Before Hugo

We lived in a four-story house built in 1786, and it had taken us nearly three years to renovate it, since it had barely been modernized beyond old time toilets. We believed we had a fiduciary obligation to maintain the history of the property, and saw ourselves as trustees in our efforts to modernize, yet maintain. We lived in the house through all our renovation efforts, usually employing local artisans, typically black men who had skilled trades – plasterers or brick masons, for example – as well as plumbers and carpenters and cabinet makers. We had nearly 8,000 square feet of living space, including a historic kitchen house, and we had an unplanned large garden that required landscaping. But all the basics of the renovation were accomplished by the summer of 1989. We were enjoying the beauty of our freshly planted garden and the elegance of our 200 year old home.

In the same period, we had renovated our three story business address. Built in the years before the Civil War, it had been a carpet store on the first floor, and rooming house above. There was much to do to make it be the home of Ben Silver.

All this happened before September 1989.