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| NewsThursday, October 11, 2007 11:43 PM CDT |
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Lexington home will be star of HGTV segment
LEXINGTON -- Mary and Chuck Wright have opened their home to thousands of people over the years to help raise money for their favorite causes. On Thursday, they set the stage for millions more to get a peek into their 110-year-old house known in Lexington as “the castle.” The couple — and the house they’ve meticulously restored over the past 22 years — were selected to be among those featured in a segment of HGTV’s series “If Walls Could Talk ...,” a series the looks homes across the country that are rich in history. Producer Corinna Robbins said the Wrights’ story will get about five minutes on one of the episodes that will air next year. An exact date has not been determined. For that five-minute segment, Robbins and videographer Dean Eastman spent the day at the house on Lexington’s west edge. “We’ll shoot four, 40-minute tapes,” Robbins said. “One tape is a minute in the final story.” Sara Adams, a researcher for High Noon Enterprises, a Colorado company that coordinates the tapings of several HGTV shows, said a Pantagraph article on the Wrights’ house caught her attention during an Internet search. She was especially intrigued by the floating, heart-shaped staircase in the center of the house. “We were contacted the first week of August,” said Mary Wright. “Sara talked to Chuck.” The couple had to fill out a questionnaire and provide before and after pictures of the renovation. During three or four more calls, Adams got more information about the murals the Wrights uncovered on the bedroom ceilings and walls, the heart shapes they found throughout the inside and outside, and the angel faces found on the doorknobs. The Wrights’ house is one of two in Central Illinois that caught Adams’ attention. Adams also contacted Mark and Robin Dillow after talking with the Clinton Chamber of Commerce about the Dillow home, which had been the first home of C.H. Moore. Among other things, Moore was a friend of Abraham Lincoln, who spent the night in the home. Robbins and Eastman taped at the Dillow home on Wednesday. In Lexington, Robbins said she was focusing on the “very cool things Chuck and Mary found as they began to work on this house,” said Robbins. “There was so much determination and thought put into the construction.” David H. Van Dolah had the house built in 1898 in an attempt to persuade his wife, Britannia, to stay in Lexington. Most of the original details were hidden or in bad shape when the Wrights bought the house in 1985, after it sat vacant for about a year. “It was an empty-nest project,” said Mary Wright. The Wrights told Robbins they learned about the house’s history through the years. Van Dolah’s great-grandson, who lives in Lexington, provided some details while a friend of the Wrights found the specification sheets for the house at an auction. “This is not something that was slapped together,” Chuck Wright said during an on-camera interview with Robbins. Robbins asked Wright whether he thought the details in the house might symbolize the relationship between Britannia and her husband. “They must have had deep, enduring love,” he said. “They built the house later in life. There are lots of hearts, something you typically find with younger couples.” Mary Wright wonders if the “If Walls Could Talk ...” segment featuring their house might not come out in February because of the focus on the hearts and angels. “We feel honored that they wanted to come and see us,” said Wright. “It’s overwhelming. We believe strongly in the preservation of old houses.” Added Chuck Wright, “Especially houses like this that were built with loving care. It represents so much of the skill at the time.” E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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