Category: Real Estate

This house is much more typical of Southern California than Memphis. The hills above Balboa Park in San Diego are filled with similar bungalows. Influences as diverse as the precise joinery of Japanese domestic architecture and the English Arts and Crafts Movement, which attempted to recreate the handwork of the medieval craft guilds, mark the style.

The period also saw a growing interest by architects in modest housing for the growing middle class. Bungalows (especially in California) were meant to unify interior and exterior spaces for casual living in and out. Here, there is a large front porch with exposed rafter tails and a deep roof overhang to facilitate outdoor living in all seasons.

The roof pitch is also low — that and its deep overhang emphasize the horizontal and tie the house to the ground. This line is strengthened by the siding, which changes from narrow boards to bands of shingles below the windows, adding a rustic, casual feel. Small multipane windows (which resemble leaded glass) in the upper sash and the dormers add further interest to the exterior.

The front door is heavy planking with small windows at the top. The ornate door knob and plate show Art Nouveau influence, considered a much fancier style but still a delicious touch. You enter the living room which runs to a rear sun room. French doors allow the flexibility of uniting these rooms for larger gatherings. And off the sun room is a new deck, so that front and back porches could be added to the entertainment area with ease.

Built-ins feature prominently here. Bookcases flank the wood-burning fireplace. The back wall of the living room has benches with storage below and stained glass above. The dining room is separated from the living room by low storage cabinets with box columns above.

A tall hutch in the dining room has lights, installed during a recent renovation, in the upper cabinets. These and a new, appropriately Craftsman, center light fixture warm the dining room. A window seat looks out to the front. The nine-foot ceilings in these two rooms are paneled, a simple but elegant detail typical of this house.

The kitchen was completely redone. The original butler’s pantry and kitchen spaces were combined to create a large gathering space. New cabinets against two walls and a third ell allow for plenty of workspace, a breakfast bar, and a seating area. Behind the kitchen is the large laundry room with high windows looking out to the fenced backyard with its rear hedge of young crape myrtles.

There are two bedrooms, each of which have surprisingly large closets. The original bath was updated and a nice linen cabinet was relocated there. But the real fun is in the new master bath. The floor is tiled, and a second closet was added. There’s a double vanity and a large, glass-enclosed shower. The central spa tub is set under western windows where you can kick back at the end of the day and do your own California dreaming.

305 North Watkins

1,985 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2 baths; $179,500

Realtor: Lovitt Co., 683-2433, Agent: Nan Lee, 458-6819

Hein Park was laid out in 1925 adjacent to the 100 acres purchased by Southwest Presbyterian University, which was relocating from Clarksville, Tennessee. The new school, now Rhodes College, was designed in the Gothic Revival style to resemble Oxford (and that’s not Mississippi).

The residential subdivision was cast in the supporting role of rural English village. Streets did not follow the urban grid but wandered over hill and dale.

Houses were scaled from small to large to attract an economic cross-section, but not to be too egalitarian, homes were grouped with the largest fronting North Parkway and adjacent to the campus.

Of course, the houses, like the campus, needed a touch of Olde England and, thus, the popularity of the Tudor Revival in the neighborhood. There’s practically a textbook here on the picturesque use of masonry. Mixing stucco, stone, and brick suggested age and even the possibility of repairs made by subsequent generations using varying materials.

This house on the eastern edge of Hein Park was built in 1926. Though not of manorial scale, it doesn’t omit any of the popular decorative touches of the style. Limestone sheaths the ground floor with stucco and half-timbering above. There’s even a little irregular castellated stonework above the arches of the entry porch and the porte cochere. A cast-stone plaque on the chimney sports a bas-relief of deer, the street address, and the name “Deer Lodge.” All that’s wanting is a small gatehouse and a long, winding drive.

The current owner, in residence since 1996, has been busy. The wall between kitchen and dining was removed. The original Geneva cabinets are plentiful and in perfect shape with all their custom features, like cutting board, cup hooks, and bread box. The sink and immediate surround are stainless steel with an integral drainboard on both sides. The other original cabinets have stylish, black, ceramic-tile tops and splash. Two new sections of cabinets have charcoal soapstone salvaged from U.T. lab tables.

