The character of an old house is reflected by the architectural styles that mark its history, and the 1847 Memucan Hughes House is no exception. The house will be the site of the 2007 Designer Show House, presented by the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (MAC).

From the sidewalk, the house presents an elegant Federal-style arrangement. On the left is the original three-bay house with a door on the side, once called a “half house.” The Hughes family, however, wanted a whole house and the addition with three windows was added on the right side of the original Federal door with its trademark fanlight.

A late 19^th century renovation introduced elegant two-over-two, double-hung windows, probably replacing the more traditional six-over-six windows of Federal design. Such changes were sometimes indicators of wealth and position: The larger the pane of glass, the more expensive and elegant the window. The new windows also gave the home an up-to-date, airy feeling.

The large dormers in the roof were probably an early 20^th century alteration, adding head room to the third floor rooms, and flooding them with light and making them much more gracious and useful.

Another example of the changes the house underwent is obvious in the rear of the house, where you’ll see a late 19^th century Mansard roof, rather than the earlier peaked roof design typical of the Federal period. The Carriage House also features a Mansard roofline.

When you enter the front door of the Memucan Hughes house, the elegant late Federal stairs and newel post greet you first. The ivory button in the newel post shows that the Hughes’ family must have been good money managers, since it means that they paid off the mortgage. If you turn to the left, you enter a room that originally must have been the parlor of the first house. It features a wonderful hand-carved Federal mantel that looks like it is original to the house. The right side of the ground floor consists of another large public room joined to a second, larger room behind it by a grand Federal Revival, elliptical archway. Together they make a gracious party room that is perfectly modulated and molded by its architecture.

As you pass through the rooms of the Memucan Hughes house, you notice doors, casings, and hardware spanning the years of the home’s history. Vertically paneled Federal style doors surrounded by “eared” architraves ornament the public rooms. Late 19th century Victorian bull’s eye door-surrounds divide the public spaces from the private spaces, such as the kitchen and solarium at the back of the house. Everywhere you will see horizontally paneled early 20th century doors – from the same renovation campaign that introduced the wall dormers to the third floor.

The complexity and surprises of the floor plans on all three floors are indicative of the complicated and interesting history of the house. The irregularities of the front facade tell the story of the renovations. The massing of the peaked roof and the Mansard portions reveal the generations of prosperity and care that went into this house. Often in a stylish and luxurious home like this one, there is a certain dullness, a certain predictability, a certain pretentiousness. Not at the Memucan Hughes house. The quirkiness and asymmetry that flows directly out of the history of the house makes it dynamic, lively, and interesting.