'I love old houses and I wanted to bring this one back to life'

We may be in the grip of a pandemic, but it’s not stopping a Tipperary woman from developing her historic home in the US

Tipperary-born Agnes Devereux and family pet Lucy at the front door of DeWitt House, built in 1773 in upstate New York.

 We're off to New York, upstate that is, to DeWitt House, built in 1773 by a brave revolutionary John DeWitt.

Today it’s where Clogheen, Co Tipperary-born Agnes Devereux now lives, and it must be said she too was brave and bold to take it on.

Until spring 2019, she, husband Dan and their daughters lived in New Paltz, nestled in the lush upstate Hudson Valley. “We originally moved out of Manhattan so our children could go to a Steiner school,” Agnes says. “There was one in New Paltz so we bought a house there which had an old tailor’s workshop next to it.”

A year ago this living room was a damp dreary shell, now transformed into a lightsome space for comfort and relaxation, blending vintage furniture with contemporary art and family photos.

With catering in her blood (her mother ran The Vee Hotel from their home in Clogheen), the building was perfect for Agnes to set up The Village Tea Room, an award-winning organic restaurant and bakery founded on the farm-to-table principle, where a homesick Irish tourist or a jaded New York City palate could indulge in a pot of Barry’s tea and a Dingle pie.

But when daughters Willa and Elizabeth finished school, she and Dan decided it was time for a change.

“The reason for being in New Paltz was gone,” she says, “and running a restaurant is hard, but we wanted to stay in the Hudson Valley. I wanted to run a catering business out of my house but local codes mean you have to have a second kitchen.”

Where most people looking to buy a house search by number of bedrooms, Agnes and Dan, a Brooklyn born and bred scion of the Limerick Sheehy clan by the way, searched for two kitchens.

Up came DeWitt House in the hamlet of Staatsburg, about two hours from New York City. “There was a tradition back in the 1700s for homes built by the Dutch to have a summer kitchen as well as the main kitchen,” Agnes explains.

So mission accomplished but also with the acquisition of a raft of problems, including fire damage from 2018 made worse by insurance assessors demolishing walls to track its source. “Burst pipes too”, Agnes adds. “When we first viewed it in January 2019 we were in the middle of a polar vortex. We had to go outside to warm up it was so cold inside, but we fell in love even though it was in a terrible state.”

Most of us would run for our lives, but not Agnes. “I love old houses,” she explains, “and I wanted to bring it back to life.”

The main entrance to DeWitt House has been styled for elegance and comfort, including rugs and furniture items which Agnes picks up from auctions, vintage shops and Facebook local pages.

By the time they moved in six months later repair work had advanced to electricity in two bedrooms and one working toilet. Since then all the essentials were dealt with to make it a warm family home, including installation of heat pumps for heating and air-conditioning.

DeWitt House has seen several extensions since building started in 1773 to make for an intriguing shape. As part of the renovation and restoration programme, porches have been replaced and a hidden garden unearthed.

In addition to smoke damage, the fire had destroyed the butler’s pantry and a bathroom which had to be replaced, while decades of wallpaper needed removing and replacing, and months of painting is ongoing.

But it’s thanks to sheer hard graft and Agnes’ training as an interior designer when she first moved to the US over 30 years ago that she has achieved an admirable result. “We have five bedrooms, three will be B&B and Airbnb,” she says. “The priority was to make it a beautiful home that people would like to stay in.” Today, DeWitt House is neither a time capsule filled with heavy antique furniture nor has it been subjected to the vogue for a contemporary interior in a historic building.

This charming bedroom located in the attic reaches of the DeWitt house is known as the Cook's Quarters.

Agnes has opted for comfortable modern sofas and floor lamps in tandem with vintage and antique tables, bookcases and rugs; where contemporary art hangs above polished cabinets for an inviting aesthetic which speaks of taste, ease and timelessness. Bedrooms are airy, restful and characterful, and overall there’s light in the house which is unexpected for one of its age and warren of rooms.

Then came an unexpected reward. “There was so much snow when we viewed the house we didn’t know there was an amazing garden hidden,” Agnes adds. This has become Dan’s project, clearing and cutting back to reveal planting which was a labour of love by a previous occupant. No doubt it will be nurtured back to life with the same sensitive hand applied to the house which is now a pleasure to live in or be a guest.