HARVARD HOUSE

By Christina Bell

At the time construction began on Captain Charles W. Johnston's Queen Anne Victorian house, he was fifty-two years old and one of the most accomplished deep sea divers and marine salvagers on the Eastern seaboard. The year was 1899. He was known from Maine to Florida as an unusually clever sub-marine contractor (which then meant, literally, under water contractor). He was known to have moved almost 150 wrecks, including some of the largest and most difficult. His many successful conquests at sea earned him the nickname "Diver" Johnston.

Captain Johnston was born in Canada on Prince Edward's Island and came to Lewes in 1880, when he was thirty-three. His success had begun in the 1870s when his reputation for skill and innovation helped him gain U.S. government contracts. By the time the foundation was laid for his house on South Street (later called State Street and currently known as Savannah Road) his work for the government had totaled nearly one million dollars at a time when you could buy a prime building lot in Downtown Lewes for around $400. The most notable endeavor in the early part of his career was the 1879 search, which he lead, for the sunken H.M.S. DeBraak. It seems this search was to be remembered as his only ineffectual venture. In 1892, Johnston worked on the Harbor of Refuge -- the outer breakwater in Lewes Harbor. Then in 1895, after four firms failed to recover the steamer Wyanoke from the bottom of the James River, "Diver" amazed even the most experienced dredgers by completing the job in just eighty-five days. From 1880 until 1900, when he moved into his newly built home, Captain Johnston had resided at 304 Pilottown Road with his wife Isabella L. (Ross) and their two sons, William D. and Charles T. "Chick" Johnston.

In 1899, Diver Johnston formed a partnership with William H. Virden, a local contractor who also had been involved in government contracting. Virden bought and sold property all over Sussex County with his father-in-law Mr. Draper and is best remembered as superintendent in the building of the high school and the elementary school in Lewes in 1921. He was appointed Mayor of Rehoboth in May 1927. Virden married Emily Draper and was director of the Sussex Trust Company. Not surprisingly, the Johnston & Virden firm became very successful. In their first three years they won many difficult government contracts. In May 1902, the firm gained a $50,000 contract with the government for the building of quarantine structures and wharves at Mullet Bay, near Tampa, Florida. The successful partnership lasted sixteen years until 1915.

It was Virden who built the Queen Anne Victorian home for Charles and Isabella Johnston in 1899 - 1900. The prominent architecture, the structure and the extravagant details distinguished the Johnston's home right from the beginning. The house is a landmark example of what has become known as “Queen Anne” style architecture; a style more properly called “Eastlake” after the English designer and architect best known for developing and establishing the style. History proves that it has nothing to do with the English Queen Anne, who reigned during a much planer era. Eastlake’s details became most prevalent in the 1890's. Captain Johnston's home includes all of the hallmarks of the Queen Anne style home: the irregular shape, picturesque silhouette, asymmetrical facade, an off-center turret, the use of shingling and clapboarding, a mix of carved and relief decoration and a wrap-around porch. Some of the half timber work on the tower that is on the East side of the house facing Second Street, has since been painted a solid color; thereby diluting the visual effect. The spindle work on the porch and gingerbread details are original and have been maintained perfectly. Inside, the house contains all of the luxuries of a typical Queen Anne. Hardwood floors, lofty ceilings, chandeliers and tall windows mark the distinct Victorian charm.

The impressive facade of the Johnston's home is coupled with the fact that it was extremely well-built. The house was made exclusively from hand hewn timbers sturdy enough to support the heavy slate roof for nearly one hundred years without any noticeable shifting. A full basement of brick and cement act as the foundation, at a time when many houses were built on mudsills of wood. Right down to the square handmade nails found in the woodwork, one can observe that this classic home was built with pride by a contractor, for a contractor.

The Johnston's spared no expense when they built their Victorian. The oak staircase features an ornate hand carved railing and balustrade made from quartersawn red oak. This practice is no longer used today because it does not utilize a tree in the most efficient way. Today, the staircase alone might cost in excess of $50,000. Quartersawn wood is cut not length-wise but across the width giving the wood greater strength and more resistance to warping. All of the woodwork door and window trim in the house is 1” by 6” red oak that has been hand carved, exhibiting the finest craftsmanship of the period. The ten foot high ceilings on the first floor, Crystal Chandeliers, and stained glass transoms give this home a distinctive air of elegance that rivaled any home in Lewes at the time.

Another distinguishing feature is the beautiful stained glass window above the landing. In 1879 the art of stained glass, then called "picture windows," was reintroduced into the homes of the well-to-do. The glass currently in the house is the original. One Lewes native remembered Chick Johnston remarking about his fondness for the window, since his mother had personally chosen it.

