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Trestleview >> Newer home captures historic feel
BY EMILY BATTLE
Date published: 4/12/2007
BY EMILY BATTLE
Color might be the first thing that catches your eye about the house at 308 Caroline St.
As part of a landscape theme designed by Phillip Watson, the brick pathway that leads up to the home at the corner of Caroline and Frederick streets is lined with grape hyacinths and bright red tulips.
"It's going to be like a blaze of glory when people come down that walk," said Linda Coker.
On April 24, the home will be featured on the Rappahannock Valley Garden Club tour. It will be open to guests from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Coker and her husband, local orthodontist John H. Coker Jr., bought the house in 2001 from the Herrick family.
It was built in 1997 by Tom Wack. That may be young for lower Caroline, but the home blends in with its neighbors, thanks in part to the shade from a huge Atlas cypress tree in the front yard.
The house was placed on the lot in a way that preserved the tree.
The Charleston-style two-story porches on the front also help evoke an older feel.
The porches look out on a brick patio that is somewhat sheltered from the street by the house's placement.
The home is built on a lot that was originally the garden of the house next to it.
The Cokers have created a home where almost every decoration tells a story.
There's the framed mosaic depicting the Roman Colosseum, created by nuns at the Vatican, which they picked up on their trip to Italy.
Glassware from Russia, Italy and the Czech Republic celebrates places they and their children have visited.
A sitting room off the front hall is devoted to American Indian crafts, a nod to John Coker's Cherokee heritage. A large wooden drum, carved from a tree trunk, serves as the coffee table.
On a recent trip to Alaska, the Cokers picked up an inikshuk, a stone sculpture that will be the symbol of the 2008 Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia.
But it's not all a celebration of faraway places.
The Cokers have begun collecting local artwork to adorn their home. There's a kitchen rug painted by Ellen Worthy Stokes, a still life by Betsy Glassie and a mother-and-child painting by Johnny Johnson.
The house overlooks the train tracks, and Linda Coker said her husband visited the home at various times of day before deciding to buy, to make sure the noise wouldn't be an issue.
It turned out that it wasn't, and the tracks actually inspired Coker to give her home something that just about every other house on the street has--a name.
She decided to call it "Trestleview."
Emily Battle: 540/374-5413
Email: ebattle@freelancestar.com
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A framed mosaic depicting the Roman Colosseum, created by nuns at the Vatican, hangs in the house.
Glassware from Russia, Italy and the Czech Republic are other special features.
A sitting room off the front hall is devoted to American Indian crafts. |
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Date published: 4/12/2007
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