Lewis Place ready for residents after being renovated and modernized

By Bob Ratterman ‘71

Lewis Place has stood on East High Street since 1839 and has been the home of Miami University presidents since 1903.

Its current residents - President David Hodge and his wife, Valerie - only moved in during June, although he has been on the job for more than a year. During that time, the university undertook a remodeling and modernization process that turned into a major project when several problems were discovered in the building's structure.

Valerie Hodge said the wait was worth it, with their new house ready to host the hundred events a year required of the home of a university president.

"We tried to make it open and light and comfortable," she said. "We got to do all the fun stuff, pick the colors, the furniture and paintings."

She said that during the renovation project, she worked closely with university interior decorator Elaine Brandner, who suggested color schemes and helped coordinate many of the artworks and furniture pieces now in Lewis Place. Many came from the university collection in the Miami University Art Museum and some came from the McGuffey Museum collection.

Included are a variety of paintings from many artists, including several from Marston Hodgin, professor and chair of Miami's art department in the 1940s.

Among the artworks in the home is "November Meadows" by George Herbert Baker in 1925, showing the Four Mile Creek with old Fisher Hall on the horizon. The painting hangs over the fireplace in the sitting room.

The dining room got a new table, a larger one that seats 14 people, replacing a smaller one that was used in the room since the Shriver era in the 1960s.

A portrait of Miami's first president, Robert Hamilton Bishop, can be found in the dining room and a bust of him is in the music room, just inside the front door.

The sun room

The biggest visible change in the home is probably in the sun room at the back. A porch had been closed in when James and Carole Garland moved into Lewis Place but Valerie Hodge said, "It looked like an enclosed porch."

Not only was the room converted into a bright and airy sun room, it was made more functional as a place to serve food to guests and also provided more room for guests to move around.

"No one wants to leave this room," she said.

A rug in the room was donated by Dick '56 and Joyce Barnes Farmer '57 to the art museum and adds to the feel of the room, she said. The colors in the room are lighter and the rug gives it some bright color.

There is a corner cupboard, given to the McGuffey Museum, dating back to the 1740s. It is part of the Edna M. Kelly Collection given to the university last year.

The only rear entrance to the sun room had been a stairs with railing. As part of the remodeling project, a raised veranda was added outside the room with steps to the lower-level patio. Also added was an outdoor covered porch, which Valerie Hodge said allows them a space to enjoy outdoors in any weather.

The veranda provides a view of the back yard of Lewis Place, which has been newly sodded and planted with trees and flowers.

"It was pretty overgrown in back," she said. "We'll add more planting when the weather is better."

Catering facilities

A big part of the remodeling project was the addition of a three-car garage and facilities for catering events at the home. Those improvements included a loading area with a small dock area built to the height of the delivery trucks used by the university caterers. The kitchen has been remodeled and updated with a commercial oven, dishwasher, and ice machine.

The new catering facilities got an early test, Hodge said, and they passed with flying colors.

"We moved in June 12 and during Reunion Weekend June 15-17, we had about 500 people come through three days after we moved in," Hodge said. "It was nice to see them come through. We were excited to have it done."

Structural problems

The project to improve Lewis Place started when James Garland announced plans to retire as president of the university.

The trustees decided it was an ideal time to give the home a facelift and the work began when the Garlands left. The Hodges expected to be living in Lewis Place in a matter of months, but then workers ran into some structural problems.

First, they found some termite damage and dry rot. When the old garage was being remodeled for the catering area, it was found that there was no foundation under that part of the house, requiring the pouring of footers to stabilize the structure in that area.

"While they were putting in the new duct work, they took up a part of the floor and discovered that when electricity was added the joist had been cut through for the wires," she said.

Then, they needed to check the entire house and found the joists drilled for electrical wiring throughout the house, requiring floors to be taken up and the joists reinforced.

All of that, of course, threw off the timetable and delayed the Hodges' move to Lewis Place by months.

It's their home now, though, and Valerie Hodge is pleased.

"It's classy and elegant, but not ostentatious," she said. "Like Miami."

Bob Ratterman '71, with The Oxford Press since he graduated, became its editor in 1989. This article, reprinted with permission, first ran in The Oxford Press in September 2007.

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