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NORTON - Laura Dean's husband, born and bred in Norton, has for 50 years driven by the Presidents' House, a distinctive historic landmark of the town's center, serving as the home and private entertainment venue of Wheaton College presidents since the early 1900s.

He always wondered what the interior was like. "We all drive by curious," Laura Dean admitted. Eventually, she was the one to get a glimpse inside the house during a holiday reception recently hosted there by the college's current President Ronald Crutcher and his wife Betty Neal Crutcher. Dean, of the town's garden club, said her husband missed the opportunity because of an unavoidable engagement elsewhere.

The event was one of a series of private receptions and functions that have been held in the newly-renovated Federal style structure which dates back to 1829, following the completion of the $2.7 million project this past fall.

Dean was among those admiring the historic character of the house commissioned by Laban Morey Wheaton for his bride Eliza, considered one of the founders of the woman's seminary which later became a distinguished co-ed liberal arts college.

Portraits of the two hang above two of the three fireplaced-hearths - dismantled and reassembled brick-by-brick as part of the renovations - in the so-called formal public area where the receptions and dinners are held. When the campus was designed those many years ago, it was done so with the house sitting at the head of the main quadrangle, so that it was directly in line with the library across campus, said college spokesman Michael Graca.

Eliza Baylies Chapin Wheaton lived in the house, where her diaries state that she held many a tea, meetings and gatherings, until her death in 1905.

Six presidents have lived there, holding dinners, meetings and other functions with students, staff, faculty, officials and guests. Crutcher is the college's seventh president to now take up residence there.

The house has stood as a symbol of the college's - and town's - history. It is one of only three or four of its architectural type in the neighboring communities, according to Wheaton archivist Zephorene Stickney in her account of the project on the college's Web site.

But in later years, with an addition and other structural problems weighing on it and the absence of any full-scale modernization of the infrastructure, it was showing its age.

It was in 2004 when Wheaton's board of trustees voted to go ahead with renovations, timed to follow former president Dale Rogers Marshall's retirement.

A special ad hoc committee was formed to set the goals of the project as well as determine what shape the renovations would take.

One firm was signed on, but ultimately, William Warren of Warren Design Associates of Westwood, would be the one to conduct the project. The money for the work would come from the college's facilities reinvestment fund earmarked for renovations and the upgrade of facilities each year, as well as gifts given to support the project, Graca said.

The first goal, he said, was to preserve the house. Some of the later additions - and even the newest addition was old - were putting a stress on the main structure. The additions were settling at different rates.

Since the house is located in the town's historic district, any renovations to the exterior needed to get the historic district commission's approval. Another goal was maintaining its historic character while updating the infrastructure, the heating and ventilation system and other elements, including rewiring to allow computer use, as well as making changes to better accommodate modern-day gatherings "and making the house comfortable for presidents hundreds of years to come," Graca said.

To passersby, the result of the renovations is noticeable in the main house sans addition and added landscaping.

Inside, invited guests may note the spacious formal public area where a central staircase to the second floor and at least two smaller rooms were reconstructed to create a single, open area.

Aspects of the historic house, such as the molding and fireplaces, were retained, the construction workers meticulously removing, labeling and then restoring and returning them to their places, Graca said.

It was those details that caught Ruth Goold's eye during the holiday reception. A member of the town's historic district commission and head of the historical society, she had been involved with the project, viewing the house's interior before, during and after the renovations.

She said that while the commission has no say about the interior of buildings within the historic district, "the college was very good about including us."

Goold said the structural improvements "were really needed," noting that the small third floor was weighing into the second and stressing the house.

"It's fantastic," she said, surveying the room painted in what the president later said was a "Wood Ash" color.

"It's wonderful to see how much of the wood they preserved on the windows and the fencing outside" helped to maintain and add luster to the house's historic character, Goold said.

All of the original windows on the first floor were preserved as well as the five original hearths on the first and second floors, according to Stickney.

"Mrs. Wheaton would be very proud," Goold added.

Others used words such as "gracious" to describe the public area, decorated for the season with poinsettias on the fireplace mantles, An old-fashioned sleigh was on the porch, with white light candles in every window.

The Crutchers have added their own personal touches - a colorful portrait of the president playing cello (he's an accomplished musician and member of the Klemperer Trio) by a well-known German artist, and a photograph of their daughter Sara, who currently works for the Lifetime network as a budget administrator, among them.

Mr. Crutcher, who took over as president in 2004 after the house was closed for renovations, said the formal public area comfortably seats 20 to 32 people for a sit-down dinner; up to 60 if the furniture is moved out.

Later, the couple also allowed a reporter and photographer a glimpse of their first floor private quarters - a room painted in "roasted tomato" and containing a modern kitchen, fireplaced sitting area and dining room.

The couple, who had been living in a residence bought by the college on Country Club Way, moved into the presidents' house in September.

Betty Neal Crutcher noted that there has been a function held there at least once every week since that time, noting that one entire guest book has already been filled, another started with the holiday receptions that included faculty, former neighbors, representatives of area civic groups and town officials, among others.

And it feels like home, said Mr. Crutcher. On the first night in the house Crutcher said he commented to his wife: "It feels as though we've always been here."

"It feels like an 1829 house with updated modern facilities," he said.

SUSAN LaHOUD can be reached at 508-236-0398 or at slahoud@thesunchronicle.com.