Couple's renovated Murray Hill home is part of Annapolis by Candlelight tour

It wasn't until Karen Koch saw pictures of her house in a local magazine that she realized how terrific it was.

Last spring, she agreed to a photographic house tour for a friend, who was the editor.

"I saw the pictures and I thought, 'Damn. It looks good.'"

Soon she will see if everybody agrees. Her 1920s four-square in Annapolis' Murray Hill community will be among the 10 homes open Nov. 4 and 5 for the 20th annual Annapolis by Candlelight house tour.

"We've put so much blood, sweat and tears into this house," said Koch, the owner of Miss Nancy's Fancy Bakery in Annapolis. "When Historic Annapolis came to us in June, we thought, 'Why not?'"

The house is a little jewel, decorated in what is known as the American Empire or Federal style. Avid collectors, Koch and her husband, Paul, have a number of pieces from the early 1800s, including furniture, china, silver, glassware and framed prints.

But, if you look closely, you might notice that plenty of pieces are from Restoration Hardware, particularly the light fixtures, and the Kochs have blended these and other reproductions seamlessly.

The linoleum in the kitchen is genuine linoleum. The five-panel swinging door into the dining room was a lucky find in a salvage shop. But the food canisters on the counter and the clock on the kitchen wall – all in vintage 1920s style – are as modern as catalog shopping.

Patience played a part as well in bringing this house back to life. Koch says she searched long and hard to find the subway tiles for the kitchen back-splash and the linoleum for the kitchen floor.

"Most people assume I did all of this," she said. "But the truth is, it was the history major who did a lot of it," she said, giving credit to her spouse.

Koch met her husband at Rutgers, where he was studying American history, a topic also taught by his father.

"He's going to kill me for telling you this, but he was a Revolutionary War re-enactor in high school."

The couple started collecting almost immediately. Their first purchase together was a butler's desk that now graces the second floor library, which lined with books on history and decorative arts and Paul's collection of antique travel books.

"He bought me an engagement ring," she said. "And I bought him a [reproduction of an 18th century] clock," she said, pointing to the piece on the top of the desk. "Seemed only right."

Murray Hill is among the most prosperous of neighborhoods in Annapolis city, with homes selling from the high six figures to the low millions. It wasn't always this flush.

The area where the Kochs' home sits was part of a historically black section of the city and just a handful of similar houses survive. The couple purchased their property from a real estate agent who had acquired it from the heirs of an African-American couple.

"I think they thought they could fix it up and flip it," said Karen Koch of the agent. "It was 1999, and you could still be successful doing that. But it turned out to be a bigger can of worms than they wanted.

"And we were dumb enough to buy it."

After purchasing the property, the couple lived in Bowie with her mother for more than six years while they worked on the house.

The woodwork and trim are all original, but they had to tear it off the plaster walls, "and clean 80 years of guck off of it," she said.

The original pine floors just required reconditioning, but each of the hanging windows had to be removed, restored and re-hung.

"My husband was determined," she said. "He found the string, we had the metal tracks made and we took off the molding and re-strung the weights."

The reward? The heavy old windows open and close effortless, and the weight system holds them in place no matter how great or small the opening.

The fabrics the couple used for the chairs in the dining room [antique], the couch [antique] and the sidearm chairs in the living room [reproductions], as well as many of the window treatments, have an unmistakable Federal appeal. But the Kochs found them in mill end shops and retail fabric stores.

The upstairs bathroom is the only room that was completely gutted, but it was restored to the black-and-white tile popular in the 20s.

"The pedestal sink?" she says. "It came from Lowes. Just try to find [an original] pedestal sink anywhere."

Even the walls reflect the Kochs' love of collecting. In the living room hang four original Audubon prints and, in the dining room, six prints from English engraver John Boydell's Shakespearean project, a masterwork he created in the late 1700s.

And the stairwell to the second floor is decorated by framed antique maps and drawings of Russia's czars. Paul Koch, who works in human resources for General Dynamics in Northern Virginia, is Russian Orthodox.

Even the flag on the front porch reflects the Kochs' love of collecting. Hanging now is a reproduction of a Maryland flag from the French and Indian War: Lord Calvert's colors of yellow and black in the body, with a Union Jack in the corner. It is one of five historic Maryland flags they have found.

"A house is a funny thing," she says, musing. "But we did all of this and we did it together. When people find out that Paul decorated it, too, they say the same thing, 'My, he has good taste,' as if it is a surprise that a man would.

"I say the same thing: 'He must. He married me.' "

sreimer@baltsun.com



If you go



20th annual Annapolis by Candlelight Tour



The self-guided tour of 10 Murray Hill homes, sponsored by Historic Annapolis Foundation, is Friday and Saturday, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. rain or shine.

Advance tickets are available through Sunday, Oct. 30 at $25 for members and volunteers and $30 for non-members. Beginning Monday, Oct. 31, all tickets are $35. Tickets are valid for both nights. The tour is not handicap accessible.

To order tickets online, call 410-267-7619. For group sales, call 410-990-4538.

Tickets and programs may be picked up at the Historic Annapolis Museum at 99 Main St. beginning Oct. 30. On the evenings of the event, there will also be a will call table set up outside the first tour house at 50 Franklin St.

For a detailed map of the Murray Hill area, please visit http://www.hometownannapolis.com/tour sights.