A blend of personalities
Jonathan and Bobbie Turner added many personal touches to their Society Hill rowhouse, and even combined it with the much older house next door.
Several homes in Society Hill have plaques from the Philadelphia Historical Commission between their second-floor windows.
The plaques designate that facades of the homes, built in the 18th and early 19th centuries, are historically accurate.
At first glance, Jonathan and Bobbie Turner’s brick, Colonial-style rowhouse with its multipaned windows, shutters, and transom above a paneled door would appear among those to qualify. But it does not because it was built in 1963.
The house replaced a 1740 dwelling that became so dilapidated it collapsed in the 1920s.
“The neighborhood was a slum,” said Jonathan.
Many early homes in Society Hill had fallen down or were crumbling when the area was reborn in the early 1960s. By then Independence National Historical Park was established. With the restoration of historic buildings, neighborhood homes were also restored and new ones constructed.
In 1984, when then-single Jonathan purchased the two-story house with the dormer, he did not care that it wasn’t historic. “It had the biggest backyard,” he said, which he converted into a charming garden.
A native of Derbyshire, England, Jonathan had moved to Philadelphia after buying a company that manufactured hardware for shipbuilding.
Eight years later Jonathan decided to sell the house and move to Chestnut Hill, where most of his friends lived. But then he changed plans when he met Bobbie. They married in 1994 and stayed in Society Hill.
She liked the house, and it was convenient to South Jersey where she worked at the time and where she had grown up. She is now director of convention and meeting services at the American College of Physicians in Philadelphia.
Bobbie appreciated the furnishings from Jonathan’s British family and added some of her own, but there was work to be done, including a kitchen renovation. She asked interior designer Rosa Cucchia, a friend of her sister Joy, for help.
Cucchia updated the kitchen with new appliances, beige cabinetry, and gray and beige granite countertops and backsplash. Several years later Bobbie had the cabinets painted a deep coral and covered the walls with a gray and coral floral-patterned wallpaper.
To make the one window in the living room a focal point, Cucchia designed a silk swag and valance of salmon-colored silk, picking up a color from the rug. She found a reproduction antique secretary which complemented Jonathan’s furniture.
Recently Bobbie asked Cucchia to update the decor. The salmon-colored window treatment was replaced with a treatment of the same design in blue, again picking up a color from the rug. The chair Bobbie acquired in front of the secretary was reupholstered, as were Jonathan’s two vintage arm chairs in shades of blue.
Blue and white porcelain pieces — some antique, some from Home Goods, as well as cream colored walls with pale blue panels completed the decor.
Much of the art in the home, including scenes of Ireland and Wales, belonged to Jonathan’s father, Max. “He had impeccable taste,” his son said.
A large painting of two hawks by an Irish artist hangs in the dining room, where white walls and deep gray wainscoting pick up the colors in the painting.
Two paintings of Rome in the stairwell belonged to Bobbie’s grandmother, Marie.
The top shelf of an étagère displays tastevins, small silver dishes used for wine tasting. The Turners met at an event at Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, a food and wine society.
In 2002, when their son James was born, the couple purchased the two-story, 1765 “cottage” next door and connected the homes.
An English rocker and two straight-back chairs in the cottage’s butler pantry date from the 1600s. The wood-burning fireplace is original. Pine flooring had to be replaced with tile, but flooring in the front parlor was preserved. The room is cozy with a scarlet rug and sofa and two high-backed chairs. A unique square piano fits in the small space.
Next door, Cucchia recently updated the guest bedroom and primary bedroom, where blue, as in the living room, is the dominant color.
A leak prompted Bobbie to make over the basement into a comfortable entertainment center with bright green storage cabinets.
The Turners’ home is “a blend of their personalities,” Cucchia said. They have created “a livable environment where there is a different energy in every space.”
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