their dreams,” she said.

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