Party Like It’s 1892: A Couple Restores a Historic Uptown Kingston Home

The first night Helen Atkinson spent alone in her new home at the corner of Fair and St. James streets, she saw a ghost. “I had this vivid, near-waking dream that a woman in Edwardian clothes marched straight through the hedge bordering our side yard, through the porch door, up the stairs, and stood very sternly at the bottom of my bed and demanded to know what I was doing in the house,” says Atkinson. It was 2013 and Atkinson and her husband Tim had just moved into the three-story, 1840 Greek Revival layered with resplendent Victorian additions. “In the dream, I gave some account of myself that appeared to satisfy her,” says Atkinson. “She harrumphed, nodded, and went back down the stairs and left.”

The ghost might have been more satisfied if Helen had been more candid with her answer: Really, she just wanted somewhere to throw a good party. “I hosted my first dinner party when I was 13,” says Helen, an editor and journalist. “It’s pretty much my favorite way to spend an evening.” The 4,300-square-foot home—then a bit more shabby than chic—seemed built for such an aspiration. Sitting at a corner where the tram used to pass by, the sprightly space invites conviviality. It’s not just the layout, which flows from the ballroom-like parlor into a sitting room and library then back to a Gothic Victorian dining room; it’s also the heart-of-Kingston setting, where neighbors have been stopping by for generations and even passing strangers are inspired to strike up a conversation and sometimes become friends.

In the decade since moving in, the Atkinsons have fulfilled their original mission, reviving the home for 21st-century gatherings and recovering its spirit (and uncovering the identity of Atkinson’s spirit visitor). Their initial hunch about the home proved correct—while the surrounding neighborhood has changed around it, the home remains timeless: “It was just made for parties,” says Helen.