It started with a question about a couch. Few home renovations start with a single piece of furniture, but the towering white home on William Street in Vineyard Haven was no ordinary project. The three-story, nearly 5,800-square-foot home – once known as The Clough House – was originally built in 1873 for Captain Benjamin Cromwell, a steamboat captain who ran boats from New Bedford to the Island. It sits on more than half an acre, one block from Main Street, behind its original iron fence. A gabled roof, delicately scaled bay windows, and a sweeping front porch are just hints of the historic elegance inside that remains true to New England maritime architecture. The Victorian Italianate details have endured despite the house changing hands many times over the years, most recently in April 2020, when the current owners purchased it. 

After living in the home for two years, the homeowners reached out to Sophia Brush Warren, creative director and chief operating officer of Vineyard Decorators in West Tisbury, and her colleague, interior designer Paulina Capen, to discuss options for custom furniture. But when the homeowners expressed their desire to create an open feeling in the living spaces next to the kitchen, the conversation quickly moved beyond furnishings. 

“Originally there were hallways with a wall and a formal dining room and there were little tiny spaces and every single one had a door,” said Warren. “The clients never used the dining room. They only used the kitchen and front room – and the two rooms felt worlds apart.” The homeowners love entertaining in the summer months and wanted to create a more open gathering space, as well as more functional sleeping spaces, for their three grown children, grandchildren, and various guests. 

To pull off such a project, Warren and Capen knew they had to find architectural, engineering, and construction partners that had experience with historic homes. Their first call was to Tristan Atwood, principal designer and owner, and Casey Decker, principal engineer and owner, of Martha’s Vineyard Engineering & Design. A call to Doug Best, owner of D. Best Construction, quickly followed. Best’s reputation for historic renovations preceded him, but finding someone who would restore – rather than completely renovate – the interior was key. “We were approaching it as a restoration and Best was on board with that vision,” Warren said. Striking a balance between the two was crucial to achieving the clients’ desires and staying within budget. 

“This project was probably the most unique of its kind because I would equate it to being a surgical renovation,” Best said. “It was a restructuring of the interior of the house without affecting the exterior from the inside out.”

Such precision was necessitated by the fact that the home is part of the William Street Historic District – a grouping of fifty-seven properties, most built in the nineteenth-century, that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Nothing on the exterior of the property can be altered without the express permission of the William Street Historic District Commission. 

Pulling off such a renovation while preserving the exterior would be no easy feat. This was partly due to the previous renovations that the home had undergone. “Because of the way the house was built and partitioned, and ten-plus renovations before us, we had to contend with prior building techniques and ceiling heights,” Atwood explained.

"We were really trying to make it an open concept but not lose the historic charm and feel of the house. How do you modernize the space but keep it intact? That was the challenge.” 

The construction team saw similar issues. “There was a hodge-podge history of added bathrooms, different floor levels, and different ceiling heights, so opening up and creating a great room concept for today’s living trends is not as easy as one might think,” said Best. “Especially when you introduce the desire to keep the old radiator heating system and to put in new electrical, lighting, and plumbing throughout the affected area.” 

“The engineering was very challenging,” Decker concurred. “How do you hold up a three-story building, remove all interior bearing walls, replace them with steel beams and columns, and deal with an old rubble foundation?”

Ultimately, the team decided to create temporary support structures and bring in steel beams through a window. The steel beams were then hidden within two columns in a great room that was opened up next to the kitchen. “We envisioned decorating with columns because they were authentic and true to the period of the house,” Capen noted. 

They broke ground in spring 2023, with a goal of an October 2024 move-in. The homeowners wanted to be in the house for Halloween, when the historic street turns into the epicenter of the holiday’s festivities on the Island.

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With the structural elements in place, Capen and Warren turned their attention to the interiors, blending the old and the new. “The clients’ biggest thing was leaning into what was there: honor and respect the integrity of the house and what is relevant to the age of the house,” Capen explained. 

To accomplish this goal, they embraced certain existing features, such as a charcoal-gray soapstone sink in the kitchen. In lieu of recessed lighting, Warren and Capen selected a variety of candlesticks, lanterns, and decorative glass fixtures. Period-appropriate wallpaper from Morris & Co., a British company that reproduces nineteenth-century designs, graces a kitchen nook, as well as other areas of the home.

In the newly created great room, Capen and D. Best project manager Dionatam “Johnny” Prata worked diligently to recreate the white-oak flooring pattern found elsewhere throughout the house. Vintage rugs from the clients’ travels as well as from Vineyard Decorators now add a coziness to the space. An adjacent wet bar integrates functional features into aesthetics. “The client loves wine and spirits and wanted to display bottles and glassware but also have storage,” Capen said. 

Wherever it was possible, existing or original materials were reused. This included repurposing bathroom fixtures, reupholstering furniture, and reusing doors and doorknobs. The toffee-colored oak and etched glass front doors were left untouched. “The clients wanted to repurpose as much as they could, not wanting to fill up the Island landfills,” Capen said.

Another nod to the history of the house was the use of mosaic tiles. “Mosaic tiles were common in that time and we used two tones and two shades of tiles in the laundry room,” she explained. The clients loved the muted greens used by the previous owners, so the Vineyard Decorators team built around those color tones, using Benjamin Moore paints throughout the home. Custom window treatments and millwork added texture and depth to the rooms while respecting historical integrity.  

“There was a lot about the house they loved and didn’t want to change, so there was so much to work with,” said Capen. “That was the assignment: to work with. They didn’t want it to feel...overly designed,” she explained.

Upstairs, the team set about creating more functional sleeping spaces, complete with full bathrooms. One guest room features a twin-over-queen bunk bed to provide ample room for guests. At the end of the hall, a butler’s suite – a self-contained en suite – received a modern update in the form of new furniture and lighting. 

At the request of the homeowners, Capen and Warren transformed an existing corner bedroom into a gray-blue office that overlooks Vineyard Haven Harbor. Nearby, a second-floor nook – one of several throughout the house – provides the perfect spot to sit or curl up with a book. Two expansive chairs sit in front of four classically arched windows that overlook William Street.

 A third-floor widow’s walk, accessible by a narrow staircase, features arched glass windows and a 360-degree view of Vineyard Haven, the harbor, and Vineyard Sound. The space needed just a few touches to bring it to life: the floor was painted, and a small table and bar stools were added that allow the clients to enjoy a glass of wine while taking in the spectacular view. 

The final aspect of the renovation involved updating an existing structure to the right of the driveway. To accommodate additional guests, the team gave the roughly 200-square-foot cottage a modern upgrade with new flooring, a bathroom, kitchenette, and loft bed.

The cooperation among the homeowners, the design, engineering, and construction teams – even the neighbors – led to a successful completion in time for Halloween 2024. “The client supported everything we did in every way, and as a result of the group input…the project came out far better than any of us individually could have contemplated,” said Best. “It’s probably the most beautiful original house on the Island.” 

DETAILS

Interior Design: Vineyard Decorators  
Renovation, Architecture, and Engineering: Martha’s Vineyard Engineering & Design
Renovation Construction: D. Best Construction
Wallpaper: Morris & Co.
Paint: Benjamin Moore