|
By Jack Degange
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.” |
