DEBORAH TREFTS
Staff Writer
Whether or not Chautauqua Institution is actually as Victorian as has been claimed is not a settled matter.
At 9:15 a.m. Tuesday at the CWC House, historic preservationist Bob Jeffrey will give a presentation for the Women’s Club’s Chautauqua Speaks program titled, “The Architecture of Chautauqua: Is It a Victorian Village?”
“You always hear it’s a Victorian community,” Jeffrey said. “I’ll debunk that. … We’ll really look at the architecture — the ‘high style’ … and the ‘vernacular style.’… As people renovate and renew, you don’t want to make things too high style. My presentation will feature all architectural styles on the grounds.”
Growing up in Oil City in northwestern Pennsylvania, where the Victorian architecture is a tourist attraction, Jeffrey said he first came to Chautauqua when his “grandfather rented a place on Wiley.” For 35 years, however, his mother decided her family would be in Mayville because of the Institution’s strict blue laws.
“I was always interested in architecture,” he said. “Oil City is filled with great architecture. We had an old house that needed constant work. … I would go to the library to read a book (to learn how to fix things). My dad was good at painting.”
At Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Jeffrey earned his bachelor’s in architecture, and at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, his master’s in architecture.
“What was nice about the Kent State program was that there were only four (students) in the Master of Architecture in historic preservation (program),” he said. “My backup plan was Penn State, but Kent offered me a teaching position. I taught Introduction to Architecture.”
Thereafter, Jeffrey headed to St. Petersburg, Florida, where he said he focused on historic preservation and neighborhood revitalization.
“That’s sort of how I got into buying properties,” he said. “There were houses in a deplorable condition. Basically out of self defense, I started to buy them and rehab them. I did a lot of the work myself in the beginning, but now I have a crew.”
According to St. Petersburg’s Paradise News, in the Kenwood neighborhood in 2001, Jeffrey and his sister bought a vacant building that had been the home of Paul Nolen, the owner of Nolen’s Economy Grocery Store, from 1926 to 1955; Jeffrey and his sister converted it into four condominium units with lofts plus a small retail space and named it Grand Central Lofts.
A St. Petersburg Preservation award winner, Jeffrey has since completed other adaptive re-use projects in Historic Kenwood.
“I don’t work for clients,” Jeffrey said. “I’m my own client. I work out the design, hire contractors and lease the buildings when they’re done.”
Some projects are more challenging than others. Although most of his properties are “high and dry,” in late September 2024, Hurricane Helene filled his “late 1950’s mid-century modern” 12-unit apartment complex “right on the beach” with five feet of water.
Jeffrey began returning for the entire Chautauqua season in 2007. Within the Institution, he co-owns three properties with two business partners — one on Palestine Avenue and two on Miller Avenue. “26 Miller was what we did during COVID,” he said. “Three of us renovated it.”
Currently he is a member of the Athenaeum Hotel’s Board of Directors. From 2014 to 2022, Jeffrey sat on Chautauqua’s Board of Trustees and from 2012 to 2022, he served on the Architectural Review Board, including eight years as the ARB’s chair.
A perennial and flower box gardener who relies on Elizabeth Lasser’s gardening expertise, Jeffrey said he studied watercolor painting for 45 years with the late Chautauquan Rita Argen Auerbach. “She lived in St. Pete and I studied with her every Friday. I took all of her classes. People think my paintings are hers.”
For an examination of “the various architectural styles in Chautauqua and the characteristics that make its architecture unique” as well as “the various levels of preservation” and Jeffrey’s perspective on “the approach that should be taken in preserving and enhancing our unique environment,” come to the Women’s Club Tuesday morning.