The centerpiece of this spacious kitchen is a vintage O’Keefe and Merritt stove from 1957, with six burners, a griddle, and a warming shelf. (Viking, eat your heart out.) A soffit over one new counter holds recessed work lights. Two high-style 1920s ceiling fixtures finish off the retro look.

The living room, with its two arched inset cabinets and cozy library feel, seems the more logical place for a big dining room. There’s even a fireplace with its original surround of Tennessee marble. The mantel’s a tad Colonial and something with more heft would be more appropriate. Certainly the original dining area, open to the kitchen, is now the preferred gathering spot.

Two bedrooms and a full bath complete the ground floor. A large basement has ample work and laundry areas. Upstairs is the master suite. The master bath has been recently expanded. The new room was tiled and a tall vanity and spa tub were added, as well as ample linen storage. A rear dormer adds headroom and allows big windows to look out over the large backyard. But smartly placed, high windows on the front and the side permit cross-ventilation and natural light that any Anglophile would cherish.

575 Trezevant

1,660 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths; $168,000

Realtor: Sowell & Co., 278-4380, Agents: Donna Giluly, 246-8951

Judy Childress, 277-3321

This home, with its elegant Indiana limestone exterior, sits
sedately on the corner of Carr Avenue and Cleveland Street. The thin, paired
columns that support the porch dance enticingly across the front and around
the side. It’s the playful juxtaposition of those Queen Anne columns with the
massive four-square exterior that sets the tone here.

The exterior, though massive, does not prepare you sufficiently
for the generously proportioned rooms and the lavish use of quarter-sawn
oak. This fancy style of cutting up logs creates a rippled grain that’s
quite eye-catching and here is shown off in floors, door and window trim,
stair rails, and mantels. All of which have obviously been refinished — the
oak gleams like a newly minted penny.

The story’s made only more interesting when you find out this
wonderful house was, for years, subdivided into six apartments. The previous
owners tackled the behemoth task of reversing all that. They not only
reestablished the original layout but did it so seamlessly that today there’s
not even a clue to suggest the prior indignities. Now that’s not just laudable
but rather remarkable!

Thirteen-foot ceilings on the ground floor immediately grab your
attention. Proportionally tall pocket doors open from the entry to two rooms
(one back and one to the side), offering options in how the public rooms are
to be used. The massive stair with its incised newel post and turned
spindles, all oak, animates the entry.

The front parlor is stately and is now used as the living room.
In lieu of a focal fireplace, a built-in petticoat mirror gleams from one
corner. The other sitting room (the gentlemen’s parlor?) has a fireplace and
functions perfectly today as a family gathering spot. There’s even a side door
to the porch set in a bay window for easy outdoor access.

The dining is adequately sized for a small banquet. Across the
back is a single bedroom perfect for visitors, which could, natch, be a study
as well. Then there’s a full bath featuring its original footed tub. The
kitchen, like the rest of the house, is large, with plenty of room for food-
prep and a big family table. Tall windows fill this and all the other
rooms with light.

Upstairs are another four bedrooms. The master, with its own
sitting bay, has a fireplace and a redone private bath. What was probably an
original sleeping porch has been enclosed to create a generous upstair laundry
just where it’s needed most. A two-car garage and recently renovated two-story
workshop out back could even become a guest cottage without too much effort.
You need not feel cramped here. You need not concern yourself with more
renovations, ’cause this stately Central Gardens home needs nothin!

1353 Carr Avenue

4,000 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 3 baths; $374,000

Realtor: The Garland Co., 527-7770, Agent: Chris Garland, 230-
3226

A cluster of two-story stucco apartments perched on a terrace above McLean Boulevard is in the midst of a transformation into a planned development of six elegant townhouses. The property was once part of the Roynan Farm in the late 19th century. Sometime in the early 20th century, the owner remodeled an existing house on the farm, modernizing it in the Craftsman style. According to local lore, the owner visited either the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco or the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, both held in 1915. Greatly influenced by the many examples of Spanish Colonial architecture featured at the expos, he remodeled the house again, this time dividing it into a duplex and building two new apartment blocks in front of it, each with stucco exteriors, tile roofs, arched windows and doors, and wrought-iron details — all emblematic elements of the Spanish Colonial Revival or Mission style.

