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Down by the old mill stream

The latest owner of a historic house in Kingston continues a loving restoration.

When Jim Stokowski bought one of the oldest houses in Kingston in 1999, it felt more like adopting a pet than completing a real estate transaction. "I love old houses, and I've lived in a few of them, so I can appreciate all the work the previous owner did," says Stokowski. "And I think that made it easier for him to sell it to me."

Now called Reed's Mill Homestead, the building on Route 27 probably dates from the mid-1700s. Documentation from the Kingston Historical Society places it circa 1800, but other sources indicate the house was there years before. Originally a saltbox Colonial, it became home to Edwin Reed sometime during the early 1800s, when he operated the mill on the property. Powered by the river that feeds a pond on the other side of Route 27, the mill was primarily used to make tacks and nails.

The house has had several owners over the past 200 years, but none could love it more than Stokowski. "I've owned antique houses before, a Cape in Scituate and a 16-room Victorian in Hyde Park, and I know what it takes to restore them," he says. "When I bought this house, I had just sold the house in Hyde Park. I wanted another antique, but I didn't want to get involved with a complete restoration project. This house was already 90 percent restored when I bought it."

The house has a new heating system and new wiring and plumbing, as well as new support beams. The kitchen is probably the only room where the 20th-century work shows. Housed in an addition from the 1800s, it has been brought up to speed for modern convenience, though it remains in touch with the past. The wide-board pine floors are wood reclaimed from an antique building in New Hampshire, and there's a cozy fireplace and a long bench-style window seat. The new cabinets are cherry, the countertops granite. One set of French doors leads to a brick patio behind the house, another to a covered porch.

With his appreciation of history and period decor, Stokowski has made the house gracious and warm, furnishing its eight rooms with both antiques and reproduction pieces: In the dining room are a Victorian parlor lamp and a late-1800s oak server, and in the living room an antique English armoire conceals the TV. "Many of the items I use in this house came from my last house," he says, "but I think the Victorian pieces work well in this house."

On the second floor are three bedrooms, two with fireplaces. The master bedroom was redone with a vaulted ceiling that exposes hand-hewn beams, and a door opens to a deck over the first-floor porch. In the second-floor bathroom, a large handmade quilt hangs on the wall over the rustic teal medicine cabinet. Another set of stairs, lined with a collection of teddy bears, leads to a finished room in the attic.

Stokowski's major addition is a barn. He found the plans for the 18-by-26-foot structure while looking through Colonial Homes Magazine, and it matches the house perfectly. Though Stokowski uses it as a garage, it looks like a barn that's been there as long as the house.

Stokowski has also done extensive landscaping. The stone-covered driveway, rock walls, and shrubbery are just a few of the things he's added, and he plans to continue restoring the yard all the way down to the water's edge, where the mill's spillways and an old foundation still exist.

Twenty years ago, Stokowski's nondescript house wasn't worth a second look. Today, it's a work of art.