VINTAGE CURIOSITIES FIND A HOME AT THE MANOR
Date: July 31 2014
Publication: And North
Kenyan Paris Lewis and Meghan Auld are potential-seekers. Enthusiasts of a particular kind. An old tube radio becomes a DJ booth. A stack of vintage suitcases befits a night stand. A 35-foot royal spartanette trailer? An indoor movie theatre. “I just love everything old,” Kenyan says. “I’m attracted to broken things that just need repairing, or are in need of tender loving care.”
Their relationship, born from friendship, grew into a mutually-beneficial partnership: she helped him build a website for his full-service design business, ByKenyan, and he showed her the art of prop and antique sourcing. “Kenyan has an ability to walk into an empty room and just see,” Meghan says. “He doesn’t plan things out, he doesn’t draw them out, unless he has to. But, he can walk into a room and completely transform a space.”
The Manor is their home. An impressive stone structure that was once a refuge for patriot politicians, serving as the New York State capital for 30 days during the Revolutionary War. Today, it is a museum of things once-loved, a strongbox of curiosities. Eleven rooms, each with a distinct character.
Kenyan first visited the house in the fall of 2013 after a friend tipped him off to its Craigslist posting. The owner, an artist and business consultant, Cynthia MacVay, saw him pull up with his assistant Frank, “I’m so glad you came,” she said. “I want you to have this house…I googled you…”
What Cynthia didn’t know was that he’d seen it before. He’d driven by its majestic frame every day for three years on the way from his home in Accord to his studio in downtown Kingston. “Every time I passed by, I would see the barn and think ‘I’m going to live in that house one day,’” he says. “So, this was destined. It all just worked out.”