Hiram Halle Gun House in Pound Ridge is do-it-yourself renovators' delight

Gretchen and Peter Menzies were undaunted by the prospect of renovating the historic Hiram Halle Gun House. GARY CORRIGAN PHOTO

By JOYCE CORRIGAN

You know you’ve arrived when your name becomes a verb. Louis Pasteur gave us “pasteurize” of course, while the cluster of 18th and 19th century Pound Ridge properties imaginatively renovated in the ‘30s by industrialist Hiram Halle were said to be “Halle-cized.”

OK, maybe only local history nerds know that, but Halle’s imprint on the hamlet has been immeasurable. Not only did he have a flair for early American architectural restoration, as the longtime president of Universal Oil Products (which became Honeywell) Halle’s superpower was infrastructure: supporting Pound Ridge’s fire department, school system, and what is now Hiram Halle Memorial Library. Today, 13 of the hamlet’s Hiram Halle homes are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Two years ago, the Gun House, a distinctive Halle on Salem Road, was purchased by Peter and Gretchen Menzies, owners of Katonah’s well-loved independent bookstore and café, The Reading Room. Originally a Civil War artillery storage facility, the Gun House was a blacksmith’s shop by the time Halle acquired and transformed it. He would have certainly “thumbs-upped” the Menzies’ own whimsical yet respectful reimagining of the place.

The Menzies painted with striking colors and wallpapered with timeless prints. GRETCHEN MENZIES PHOTO

For a staunch preservationist, Halle was no purist. His signature antiquarian approach blended colonial restoration with imaginative stylistic additions that rendered the properties less historic relics and more lively and livable modern residences.

“We had actually stopped looking at houses when Salem Road came up for sale,” recalled Gretchen. “Peter was away, so I went alone and was immediately drawn in by the perfect size and bones and the impressive floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.” (Well, this seems like fate, thought the bookseller.) “I just had to convince Peter another “project” was a good idea,” she added, “and leave him to make it happen.”

The Hiram Halle wasn’t the Menzies’ first renovation rodeo. In recent years together they’ve embarked on a sensitive cosmetic remodeling of a 1921 apartment at Pomander Walk in Manhattan and have devoted many hours revamping the 1850s Reading Room, housed, prophetically enough, in Katonah’s first library. Peter also oversaw the overhaul of the Westchester Land Trust headquarters at the historic Sugar Hill Farm on Harris Road in Bedford Hills.

Peter Menzies contemplates the kitchen reno; The couple recycled the previous owner’s cabinets.  GRETCHEN MENZIES PHOTO

Once their two boys graduated college, the Menzies were looking to downsize from the six-bedroom 1930s classical colonial in Bedford they’d lived in for 25 years. The three-bedroom Gun House was the first one that sparked a vision for their next intimately scaled chapter.

“I needed less of everything,” recalled Peter, who confesses he was smitten at first sight. “I couldn’t resist the Gun House once I saw the light pouring into the living room from the big bay window salvaged from an old English storefront,” adding, “I love quirky. The house isn’t period-correct, but it’s charming.”

Additional Halle touches include an original ship’s mast doubling as the front hall’s staircase and a set of antique funeral doors that create a striking entrance, their generous proportions (originally accommodating caskets) and hand-crafted detailing recalling a time when life’s most important ceremonies would happen at home. The Menzies livened it up with a colonial blue lacquer paint.

“I grew up in an 1850s Victorian and Gretchen grew up in a 1793 Colonial,” Peter said. “Loving old things made the renovating process easy.”

The process lasted an impressively brief six months.

“I was very hands-on,” he said. “I remember my family home as a construction zone as my parents rebuilt it with us living in it. My father would pay my sisters and me to help with demolition, spackling, sanding and painting. Bringing in outsiders wasn’t considered.”

Peter did hire a contractor for the Gun House, but, he clarified, “I was on-site every day scraping and painting and installing hardware and fixtures.” And much to everyone’s surprise — even his — making new curtains.

“It was my first effort,” he laughed. “I was blown away by the cost of installing window treatments. Amazing what you can figure out with the help of a YouTube video.”

Ahoy! Halle whimsically reclaimed an old ship’s mast as the front stairwell. GRETCHEN MENZIES PHOTO

The Menzies considered every surface of the house, painting or wallpapering everything and installing new shutters. “We recycled whenever we could — we reused the kitchen cabinet from the previous owner and kept the built-ins. The only major change we made was installing a new, larger primary bathroom with radiant heat.”

“Thematically, we took Halle’s curated approach,” Peter said.” The wallpaper and paint certainly do not correlate to any particular time period other than now; the overall feeling is that of an old house, with a ton of stories and history. “For wallpapers and fabrics there’s nothing like House of Hackney” he offered.” You also can’t beat Farrow & Ball for paint colors.”

As often happens, those who’ve upped and flown the family coop, still have a say in it.

“The kids were bummed at first that we were leaving Bedford — they loved our old house,” Peter Menzies recalled. “But giving them choices in decorating their new rooms eased the pain. Working our art and antiques in everywhere made it feel like home. And Tucker got his favorite painting for his bedroom.”

The biggest challenge of the renovation was the “not very sexy work, tearing out all the old radiators and installing a new HVAC system,” he said. 

“Innovative Air out of Yonkers employs the Unico System, a cooling and heating system that’s discreetly retrofitted into vintage homes without destroying walls or shoehorning in intrusive ductwork that would have destroyed the character of the house,” Peter said.

Peter Menzies worked closely with contractors and completed the renovation in six months. GRETCHEN MENZIES PHOTO

Outside, the Menzies set about rebuilding stone walls, planting elegant trees and aerating and reintroducing frogs and fish into the pond. “We think of ourselves as stewards of this property,” Peter said. “Our job is to protect its heritage, as it will eventually pass to someone else who loves its character and has the passion and patience to deal with its quirks.”

On the subject of adaptive reuse, for Gretchen’s birthday, Peter commissioned a birdfeeder that’s an exact replica of the Katonah Reading Room. Its proud Victorian structure in miniature sits high on a post alongside the front driveway. You can picture Halle commending the Menzies on their imaginative repurposing of the original local structure while, secretly, kicking himself for not developing a sideline of replica Hiram Halle birdfeeders when he had the chance.