170 Cumberland Avenue

Diane Jortner

The Willis Erdman Collins House is an 1893 3-story 5900 square foot Colonial Revival dwelling with a gambrel roof, brick foundation, and shingle siding over weatherboards. With an oral history and old photos from Collins’ granddaughter, as well as her own long relationship with the house, current owner Diane Jortner could fill volumes. The term “revival” describes much more than the architecture of this unique home. When Jortner moved into the house in 1996, it was inhabited by 18 individuals and multiple undomesticated animals. The house had no working heat and received power from a temporary pole. The configuration of the house changed dramatically over the decades as well. The house currently includes 5 bedrooms, 4 full baths, 2 half baths, a butler pantry, wine cellar, brew room, exercise room, museum room, and a 3rd floor 1400 sq ft apartment. Every room of the house is furnished with antiques. The living room fireplace is tiled with antique Uruguayan tile. The 22’ ft long dining room has a parquet floor and a coffered ceiling with copper trays. Twenty windows along the west side of the house were salvaged and repurposed from the house next door. Kitchen countertops are heart pine wood milled from the original front porch floor joists. The butler pantry countertops and the den fireplace surround are of repurposed wormy chestnut from subfloors and exterior siding. The 3rd floor features tin ceilings, a wormy chestnut bar, and virgin cherrywood wainscoting. The original 4-foot wide front door is heart pine. The floors on the 1st floor are heart pine, except the dining room parquet floor made of 9 different woods – designed, cut, and laid by Jortner in 2010. Outside is a stone patio with a kitchen and a 40 x 20 flower cutting garden with a fountain. This house was on the 1997 Montord Home Tour. If you visited then, don’t miss this chance to see it again!