Aside from its beauty the house was meant to be functional. The small kitchen included a separate entrance for the cook. The shallow fireplaces, made to burn coal, warmed the house in the winter. In addition, in the front entryway there is a hole cut into the floor that leads to a well in the basement. This well, along with the outlines of holes in the wood floors, serve as evidence that the house was once heated by hot water.

Charles W. Johnston had originally obtained the property in 1893 for $400 from Charles L. Morris, who also owned the lot next door. In 1896 the deed was transferred from John C. Ross, Isabella's brother, to Isabella Johnston, for $300. In those times it was common for sea captains and others with dangerous vocations to put the deed to their home in their wife’s name. This protected their wife’s interest in their shared property in the event that they died, and limited their personally liability. Typically, they would deed their property to a straw person and later transfer the deed from the name of the straw person into solely that of the wife. In this case John C. Ross, Isabella’s brother, appears to have served as the straw person.

Isabella L. Johnston's will, dated in 1900, states that she did live in the Victorian on South Street. However, she lived there for only a short time as she died in 1901. Mrs. Johnston left everything to her husband Charles W. Johnston. The will stipulated, however, that in the event of his death, her lot and home in Pilot Town would be left to her oldest son William, and that the Victorian on South Street was to become Chick’s. The will also revealed that the Johnston's owned property in Laurel, Delaware, and in Allston, Massachusetts.

It is likely that Diver Johnston lived on in the Victorian from 1901 until his death in 1929. He was remarried after Isabella's death to Katherine V. Johnston. They had one daughter, referred to in the Captain's will as Effie A.. Delaney. In 1929, Captain Charles W. Johnston died at the age of 82, and ownership of the house passed to his son Charles T. Johnston as stipulated in Isabella's will.

Charles T. Johnston was affectionately called "Chick" by the residents of Lewes. His trademark was that he always wore his hat brim down in opposition to the popular fashion. Many thought this was due to the fact that he had one crooked eye. Following in the tradition of his father, Chick also became a deep sea diver and marine salvage expert. Chick also searched for the H.M.S. DeBraak. He participated in both the 1932 Chapman expedition and in the 1952 search, lead by Archie and Weldon Brittingham. Chick was considered an expert on various shipwrecks of the Delaware Bay and a veteran scholar of the H.M.S. DeBraak.

Chick lived with his wife Rhoda D. Johnston in the Queen Anne Victorian for a period of time during the 1930s, after his father died. However most people remember him living appropriately at the corner of Pilot Town and Shipcarpenter Street. In his last will and testament he left to his executor the power to sell his house and lot at 304 Pilot Town Rd. He also set up a $300 trust fund with the Sussex Trust Company that would assure that the Johnston burial plots would be properly maintained by the Bethel Methodist Church. He left a great deal to his wife Rhoda R. Johnston and his cousin, Isabella L. Ross, a Lewes school teacher, and the daughter of John C. and Ella M. Ross. Apparently Chick did not pay the necessary taxes on the Victorian, although nobody remembers him as irresponsible or short of money. Nevertheless, a suit was filed against Charles T. Johnston and Rhoda R. Johnston for $4874.69 by the Home Owners Loan Corporation. On February 10, 1939, the Sheriff of Lewes, Harley J. Conaway, turned the deed over to the Home Owners Loan Corporation for $4750.00. Two weeks later, on February 24, 1939, the house was bought by Gilbert P. Smith for $4750.00. Gilbert was buying the home for his brother, a newcomer in town, but a man destined to become one of Lewes's most prominent citizens, Otis H. Smith.

Otis H. Smith had moved to Lewes from New Jersey in 1938. The Victorian was bought under the name of his brother, but was occupied by Otis Smith and Robert Kennedy, his employee and friend. Mr. Kennedy and his wife now live on Gill’s Neck Road. Evidently, the Victorian was not in good shape when Mr. Smith obtained the property. He spared no amount of time and money on the house including restoring the woodwork by striping it of the white paint.

Otis H. Smith was the founder and president of Fish Products Company, the first and largest Menhaden processing operation in the country. He was partners with his brothers and sisters, and together, they owned a chain of fishing companies that included 14 processing plants and 150 vessels in the U.S. and South America. The Lewes plant occupied the land where Cape Shores in now located. The influence of Fish Products Company on the town of Lewes cannot be overstated. It was the town’s biggest employer and one of the most successful businesses ever to call Lewes home. Fish Products Company not only employed many of the local people, but also produced a distinctive fishy smell that permeated the town of Lewes for many years. The residents of Lewes used to joke that it was the smell of money.

