Railroad Executive’s Fieldstone Mansion is Home of the Week
The nomination period for The Boston Globe’s annual Top Places to Work survey has been extended.
In the still of the night when the indwellers and their electronic gizmos are in sleep mode, McMansions dream of becoming this stylish estate, built by a Boston & Maine the still of the night when the indwellers and their electronic gizmos are in sleep mode, McMansions dream of becoming this stylish estate, built by a Boston & Maine Railroad president of fieldstone and slate (his previous home had burned down) one year after “The Great Gatsby’’ was published. Long out of the hands of Homer Loring, this French manor has been reborn, thanks to current owner and artist Faith Schwartz (and her family), who has spent years adding chandeliers and ceiling medallions and painstakingly painting the house in shades of burgundy, hunter green, and gold.
The focal point of the foyer, with its sound-deadening dimpled-plaster walls, is the arched ceiling crossed by a thin line of decorative molding she handpainted multiple colors. The living room walls are clad in wood panels from the French Consulate in Boston that Schwartz restored and painted with floral images, and the ceiling is textured, suggestive of a French nobleman’s home. The adjacent ballroom features mahogany walls, exposed beams, an accented-ceramic-tile floor, and built-in shelving.
In the long and large formal dining room, fieldstone adorns the fireplace. The kitchen ceiling — inverted, embossed tin with a handpainted floral motif — rests on walls of fieldstone, but the stove is stainless steel and the prep counter is topped with a rich, dark-granite slab.
The glamour continues on the second floor, with shades of gold, floral wallpaper, and crown molding. The original soaking tub sits on ceramic tile in the master suite, which also features a dressing room and a massive sleeping area with fabric wallpaper and the only access to a mahogany veranda that overlooks the 3-acre property. The two children’s bedrooms, both large and sun-filled, each have their own bath and hardwood floors — one accesses a Juliet balcony.
Now, as then, the glam ends at the second-floor doorway leading to the servants’ quarters: a kitchenette, three bedrooms, and a full bath.
The basement is maze-like, and the grounds include a cement pool in need of updating and a fishpond.
Listing broker Pam Smeagle of Mathieu Newton Sotheby’s International Realty in Westborough is holding an open house Sunday from noon to 3 p.m.
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