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Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
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But the script was perfect for Bruce and Amanda Mason By Ashley Wahl • Photographs by Rick Ricozzi
hen local attorneys Bruce and Amanda Mason bought the old Sprunt House at 411 South Front Street, former home of singer/ actress Linda Lavin, it was as if the script had already been written. Cue the flashback music. The year is 1978, and Amanda’s pregnant mother is basking in the fluorescent glow of a small labor room at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C., where she is watching an episode of Alice. “They actually had to turn off [Lavin’s] show in order for my mom to be wheeled down to the delivery room,” says Amanda, amused by how the 54
Salt • December 2013
scenario of her birth seems more remarkable now that she lives in the house where the woman who played Alice Hyatt used to cook, sleep and entertain guests. Although Lavin and husband, Steve Bakunas, completed a series of striking renovations, it wasn’t the pickled wood flooring that caused the Masons to fall for the Mediterranean villa in the heart of historic downtown Wilmington. That particular feature didn’t exactly fit their tastes. But there was something special about the house across the street from the old Governor Dudley place. “The moment we pulled up, I knew that this house was the one,” says Amanda, a vivacious blonde with a natural beauty that rivals the likes of any big-name actress. As she sips her morning coffee in the formal dining The Art & Soul of Wilmington