Holidays at the Harrington House

It’s like you step back in time,” Phyllis Rice says on the ground floor of the Harrington House at 1600 S. Polk St., just blocks from downtown Amarillo. The house was built in 1914 by pioneering Amarillo cattlemen the Landergins, before being purchased in 1940 by Don and Sybil Harrington. In 1977, the home was listed in the National Register of Historic Places and Sybil, an influential philanthropist, made sure it would outlast its occupants, endowing it for future use as a historic home.

Because of that funding, the Harrington House remains open for tours throughout the year. On display are many furnishings and decorative items original to the home and others selected over the years by the Harringtons.

At Christmas, the home is decorated with holiday-themed decor, most of which Sybil commissioned during the 1950s and 1960s. “The fun thing about it at Christmastime is it’s not decorated like if you go to the mall or some of the retail stores in Amarillo,” says Rice, the general manager of the home. “The decorations are very simple compared to the twinkle lights nowadays, but it takes you back to history, back to a different time. When you hear that 100-year-old case clock chiming, you can actually feel like you’re back when the house was alive with
voices and parties.”

The Harrington House is open for free tours every Tuesday to Thursday until Dec. 14, but Rice graciously gave Brick & Elm the opportunity to photograph the home and its holiday decor for our readers.

Rice and her fellow Harrington House board members refer to this small room near the back of the house as the “Red Room.” It originally served as an office, and the silk material that lines some of the backs of the pillows matches the silk of the Paquin gown in the Music Room. Sybil was instrumental in designing this room. “We don’t know what it looked like when it belonged to the Landergins,” Rice says.

The striking Queen Anne walnut bureau dates back to 1710. It is exceedingly rare and has 21 concealed compartments. “We don’t open it any more because it’s so fragile,” Rice says.

Like most of the rest of the rooms in the home, the walls are decorated with fabric rather than wallpaper. “When it’s very humid, it has a ripple to it. We don’t touch [the walls] when it’s humid because it makes the fabric pull away from the wall,” Rice says.

The Christmas decor in the library is simple, allowing the room’s oak paneling and leaded glass to do much of the visual work. “It’s just the garland, clothes and trees on the mantle, but it’s charming,” says Rice. The clothing on display is a black silk faille suit designed by Hattie Carnegie, which Sybil wears in the commissioned portrait above the fireplace. It was painted in 1950 by Arthur Elliot. The bookcases contain Sybil’s diverse collection of books, from dictionaries and encyclopedias to works of fiction and high school yearbooks belonging to her daughter, Sally Harrington Goldwater. Several years ago, a Harrington House board member cataloged all the titles in the bookcases. “It’s amazing the variance of books,” Rice says.

The petite Sybil Harrington was known for her fashion, and the Harrington House rotates her clothing seasonally, including dresses made by Bill Glass, Givenchy, Chanel and other fashion houses. The red gown shown in the music room—which was on display last year but won’t be this year—comes from the legendary House of Paquin in Paris, designed by Jeanne Paquin. “She had an eye for design and a lot of classic style,” Rice says of Sybil. “But she also bought off the rack, too.”

Sybil was a musician and played the Baldwin grand piano shown here, which is still tuned regularly. Displayed on the piano’s mahogany veneer are personal holiday greeting cards from friends of Don and Sybil Harrington, including cards from Bing Crosby, Adele Astaire (sister of Fred Astaire), and Ronald and Nancy Reagan. “She got a lot of cards from the Reagans,” Rice says of Sybil, who was friends with Nancy.

The photo of Don and Sybil on the piano, along with one of their dogs, was taken at their home in Phoenix.

Set for a formal dinner for six, the dining room table includes the Harringtons’ fine Edgerton china, crystal stemware, and monogrammed sterling silver, along with elegant asparagus tongs. The Italian place card holders and place cards—with settings for “St. Nicholas” and “Mr. and Mrs. Kris Kringle”—were handwritten by Sybil herself.

“They’re so cute and charming,” Rice says.

Inspired by the Della Robbia-style fruit decor that became popular in Renaissance Italy, the dining room’s sculpted ceramic decorations were commissioned, again, from Helen Cole. Above the fireplace is a 1947 oil painting of Sally Harrington, the couple’s only child, by Arthur Elliot.

Sybil bleached the oak paneling of this room upon moving into the house. “All the paneling was darker and she lightened it,” Rice says. It matches the table and sideboard, which are both original to the house. The door opens into the butler’s pantry.