Tunis-Ellicks Renovation

Originally published in The Review, Fall 2017, Volume 40, Number 2.

The rehabilitation of the Tunis-Ellicks House was a seminal event in the development of the Harding Township Historical Society when the rehab began in earnest in 1978. In studying the record of those times, I can see three "phases" of the effort: acquisition of the house and design/definition of the scope of the project; stabilizatin of the house and surroundings for use by the early HTHS; and the rehabilitation project itself. Below are a teaser set of photographs of the Tunis-Ellicks house during that time. We hope that future issues of The Review can go into greater detail.

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1. Restoring the beehive oven.

2. Main room, first floor, about 1980.

3. Village Road façade during rehab.

4. Designer Brent Saville working on his design.

5. Painting Party about 1977.

6. DPW entry façade before 1977.

7. Village Road façade before 1977.

Here is just a taste of the kind of information we hope to elicit from futher research on this topic. Cythia Robinson (who chaired the early design committees) remembers several professionals who volunteered their time and talents to help complete this project. One (Brent Saville) can be seen in this photo contemplating how to bring his concept for landscaping around the house to completion.

Cynthia's recollections include:

A native Californian and talented designer, Brent Saville did not "Go West Young Man," he came East with Carole and their two children, Laurel and Charlie to accept design projects raging from work on the Hartford Atheneum in Connecticut to the Children's Exhibits named Curved Space at the gleaming new Brooklyn Children's Museum Building. Another project brought him to Silver Burdett Publishing located on James Street. Enchanted by the beauty of Harding Township, the family found a small Victorian rental on the corner of Blue Mill and Sand Spring, later to become the site of the Grace and Allen Kirby municipal building and Kemmerer Library. In time, they purchased the Warren Kinney Cottage on the corner of Lee's Hill and Young's Roads. While plans for th Tunis-Ellicks building progressed, the Grounds Committee was stumped. The overgrown, neglected, weedy site and triangul shape sloping awkwardly from the house to Village Road curb was a challenge. Discussing this problem with Brent, he became interested, thought he had an idea that might work, and offered to draw a schematic. This he did promptly. It was beautiful, it made sense, and it unified the entire site. He even brought a bulldozer and pitched it to make his design a reality. Now that is truly a fine example of volunteerism in Harding.