[caption id="" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Property at 711 Washington Street renovated by Dewson Construction"]
The three-story brick Victorian at Seventh and Washington streets in Wilmington’s Quaker Hill district has a wide, welcoming porch with artfully carved columns and shutters anchored with hand-forged iron stars.
For five years, nobody lived there. The house, subdivided into three apartments, had been stripped of most of its fine architectural details and filled with trash.
Today, the house stands proud again after a high-end renovation by Dewson Construction of Wilmington. Founder and CEO Tim Dewson, who built his reputation as a luxury homebuilder, has laid a new foundation in the city’s rental market.
“He is renovating properties to a much higher standard than he needs to as a landlord,” said Bayard Marin, president of the Quaker Hill Historic Preservation Foundation. “These are really nice places, where people can feel good about living there.”
The preservation group chose Dewson and Arthur Bernardon of Bernardon Haber Holloway Architects, designer of the project, to receive the annual humanitarian Thomas Garrett Awards for their work in rehabilitating the property.
Dewson has been growing a niche in rentals since the downturn in home sales. It keeps his master carpenters busy between jobs and also enables him to provide quality housing for people who can’t afford lavish homes.
“It is deeply meaningful for me to give back to the city,” he said. “Many of the houses are uninhabitable when we start out and they wind up being good homes.”
Standard features include such niceties as beadboard wainscoting in the living room, tile baths with Kohler fixtures and bedroom ceiling fans. The company invests $75,000-$100,000 in each building in addition to the purchase price, although Dewson funneled triple that amount into the Washington Street restoration.
Rents are slightly below market rates, an average of $795 a month for a two-bedroom apartment.
For the Washington Street property, he retained the three-unit format in the interior, restoring the Victorian staircase and gutting the rest of the building. The apartments are fresh and new, with modern kitchens and baths.
But the facade appears as it did in the 1840s, with turned columns, porch railings and spindles and wood shutters. To replicate the original trim, Dewson salvaged pieces from the house and milled copies at his shop.
“The outside has to be 100 percent authentic,” he said.
Homebuilder aims to inspire further restoration in Quaker Hill
Dewson Construction CEO Tim Dewson discusses renovating properties in Quaker Hill.
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Woody Dries, who manages 55 units in Quaker Hill and Browntown, is charged with the artful task of identifying tenants who will pay the rent and take care of the property. In addition to screening for credit, he checks references from employers and former landlords. He searches for an intangible connection, a sign that tells him the prospective tenant is trustworthy.
“We do our best, but we still have problems about 10 percent of the time,” he said.
Properties are inspected weekly. Lawns are mowed and trimmed, landscaping beds are mulched. Stairwells are cleaned and vacuumed.
Dries says the routine of meticulous maintenance sets a positive example for tenants.
“If you’re not showing that you care, it doesn’t take long before the people who are renting the properties don’t care,” he said.
Marin believes Quaker Hill needs a mix of homeowners and responsible renters to thrive. He says slumlords helped to push the neighborhood to the brink of ruin in the 1990s and attracting new investors is essential to revitalization.
“If every developer put as much care into the properties as Dewson does, Quaker Hill would be the finest historic district in America,” he said.