For the Residential Rehabilitation of the Wright-Stronach House, 414 N. Bloodworth Street, Raleigh
Isaiah and Cynthia Wright built the original part of the frame two-story Wright-Stronach House around 1879 and gave it to their daughter Eldora and her husband John Upchurch in 1883. It was a substantial but simple North Carolina Victorian triple-A frame two-story containing five rooms. In 1886, Frank and Mary Christine (Norfleet) Stronach bought the house. Frank was one of the sons of William Stronach Sr., the Scottish stonemason who came to Raleigh in the 1830s to build the State Capitol. Frank Stronach was an auctioneer and owner of a livery business. In the early 1890s, he and Mary Christine transformed the house into a grand and unique home by adding Queen Anne additions and ornamentation. When Frank died in 1934 and Mary Christine in 1939, their son James Norfleet Stronach and his wife Pauline inherited the house. After Pauline’s death in 1987 at the age of 99, their son James Norfleet Stronach Jr. inherited the house and continues to live there today.
Restoration of the house was begun in 2012 and has continued off and on for the past six years as funds have been available. Beginning with the interior of the dining room, restoration involved stripping numerous paints over wallpaper layers to expose plaster, which had, in turn, been painted. Mantles, doors, moldings and wainscoting were all stripped and stained to make the room lighter after more than a century of turned varnish and tobacco smoke. Adding a gas burner that resembles a coal burning stove made the fireplace workable again. Windows throughout the house were repaired and made workable once again during this phase of the restoration.
The front porch of the house was severely rotten and was the second phase of the restoration. Numerous layers of paint were removed and all deteriorated wood elements were replaced in kind. Since no footings had been poured when the house was originally constructed, the porch had sunken nearly a foot, requiring that much of the foundation be reconstructed to stabilize under the porch and the rest of the house. Once the exterior had been stripped and painted once again, a new copper-red paint was applied to the trim, discovered to be the original color. The slate roof was repaired and replaced in kind as well, with gutters, flashing, and chimney caps replaced with the proper copper finishing. The remaining exterior work involved the reconstruction of a small porch leading from the enclosed back porch into the north garden and the construction of a round brick and stone porch that encircles the round dining room wall exterior.
At the rear of the house, spaces were repurposed for a laundry room and powder room. The detached kitchen house, which had been joined by a porch connection in the past, was made into a dining area with no changes to the footprint. The chimney opening designed to accommodate a wood-burning cooking stove was repurposed to accommodate a small gas fireplace that has the appearance of a coal-burning stove. A window which had been added in 1939, not matching any other windows in the house, was changed to a smaller size and designed to match the original windows. To cap off the work at the back of the house, a back porch was constructed that adjoins the outside door of the original kitchen house, nailed shut for decades. These additions, like all of the new work on the house, add modern touches that are compatible with the historic character and charm of this grand Victorian house.
The Board of Directors of Capital Area Preservation, Inc. is pleased to present a 2018 Anthemion Award to James Norfleet Stronach, Jr.; Norma Tomb; A to Z Home Improvement; Von Doster Restoration & Construction; Charles Parker; Mike Ferrell for the Residential Rehabilitation of the Wright-Stronach House, 414 North Bloodworth Street, Raleigh.