The work now underway retains the historic aura of the buildings while adding contemporary amenities to each unit, such as a renovated kitchen and a new half-bath on the first floor, tucked under the stairway in most cases. Because the six townhouses will be finished to suit their new owners, they can have unique floor plans as well as distinctive interior finishes and fixtures.

Each of the four units in the two front buildings has a large, bright living room with a corner fireplace, a dining room, and a separate breakfast room adjoining the kitchen, which has both its original built-in china cupboard as well as new cabinetry and countertops. Upstairs, three bedrooms offer the possibility of a variety of uses as sleeping quarters, den, or home office. The front bedroom extends across the full width of the unit and could serve as both bedroom and sitting room. Its French doors open to an iron railing which gives the impression of being a balcony. The upstairs bath has its original tub and medicine cabinet; retro-styled fixtures and black-and-white ceramic floor tiles complement the 1920s look. The former linen closet just outside the bath has been converted to a laundry area. The two townhouses in the rear building have differing floor plans, but each has a living room, dining room, and kitchen on the ground floor and two bedrooms and a sun porch on the second floor.

A secluded central courtyard is enclosed by stucco walls on two sides and an iron fence across the front. A vintage birdbath and a new pond with a burbling fountain add visual and auditory accents to the space. A gated driveway encircles the buildings, and parking sheds for each resident open off the drive. Additional resident and guest parking is also provided inside the gated area. Each unit has a secure storage area in the basement of the two front buildings and in rear sheds for the back units.

Swoopy canvas awnings suspended from angle-iron spears cover all the front entrances and the French doors on the second floors. Similar awnings were original to the buildings but have long since disappeared. The sockets for the poles were still in place, and after the current owner found various parts of the awning supports in the basement, he decided to restore them. The awnings also serve as jaunty flags signaling that these former apartments, once anomalies among the large single-family houses, are now six distinctive homes in the heart of Central Gardens.

McLean Place

2 units: 1,400 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths

$180,000 to $230,000 (depending upon allowances) Tom Edwards, 888-6683

High Point Terrace was made up of small farms until the father-and-son
developers Chandler and Chandler bought the Koch family dairy farm around
1940. They were instrumental in introducing the new suburban style of housing
to Memphis. They laid out an extension of the grid pattern of the city’s
streets, creating large lots and deep setbacks. The houses, begun in 1941,
were one-story with garages built in the rear yard. Front doors and porches
were not emphasized. This was an early car suburb; there were no sidewalks.
The neighborhood streets were unpaved dirt roads until the early 1950s. When
you moved out beyond Highland you were escaping from the city to a place in
the country.

In 1945, after the end of World War II, building increased. Houses filled
quickly — as far as Eastland Street and down to Walnut Grove by 1957. This
house was built in 1950 at the far eastern edge of the subdivision and backs
up to what is now the St. Andrews Fairway area.

Typical of the neighborhood, the house is a one-story structure clad
largely in brick, with siding above. Although some large trees original to the
area were preserved, it’s now mostly the early plantings, now mature, that add
an elegantly aged canopy to the area’s streets. This house has one grand oak
in its front yard, now joined by a second, younger one wisely planted by the
current owners.

This lot is not as deep as most. The garage was built beside the house
rather than behind it. When time came, it was easy to attach it to the house
with a spacious mud entry and laundry room.

The current owners were fortunate to benefit from a complete kitchen
renovation just before they moved in. This may have even been the time the
laundry was moved out of the kitchen and the garage attachment built. The
kitchen is spacious with lots of pickled wood cabinets. A breakfast bar
set at a rakish angle keeps guests close at hand without invading food-prep
areas.

The current owners have continued improvements at regular intervals.
Basic elements such as the roof were replaced, and the whole interior has
benefited from subtle paint finishes. Upgrades include an enlarged electrical
service, central heat and air, new appliances, and top-quality, insulated-
glass windows throughout, including a greenhouse window over the kitchen
sink.

Every room (except the family room, which was added) has its original oak
floors in immaculate condition thanks to a protective layer of carpet and
padding. The living and family rooms in the center of the house open to each
other to accommodate entertaining. The bedrooms are tucked to one side.
Closets have been outfitted with shelves and rods for maximum storage.
Original ceramic floors and high, tiled wainscots add an elegant touch
in these economically built houses.

