1800 CLEAVERS HOUSE

LEWES HOUSE BUILT BY SHIP'S CARPENTER PRIOR 1800

The home of Mr & Mrs George Cleaver, a cedar shingled house bearing the

Lewes England town coat of arms shield , is one of the historical buildings of Lewes.

The Cleavers acquired the house six years ago as a second home is now their

“real home” as both of them are Delaware born.

The two and half story house sheathed with hand split shingles , is typical of

early frame dwellings of Lewes. The original section was believed to have been built

before 1800 by a ship's carpenter and has slightly slanted walls .

An elderly Lewes resident has remembered the story of his great grandmother

living in the house during the War of 1812, hiding her valuables in the attic, nailing the

attic door fast and covering it with wall paper. The nail marks are still there.

The Cleavers are gradually improving the well preserved house, the rooms are a

fitting setting for inherited and collected antiques and period furniture collected the past

twenty eight years. Mr Cleaver had replace a later period porch with brick entrance stoop,

more in characrer with the home. Also at the back he has built a patio and a living room with

screened porch, paved with bricks from old Baltimore structures.

This opens to a shady lawn and his wife's flower garden'

Mrs Cleaver, daughter of Rehoboth artist Andrew Noell and is an artist herself,

also, like her mother, an accomplished needleworker. Panting of her father and hesself

decorate the soft Williamsburg blue walls of the house.

A old brick fireplace , with a high mantel, has been uncovered, fitted with great

grandfathers hand made black andirons, with copper kettle. A trestle dinning room table,

hand made by her father of old wood, with Hitchcock chairs, a Pennsylvania pine cupboard

holds her collection of Leeds ironstone, make the dinning room . A kitchen with old fashion

ice cream parlor table and chairs, an old grocery store butchers block, and the air tight

dry food container, a slate lined wooden ice box, finishes out the first floor.

A narrow stair case winds steeply from an alcove in the living room to three

bedrooms, tow o which have door plates designed by Mrs cleaver.

The master bed room is the”Spool Room” because the bed , table, armchair,

and towel rack are all of spool design.

Abstract from Sunday, September 30, 1973, Baltimore Sun, ; by Harrison H,

May 27, 2018