The Designing Women house! Historic House Tour: Stunning Second Empire

Welcome back to Preservation Travels with Lane and Kevin here at Our Restoration Nation and today we're bringing you the most famous house we've ever toured. Welcome back to the Quapaw Quarter and welcome to the Villa Marie built in 1882 by Angelo and Jeannie Marie. Now we in Arkansas know this as the Villa Marie but if you grew up in the 80s and 90s watching television you know this as the Sugarbaker Design Firm. The home from Designing Women where our favorite characters Julia, Suzanne, Mary Jo, and Charlene had their design firm. The exterior still looks exactly like it did during the 80s and 90s filming of the show but the interior is completely different than the set for the show. So we're so excited to take you along, take you inside, and show you what this architectural masterpiece really looks like. Let's take a look at the Villa Marie. The Villa Marie was built in 1881 to 1882 by Angelo and Jeannie Marie. Angelo Marie was born in September of 1842 in Borsanosca, Italy. He arrived in the United States at 12 years old and he and his family settled in Memphis, Tennessee. From 1865 to 1868 Angelo worked for the Memphis Police Department but was forced to resign after he was accused of killing a man during a fight. He was acquitted of the crime and started in the saloon business. Angelo's problems with the law were not over. In 1872, Marie was convicted of stealing money from a local business owned by the Memphis Police Chief. The Shelby County Criminal Court handed down a three-year sentence in the Tennessee State Prison and revoked Marie's American citizenship. For some unknown reason, then Tennessee Governor John Brown granted Angelo a full pardon two years into his sentence. He was able to regain his citizenship in 1879. While he was in prison, he inherited money from his former paramour, Annie Melrose. She was the madam of a Memphis bordello who died of yellow fever. As soon as he got out of prison, he claimed his inheritance and joined his brothers in Little Rock, Arkansas hoping for a fresh start. After a short stint as a bartender at several local establishments, Angelo and his brothers opened the Marie Brothers Stinnett Saloon and Billiard Parlor and it was advertised as carrying the finest stock of wines and liqueurs in the city. In 1877, Angelo married Jenny Basigalopso in a Catholic ceremony in Little Rock. From 1877 until 1881, Angelo and Jenny Marie lived in a small house on the corner of 2nd and Scott Streets in Little Rock. The Maries lived next door to Matthew Duffy, who was one of Angelo's two competitors in the saloon business, and his wife, Mary Agnes. Matthew died in 1878 from unknown causes and it's then that Angelo got involved with Mary Agnes. In 1881, while Angelo was married to Jenny, Mary Agnes gave birth to Angelo Marie's son, Angelo Marie Jr. Angelo never attempted to hide the relationship that he had with Mary Agnes and even provided for his son's education in his will. And there's some evidence that suggests that Angelo Marie fathered other children outside of addition to this one. By the mid-1880s, Angelo owned two saloons, a liquor import business, an office building in downtown Little Rock, and 3,000 shares of stock in mining companies in Montgomery and Garland County. Not only that, he was elected the first president of Edison Electric Company in Little Rock. However, his incredibly bad temper, his violent outbursts continued to get him in trouble with the law. It was widely reported that Marie horsewhipped a man in the lobby of the Capitol Hotel and even pulled the ears and slapped the face of a local judge. Even with all of this, Angelo Marie was able to clean up his act and enter the political arena. He was city alderman for Ward 2 in the mid-1880s. Angelo Marie had an incredibly bizarre death, equally dramatic to the life he'd lived. In 1888, he went on a hunting trip and while on the trip, he cut his big toe. He refused to see a physician until December, which resulted in blood poisoning and having part of his foot amputated without anesthesia. Sadly, the amputation was not enough to save Marie's life and he died on February the 18th of 1889 as a result of the infection. His custom-designed marble monument was ordered from Italy and cost $5,000. On the monument is a relief carved portrait of Angelo Marie, the only likeness known of the infamous businessman of Little Rock, Arkansas. Now let's talk about the house, its architecture, and how it's evolved over its life. The name the Villa Marie didn't come into being until the 1960s. Before that, it was simply the home of Angelo and Ginny Marie. It's a rare example of Second Empire-style architecture in the capital city. The Second Empire style was the first of the new architectural styles that came into vogue after the American Civil War and it lasted right up until the end of the 19th century. The style is distinctive for its mansard roof, named after the 17th century French architect Francois Mansard. The roofline was revived in France during the reign of Napoleon III, France's second empire, from which the architectural style takes its name. As with all things, the popularity of the style came from France to the United States. The Villa Marie really exemplifies the Second Empire style. Of course, we have the center tower with its beautiful cresting. Originally, the cresting would have run all the way around the roof. Now, only the center cresting on the cupola remains. It has the steeply sloped mansard roof, with the windows located on the lower steep slope of the roof, and the decorative hood moldings above the doors and the windows. Today, the Villa Marie serves as a location for all of your special events. A wedding, an engagement, an anniversary party, whatever need you have, the Villa Marie is a location that you can use and what a spectacular spot to celebrate your special day. Welcome inside this beautiful Second Empire home with its gorgeous mansard roof. You'll see on this home so many of the beautiful details of a Second Empire home, but it has had some trendy updates through the years. So let's take a look at what is original and what's been changed. Here we are in the formal parlor, and here we have one of the original pieces to this space. I absolutely love this mansion. First of all, just for its grandiose size, it's almost 11 feet tall. It has its gorgeous mercury glass mirror. It's still intact, but on it are these griffin winged lions. You'll see at the top, the wings, the lion head with the mane, the crest, and then down here at the bottom, we do have the feet represented. Why is a griffin in this space really meaningful? Well, the builder of this home, Angelo Marie, was Italian. The griffin has long been the symbol of power of the Medici family in Italy. So I have to believe that when Angelo was designing his home, he wanted these griffins on this front mantle where all the company would have been received so he could show off his connection to Italy and the power that he'd achieved here in the United States. Now let's take a look at some things