Although of Grenadian heritage, Francis Redhead, who attended area public schools and City College, is a proud Harlemite through and through. An independent plumber, with two grown-up sons, he is a cousin of the late great Rolls-Royce-driving, champagne-drinking Harlem and Sag Harbor legend, dentist Chester Redhead.
For the purposes of this story, what’s most important to relate about Francis is that, through and through, he is a true preservationist. Many might see an old Sugar Hill landmark that’s become dilapidated and in need of care, whispering to themselves, “How nice it would be if that old ruin could be saved.” But that would be as far as it went.
Not so with Francis! Around 1990, he saw that half of a pair of houses designed in the 1880s to appear to be a single structure was for sale. It had been divided into apartments and needed work. So he bought it, figuring it was a good investment. His attitude was the biblical one: if one sees someone who’s hungry, after praying for them, feed them too. In 1995, he applied the same approach when the mate to his house came on the market. He planned to live there, and because of the fire that made it inexpensive enough that he could afford it, it needed far more attention. But he bought that house as well.
I am really happy for him. Most of all, I’m happy that when Harlem’s most grandiose mansion next door went up for sale a little while after, Francis restrained himself. He had already shot his shot. I saw the yearning way he looked at that place as it remained unsold because of how it looked, its tall chimneys out of plumb, and how it smelled after 10 years of the owners’ inbred pack of dogs never being walked. Thank goodness he was another reckless gambler, that all the bets he’s placed are so nicely paying off!
I said that Francis is a dedicated preservationist, determined to undo any alteration he can and to restore things to the way they used to be. We recently saw that in a 1929 photo made by city workers, though the baluster-shaped fence post with ball finials was retained, an ordinary fence with pickets was added. Thank goodness that glimpses in older images show the first barrier, made of stout timbers in a lattice of squares. Francis intends to put it back.
So yes, he’s a preservationist, but he’s also a skilled designer with a sensitive approach to color. On the interior, all his color schemes seem to take their cues from some prominent original focal point. Blue-stained glass transoms in the parlor windows, like the blue-green iridescent tiles of the surround in the mahogany fireplace, harmonize so beautifully with the sunny yellow walls below a blue-gray frieze. Yellow window panes, lighting the staircase, and sange de boeuf (oxblood) colored tiles below a mantlepiece with Japanese-inspired bubble-like circles, all enhance Richard Mayhew’s soft landscape entitled “Atascadero” (the artist transitioned in 2024 at age 100).
Upstairs, the maple-ceilinged, floor and en-framed library is the pièce de résistance of the entire house. There is more vibrant art by Black artists in such profusion that one dynamic piece obscures the superb chimneypiece. The surround is composed of a mosaic of colored marble depicting a pattern of festooned circles. Gilded circles on the frieze maintain this motive. Whereas the wood ceilings with incised lines showing sun designs have lost almost all of the gold leaf that once gave them greater emphasis. No worries, just as he discovered the white-washed ceiling was wood and not plaster, and replaced missing blocks of the parquetry floor, soon, my friend Francis will get around to this too. I can’t wait!