Historic Warwick Home to be featured on TV Sunday night

Warwick - This Sunday, May 13, the circa 1805 Federal-style home on Colonial Avenue owned by longtime Warwick residents Steve and Marcella Gross will be featured on the Cablevision series, “If Walls Could Talk.” The program, “Houses with History Lessons,” will air Sunday at 11 p.m. and early Monday at 3 a.m. on HGTV (Cablevision channel 30 and WVT channel 71) The popular series frequently selects homes that are rich in history and where new owners discover hidden or forgotten family treasures. Steve and Marcela Gross are only the third family to own their historic home on Colonial Avenue. It was built by William Benedict sometime between 1800 and 1810 and much later in that century, transferred to Wilson and Grace Van Duzer. The Grosses purchased it in 1993. Both Steve and Marcella Gross are active members of the Historical Society of the Town of Warwick. Steve Gross, who was raised in Greenwood Lake, is a local historian and an avid collector of historical photographs, post cards, artifacts and other memorabilia from this area. He frequently writes historical articles accompanied by photographs from his own extensive collection for the Greenwood Lake News. “We wanted to do the first major restoration on an historic home,” said Gross, who avoided looking at homes that had been previously restored, often without preserving authentic features of the period. “This home needed lots of work but it was original.” When the Grosses moved in, they also discovered that the previous owners had left many items behind, both in the attic and in the barn, such as two sets of Victorian chairs, a handmade cabinet and a nineteenth century portrait of William Van Duzer, the previous owner’s father. One item that missed the attention of the HGTV producers was a Victorian bed hand crafted by local furniture dealers and manufacturers, C.J. Lazear & Son. “What some people may not know,” said Gross, “is that the local carpenter and furniture maker was very often the coffin maker and later became the undertaker. The name ‘Lazear,’ which is inscribed on this Victorian bed, is also a name that is familiar to all of us in Warwick as the Lazear-Smith Funeral Home on Oakland Ave.” According to the HGTV Web site, “If Walls Could Talk,” will also reveal how clues in their barn helped Steve and Marcella Gross learn about an inventor who lived in the house and why their property was known as “Graceland.” We’ll have to watch to find out.