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Duke House demonstrates the ‘power of transformation’ By ANDREW MOWRER
WELLSVILLE — Standing on the porch of a derelict house on Main Street, Nancy Meyers knew she found her retirement project. What now exists as the Duke House tea room, bakery and restaurant was once a forgotten property in Meyers’ neighborhood. The Duke estate, located at 244 N. Main St., was home to Doug and Celia Duke for 47 years. Vacant for four years until Myers purchased it in 2013, the two-story Greek Revival house and its curved front porch roof that once held Celia’s trumpet vines became obscured by an overgrowth of cedar trees and yews. “Nobody even knew the house was here,” Meyers said. “The front porch had yews so high you couldn’t see over the rail. There was very little that was actually visible of the house.” Although she didn’t have a specific plan, Myers believed the property was in a great location for a viable business, and determined to turn the 1890 structure into another example of the architectural beauty of Wellsville she has always appreciated. “I remember standing on this front porch,” she said. “I was looking to retire from Northern Lights and I just needed a change. I had been there for 30 years. I was standing there and looking across the street and I said, ‘You know, it looks kind of rough, but it’s on North Main Street, it’s on the right end of
Photos by Andrew Mowrer The Duke House tea room, bakery and restaurant on North Main Street in Wellsville.
town, it’s directly across the street from Jones Memorial and a 120-car parking lot.’ "And, I thought, ‘This deserves to be a business.’” During the two-year restoration process, Meyers said she became a frequent customer of Affordable Painting in Wellsville, where she was often chided by employees who joked about how it took her five months to scrape and paint the house with a 2-inch brush. “There’s no truth to that rumor,” she said. “It was a 3-inch brush.” Now the building stands restored with a fresh coat of yellow paint and an unmistakable amount of renovation
work. “This building shows the power of transformation,” Meyers added. “I put everything into it to do it right. I mean, really, really right. If you put your mind and your money in, you can transform just about anything.” The Duke House opened for business in November 2015, welcoming customers with a comfortable dining experience years in the making, and continues to develop as a part of village life in Wellsville. The original walnut floor and central chimney were preserved, and rooms like the parlor are adorned with floor-to-ceiling windows and seating with tufted leather.
The gallery room contains paintings by Wanda Dean and other artists. “I’ve used a nice mix of modern furnishings, antiques and original artwork,” she said. “In all, I wanted a place that was calm, quiet, comfortable, and elegant without being too fancy.” With her own hands and the help of contractor Ron Leitzel and his crew of five, Meyers added new features such as a handicap ramp, an attached open-air pergola with outdoor seating and a safer staircase with a wider tread and lower rise. “I didn’t change the footprint of this house at all, other than adding the pergola,”
she said. “In fact, I was very faithful to the structure of the house, including the arrangement of the rooms just to keep that old ambiance. And I kept a lot of the layout the same. The Dukes’ pantry is my pantry. The basement is still the basement. The kitchen is the same except now it’s a full fledged commercial kitchen.” Myers hired chef Ruben Santiago in September 2015 to run the kitchen and develop the Duke House into a fullfledged diner with brunch, lunch and dinner items cooked to order. “Originally, it started out as a bakery,” she said. “The bakery led to the idea of a tea room. One thing led to another and I determined it had to be a restaurant, too. People continue to be surprised when they come in expecting it to be a little cottage where they can get a cup of tea only to realize it’s actually a really spacious 58-seat fine dining restaurant.” The Duke House serves daily amenities including lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and Sunday brunch, offering 47 kinds of loose-leaf tea, baked goods and many fine dining options. “This is the place you go for a birthday, for a wedding shower, for an anniversary, for a graduation,” she said. “It’s the place you take friends who are visiting from out of town. That’s who we really are.” Meyers maintains a website on the Duke House and regularly posts updates on the Facebook page https://www. facebook.com/thedukehouse/.