Historic, Decorative Fabric Reconstruction Completed in the Hackley House
by Gary Scott Beatty, Editor, On the Shore Magazine
Carol Beatty and Greg Kroeze, owners of Quigley Draperies in Roosevelt Park, took on the challenge of recreating and installing fabric treatments in Muskegon's popular Hackley House. After studying old photographs, painstakingly hand sewing many yards of trim and custom cutting each rod individually, the Quigley's staff and the community at large can enjoy a more accurate view of life in the 1890s.
"Everything was recreated to look like the original photos that were taken of the home when it was completed in 1890 by the Hackleys," said Carol.
The Hackley and Hume Historic site preserves the homes of Muskegon's most famous lumber baron, Charles H. Hackley, and his business partner, Thomas Hume. The Hackley House is a unique example of Victorian architecture and of late nineteenth century interior decorative arts, with Moorish arches, japonesque stenciling details, majolica tiles and woodcarvings. Tours are offered of the Hackley and Hume houses and City Barn between them. During the month of September, those tours are free of charge to Muskegon County residents.
Dani LaFleur from the museum's Collections staff and Mindy Conley from Exhibits utilized the skills of a custom colorist, Decorative Arts Conservator Bob Furhoff from Chicago, to determine, from the black and white photos, what the colors and textures of the original fabrics would be in the Hackley House.
The Victorians were very interested in trim, said Carol. "Pretty much every edge of every fabric we're using anywhere in here has hand-sewn trim on it. Everything is lined and inner lined, has the decorative fabric, plus trim, not only on the leading edges, but on the bottom.
"All the trims had to be sewn on by hand."
Spending the summer on Quigley's Hackley project were the craftspeople in the business' in-store workroom: Sue Carr, Rhoda Krueger and Debra Horringa. "We had a lot of challenges and the workroom people were very inventive with solutions," said Carol.
Constructing the draperies was only part of the Hackley House challenge. Anyone who has worked on old houses can attest that settling throws off alignment and aged materials become harder to work with. Imagine those problems in a 120 year old structure. A lifetime of experience helped Installer Greg Kroeze overcome some difficulties.
"The trick was just to make everything fit right," said Greg. "This is a kind of hardware we don't use very often. The wrought iron is cut to size and nothing is adjustable, like today's hardware. I had to figure out each window individually and work each piece like a puzzle."
The wrought iron rods are new, stained to look like the original hardware. Greg used holes already drilled for past treatments whenever possible and took his time. "You don't want to split this beautiful, old wood trim."
A Walk Through - The Hackley House grand entrance features foyer drapery below the original stained glass. "This is the portiere (door drapery) that goes from the grand entrance hall to the first parlor," Carol explained. "Everything was made with double pleating: decorative pleating on one side and decorative pleating on the other side. There is very lavish trim sewn on all the leading edges, on both the front and the back, and all the bottoms. So, when you walk through, you're walking through mountains of fabric and trim which would symbolize, to them, luxury."
Carol said the Hackley House is unusual, because it not only has portiere draperies, but also built in pocket doors. "Usually a home would have one or the other, this house has both."
Greeting visitors in the first parlor is an oil portrait of Mrs. Hackley, placed in the room as shown in old photographs.
"The first parlor, for the last 30 years, has been a kind of theater red, a very bright red velvet, but the colorist determined the colors were soft blue/green tones, just a little brighter than the wall tones. It pulls out the colors from the stenciling and the stained glass.
"These are functional swag draperies in velvet. The original photos showed that the draperies were done on the wrought iron rods, with the wrought iron rings, and they could actually pull, by hand, back and forth. The traverse rod had not been invented, yet.
"Then, over the top of that, was a separate, cut rod with extended brackets that had a swag treatment that extended in front of the draperies. The back of that was what they called a glass curtain - we would call it a sheer today - to soften the light coming into the room and give them a little street-side privacy.
"So this is actually a triple treatment for the living room windows. The living room draperies are a different fabric and color than what the portiere draperies are.
"As we step into the second parlor, you notice the portieres here have a different fabric than the silk that is facing into the first parlor. This is a brocade with, again, very lavish trim. This was taken from our Mount Vernon collection, as close as we could come up with to what they had at that time."
Second Parlor - "Now we're walking into the second parlor. Mr. Hackley would sit at his desk here and people would come in the side entrance to apply for their library cards, when the Hackley Library was first opened. They would have to have a sponsor, who would be responsible for the cost of the books should they not return them.
"In back of Mr. Hackley, then, we have the draperies, like a café below the stained glass, so that the stained glass is exposed above them. And they're fully functional. In back of them are the built-in shutters that are original to the home. They're unusual shutters because they slide up and down into a housing built into the house itself. This room has the stained glass that not only goes above the windows, but are built into the flue of the chimney.
"They didn't necessarily put the same fabrics on everything. In this room we have fabric for the drapery, a different fabric for the first parlor portiere and a different fabric for the hallway portiere. In that time period, whatever they thought was lavish and elegant they did. They didn't have the continuity in materials typical in today's decorating.
First Floor Bedroom - "Walking through the portiere draperies we come into the first floor bedroom, which was used by Mrs. Hackley's mother. When the built the house originally, she stayed in this room because she had a hard time getting up and down the stairs.
"In this room, we added to the sheers. Over that we put up swags, with rosettes coming through at the corners and
lavish trim. We also recreated the dresser scarf that was
in the photo, and the bed canopy, which was done a little differently than it had been done before. Originally, it had more lace coming through on the side, so we tied that lace throughout. But, again, the bed canopy has the swags,
the trim, the double rolls of fabric across and is gathered all the way across the top and down the back of the bedding itself, so it has a very soft, lavish look. In addition, there are very decorative tiebacks.
"The fabrics for the swags on the bed treatment match the treatment of the window. The lace, however, is a different lace than is on the bed. That would have been common at that time, to mix their laces throughout the room.
Dining Room - "The dining room is very unusual, because the original photograph shows the center window was not done in the same fabric as the windows on the far left and right. The room itself actually forms a bay, and the center window has a heavy, four tone brocade that's installed below the stained glass window.
"The stained glass in this house is very unusual because there's a lot of faceted glass, it's not just flat, colored glass. There are many diamond and crystal looking designs.
"The colors in here are very different. Before it was green, but the colorist showed that the colors were originally a very deep, burgundy red. The windows on the far left and right are that burgundy red with matching ball fringe in an asymmetrical treatment, with a floor length, wrapped swag coming all the way down on both sides. The inside taper comes in toward the front. The taper has trim on both sides and velvet on both sides.
"The center window comes down below the stained glass and that's done in a beautiful, two-tone brocade that has the burgundy and gold, and the trim. The center window is different - it's a longer trim, it's more lush, pulling out the gold color in the brocade. That has a very low tie back with heavy tassels showing from the front. The whole treatment in the center window is ring mounted, where the side window treatments are looped over the rods. It looks like just one piece of fabric looped over, but there is a lot of construction technique there that was invented in our workroom."
Quigley Draperies, on Broadway in downtown Roosevelt Park, features a custom work room and experienced installation, as well as trusted design assistance. Call (231) 755-3248. For a decorator's walk through of the new Hackley House fabric treatments, visit quigleydraperies.com.
