Hannaford in the House

Smart salvaging, energy efficiency, dedication to craft—and a whole lot of love, sweat, and time—made for a stunning renovation.
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Photographs by Devyn Glista

The home’s stately front entrance had been knocked out and filled with cinder blocks to fit a fire door and ramp. “We looked for two or three years for a front door to fit the same arch pattern,” Ben says. “[This] came out of a church in Avondale that Wooden Nickel had salvaged.”There are people who rehab old homes. Then there are Kristen and Ben Walters, who spent six years, seven months, and 11 days painstakingly restoring an 1895 Samuel Hannaford–designed house in Walnut Hills. When they bought the property, it was an abandoned nursing home. “It was as if the nursing home people had been sucked out—every bed was in here, made with every pillow, every bedside table, all the nurses’ stations,” says Kristen. Intent on recycling, this meant personally hauling 48 sinks, 48 toilets, and 48 beds to destinations of reuse. There was architectural salvage to do, too: recreating an original stained glass window knocked out for an A/C unit, tearing down a giant eyesore of an exterior addition, replacing some 100 windows. Ben acted as general contractor and was hands-on with much of the work. As in: of 57 days they rented boom lifts for exterior work, he spent 56 in them. The reason for that one day out? Knee surgery. But the couple can’t say enough about the contractors (craftspeople, truly) who spent years working alongside them.

Forty-seven of the original staircase’s spindles were missing or mismatched. Ben’s father and uncle spun replicas; Chris Holtman and team installed them, restoring the staircase to its former beauty.

Photographs by Devyn Glista

Cincinnati architect Samuel Hannaford designed the house for railroad tycoon J.H. Rhodes. Rhodes didn’t stay long, and neither did the home’s second occupant. But the third owner—the Nielen family—settled in. Virginia Cox, their great-granddaughter, lived there as a teenager and enthusiastically contacted the couple when she heard they were restoring it into a single-family home. Though advanced in age, her memories of those years were strong, and she became something of a consultant on the original layout.

For an old home, the layout is remarkably open. The living room—with a fireplace surround accented in salvaged historic tiles hand-laid by Jeff Niemes—connects to the entryway, library, Ben’s home office, and the dining room.

Photographs by Devyn Glista

The biggest challenge? “There was always that tension between expediency and historical authenticity,” Ben says. The latter almost always prevailed. This meant meticulously pulling up and scraping down hexagonal bathroom tile so that they could re-lay it rather than trash it, installing period-appropriate push buttons instead of standard electric switches, and on and on and on.

The mirror and paneling were a late-night demolition discovery—the whole room had been drywalled over. The ceiling and walls, visible in the mirror’s reflection, were meticulously restored and rebuilt by carpenter Chris Holtman, matching the home’s original grand design.

Photographs by Devyn Glista

That attention to sustainability and detail wasn’t just aesthetic. The house is LEED certified, outfitted with a four-unit geothermal system, five types of insulation, and triple-paned windows. (The 27-inch-thick stone doesn’t hurt, either.)

The couple went through many design iterations to land on the perfect layout, which they found with kitchen designer Jane Keller. Loads of natural light mixed with modern amenities, historic touches, and the king of all kitchen islands make it the nexus of family life

Photographs by Devyn Glista

“Now our focus is the outside,” says Ben. “And then [there’s] a whole lot in the back we want to do. It’s really a 10-year project when you get down to it.” You know, just another day working around the house.

Photographs by Devyn Glista

Originally built
1895

Architect
Samuel Hannaford

General contractor
Ben Walters

Architectural style
Romanesque Revival

Renovation
2008–2015

With three kids, function (and comfort) were just as important as form. “The locker room might be the best room that we did,” says Kristen, who made many a trip to Building Value for salvaged elements. The mail slot was from Hughes High School; lockers were from Cincinnati Athletic Club.

Photographs by Devyn Glista

The perfect guest room.

Photographs by Devyn Glista

This room opens to a Park Avenue–facing balcony from which you can almost see the Ohio River. Very little that was original to the home remained intact, but this dresser was hidden away on the third floor, and Cox, the great granddaughter of early owners, believed it to be from her family. It’s now a built-in fixture.

Photographs by Devyn Glista

And the master bath: Sinks were salvaged from Building Value and fitted with legs and LEED-qualifying faucets. Oh, and the bathrooms now have heated floors.

Photographs by Devyn Glista

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