Sunday, September 02, 2001

By Dave Zuchowski

In 1825, when the Marquis de Lafayette toured our young nation, he is said to have traveled through southwestern Pennsylvania in a carriage drawn by six plumed horses. One of the men in Lafayette's entourage, which passed through Beallsville along the National Road, was William Welsh, son of an immigrant from Northern Ireland.

A beautiful stone house, now registered as a national historic landmark, remains a visible reminder of Welsh's residence on a 640-acre tract. Originally named Enniskillen, the land was located in Centerville and deeded to his father, John, in 1781.

According to Bunny and Chuck Waleski, the home's current owners, the first record of the fieldstone mansion's existence dates to 1815. Through the years, the structure has been remodeled, beginning in 1878, when Joseph Welsh changed a door and window and added a front porch.

A more extensive renovation took place in 1909, when sisters Geraldine and Helen Emery virtually doubled the size of the house by tearing out the walls on the eastern end of the building, enlarging the existing rooms and adding a living room that extends the width of the house. They built the 12-foot wide wrap-around porch and added pairs of two-story Corinthian columns and a small balcony on the second floor.

The three-story house topped with a red Spanish tile roof is surrounded by a copse of large maple trees, planted at least 30 years ago. A large foyer that runs the width of the house leads from the front doorway near which a Victorian gentleman's chair, once owned by Bunny's grandmother, bids a hearty welcome.

An elegant staircase, open to the third floor, holds more than 300 spindles. Once during a Pike Days open house, the Waleskis met a woman who claimed to be the granddaughter of the man who built the staircase, a carpenter who hailed from Waynesburg. Unfortunately, during the hubbub of the day, the carpenter's name was lost, and the Waleskis have been searching to rediscover his identity.

In addition to an allegorical print by Malcolm Parcell titled "The Gardener" that gets prominent display on an easel in the foyer, Bunny also spotlights one of her many collections -- a large array of barbershop mugs held in a wooden case mounted on the foyer wall.

In the living room, she displays her antique household implements (a wooden apple butter stirrer, crocks, a Colonial-era waffle iron, an old banjo and more) scattered around a massive and rare riverstone fireplace. A collector of works by local artists, Bunny exhibits two original paintings by Washington artist Wrenwick Alle on the living room wall close to her prized 1860s planter's desk.

Along the staircase going to the third floor, a series of lithographs by Nat Youngblood adorns the wall. At the top of the stairs, a genealogical tree of the McDonald family, with more than 1,000 individuals identified among its many branches, includes David Bradford's wife, Mary, and Bunny's great-great-great-great-grandfather John McDonald, founder of the Washington County town of the same name.

The kitchen is the only room the Waleskis have remodeled since they bought the house in 1991. After completely gutting the room but leaving the original wooden floors intact, they installed a wooden mantelpiece along the west wall and a cooking island in the center of the room. Along the walls, wooden replicas of antique hutches and cabinets hold some of Bunny's Depression-era dishware by Homer Laughlin, Fire King and Canonsburg Pottery. Her most prized collection, the one that started her on her collecting habit, is an assortment of Hall Rose Parade dishware left to her by her grandmother.

In the basement, where some of the building's original post and beam structure is held together by wooden pegs, Bunny has installed what she calls her "canning kitchen," where shelves are used to store antique jars manufactured by Ball and Mason.

The 100-acre farm is home to eight riding horses, one draft horse, assorted cats and two frisky canines -- Ty, an Australian shepherd, and Dottie, a Dalmatian. Near the stone garage with upstairs apartment, the Waleskis tend a vegetable and flower garden that holds a water feature and small pond stocked with several goldfish, at least 100 tomato plants, raspberry and gooseberry beds, assorted vegetables, and a large plot of sunflowers and drying flowers (salvia, amaranth, yarrow, statice and tansy).

"We call ourselves 'gardenholics,'" said Bunny, carrying a large basket of yellow, blue, pink and white statice to her large covered patio in the back yard.

The three-story 1936 bank barn on the eastern edge of the property once was used as a summer theater by the Rankin Players. For the past several years, during the annual National Road Festival, the barn and surrounding area have hosted musicians, a bluegrass festival, a potter demonstration, food and craft booths and artisans from Meadowcroft Village demonstrating frontier skills.

About the only thing the Waleskis adamantly want to add to their home are photos of the stone house taken prior to the 1909 remodeling.

"We have plenty of photos taken since the Emery renovations, but nothing before," Bunny said. "We've asked neighbors, Centerville Borough officials and people who visit during the Road Festival, but haven't yet been able to come up with anything."

Dave Zuchowski is a free-lance writer.

If you'd like to have your home featured in Home Showcase, contact Lynda Guydon Taylor at 724-746-8813 or e-mail ltaylor@post-gazette.com