Petersburg kitchen tour benefits Pathways

SLIDESHOW: The Pathways 2009 Kitchen Tour

PETERSBURG Inside renovated houses and former warehouses in Old Towne, homeowners have turned historic kitchens into updated showplaces.

The lessons are twofold: Old can blend beautifully with new, and high style can be achieved at a reasonable cost.

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One prime example was purely accidental. Workers renovating the kitchen in Patrick Hagerich's High Street home began slathering plaster on the old brick wall above the coal fireplace's mantel. "I saw it and said, 'no, no,' so they didn't finish it -- and I love the way it looks," Hagerich said.

He plans to add color washes to the half-and-half wall "and make it look like a ruin in Pompeii."

Hagerich's is one of seven kitchens that will showcase budget glam, bright decor and local craftsmanship as part of a public kitchen tour Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The tour benefits Pathways, a private, nonprofit Petersburg group that promotes youth development, education, health and wellness, job training and affordable housing.

Hagerich, a former event planner and member of the Obama inaugural committee, bought the home 3½ years ago. The 1890 Victorian has only 1,450 square feet, but the open kitchen and dining area are spacious. Their wide-plank, heart-pine flooring is original. Both rooms are painted in soft buttery yellows.

Separating the spaces is a new kitchen island, which has proved handy for buffet dinners and parties. The island top is a budget-friendly Corian rather than pricey granite.

"I cook all the time, especially bake," said Hagerich, who shares the home with his cat, Sadie. "This kitchen really entertains well."

A faux-plaster medallion from a home center adds a Victorian touch to the dining area. The table looks like an antique door, but Hagerich bought it from Restoration Hardware.

A coal bucket, an homage to the fireplace's past, holds giant pine cones. A huge round antique-look clock above the mantel was a budget find at Kohl's.

Large white vases and other pots hold tall willow and bamboo stems that Hagerich has collected. Pottery roosters perch on cabinets and the refrigerator. "I got one as a gift," he said, laughing, "and then people thought, 'Oh, you collect roosters!'"

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A couple of blocks from Hagerich's home, Patricia Dillard has a thoroughly modern, spacious kitchen planted in the center of a unit in the High Street Lofts, formerly the old Seward Luggage Factory.

She loves the fact that the modern appliances, glass-front Shaker cabinets and track and pendant lighting reflect massive beams that still hold remnants of the space's past. "They stapled up notices on the beams, and all those little tacks are still in them," Dillard said.

Black and brown granite countertops "make you feel like you're in a death-by-chocolate environment," she said.

Displayed in her glass-front cabinets is a flower-of-the-month china collection from Domestications catalog. She also found a beautiful mix of 24 glass hors d'oeuvres plates at a Petersburg thrift store "that will make people feel like they're eating off of catered goods."

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Less than a mile away, Kimberly Ann Calos decided to punch up the kitchen color in her unit of the post-Civil War Appomattox Iron Works building. The space was drab -- white walls, exposed brick and wood beams -- when she moved in four years ago.

"After my divorce, I became a very colorful person," Calos said. "I have these beautiful windows, and lighting that kind of dances across the room. It's logical that I would hang up all these bright, wonderful things."

The kitchen walls are covered in red, yellow and blue local art and whimsical objects. The centerpiece is her grandparents' table where generations of her family have dined.

The mid-19th century fireplace and exposed brick walls hold history that counter the newer touches. "There are fossils in the mortar because the sand came from the river," Calos said.

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People frequently ask Walt and Roberta Purcell why they live in their detached kitchen house rather than their main house on Harding Street.

Simple answer. The main house was basically restored when their family bought it in 2005. "But we put all of our own work into the little one -- that's why we live in it," Walt said. "My wife and I did it all. It took a year and a half." Family and guests stay in the main house during visits, he added.

The couple purchased a soapstone farmhouse sink in Vermont, and handmade ironwork in the fireplace was crafted by a family friend in Pennsylvania.

But many of the kitchen house's best features were built by local craftsmen. Cabinets were custom made by Gravitte's in Colonial Heights and historically-accurate replacement windows were made by Petersburg Woodworking.

The main house's kitchen cabinets were designed by a Richmond carpenter from 100-year-old cypress doors salvaged in New Orleans. Leftover ends were used to build the kitchen island. A Petersburg roofer made the unusual copper countertops.

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Bobby and Sherry Goodman's kitchen boasts a 12-foot ceiling, black granite countertops and white laminated cabinets -- a totally modern space within an 1850 Greek Revival home.

A kitchen in a Pathways-built house on McKenzie Street focuses on sustainability and affordability. Features include Forest Stewardship Council-certified cabinets, ceramic-tile flooring and a reclaimed lumber bar top.

Contact Julie Young at (804) 649-6732 or jyoung@timesdispatch.com.