Page 14 - The Hunt - Spring 2021

HOME & GARDEN
By Eileen Smith Dallabrida | Photographs by Jim Graham
The Right Side
of the Tracks
A stationmaster’s house becomes a stunning home in Chateau Country.
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THE HUNT MAGAZINE spring 2021
Victoria Dickinson has been selling real estate for 30 years. In all that time, she’s owned just one home, a former stationmaster’s house sited near the East Penn Railroad tracks in Delaware’s bucolic Chateau Country. “This place has felt like home since the moment I saw it, so much so that I never want to leave,” she says.
Built around the turn of the 20th century, the house was moved to its current location in 1952. These days, the tracks are silent, with occasional exceptions. Three times a week, a train chugs by on its route from Coatesville, Pa., traveling at a maximum speed of eight miles per hour. “You can run and keep up with it,” she says.
In the 1990s, as Dickinson was house hunting, the up-and-coming professional set was gravitating toward Trolley Square in Wilmington, with its bustling bars and restaurants. She, on the other hand, yearned for rolling green hills and open spaces, a place suited to long walks and a romp with the dog. “I’m a horse girl and wanted to be in the country,” she says.
The tired, faded structure she found seemed out of place in its pristine, verdant setting. It was on the small side, about 1,400 square feet, with a choppy layout and a decrepit kitchen. But Dickinson saw potential in its 14-inch-thick walls and 1.27-acre lot. It was also a brisk five-minute walk to Brandywine Creek.
With youthful exuberance and help from two roommates (“three girls and one bathroom”), Dickinson began getting the house back on track. Restoring it was like