Terry,
Our victorian pile in NZ was "renovated" in the 1920s-1930s with art deco features added throughout. One can just imagine them saying "all this ornate plasterwork and wooden lace, frightful, lets lower the ceilings with large beamwork and cover in those silly fancy windows." Vandalism is not a recent phenomenon. ;-)
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
