Blue Ridge Country March/April 2021 - 46

eter Hunter and his adult son,
Blake, stand shoulder-to-shoulder, admiring the newly reconstructed wooden windows of
a historic farmhouse in downtown Crozet, Virginia. The addition is the latest in a project
they've been working on for about three
years-transforming a decrepit Revolutionary War-era structure into a cozy
vacation home not far from the Shenandoah National Park.
The process hasn't been easy. It started with disassembling the house boardby-board, saving what was usable and
moving everything about three miles
into town. Peter restored old siding
and matched it with materials he'd salvaged from historic homes in the past.
The same was done for exposed chestnut beams and heart-pine flooring. Two
mostly toppled stone fireplaces were reconfigured into jaw-droppingly beautiful chimneys. Staircase bannisters and
railings were made custom using periodcorrect styles and techniques. The list
goes on.
" Peter approaches these projects like
an artist, " says homeowner Matt Lucas.
" It's like he's trying to bring an old, lost
painting back to life. Only, when he
does, it's more incredible than you possibly could've imagined. "
Lucas, a software engineer, learned
of the father-son duo after buying a
rundown 19th century plantation-style
house in Albemarle County in the mid-

2000s. Lucas hoped to restore its historical grandeur as accurately as possible-
but, with a wife and two small children,
also wanted modern comforts. Shopping
around for contractors, the name of Peter Hunter came up often.
" You've heard of the guitarist's guitarist, well, Peter's like the builder's builder, " says Lucas with a laugh.
Hunter, 66, has spent 40-plus years
rebuilding historic cabins and homes in
the Charlottesville area and Shenandoah
Valley. To do it, he pairs hand-salvaged
and custom-made materials with periodcorrect architecture and project-specific
research.
Prior jobs have included rebuilding

the grand entryway of a Gilded Age estate bordering the Shenandoah National
Park, using slate from fallen stables in
Buckingham County, pink marble casing
and columns from a century-old condemned mansion, and exposed beams
from a previously disassembled tobacco
warehouse. Windowsills, doors, wainscotting and trim were hand-carved from
walnut trees harvested onsite. A blacksmith recreated light fixtures and hardware for doors from old photos.
Elsewhere, Hunter restored a 200-yearold log cabin, then disassembled and
added two 17th century colonial homes
as wings. He added touches like countertops shaped from slabs of salvaged marble, copper roofs and gutters,
antique clawfoot tubs and Old
Italian Venetian limestone tiles
pulled from a renovation job.
Searching for materials has
been an adventure. Since Hunter started in the early-1980s,
he says he's " driven probably
every mile of every backroad
in Virginia hunting for great
stuff. " Discoveries have led to
dismantling hundreds of old
structures-including textile
mills, bridges, stone chim-

...they've been working on for about
three years-transforming a decrepit
Revolutionary War-era structure into
a cozy vacation home
46

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Blue Ridge Country March/April 2021

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