that have changed in this home, some things that are not original. Most people would walk into this home and look at these exquisite parquet floors and think, oh these have been here from the beginning. They would look at this expansive two-room layout, a main parlor, and a monumental dining room and think it's always been like this, but that's not the case. Famed architect Charles Thompson in about 1910 came in here and did a trendy update, facelift, a makeover. We got these beautiful parquet floors over the original cypress and what was originally a three-room split becomes two rooms. Let me take you into the dining room and show you some changes he made in there when he took two rooms and made one dining room. Standing in the formal dining room, which originally would have been two rooms, it would have been split more than likely in between these two doorways, we would have had a wall and we would have had two rooms. That wall was blown out and we went to an open floor plan in 1910. So what are some changes in here that are quintessentially 1910 and have absolutely nothing to do with the second empire style? This wainscoting that runs the entire perimeter of the room. This is completely and totally 1910. Coffered ceilings, 1910. The parquet floors, as we know for sure, 1910. So these, while they look appropriate, you would walk into the casual observer, the updates that happened about 30 years after the home was built. Here we are on the opposite side of the house in what would have been the family parlor. And I think this space retains the most of its original features to give you really an idea of how the Marie family would have lived in this house, how it would have looked when they were here. Now, again, we have replacement parquet floors. These would have been simple cypress when the home was built. But what we do have is this incredible 12 foot pure mirror that was built into the house in 1881, 82, and has been here ever since. I love the variety of wood colors that we see on this. It is faux painted. I don't know what the wood underneath it is, possibly pine, but it's so painted to appear to be ebony, mahogany and maple. And then we also have gilt features on it as well. This is high aesthetic movement. This is high aesthetic movement style. You can see with the spoon carving, the relief work, absolutely stunning. And it's been right here since this home was built across the room, right across from it so that the light would bounce from the pure mirror to the mantle. We have an incredible, again, aesthetic period mantle piece. Let's take a look at that. This is a dream piece. This to me is just, it just typifies the aesthetic period, second empire styling, absolutely exquisite. And again, you can see here right on the edge of this mantle piece where the ebony faux paint has worn away to the base wood underneath. I still can't quite tell what it is because it hasn't worn all the way down, but you can see that this is not an ebony mantle piece. It's ebonized. And then again, we have the bird's eye maple and the mahogany detailing. You can see the beveled glass, the arched top. It's just absolutely an exquisite piece. And it reflects into the pure mirror that we just saw. So that even with low gas light, you would have had tons of light reflecting in this space. This was done very intentionally. Now, have we ever talked about why a pure mirror is called a pure mirror? I don't know if we have. A pure is the space between two objects. So two doorways, two windows, you have a void that's called a pure. And typically it's because there's a pure underneath in the foundation. It all has to do with the construction of the house. So a pure mirror is meant to sit in that pure space between those two openings, most commonly windows, but often doors as well. Here I'm standing in the opening to these absolutely glorious pocket doors that still roll beautifully, have their gorgeous brass fitting on the floor. And behind me is what was originally the library. Now, now it serves as an office space. This, this space now functions as both a law office and a wedding venue. So depending upon your needs, this could be the most glorious place you could imagine to get married. But behind me was the library. And I know it was the library because when Kevin and I had been married three whole years, we tried to buy the Villa Marie. We put an offer in on the house. The house had been under the same ownership for decades and decades. And this room was still set as the library. It still had extant library cases that had been here for probably 70 years. And on the ceilings and walls were the original mural that had been painted and applied. It was in desperate need of repair, but it was still there. We hear it still lives in the basement. So hopefully at some point it will be returned to its rightful place. You can see the coffered ceiling behind me. That is not original to the build date. It would have been added in that trendy 1910 facelift that came along with it, but an absolutely exquisite space. Here we are in the back hall. Now this space is absolutely fascinating. It's one of our favorites in the house because of what it is and what it was. If you look closely, you can see that this entire portion of the house with its chamfered columns that surround it was originally a completely separate portion. We're now standing in an enclosed space, but this originally would not have been enclosed. Your home would have ended right here where these brick walls are. We probably would have had a shed porch roof. And this, which was the original kitchen, would have been a completely separate space. Again, to protect the house from fires, from smells, from heat. But now it's an enclosed walkway gallery. We absolutely love it. I love, again, that these chamfered columns have suddenly become an interior decorator feature going into the kitchen that does still retain some of its original features. We hope you've enjoyed this peek inside one of Little Rock's most famous homes. Definitely worldwide acclaim on this house. And now you know what the inside of Villa Marie actually looks like. And you've learned the history, the fascinating history of the man that built this house, what he went through, who he was. So should I say that he was famous or should I say that he was infamous? And don't forget, this home is closely linked to the Hornibrook mansion that we've shown you a couple of times across the way. Mr. Marie and Mr. Hornibrook were major business rivals and they tried to outbuild one another. So now that you've seen inside both homes, you can tell us which one you think was the winner of the architectural battle. Don't forget, we don't represent the house in any way. If you would like to rent the Villa Marie to be your wedding venue, you can get on their website listed in the description below and take a peek. We thank you for being here. We hope you'll subscribe, give us a thumbs up, leave us a comment, let us know what your favorite part of seeing inside this famous house was, and we'll see you next time on Preservation Travels with Lane and Kevin.