groined vault

Set on a corner lot, the walled and hedged 1926 house incorporates a fresh aesthetic while retaining such original details as groin vault ceilings and detailed fireplace surrounds.

A modest entrance leads to the grand marble staircase, with its groin vaulted ceiling and arches giving a glimpse of the magnificence to come.

The place dons classic chandeliers, wooden accents, old world flooring, groin vaults, cheerful brick wall finishes and plush comfortable seating, which will surely help one seek divine comfort.

The reception hall is double height with a groin vaulted ceiling and upstairs balcony.

Crisscrossing the ground floor was a grid of brick walls, many of them taking the form of four-foot-thick piers that supported a system of arches and groin vaults. These walls and piers were meant to share, with the outer walls, the burden of holding up the house but, so far as the engineers could tell, the interior walls had no footings to speak of.

"There's a wonderful mathematics to groin vaults; you have two barrel vaults intersecting to create a cross," he explains.