In 1950, Otis H. Smith was living in Captain Johnston's Victorian when he was first elected mayor of Lewes. He would go on to become the most popular mayor the town had ever known, serving nine straight elected terms before he retired in 1968. He had two law degrees and a successful business, and many remember Otis as a mayor who stayed out of petty issues. Historian Hazel Brittingham remembers him as a man ahead of his time, who felt his first obligation to the city of Lewes as Mayor, was "to keep Lewes out of a lawsuit." After Mr. Smith moved from Captain Johnston's, he bought a large piece of property on Gills Neck Road and built the beautiful red brick house on the canal. Today he lives in North Carolina, and is said to be in failing health. His role as mayor, while his most illustrious civic duty, was only one of his many contributions to the local area. Otis Smith served on the Board of Directors and later as president of Beebe Hospital as well as a Director of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Smith organized and promoted desegregation in the restaurants and cafes of both Kent and Sussex Counties long before such laws were even considered. He was a member of the state Human Relations Committee for Community Relations (1964-73), the Delaware Civil Rights Advisory Committee (1959-73), and a member of the Board of Directors of the Delaware Regional National Conference of Christians and Jews (1958-73). From the latter, he received an award for his achievements in race relations. He worked on numerous committees for the Governor and was active in both business and marine organizations and committees. He played instrumental roles on the Board of Directors of the Better Business Bureau of Delaware (1965-73) and the Delaware Industrial Development Foundation, Inc. (1961-66). His contributions to the Menhaden industry were recognized nationally by the U.S. Department of the Interior, which granted Mr. Smith a Conservation Award in 1962. His involvement in the Delaware Commission of Shell Fisheries (1953-1968) and in the Marine Technology Society (1965-1973) showed his commitment to technology. Always a generous benefactor, Otis H. Smith contributed his time and money to the University of Delaware. In 1980, the Otis H. Smith Laboratory at the University was dedicated. Otis Smith’s tenure as mayor ended in 1968, after 18 years. He was a strong supporter of his successor, then Town Commissioner Alfred Stango who went on to become as popular as Otis Smith had been.

In 1953, Smith sold the Queen Anne Victorian to Roderick H. Scott for approximately $13,000. Mr. Scott was married to Sallie Edith Scott and together they had two boys; Doug and Sandy. The Scott’s owned shoe stores in both Lewes and Rehoboth. In 1956, Sallie Edith Scott was killed in a car accident while returning home from Annapolis where Doug attended the Naval Academy. The whole town was shocked by this tragedy. She was buried in the Presbyterian cemetery in Lewes. Mrs. Scott was the backbone behind the shoe stores, and they took a turn for the worse in her absence. We know that Mr. Scott remarried a Mrs. Beechim and that she and her daughter, Bettie Jean Bryant lived in the house for a period of time after that.

In 1970, Roderick H. Scott sold the house to a couple from Arlington, Virginia. Robert B. Ellert and Jo Ann C. Ellert bought Captain Johnston's Victorian for $24,000. The Ellert's came to the Delaware shore only occasionally on weekends and in the summers. When the Ellert's bought the house, it was heated by hot water. During one of the winters when the house was left empty, the pipes froze and burst causing extensive damage to the interior walls. The stained glass windows were also ignored to the point that the wind would blow freely through them. We know that by 1973, the Ellerts had begun to rent the house out, because a University of Delaware Professor, Jonathan Sharp and his wife Gwenneth, now a Cape Henlopen High School biology teacher lived in the house in 1973. Gwen remembers the house being robbed while they rented it, and the general run-down condition of the place. During the time that the Ellert's owned the house, they had the property surveyed. Until that time, Ray and Kit Riniker -- who live next door, at 212 Savannah Road -- and the other home owners between Second and Third Street had assumed that their property borders were parallel to Second and Third Street. However, the lot lines were actually drawn at a diagonal angle. The survey revealed that the Riniker's Garage extended slightly onto the Ellert’s property. The Ellert's sold the house before they could take action against the Rinikers. They did, however, inform the next owner of the property about the discrepancy.

In 1978, State Street was renamed Savannah Road. Also in that year a widow from Rehoboth, Lillian Louise Shaw, bought the house for $47,000. Mrs. Shaw and the Rinikers, in order to make the garage legally on the Riniker's property, arranged for a slight alteration of the property boundaries. Mrs. Shaw had twin sons, one of whom was a lawyer. Attorney Ben Shaw drew up the papers. On January 25 and February 5 of 1978, the Riniker's gained a bit of property in the back of their house. Reciprocally, the property that the Victorian sits upon was extended in the front. The line between Captain Johnston's Victorian and the Rinikers is now parallel to both Second and Third Street.

