If you’ve done business with Trumbull-Nelson, you probably know something about long-term relationships. This is a story that began about 45 years ago. The latest chapter was written earlier this year.

In 1960, Michael and Lois McGean bought a piece of property on a wooded hillside in Norwich, Vermont, from Paul Sample, the acclaimed regional artist whose portraits and paintings of New England landscapes are renowned.

To call it “a piece of property” is misleading. Through the tall pines, about a mile from the village, the McGeans bought a view that, looking northeast across the Connecticut River, includes the tower of Dartmouth’s Baker Library and the mountainous panorama beyond—the setting for a Sample painting if ever there was one.

As they hoped, it proved to be the perfect place for the McGeans to build the home where they would raise three children while creating a base to continue their lives as veritable legends in the world of figure skating.

Mike was an accomplished skater when he graduated from Dartmouth in 1949. In 1950, Lois, a champion ice dancer, called him with an invitation. She had lost her skating partner. Would he like to join her?

If you’ve done business with Trumbull-Nelson, you probably know something about long-term relationships.

They started training immediately. Traveling to London in 1951, they became world champions. In 1952, a day after they won their second U.S. title in Colorado Springs, they were married on the porch of the Broadmoor Hotel.

Mike began his long career in alumni relations at Dartmouth in 1953. He and Lois, who died in 1989, became the “faces of figure skating” as teachers of their sport in the Upper Valley and beyond.
After buying the lot that Sample carved from his adjoining property, the McGeans sketched a plan for their home on a cocktail napkin during dinner one evening at the Hanover Inn. Architect Brook Fleck formalized the plan. The McGeans hired Trumbull-Nelson as the contractor. They moved in during the Christmas holiday in 1962.

Tucked around and over ledges (blasting proved impractical) and beneath the tall trees that give Pine Tree Road its name, the house is a 60x60-foot square that is defined by a large (roughly 45x35 feet), central family room that, Mike says, “provided an openness that was very different in this area at the time. It was wonderful for our kids and great for Lois’s dance classes.” It’s also been the setting for countless meetings that support Mike’s numerous volunteer activities.

Again, “family room” is a misnomer. This spacious solarium, surrounded on three sides by kitchen-dining to the west, the living room (with its full wall of windows that look north) and bedrooms on the east side, has evolved into two virtually equal sections: a ceramic tile area and one of the Upper Valley’s most spectacular interior gardens.

“The floor area began with cement blocks and, during the first winter, we spread grass seed over the rest,” said McGean. “A couple of years later, I was on a speaking trip to Florida and and had two small palm trees shipped to Vermont. I was told they would never survive.” They’re still thriving and reach to the room’s ceiling.

Ah, the ceiling. The entire house, on its north-south axis, is defined by the exposed Douglas fir beams that were shipped from Washington. Except for one room beneath the living room (the only place where they didn’t encounter ledge), the house is a single story with six single-pane skylights positioned between the beams. Combined with the large, north-south end windows (milled in T-N’s shop), the skylights “sweat” in winter, providing valuable humidity for the interior garden that is dominated by ferns, geraniums and other flowering plants—and two palm trees.

This spacious solarium, surrounded on three sides by kitchen-dining to the west, the living room and bedrooms on the east side, has evolved into two virtually equal sections: a ceramic tile area and one of the Upper Valley’s most spectacular interior gardens.

The McGeans’ relationship with Trumbull-Nelson, and vice versa, grew as the house took shape. “Their workmen really got interested in the house because it was different,” said McGean, “especially when we decided to expose the fir beams and make the roof the ceiling for the entire house. Their foreman would stop by on weekends to check on progress and keep us on schedule.”

As much as their names are attached to the world of figure skating, the McGeans also had a defining interest in the environment. That led to the solarium and to creating a colorful array of gardens: When he’s not giving figure skating lessons, Mike maintains extensive outdoor gardens that surround the house.

That’s when he’s not doing inevitable home repairs. Over the years, he’s made more than a few trips to T-N’s millwork shop for counsel and purchase of lumber needed for do-it-yourself projects.

McGean didn’t know he had the problem that prompted Trumbull-Nelson’s visit to Pine Tree Road last spring. It began when town employees came to read the water meter. “They said I was using way too much water, that it was leaking into the ground,” he said.

“They (T-N) did some investigating and discovered a small leak in a copper pipe beneath the tile in the solarium. They were able to isolate it under a single tile (they’re each about two-foot square).”

The tile was removed with care. The pipe was repaired. Replacement of the tile and grouting is a perfect match to the originals.

The house on Pine Tree Road is now more than 40 years old. So is the relationship that Mike McGean summed up, “From the beginning, I’ve never met anybody from Trumbull-Nelson that I didn’t like. They’ve been wonderful. It’s quite a company.”