Dreyfuss and Ours restored this clerestory library. An arched window is set into a triangular pediment, showing the architect's attention to spatial relationships. A sunken reading room provides a comfortable nook for solitary perusal of walls worth of bookshelves.
“What you see, standing on Prospect Street,” George Hemphill says, “isn’t the original façade of Halcyon House.” In fact, there was an epic renovation befitting its owner, John Dreyfuss, whose overweening interest in mythos defines much of his cerebral yet deeply classical sculpture. Dreyfuss spent 13 years working on the restoration – originally, the house had been purchased by his father. The work – one of passion rather than routine, Hemphill asserts – began when Dreyfuss Sr. became ill and son John moved home to Washington to finish what his father had started. It became a trust and a foundation of sorts; Dreyfuss, who lives and works in one part, also rents portions of its massive interior as separate residential apartments and lets the space out for events. There’s a chapel on the property, a swimming pool and a backyard overlooking the Potomac: too much for one man. The red brick exterior is actually what was once termed the “porch” of the building and was added much later to make the property advance enough to meet Prospect Street neatly. Inside, there are detailed photos of the original construction, including several renovation models.
Infamous for his tattered hat and disjointed ramblings around town, previous owner Albert Adsit Clemens – a relation of Mark Twain – owned Halycon House in the early 19th century. At that time, the rear of the building was the front. Here, the main house is seen through a “garden folly” opposite to the building.
Dreyfuss’s piece “Merlin – evoking Brancusi’s “Bird in Flight” – is placed in the stairway leading from the more public studio space, rented out for parties, and the rest of the house. This encourages interaction between the guests, the space, and the work. "Our main job," Dreyfuss says, "is to have a building where the events bring life to it." Dreyfuss's art dealer, George Hemphill, calls "Merlin" a "play between balance and symmetry, and between image and historical allusion."
The master bedroom suite is fitted with a separate seating area – the sale d’attent occupied by Louis XIV’s courtiers each morning comes to mind – near the fireplace. Custom glazed ochre walls were a touch from Ours, whose eye for composition greatly benefited the decorating of Halcyon House. The working fireplace is flanked by chairs and a bathtub.
