Robert Hartwell just made a controversial call. Seated in his favorite room in his newly renovated home in Great Barrington, Mass., the dance professional has given the thumbs up to wearing Jordan 3s on his gorgeous wide-plank wood floors. With beautiful wood stains that looks three-dimensional, one can understand why company would be forbidden to walk with shoes here. But it’s a necessary sacrifice for today's video interview. And Robert will most times choose function over beauty.
His plantation-style home was built in the 1800s and he essentially discovered it in the garbage. Shaken over the death of his Aunt Paulette during the pandemic, Robert was urged by his stepmother, Eileen, to clear his head by going on a walk in the park outside his New York City home. Robert, who is the founder and artistic director of dance studio, Broadway Collective, picked up an issue of House Beautiful magazine that was laying in his recycling and found a place to settle on his walk. It was then that he saw the home, a place that he describes as "shabby, chic." He snapped a photo and sent it to a friend via text saying he had every intention of purchasing this beautiful shell with majestic columns and hand-crafted windows.
Robert drove to make an offer to the realtor who informed him that the owner was only looking for cash offers. The realtor assumed this took Robert off the table but he was more than capable of fulfilling the cash-only request. Purchasing the home on Juneteenth, he snapped a photo of his sanctuary and sent it out on his social media with a caption that gave a beautiful nod to the Black servants who worked on this property (There were service stairs in the home that Robert removed as soon as renovations began.). His caption stated that he was going to fill the home with love and he wished the servants who occupied the home knew that the property would one day be owned by a gay Black man. With the deaths of Goerge Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery weighing heavy on Americans collectively, the post went viral.
Resulting in a 6-episode renovation show on HBO Max, Breaking New Ground, the home boasts boldly-colored rooms that hold the spirit of Robert's family. There is Paulett's Parlor, a sitting room in honor of his aunt. His father's love of reading is the inspiration for his study that includes works from August Wilson. His dear mother has her own room with a private bathroom.
Robert and I sat down on a rainy Monday afternoon to talk about the history of his historic home but more importantly we explored the space that he himself is in.