A Port Tampa couple has transformed a neglected Victorian home into a funky showpiece.
By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published January 9, 2004
PORT TAMPA - You can't help but notice Tom and Sunnye Harrison's folk-style Victorian house from the street. It might be the hibiscus pink and sea-grass green front door and matching trim.
Or perhaps it's the rectangular window with a pitched top, salvaged from a trash heap at a Tampa church.
Or the snappy bench with newel posts the size of grapefruits the Harrisons built from a discarded bed.
Sunnye, a receptionist at the Tampa Museum of Art and an artist herself, painted the bench sky blue and swirled a Mediterranean sun in the middle.
"I never make assumptions about what something is used for or what it's supposed to be," says Sunnye, who haunts thrift stores and junk piles with equal abandon.
"One clever item can make a whole room."
The couple made no assumptions when they bought their 2,500-square-foot house for $68,000 more than a decade ago. It was built in 1898 by Tampa's then-customs chief, John Salsbury, who also constructed the cracker cottage next door as a wedding gift for his daughter.
The Harrisons' two-story home includes a widow's walk, where Salsbury once watched for ships to sail into port.
When the Harrisons purchased the house in 1990, it had retained its good bones but had fallen prey to benign neglect. Only one bathroom was usable. A wall in the kitchen was so flimsy that Sunnye tore it down with her hands.
With limited finances and unlimited imagination, the couple slowly coaxed the dwelling back to its original condition. They became entrenched in the history of the neighborhood. Sunnye founded the Promenade Port Tampa, the area's annual historic homes tour, and led the charge to convert the century-old Commerce Bank building into a Hillsborough Public Library branch.
In December, Tom, a printer who co-owns Express Press, reprinted Port Tampa City: A History of Change, a book written more than 40 years ago by the Port Tampa City Woman's Club.
Civic involvement slowed their well-intentioned renovations. Tom jokes that "we're now 15 years into our two-year plan."
When they bought the house, the couple was living in Town 'N Country but missed their old Midwestern neighborhoods with 19th-Century architecture.
They had long since fallen in love with Port Tampa, a district south of Interbay Boulevard, between Manhattan Avenue and Tampa Bay.
"These old houses rarely go on the market," Sunnye says. "I used to drive around the neighborhood all the time. I'm sure people thought I was a stalker. Then one day I drove by this one and there was a for-sale sign in front."
Originally called Port Tampa City, the neighborhood was established by Henry Plant, who needed housing for employees working at his shipping terminals. The first houses were numbered and called "Plant Quarters," according to local historical accounts.
The Harrisons' house is one of the jewels, built to accommodate Florida's climate. The placement of windows allowed for cross ventilation on hot days, and the heart pine floors proved termite resistant for a century.
With four kids to raise, money for restoration was always an issue. Still, whatever the house needed, the couple found a way to acquire it, sometimes following a non-traditional path. For instance, Sunnye longed for a claw foot bathtub but didn't want to spend $2,500 for a new one. When she saw a filthy and dilapidated antique tub without feet in front of an antique store, she went inside and bargained with the dealer. He sold it to her for $100.
"He had the feet behind the counter," says Sunnye, who spent days scrubbing and painting her find.
She also bought an antique mantle for $300 for the living room that has no fireplace but needed the look of one. She couldn't afford real enamel tile around the mantle's opening, so she made fake tile using plywood and a flower stencil from her daughter's kindergarten drawing. Tom bought a quaint old gas burner at Goodwill and Sunnye twined the grate with gold Christmas flicker lights and greenery. The resulting look is both quirky and interesting, momentarily fooling a visitor into thinking a fire is burning.
"If you see something good for your house, buy it and think about it for awhile," says Sunnye who paid $5 for a 1940s chandelier and painted it green with pink accents.
Tom made the stained glass windows for the kitchen pass-through as well as exterior windows and cabinet fronts. He imitated looks he liked and copied patterns from cherished quilts. He even re-created a pattern he spied in a Sherlock Holmes movie.
"You can't own a house like this without a Tom around. He's extremely handy," Sunnye says.
The dark closet that once held a washer and dryer is now a butler's pantry. With its own sink, it serves as a coffee preparation area. Antique wooden Pepsi bottle crates - purchased for $5 each - provide an eclectic alternative to traditional shelving. Mounted flush against the walls, the individual cubbyholes now hold a collection of coffee mugs.
It's all Tom's handiwork.
Sunnye, who loves color, painted the walls of the living room a funky, rosy pink, partly because it exudes a Victorian flavor but also because she absolutely loves pink. Even the stair treads are painted pink. Zany pink flowers hold up old-fashioned picture wires. She hung old brass headboards on the walls and uses them to display quilts hand-stitched by relatives.
"We don't believe in altering or painting an antique that's in good condition," Tom says. "We don't want to go to antique hell."
That same philosophy extends to the house: They make every effort to retain authentic detail and flavor.
"We know we have a responsibility not to mess up a house like this," Sunnye says. "So, we've been careful not to do anything that can't be undone."
- For more information on "Port Tampa City: A History of Change" by the Port Tampa City Woman's Club, call Maria Chesser at 813-831-9705. The hardback edition is $30; paperback, $20.