The property's border was not the only aspect of the house to change while Mrs. Shaw lived in the Queen Anne Victorian. Mrs. Shaw spent an enormous amount of money on the place. Some remember that she had a steady stream of workmen in the house. She was responsible for painting almost everything white, including the carved oak fireplaces and the oak woodwork Otis Smith had stripped after their first painting. She also carpeted the stairs white, finished the attic and added a bathroom on the third floor. She had the entire electrical and plumbing systems replaced during the seven years that she lived in the house. It was Mrs. Shaw who added electric baseboard heating to the Victorian, and removed all of the hot water radiators and the copper pipes that connected them.

Lillian Louise Shaw lived alone and is remembered as being a little afraid of the place. She had elegant heavily lined white draperies custom made for all the windows that were always kept closed. Even the draperies on the small windows in the entrance hall were kept shut at all times. She had a tall chain link fence placed around the back yard with gates that were always locked. During the time that she lived in Captain Johnston's house, it was filled with her beautiful antique furniture, for she was a woman of legendary taste. On August 12, 1985, Mrs. Shaw sold the Queen Anne to William H. Childress, Jr. for a little more than $100,000.

Bill Childress is an artist from Chevy Chase, Maryland and a local business owner in the town of Lewes. He and his wife Evelyn Childress own the Saxon Swan located on 2nd Street. Mr. Childress was a widower when he bought the Queen Anne Victorian and moved to Lewes with his sister, Betty Agricola. In January of 1986, Betty moved to Florida to enjoy the warm weather and the company of her children. In May of that same year, Bill and Evelyn were married. Like Mrs. Shaw, the Childresses invested in the place, adding a sun porch and enlarging the kitchen, installing skylights in both. They kept the house in very good condition and made some major changes to the first floor of the house, including the addition of a laundry room and 1/2 bath off the dining room

The front porch stairs of Captain Johnston's home, leading down to the sidewalk, were originally wooden with an ornate hand railing, as a 1902 photograph shows. At some point they had been changed to cement steps that had become uneven. Bill and Evelyn replaced the cement steps and added wooden stairs, and a new wooden hand railing as close to the original as possible. The stained glass window had been a working window for nearly one hundred years, but had become drafty and in need of releading. The Childresses interviewed several stained glass specialists, and employed a glass restoration firm from Easton, Maryland to restore Isabella Johnston's window. Every piece of the original glass was used in the identical pattern in order to maintain its authenticity. Only the leading was new. One broken piece was glued instead of replaced, the only reminder of its former state of illrepair. After the restoration, in order to preserve the window, it was installed as a fixed window. On February 22, 1992, as a matter of formality, Evelyn L. Childress' name was added to the deed.

As Bill and Evelyn grew into the house, they wanted to add a first-floor master bedroom and bathroom, but the town refused to let them. The city fathers had earlier re-zoned the house, and all of the block it was on, for Commercial use, even though the house had never been used commercially in its history. The City felt that the addition of a bedroom was further entrenching the “non-conforming use” of the house as a residence. After a long battle to get his first floor bedroom, Bill decided to sell the house and build a home in Lewes, which he is now planning.

About the same time Rick and Paulise Bell were looking for an office to move their company, Harvard Business Services into. They were working out of their home in Greystone Manor, but the place was getting too small as the business grew. After a long search of the available office space in Lewes Paulise decided on the Victorian originally built by Diver Johnston. The City required the Bell’s to pave the yard in order to provide parking for their employees, and granted a variance allowing the place to be used as a paralegal office. According to the deed, Rick & Paulise paid $315,000 for the house in November 1994. Upon moving their company into the place they appropriately named it “Harvard House."

Harvard House is the home of Harvard Business Services, Inc. one of Delaware’s largest Registered Agent services. Harvard helps lawyers and business executives from around the world form and maintain their Delaware Corporations. Started in 1981, by Paulise and Rick Bell, Harvard represents over 6,500 Delaware Corporations.

Today “Harvard House” is a Lewes landmark and one of the most photographed and painted houses in the area. Many local artists including Jennifer Comero have prints available in local stores and Robert Kennedy has a colored print and a painted tile available in his shop on Rehoboth avenue.

Feel free to take photographs and enjoy the architecture of this charming place. It would make Diver and Isabella Johnston proud.

@1996, Christina Bell
Harvard Business Services, Inc.
THE HISTORY OF:
210 SAVANNAH ROAD
Lewes, Delaware

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