The charming seaside town of Pacific Grove was originally developed as a retreat by the Methodist Church with the first campers coming to spend the summer in 1875. 30-by-60-foot parcels known as “tent lots” were sold to ensure families had their own spot to set up camp when they returned year after year, and frequent visitors began building vacation cottages to create a more comfortable retreat experience. Though these small lots were intended for part-time use, the area’s natural beauty and fresh ocean air turned many vacationers into permanent residents, resulting in a full-time population of 1,300 by 1879. With that permanent population came the desire for larger homes.
In 1891, a woman named Margaret Porter built a permanent family home on two tent lots in Pacific Grove. No records survive that shed light on Ms. Porter personally or on the construction of the original house. After Ms. Porter, Isaac Nutall (a retired rancher from Sacramento) and his family lived in the house for multiple generations, but little else is known. A half century after its construction, a utilitarian addition was made in 1940 that included a garage and additional living space. But over the years, the home’s charming Victorian details were stripped away and eventually the single-family home was divided into three units.
When Amy and Dan Fischer came across the Queen Anne Victorian, it was in a dreary state. But Amy, a seasoned interior design professional with her own full-service interior design firm—Spectrum Interior Design—saw only its potential, “I saw the chance to honor the past while thoughtfully reimagining the home for modern living,” she shares.
With a passion for artistry and craftsmanship, Amy and Dan (who worked on the Victorian as project manager for De Mattei Construction), took on the renovation as a team. The pair of empty nesters relished the opportunity of working together, uniting their passion for restoration. “It was an exciting and unifying project,” Amy shares, “like creating another child together.” And together, they carefully redesigned the floor plan, integrating modern essentials that include new electrical, plumbing, HVAC, A/V and security systems.
So dreary was the state of the building prior to the Fischer’s renovation that it was featured on a historic walking tour of Pacific Grove as an example of a house with an “unfortunate addition.”
When the renovation demolition began in 2021, the Fischers found that the addition was not only unfortunate looking, it was literally crumbling to dust. As a result, the pair and their team had no choice but to take down the entire addition—not a part of their original plan. But the removal of the addition created a blank slate for Amy to work her magic. And Amy’s nearly 30 years of experience designing large luxury homes on the San Francisco Peninsula and in the Silicon Valley provided her with the know-how to handle the extremely complex issues which arose aplenty in the Pacific Grove project, despite its comparatively small size.
The original portion of the home was also in a terrible state of disrepair and had to be taken down to the interior studs, which revealed themselves to be beautiful and sturdy old-growth redwood. The home’s foundation was another major issue. Consisting of piers resting on small piles of brick rubble of varying size and construction, the only solution was to raise the house and construct a completely new foundation beneath it. The house was suspended in midair for six weeks, which attracted a lot of attention from neighbors and passersby. “All through the renovation we had so much positive interest from the community—people would actually stop on their walks and clap and cheer us on,” shares Amy.
Despite the complexity of the project and the many unforeseen setbacks, the Fischer team was able to complete the entire renovation in only 18 months.
What drew Amy to the project was the opportunity for unlimited creativity. The artistry and craftsmanship of the ornamental detail inspired her and, “I jumped at the chance to honor these details of the past,” Amy enthused.
With inspiration from historic photos, Amy hand-drew intricate details for the front porch which she then utilized to create a complementary design for a new balcony on the 1940 addition. The interior provided no clues to the building’s original glory, which gave Amy free range to create. She chose a color palette—for both the interior and exterior—drawn from the ocean, specifically inspired by the deep blues and rich grays of a marine painting she chose for the parlor. Every surface and every detail was painstakingly designed or sourced by Amy. From the intricate ceilings—including an embossed tin ceiling in the dining room—to the small hand-carved wooden details, every element was thoughtfully considered in an attempt to blend historic charm with modern refinement. The home does not feel like a museum despite the incredible amount of historically inspired detail and the many authentic antique furnishings. Rather, the blend of elements creates a contemporary living space just right for the 21st century.
Upon entry, the striking new staircase creates a sense of grandeur and gracefully unites the main living space with the 1940 addition and the second floor. Amy created a custom balustrade for the complex staircase utilizing details of the original woodwork. In the parlor, the Victorian fireplace mantel and surround of quarter-sawn oak (an antique brought from a home that had been demolished in Petaluma) is the focal point of the room and a perfect example of the incredibly skilled and thoughtful work of Victorian tradesmen. The home has a total of three chimneys, but all the original fireplaces had been removed. Through an exhaustive search, Amy was able to find and source appropriate antique mantels for each of the three fireplaces.
The ground floor also features a graciously sized dining room and ample kitchen designed with every modern amenity, but with Victorian flare detailed in. Amy sourced a Bertazzoni range to keep with the look and feel of a Victorian kitchen, and the kitchen and all of the bathrooms feature newly designed vintage-inspired tilework.
Traveling halfway up the grand stair brings you to the 1940 addition which houses a family room and a guest room with ensuite bath. The marine and nautical theme continues throughout the home, as does the incredible level of detail in the woodwork.
At the top of the stair, back in the main portion of the house, is a guest room with ensuite bath as well as the spacious master bedroom which features bay windows that offer a peek of Lovers Point. And as all Victorians should have, the master bath features a large claw-foot tub—so large in fact, that the only way to get it into the house was by hoisting it on a crane and gently gliding it through the space where the bay windows had been removed for restoration.
A ship-style, wooden staircase leads to the third-floor attic bunk room where the bay views are unobstructed through the large skylight windows that open to allow for an even greater view and salty sea breeze.
From its foundation to its roof’s peak, everything about this home has been completely reimagined, and the stories the Fischers share about the project reveal the renovation to be a true labor of love. The joy they found in working together to find solutions for the complex issues that arose during the renovation and their new-found passion for this grand home’s small seaside town—and deep affection for the town’s welcoming inhabitants—created a life-changing experience for the pair; one they will cherish for years to come.
In 2024, the Pacific Grove Heritage Society awarded the home a Heritage House Award in the preservation category, for “restoration in an exemplary fashion…retaining the home’s original exterior design and features.”
For more information on Amy Fischer and Spectrum Interior Design, visit www.spectruminteriordesign.com or call 650/948-1913.