Floors

When we moved, everything went in the garage, including us! We lived in the carriage house while the wood floors were being refinished. The study was covered in old checkerboard linoleum, fortunately. The linoleum had protected the floor for many years and it finished up beautifully.

The ravages of time had not been quite as kind to some other rooms. What initially appeared to be scorch marks near some of the fireplaces turned out to be cat spots. Apparently cat urine is some potent stuff. The guys we hired (Floors by Steve) did a great job of getting most of them out. However there were a few places where we had to find new quarter-sawn oak to make patches.

Still other rooms had been covered with other vinyl or linoleum tile. We had all of it tested for asbestos. Two rooms had asbestos tile (9 inch tiles), while the others didn't (including the study). We hired an asbestos abatement company to remove the nasty stuff, but removed the others ourselves.

Getting the tile or sheets up isn't that hard, but scraping the adhesive off is a royal pain. My father spent hours scraping the adhesive in the master bedroom, but we'll likely end up carpeting in there anyway! The bedrooms, as private rather than public spaces, have fir floors instead of oak. Two of the bedroom finished up nicely, but something rather heavy sat in the middle of one of the others for a long time - the adhesive is impossible to get off. In the master bedroom, someone tried to stop the floor from squeaking by face-nailing with about 300 eightpenny nails. Ugh.

The Stone Wall

After doing some research, we finally found a picture of the old Saint Paul City Hall and Ramsey County courthouse.

E.P. Bassford was the architect for the city hall building built in 1889 and demolished in 1932. Stone from the demolished city hall building was used to construct the carriage house and wall surrounding the property at the Emerson Hadley house.

There is a big pile of extra stone in the back yard. Obviously it has been there for quite a while. We're trying to figure out a good use for it.

The Adventure Begins...

The photo is from a year after we purchased the home in mid-2008. Already there has been significant progress and we invite you to follow along on our restoration adventure as we fix Farrington!

Changes...

In 1926, the home was sold to Cecil and Ruth Robertson. In the 1930s, the carriage house and wall surrounding the property were constructed from stone salvaged from E.P. Bassford’s Saint Paul City Hall, demolished in 1932. Also in the 1930s, the porches on either side of the front entry were removed along with the balustrades above the entry and on the widow’s walk. (Note: picture shown is circa 1973.)

In the 1980s, the second floor of the carriage house was remodeled into an apartment by the fourth owner.

The Emerson Hadley House

The Emerson Hadley House is a formal, Georgian Colonial Revival design by Cass Gilbert. The house was built in 1895 at a cost of $8000 for Emerson and Mary Hadley. (Note: picture shown is circa 1897.)

Emerson, a prominent Saint Paul attorney, was born in Marion, MA on 27 December, 1857, graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, MA in 1876 and from Harvard College in 1881. He attended Columbia Law school in 1882 and 1883. In 1887, Emerson married Mary M. Luce of Marion, MA. Emerson and Mary had one child, Louise, whose son, Carl B Drake, Jr., was CEO of the St. Paul Companies from 1977-1984. The Hadley family resided at the home until Emerson's death in November 1916.

Emerson was a member of the Minnesota Club, the Town and Country Club, the White Bear Yacht Club, and the University Club of Saint Paul.

In 1917, the home was sold to Mary Saunders Gribben and her husband Perry Dean Gribben. Mary was the daughter of Edward N. Saunders, who was president of the Northwestern Fuel Company. E. N. Saunders and James J. Hill were business partners in the coal business before Hill became a railroad magnate. Mary’s husband, P. Dean Gribben, was a 1900 graduate of Phillips Academy, Andover, MA and a 1903 graduate of Yale University. Gribben enlisted in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps Reserve in 1917 as a First Lieutenant, was stationed at Fort Omaha, Nebraska, and, while on ten day detail in St. Paul on February 20, 1918, his automobile was hit by a trolley car when his chauffeur was unable to negotiate snow covered street car tracks. He was thrown from the car resulting in a skull fracture and he died in the hospital the next day without regaining consciousness. Mary later married Kenneth Bulkley. In 1936, Mary was listed as a member of The Assembly of St. Paul, a St. Paul society organization.