Landweir House Chapter 6 - Tony Lane's Blog

Landweir House

Chapter 6

A New Light

Miller Terhune’s second wife, Elizabeth, passed away in 1932 and the Landweir House went to the only offspring of their union, Herbert. Herbert was sixty when he took the old place over and as he had no discernable income other than what his mother had left him in her will, the house fell upon hard times. When World War Two was started, Herbert rented space to the navy to house sailors. The second occupation of the house by Union troops. Herbert died in 1951 and the house became a derelict property for the second time in its existence.

When Richard Breen read about the plight of the House in the pages of his local paper in Hollywood, California, he was overcome with nostalgia. He had been garrisoned at the old place as a twenty-three year old naval officer in 1942 and held very vivid memories of the beauty that had once been a part of the house. Since he had resigned his commission and entered the civilian world he had become a screenwriter and now he was also a new husband and he thought that owning such a fine home would be a fitting prize. He and his wife Jean drove to New Orleans and met with a realtor who had been granted permission to act as the agent for the sale of the property. The house itself was still there but it had seen better days. He enquired about the missing stone pieces and the missing fireplace mantles which had once graced the residence. It seemed that Herbert Terhune had made a habit of selling off individual embellishments to collectors and antique dealers in order to augment his income and the house was now bereft of the adornments that had once made Landweir a spectacle of opulence.

“It’s a shame Jean. I wish you could see it the way that I remember it. I wish that we could both see it the way it must have been when it was first built.” Richard said as he looked around the sitting room for any sign of what used to be.

“If I squint I can still see it Rich.” She said to him. She was partially playing up to him because she knew that he had been so excited about this, so much so that she had gotten a little caught up in it herself. She didn’t want that spirit to leave their new marriage yet. There was more though. The more she looked at the house the more she began to realize the possibilities that it possessed. It would take a while but they could bring it back, maybe not all the way to what it used to be but still, she knew that they would be good custodians of the old girl.

When was Landweir built?” Richard asked the realtor.

“1853.” he said.

“That gives us two years to get her in shape for her hundredth birthday. What do you think Jean? Can we do it?”

“Why Captain Breen, I believe that we can do it several times by then.” She purred like a kitten.

“We’ll take the house.” Richard said to the realtor as his new wife wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

“Rich, it’s just like one of the movies that you’ll write. Promise me that you’ll write whatever happens to us into a movie and that you’ll get Joseph Cotton to play you and Marilyn Monroe to play me.”

“Why sure I will. I’ll be such a big shot that they’ll have to listen to me. After all, I’ve sold them two scripts and both of them have made them a little money, I’m a hot property.”

That night the Breen’s spent the evening in sleeping bags in the master bedroom. The first of many happy nights for them at Landweir. Many happy nights, that is, before one truly horrible night.