A Steinway grand piano was built for a well-to-do woman in 1903 ...
A Steinway grand piano was built for a well-to-do woman in 1903. The curve of its sound board and strings resemble the sweep of wing and feathers of an egret soaring near her Currituck home. Such synchronicities fill a new book, “The Whalehead Club: A Legacy Preserved” by Outer Banks artist Mollie Isaacs . The award-winning photographer has created what she calls the “visual story” of the historic structure that was finished in 1925 for Northern industrialist Edward Collings Knight Jr. and his wife, Marie Louise LeBel Bonat Knight .
Called Corolla Island in the Knights’ time, the home was renamed the Whalehead Club by a subsequent owner. The land and buildings were purchased by Currituck County in the early 1990s. It was restored and stands today as one of the most elaborate, exciting and historically significant structures on the Outer Banks.
Isaacs fell in love with the club’s 1920s Art Nouveau architectural style. In fact, it contains some of the most important examples of Art Nouveau ornamentation in America. The club’s exterior design is a mix of styles, pulled from historic Pennsylvania farmhouses and English Arts and Craft style, with the feel of a French country home. Inside are multiple Art Nouveau examples that speak to the art movement’s inner core: an artistic reaction to the lyric forms found in nature.
The fact that Isaacs fell in love with the Whalehead Club is documented by her approach to the project. The book’s layout and photo pairings come together much like a love poem of which some of the world’s great literary romantics would be proud. She finds intimate details, such as the kissing swans frieze that decorates the exterior, and she pairs the creamy yellow photographic vignettes on one page with actual kissing swans on the next.
Isaacs became bonded to the house as she studied and photographed it inside and out. As she wandered the grounds, she began to see possible inspirations for the Knights’ architectural designs.
“These people, the Knights, were brilliant,” Isaacs said. She can’t help but wonder whether their home’s inspiration came directly from the natural similarities she was discovering. The colors of rooms beside one another, lavender and green, can be found in the ground’s grasses. The library mantelpiece has curves that resemble elements shaped by wind and water. Carved flowers lining the dining room walls are reminiscent of summer water lilies. Door handles are fashioned like duck heads. Trumpet flowers and Tiffany glass chandeliers share shapes.
“It was just a brilliant pairing of interior and exterior in subtle and beautiful ways,” Isaacs said.
The book has seven sections: the setting, library and piano, dining room, bedrooms and baths, doors and halls, colors and the boathouse and bridge.
This photographic essay is far, far more than a coffee table book. Isaac’s sensitive work of art is paired with a forward by the Whalehead Club’s curator, Jill Landen . It integrates information on the background of the club with a beautifully written and stimulating explanation of the Art Nouveau movement.
Proceeds from the book support the Whalehead Preservation Trust’s ongoing preservation of the Whalehead Club and Currituck Heritage Park. Isaacs will be on hand to sign her new book during the club’s annual piano concerts Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 16 and 17 . Call (252) 453-9040 for more information.
You can see more of Isaac’s work at f2photographicdesign.com.