Boudoir photographer lives and works in this

Queen Anne in Merchantville

by Paul Jablow, For The Inquirer Published Dec 7, 2021

Last summer, Adrian Rowan decided to pursue her dream of owning a Victorian.

Growing up in Magnolia in South Jersey, Adrian Rowan had always wanted a Victorian house.
“It was the ornate details,” she says, “the history, the character older homes have.”
It was not a wish that came true quickly.

There was more than a decade in the Air Force and Air National Guard, where she learned her trade; more than three years as a civilian photographer at the Pentagon and Dover Air Force base; then four more years operating her own photography studio in Haddonfield while living in Palmyra.

But with COVID-19 making business more difficult — and with encouragement from her grandfather, a retired accountant “who always encourages me to go for my dream,” — she took the plunge last July.

She bought an 1888 Queen Anne in Merchantville. It’s on a corner lot zoned for residential and business use, and “the commute’s easier: right down the stairs.”

Rowan, 40, advertises her business as “luxury boudoir photography.”

Which means, essentially … well, let her website explain it:

“Boudoir photography is all about empowering YOU! Showing you another side of yourself, your inner self, the self you want to manifest. … We have created a body positive, judgment-free, self-love zone in which you can explore your different sides. We provide a full service boudoir experience catered to the individual.”

Rowan feels that Victorian architecture and her business are well suited to each other because both emphasize ornate detail.

Meanwhile, back at the construction zone …
Rowan and her contractors lifted the foundation five inches, ripped down wallpaper, and installed water-resistant bamboo flooring.

Priorities were set — the attic and basement are remaining unfinished for now. And she installed a modern and decidedly non-Victorian kitchen and air-conditioning. The windows come next summer.

Her 20-month-old son, Parker, has his own bedroom with toys migrating to what was a second floor sitting room a century-plus ago.

All told, the house is 2,700 square feet, three bedrooms and 1½ baths and is decorated in a blend of historical and funky. The first floor wall decorations vary from old photos of the house to a tongue-in-cheek corpulent Mona Lisa by the Colombian artist Fernando Botero.

The coverlet on her bed does have a Victorian feel over its IKEA skeleton. Other items have come from Facebook Marketplace or family: the carved wood Lincoln bust at the foot of the stairwell from her grandfather and antique decor and lamps from her late grandmother.

In some cases her search continues. The top of the stairwell still has holes where the Newell posts should be because she has simply been unable to find historically accurate replacements.

And in other cases, Rowan can’t determine what was original to the house and what came several owners back.

Victorian houses placed great emphasis on entrance ways, and Rowan’s is no exception, with stained glass windows in the foyer and front door.

Her business is concentrated in two rooms on the first floor, one of them the photo studio.

The renovation hasn’t been easy. With COVID, she says, “it’s just harder to get people to come out.”

The wrought iron fence surrounding the property had to be painstakingly repainted and a gap filled where a car once drove through it. The yard itself has small garden plots with echinacea, blueberry bushes, roses, irises, poppies, columbine, and ferns.

And there is a wrought iron tableau with table and chairs, which Rowan says was designed specifically for Halloween characters. Merchantville, she says, gets “very much into Halloween,” with signs saying “Welcome to Monsterville.”

The next few months? Mostly down time, but when contractor schedules open up, she’ll have to replace three deteriorating porches and a balcony. “I always wanted a porch,” she says. “Now I have four.”

With a house like Rowan’s, work will continue, even after all the repairs. For example, “birds love Victorians” for nesting, she says, and that brings its own set of challenges.

When people ask her what she’s done with the house, she replies, “it’s more like what I haven’t done.”