On the Market: Fishers' Restored Home at 255 Clarke Avenue in Palm Beach

It wasn't a prince that awakened this mid-town sleeping beauty. Rather, it was the home's discerning owner, Frances Fisher, who bought the 1920s-era house with her husband, Jeffrey, about 10 years ago.

 

"Casa Coral was built in 1927 by John Volk for Alfred Feltman, the creator of the Coney Island hotdog," Frances says about her home at 255 Clarke Ave., which has been landmarked by the Town of Palm Beach.

 

Frances led the way through an intensive renovation that has restored and updated the 9,158 total-square-foot Spanish Mediterranean-style house that stands four streets north of Royal Palm Way. In addition to the main residence - with its four bedrooms, three bathrooms and three half-baths - a guest house offers two bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen, living room and dining room.

 

The Fishers say they have enjoyed their time in Casa Coral but want to travel a bit before their 4-year-old son, Harrison, starts grade school.

 

As a result, they've listed the home for sale at $10.9 million through the Palm Beach brokerage of Corcoran Group Real Estate.

 

When they acquired the house, it wasn't in disrepair but rather presented itself as "a mixed bag," Frances says. "The structure of Volk's work was there, but it had undergone many additions and various renovations over the years, not in keeping or complementary to the historic original elements," she says.

 

"With style, integrity and soul, Volk was a man of tremendous influence. This house was a sleeping beauty."

 

The home's elegant and graceful exterior first caught Fisher's attention.

 

"It has a romance and great warmth and character that is hard to find and impossible to replicate," she says, explaining that the primary feature of the front fa‡ade was borrowed from a style of ornate Spanish architecture popular in the 15th and 16th centuries.

 

"From the front, its most striking feature is its Plateresque frontispiece with intricate relief. It surrounds the front door and extends to the second story of the roofline."

 

Inside, she notes, the house offers plenty of other alluring, although half-hidden, details.

 

"So many of them were already there but were in need of restoration. We did make discoveries along the way."

 

Take, for example, the living room's pecky-cypress ceiling, which, when she first saw it, was painted white. The Fishers had the paint stripped and sanded, exposing wood that still lends the living area a faint but delightful cypress fragrance. The Fishers correctly surmised that the ceiling originally had been hand-painted, although the design had been lost under layers of paint. Volk's widow provided them the answer.

 

"My husband and I got the plans from Jane Volk, which detailed the original stenciling," Frances says. "We restored that," she says.

 

Artist Richard Holton did the lion's share of restoring the pecky cypress along with executing the stenciling and the home's many faux finishes.

 

Another surprise turned up underfoot during the renovation. "The floor had been carpeted. When we removed it, we found the original tile floor with painted Spanish tile insets throughout the living room, loggia and foyer. It was in perfect condition," Frances says.

 

The living room stands to the east of the foyer, opposite the formal dining room. Among its noteworthy features is a stately carved cast-stone fireplace. Cypress-framed windows with fan windows overhead bring in soft natural light.

 

Frances, who is originally from Tuscaloosa, Ala., collaborated with two lifelong friends from her hometown - Heidi Eddings and Jeff Patterson of Heidi's Interiors - on the interior design.

 

"I credit them for incorporating that timeless, gracious, Southern charm," she says. "The process of working with designers who are also friends made it a delightful experience for both Jeff and me."

 

To the north, through the living room's two archways, is the enclosed loggia. It, too, features a pecky-cypress ceiling embellished with corbels. Seamless, glass-paned arches to the north and east open the house to marvelous views of the patio, gardens, pergola and dramatic deep-blue lap pool. Extending from the house nearly to rear of the enclosed back yard, the pool has a series of gracefully spurting fountains along each side that allow it to double as a reflecting pond.

 

Landscape architect Jorge Sanchez of Sanchez and Maddux designed the pool and fountains along with the rest of the property's foliage plan.

 

A step up to the west from the loggia leads to the breakfast room. It features hardwood oak floors, cypress wainscoating and a cypress ceiling with corbels and beams. In the corner is a raised fireplace covered with tiles.

 

West of the foyer are the formal dining room - with more cypress detailing - along with a butler's pantry and the large, airy kitchen.

 

A beamed, stenciled cypress ceiling tops stucco walls in the kitchen, which has oak floors and is organized around a center island. A kitchen office is tucked into a recessed area, while a stainless Thermador range sits in another alcove. Other top-of-the line appliances are incorporated seamlessly into the cabinetry.

 

To the rear of the kitchen and running along the west side of the pool is the family room, which opens to an outdoor kitchen.

 

Upstairs and to the west are two guest-bedroom suites - one features arched bookcases forming a recessed area for a desk.

 

To the east and overlooking the pool is the second-floor master suite with his-and-her closets and a large bathroom equipped with a whirlpool tub. Also to the east is an expansive guest bedroom suite.

 

The garage and guest quarters stand in the northwest portion of the property. Like the main house, the guest apartment has views of the covered pergola that stands at the rear of the back yard and anchors the gardens.

 

"It's a focal point when sitting inside the house," Frances says, explaining that the pergola was another hidden treasure uncovered during the renovation.

 

"We chipped away at its wall and found a beautiful blue-and-yellow tile wall that we were able to restore."

 

Other features brought back into play throughout the house were columns and arches that had been covered by walls. "We removed 1,000 square feet of additions on the back of the house and brought back the original lines as Volk had designed," she explains.

Removing uncomple-mentary additions allowed the house to bloom.

 

"The knockdown created space for magnificent gardens and the reflecting pool. We had been inspired by the Alhambra," she says.

 

Architecture, antiques, vistas and views the Fishers recalled from their travels were considered - and often incorporated - during the renovation process.

 

"We looked at classic Spanish architecture as well as Renaissance architecture," she says. "So much in Palm Beach is a blend.

 

"Often people think that it must be tiresome to undertake something of this magnitude. Restoring is sometimes harder than building, but we enjoyed picking up things from all over the world with the right feeling. So many of our antiques have wonderful memories attached to them."

 

For more information  about 255 Clarke Ave., call Realtor Jim McCann at  (561) 296-8720.