NEWS

New Castle mansion donated to Sunday Breakfast Mission

robin brown
The News Journal

The Rev. Tom Laymon admits he still can't believe it.

Since 1893, when the Sunday Breakfast Mission was founded in Wilmington, the faith-based charity has operated on a shoestring, scrambling to solicit donations as modest as $1.97 for one meal to feed a homeless person.

So imagine Laymon's surprise when, out of the blue, a New Jersey couple gave the mission an 1800s mansion worth nearly $700,000 in the heart of historic New Castle.

"It's amazing," he said.

After years of growing need for food and shelter, up 15-25 percent a year through the recession, Laymon said the mission now struggles with the impact of the heroin epidemic increasing demand another 25 percent.

"This couldn't come at a better time," he said.

Also amazing, Laymon said, was the phone call from the New Jersey couple, which owns three other houses, asking if it would be OK to give the mission a house.

Laymon accepted without hesitation.

Instead of staging the donated house for sale, however, interior designer Barbara D. Pettinella volunteered to do more. She is organizing a designer showcase that will make improvements such as new granite countertops in the kitchen, shown here, before the house is opened in September for public tours, also raising funds for the Sunday Breakfast mission.

Built decades before the mission began, the house is a landmark at Fourth and Delaware streets, located across the street from the famed Amstel House, built in the 1730s, owned by the New Castle Historical Society and considered the first grand mansion of Delaware.

Even with such a neighbor, the donated house holds its own.

The three-story structure with 5,600 square feet of living space boasts six to nine bedrooms, depending how rooms' uses are counted, with other rooms including an office-study, two formal parlors and a formal dining room, kitchen adjoining a living room, butler's pantry and loft – with 12-foot ceilings accented by large crown molding. Uncounted windows bathe many rooms in sunlight and almost every one has a fireplace.

The yard has extensive gardens, a slated patio and brick carriage house, all surrounded by a brick privacy wall with a wrought iron gate.

When he saw the place, however, he realized it wasn't something the mission itself could use. But for the frugal nonprofit that stretches its resources, he reasoned that proceeds of selling the house certainly would be helpful.

The house, however, was so vast and empty, he thought staging would help attract buyers. So he recalled an interior designer he had met at a networking event and gave her a call, asking if she might donate her staging services.

Barbara D. Pettinella of Hockessin, who owns Decorating Den with her husband, Steven, was more than willing. Once she saw and loved the space, she had a bigger idea: Turn the staging into a big, fun community event and another fundraising opportunity.

She offered to organize a benefit designer showcase, knowing such events are popular for homeowners seeking interior ideas, as well as those interested in peeking inside homes they may have seen only from the outside for years.

Not only could a showcase help get others involved in supporting the mission while raising additional funds through ticket sales, she told Laymon, but it could dramatically increase the marketability – and potential price – before the house goes on the market.

The proposal surprised Laymon, because it was far more effort than he had sought from a passing acquaintance, but he was delighted.

With Laymon's blessing, Pettinella, a veteran of planning and participating in such showcases, set to work.

Designers and other benefactors have been recruited to spruce up the place, do a variety of repairs and upgrades and furnish it fully. Paint suppliers and other companies also are supporting the effort.

Donors have been found to replace the shake roof on the carriage house and install granite countertops in the kitchen, Pettinella said.

Some help still is needed – landscape companies, donors for new kitchen cabinets, repair people, painters and a few others – and donations of all kinds are sought for the silent auction, she said.

Designers have started their work for the designer showcase in September at the Kensey Johns House in New Castle, for example taping possible paint colors onto the walls at right in the original dining room of the home donated to the Sunday Breakfast Mission of Wilmington.

"This is very exciting," she said after showing the house to The News Journal, standing on the front steps with a smile.

She was still smiling as Beverly Flannigan, a New Castle resident since 1964, stopped to ask if what she had heard about the house being given to a charity was true.

When told of the donation and designer showcase, Flannigan smiled too.

Residents have been hoping new owners would be up to the challenge of restoring and maintaining the house, she said.

"I'm so glad it will be getting some needed attention," she said. "Everyone in town's hopeful."

'Fantastic house'

"It's a fantastic house," said historic home specialist Chris Cashman, an agent with Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate. "I've sold it twice."

He sold it for the Wolcotts – only the second family to own the place – to Cathy and William Schmidt, who decided to downsize and sold it to the New Jersey couple that donated it.

Cashman also has a listing agreement to sell it again for the Sunday Breakfast Mission. He expects to put out the "for sale" sign just before the designer showcase opens in late September.

The New Jersey couple, James and Martha McKinnon of Princeton, who could not be reached for comment, paid $644,668 for the house in Nov. 2012.

This brick 1800s carriage house played a key role in the decision by James and Martha McKinnon of Princeton to donate the Kensey Johns House in New Castle to the Sunday Breakfast Mission of Wilmington, after city officials rebuffed their plan to convert the carriage house into a two-car garage.

"They never moved in," Cashman said. "They wanted to convert the old carriage house into a two-car garage which they couldn't get approval for from the Historic Area Commission."

When he learned that issue prompted their decision to part with the house, Cashman said, "I was surprised ... but very, very happy for the Sunday Breakfast Mission that it got that kind of donation."

No one can blame Laymon if he suspects divine intervention for the mission becoming the couple's charity of choice.

"They told me they were sitting outside a Wawa, wondering what to do about the house," he said, "then they looked up and saw our billboard."

Laymon said he expects the house to be listed for sale in the ballpark of $675,000.

But designer Pettinella said, "when we get the designer showcase done, this will be a million-dollar house, just wait and see."

Priceless history

Whoever buys the house will own a priceless slice of New Castle and Delaware history.

The house was built in 1823-27 and is titled as the Kensey Johns Jr. House.

Johns was born in New Castle in 1791 into a prominent Presbyterian family, the son of Kensey Johns, a noted judge who married Nancy Ann Van Dyke Johns, the daughter of a Delaware governor, Delaware GovernorNicholas Van Dyke, with George Washington among the wedding guests.

He began practicing law in New Castle in 1813 and became involved in politics in the Federalist and Whig parties, repeatedly elected as the state's member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

All three floors of the Kensey Johns House, with upper floors accessed by this winding staircase, will get paint, furnishings and other TLC from volunteers helping interior designer Barbara D. Pettinella of Hockessin transform the house for a fundraising gala and public tours in September as the Sunday Breakfast Mission of Wilmington lists the donated house for sale.

He served in judicial roles including presiding judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals, as well as Orphans Court.

When his father, who had a lifetime appointment as the Chancellor of Delaware, solely responsible for adjudicating equity disputes, died in 1832, Johns was appointed to fill his post.

His was a lifetime appointment that would last 25 years.

Following his death and burial at New Castle Presbyterian Church, his widow continued to live in the house for many years.

In the late 1870s, the house and contents went up for auction.

"My great grandmother told my great grandfather, 'I'd really like that sofa that's in the front room,'" Daniel F. Wolcott Jr. told The News Journal.

Instead, his great-grandfather John H. Rodney surprised his wife, Annie. He bought the house, Wolcott said, or so goes the family story he shared with uncounted guests, back when his family would open the house for public tours on "A Day in Old New Castle," the nation's oldest home and garden tour.

"My mother was a Rodney," Wolcott said, adding, "I grew up in that house."

He, his wife and their children also lived there.

"It's a wonderful house," said Wolcott, a partner at Potter Anderson Carroon.

But as the years passed, he said, "it was too big and everybody was growing up." There also was the expense and bother of maintenance, he said, giving the example of adding a door lock that required window removal, trim rebuild and a $1,600 bill.

The house left the Rodney family – after a succession of relatives lived there – in 2002, when the Wolcotts moved to a smaller home in the Stonewold community of Greenville.

Wolcott said he has only wonderful memories of the house, family members who lived nearby and New Castle back in those days.

He admits, however, that he likes the Stonewold house's modern windows and attached garage.

Wolcott said he wishes the house's new owners all the best and hopes to attend the designer showcase gala. "I'd love to see it," he said.

Contact robin brown at (302) 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com. Find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @rbrowndelaware.

HISTORIC MANSION DESIGNER SHOWCASE

The designer showcase being planned for the Kensey Johns House at 313 Delaware St., New Castle is to open with an evening gala, 6-9 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 25. The evening will include tours, refreshments and a silent auction. Tickets are $50 by advance sale only.

On Saturday, Sept. 26, the house will be open for public tours during one of New Castle's most popular events, this year's 45th annual Art on the Green, sponsored by the New Castle Hundred Lions Club. Tours also will be offered Thursdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Nov. 8. Tour tickets are $20.

The house also will be available for special events while it is decorated for the showcase.

All types of donations are sought for the gala's silent auction and a variety of sponsors are needed for the designer showcase. Donations are tax-deductible.

To reserve tickets, arrange auction donations or get more information about volunteering goods or services for the showcase or gala, call designer showcase planner Barbara D. Pettinella at (302) 239-7315.

Information for ordering tickets – also expected to be available at the door for public tours – will be posted soon on the project's webpage and Facebook page.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For more information about the Kensey Johns House designer showcase, visit the project's website at www.historicoldnewcastledesignershowhouse.com or search Facebook for Historic Old New Castle Designer Show House.

For more information about The Sunday Breakfast Mission at 110 N. Poplar St., Wilmington, visit www.sundaybreakfastmission.org or call (302) 652-8314.