A doctor’s daughter, former journalist Peggy Shepard, is married to Charles Loveday, a retired medical psychologist and professor. Petite and supremely stylish, she was a founder of West Harlem Environmental Action (WE ACT for Environmental Justice). It was established in March of 1988 to mobilize opposition to the North River Sewage Treatment Plant, which was originally planned to be sited adjacent to Riverside Park, Downtown on the prosperous Upper West Side.
Peggy dared to wonder why the new sewage plant, bus depots, and drug treatment offices were always located somewhere in Harlem. This is all to say that Peggy Shepard, one of those Harlem wonder women you are liable to read about in the Amsterdam News, is among the most notable environmental leaders in the country, and she has an award of merit from the French Government to prove it.
This examination of gracious interiors is the first feature of a new series. Worldwide, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED standard, is a green building certification program that specifies that old stone buildings meet the highest level of sustainability. This is one reason the couple lives in an old house. The other is the beauty of its materials and the skilled craftsmanship with which it was made. Other houses that were looked at will be new, with a modernist aesthetic. Ultimately, At Home in Harlem (occasionally substituted for, At Home in Brooklyn, Sag Harbor, et al.) endeavors to explore places where Black people live well and with style.
Friends chat in the elegant parlor of Peggy Shepard and Charles Loveday. 
Far Eastern embroidered silk cushions soften the bench of the oaken staircase. 
A 2000 portrait of Peggy Shepard and Charles Loveday by Paul Rouchleau from my book “Harlem Lost and Found” graces the parlor mantle shelf. Credit: (Michael Henry Adams photos) 
A rich interplay of blue and brown. 
Bronze Benin masks. 
Lustrously lacquered emerald green, the dining room boasts a handsome quartered oak wainscot and a chimney piece with ionic columns. Enameled peacocks from India surmount the overmantel.
Peggy’s and Charles’ house in Hamilton Heights, adjoining City College, was built in 1906 in the neo-Classical style made fashionable at the École des Beaux Arts University in Paris. It was designed by architects Neville & Bagge. Originally, two servants attended the white family that first lived here
Two things make this place really special. One is a sophisticated color sensibility. This meant that Peggy was not content to make everything white or neutral, as is so popular. Instead, she created creative harmonies of variant hues, pairing oak woodwork with walls lusciously glazed emerald green or steel gray. Also beneficial is that Peggy’s and Charles’ favorite form of relaxation is world travel.
Besides discovering fantastic eateries that only locals know about, what does one do whether in Port au Prince, Tokyo, or Accra? The easy answer is that one seeks out antiques and handcrafted wares. In this house such treasures of travel have not only enhanced a beautiful collection, they also have already, slowly become family heirlooms, some of which Peggy’s grown-up daughter already has her eye on.