In With The Renewed Mansion’s Restoration Scores With Contest Jury
Graham and Jackie Johnson have restored Victorian furniture for 30 years.
“We seem to collect things that need help,” Jackie says of the couple’s hobby. “Our kids even send us gifts of broken furniture, because they know it will please us more than furniture in good condition.”
That may explain why a Realtor friend called them out of the blue two years ago and suggested they drive over from Olympia and take a look at Fotheringham House. The oncehandsome residence of Spokane’s first mayor, David B. Fotheringham, had operated as a bed-and-breakfast since 1984, and was about to be put up for sale.
“We’d never expressed an interest in owning a B-and-B,” Jackie recalls, “but in two days we were here, and we bought it.”
A building inspector assured the couple Fotheringham House was structurally sound. “But paint was falling off,” Graham says, “porches needed to be stabilized, and the roof had to be replaced immediately.”
“We weren’t buying a house,” Jackie acknowledges. “We were buying a project.”
Since then, the Johnsons have rejuvenated the 1891 Browne’s Addition mansion and planted colorful perennial gardens, while smoothly shifting careers from state employees to hosts.
Last month, their efforts paid off with two distinctions: a spot on Spokane’s Register of Historic Places, and an Honor Award for historic restoration in The Spokesman-Review’s 1995 Inland Northwest Home Awards.
“They followed the golden rule of historic preservation,” observed contest jury member Teresa Brum, Spokane’s historic preservation officer. “They approached restoration with a sensitivity to the original historic fabric of the home.
That means documenting what’s original before beginning a project, preserving what can be saved, and replacing what can’t with authentic reproductions.
“We were fortunate,” Jackie says, “that (the previous owner) was very generous in sharing all he’d learned about the history of the home.”
But they still had to do some digging, and discovered a few surprises.
For instance, while researching appropriate paint schemes, they stumbled upon a book titled “Exterior Victorian Decoration.”
“There,” Graham says, “on page 29, was our house - or at least a house back East with similar lines. And right next to it was a plate from a Sherwin-Williams publication dated 1884 that recommended houses like this be colored dark, light and lighter (bottom to top), with something different for the trim and highlights, and either black or hunter green for window sashes.”
The couple chose variations of the French blue used on the band stand in nearby Coeur d’Alene Park. “Ours has six colors,” Jackie says, “but the differences are quite subtle.”
Graham had router bits custom-made so he could faithfully recreate missing portions of the front porch railing, then painted it the same burgundy as used on railings at Patsy Clark’s mansion across the street.
“The oldest picture we have, from 1904, doesn’t show much of the house,” Jackie says. “But it does show there used to be a turret. That will be on next spring - it’s our next project.”
Meanwhile, the Johnsons eagerly share the home and its history with their steady stream of guests.
When asked what they’ve learned by restoring an antique the size of Fotheringham House, Jackie says two lessons come to mind:
“First,” she says, “we realize we will never be done. And second, every project takes a minimum or three weeks … even half-hour projects take three weeks.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos