Good

NeighborPolicy

By Fred Albert

Photographs by Kirk Gittings

Terry and Nancy Lamm furnished the living room of their Albuquerque rental house with seating and a bookcase from a defunct Internet retailer. The Rejuvenation chandelier hangs above a new Stickley coffee table from Adobe Bungalow.

Tired of watching the bungalow next door erode, Terry Lamm bought the property and restored its Craftsman character

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ome people place family photos on their living room mantel. Terry Lamm has a statue of Don Quixote.

An Albuquerque builder and developer who specializes in early 20th-century environments, Terry may not resemble Cervantes’ fervent knight, but the two share a spiritual con-nection that runs deep. Like his alter ego, Terry isn’t afraid to tilt at windmills—especially if they take the form of lawyers, architects, bureaucrats or anyone else who might threaten New Mexico’s architectural heritage.

Sixteen years ago, Terry put his convictions to the test when he and his wife, Nancy, bought the decaying bungalow next door to their home on the outer fringes of the city’s Country Club neighborhood. Built by the local postmaster in 1915, the unpretentious one-and-a-half-story structure had been converted to a duplex several decades earlier. Makeshift partitions, a suspended ceiling and deadening gray walls compromised the home’s Craftsman character, as did an incongruous spiral staircase inserted into the old stairwell. Steel cabinets were crammed inside the paneled dining room to create a second kitchen, with the refrigerator unceremoni-ously stacked atop the built-in sideboard.

“The house was an unbelievable filth pit,” recalls Terry. Although he had no idea what he was going to do with the property, he knew he couldn’t sit idly by while the place eroded. He spent the next year peeling back the home’s

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In the media/guest room, a border designed by Walter Crane complements shades from the Handwerk Shade Shop, a pendant from the Bright Spot and a rug from the Persian Carpet. The screened corner entry (opposite top) is original to the home. New floor and cabinet paint freshens the kitchen (opposite bottom).

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layers and hauling the debris to the dump. “There’s a geologic layer in the landfill that should be named for me,” he jokes.

Terry began researching the neighborhood’s history and educating himself about the Arts and Crafts movement. He repaired the home’s walls and cleaned the woodwork, revealing a pair of pocket doors between the living room and what was originally the master bedroom (now a media/guest room). Peering under the smoky, soiled carpeting, Terry found hardwood floors so blackened with glue the species was unrecognizable. “It took a while before we realized they were maple,” he says.

Most of the fir floors at the rear of the house were beyond salvaging, so Terry painted them a glossy grass green inspired by a floor at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Jefferson’s home also provided a model for the new wood staircase.

Terry stripped away the suspended ceiling and makeshift kitchen in the dining room, then had carpenter Richard Catanach replicate the missing pine wainscoting and restore the side-board. The original kitchen was cleaned and the cabinets were repainted; a new, 1920s-style cookstove from Heartland adds a bit of period panache.

The house is entered through an angled screen door at the northeast corner. The front door at the end of the porch opens directly into the living room, a beautifully proportioned space dominated by a fieldstone fireplace and crowned by a handsome coffered ceiling that extends into the neighboring dining room. Built-in bookcases offer subliminal separation between the rooms, the diamond-paned glass on their doors echoing the surrounding windows.

Only one original light fixture remained, so Terry began scouring Internet clearance sales for period-appropriate replacements. He found his furniture in much the same way, acquiring most of the living and dining room pieces from a single online closeout. “Period Arts and Crafts furniture is out of my financial league,” he explains. “I’m interested in re-creating the vigor and the feeling of the era, but I don’t want to be a collector, per se.”

The Lamms have rented the house over the years, but one day Terry hopes to make it part of a study center devoted to the work of Aldo Leopold, the pioneering author and environmentalist who lived in the house next door. Although he doesn’t have all the details in place, Terry seems unfazed. For this feisty knight, it’s just another windmill waiting to be conquered. v

Left, clockwise from top A flagstone fireplace presides over the living room and a rug from the Persian Carpet; diamond-shaped panes are repeated in the windows, buffet and bookcases, which were topped with cabinets when the Lamms bought the house. Once a makeshift kitchen, the dining room is now restored and sports a table runner from Adobe Bungalow. A floral frieze animates the master bedroom. Nancy and Terry enjoy the deck, which they added under an existing pergola.

Below A sign by the front door touts Terry’s proposed Aldo Leopold Athenaeum. He’s already gotten the block designated as the Aldo Leopold Neighborhood Historic District.