The Lindens, Kalorama

Built in the early 18th century, the Lindens, named after the many Linden trees that surrounded it, was originally built as a grand manor home in Danvers Massachusetts. By the 1930’s the Lindens was threatened with demolition after decades of neglect. In fact, its main floor parlor paneling had already been sold to the Kansas City Museum. In 1934 George and Miriam Morris, a prominent Washington DC couple, purchased the Lindens for $14,000 to showcase their early American furniture collection. The house was documented with exquisite measured drawings and photographs in January of that year, carefully labeled, disassembled, and placed in six freight train cars for it’s move to Washington, D.C. The Morris’s hired Williamsburg craftsmen and architects to assist in the project, which took 34 months to complete.

When Gibson Builders was retained to complete additional renovations, the owner requested that the work be completed in 90 days or less. Work on the house included hand scrapping and Tung oiling 10,000 square feet of original wide plank flooring, which had been painted numerous times. Additional central air-conditioning was added, the kitchen was rebuilt, historic detail fencing was replicated in Azek and the house painted in designer paints inside and out.