Page 20 - The Hunt - Fall 2024

HOME & GARDEN
Rural Renaissance
In Phoenixville, a bank barn gets
an artistic transformation.
BY EILEEN SMITH DALLABRIDA
PHOTOS BY JASON SANDY/ANGLE EYE PHOTOGRAPHY
Eight years ago, painter and potter Deb Lawrence moved to historic Phoenixville, attracted by a burgeoning art community and a climate that allows her to enjoy the changing of the seasons without being battered by harsh winters.
“I grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where
it’s often gray and cloudy, and then lived in Shaker Heights, near Cleveland, where the cold blows in from Lake Erie,” she says. “I visited Philadelphia and thought the people and the weather in the area were both lovely.”
Her current and much-cherished home is a circa-1745 Chester County farmhouse
on a three-acre property bordering a 60-acre preserve. The bonus is a two-story bank barn, also built in the 1700s. Lawrence envisioned the barn as a spacious art studio that doubles as a guest house when her young-adult offspring visits.
The bank barn’s previous resident was a horse. To transform the dark structure into
a light-drenched studio and living space suitable for people, Lawrence turned to
Mark Janiczek, founder of Janiczek Homes. She appreciates Janiczek’s interactive spirit and willingness to work with the local historic review board. Philadelphia architect Anthony
18 THE HUNT MAGAZINE fall 2024