The yard has received plenty of sweat and equity by the current owners.
Sun-loving perennials ornament the fenced rear property line. The pair of oaks
out front shade the house from midday and afternoon sun. They also offer a
friendly environment for the azaleas that flourish across the front of the
house. In fact, the whole neighborhood offers a friendly environment where
third generations now flourish in this early Memphis ‘burb.

3863 Minden Road

Approximately 1,800 square feet

3 bedrooms, 1 3/4 baths; $198,500

FSBO 458-5481; will co-op

Open house Sunday, Sept. 23rd, 2-4 p.m.

This block
has just about one of everything. There are certainly some over-the-top
renovations by committed homeowners. Then there are a couple homes that look
like the best that could happen would be a meeting with a bulldozer. And
there’s even a recent construction that has made the most of a lot vacanted by
a fire. It’s a classic Midtown block if ever there was one.

This Queen Anne cottage has also gone through quite a few changes
in the past 90 years. At some stage the wrap-around front porch had its side
enclosed to enlarge the entry. An Arkansas fieldstone fireplace was added at
the same time, as was the big picture window facing the street. The front
porch doesn’t seem to have suffered from this change, and the increased room
inside and the fireplace are quite nice.

The picture window, however, would look much better on the curb.
A pair of double-hung windows (like the single on the left) would be an
inexpensive improvement. Inside, the entry and living room are combined. It’s
a nice space but furniture would arrange easier with the addition of two round
columns (to match those on the front porch) to slightly separate these two
rooms. The oak floors throughout have been nicely refinished.

The rooms in this house are bigger than the ouside could possibly
suggest. There’s a large front bedroom that’s sheltered from the sun and the
street by a venerable old sycamore. The middle bedroom opens off the living
room through a pair of French doors. As a guest room, it could also double as
a home office or TV room.

The rear bedroom is yet another space that’s been added to this
house over the years. It’s well-scaled and, with two pairs of windows, has
plenty of light. It also has a full wall of closets (obviously not original)
and pretty handy by any standard.

The bath and kitchen have both been recently redone. The bath has
a new pedestal sink. Both it and the overscale cast-iron tub are set off by a
new ceramic-tile floor. A white bead-board wainscot finishes off the bath. The
kitchen was a much harder redo. The refrigerator was recessed in a niche just
around the corner in the adjoining utility room. This bit of planning allowed
a nice galley layout to be achieved. New halogen track lights, a terra-cotta
floor, and all new appliances (including a washer and dryer) add sparkle.

There’s a full basement (yes, full), but it was built either just
for the kids or a rather short family. Even so, it provides fabulous storage.
Out back there’s a single-car garage and privacy fencing with lots of sun for
a garden or pool or just lawn. Like the rest of the block there’s a wonderful
mix of materials and modern additions that make this cottage classic Midtown.

2054 Linden Avenue

3 bedrooms, 1 bath; $127,900

1,300 square feet

Realtor: Crye-Leike, 218-3961

Agent: Rick Travers, 725-5309

The front door’s just where it always was, so are the living room, dining room, and kitchen. But after that, this house and all its finishes, in and out, have just experienced a major blowout. Built in the mid-1950s, this was an undistinguished rancher. “Safe” doesn’t begin to suggest how bland it was. Try “built” like a brick outhouse! Steel I-beams run underneath to ensure floors never sag. One-and-a-half-inch oak was used for subflooring.

Since it’s in Chickasaw Gardens you would think the original builders would have given “looks” a little more attention. But the ’50s were obviously not the high building boom that the Gardens have enjoyed at least twice, once following the subdivision’s founding in the late 1920s and now once again. Today, the large, rolling lots and the central location make even the most unassuming house hot.

The Gardens began as Clarence Saunders’ backyard. He started construction on his “Pink Palace” way out on Central in 1922. Sited to overlook the links of the Memphis Country Club out front, he planned a second golf course out back — his own. A little readjustment on Wall Street turned his home into a museum and the never-built private course into the Chickasaw Gardens subdivision.

The much-publicized restoration of Colonial Williamsburg began about the same time and probably only fueled Memphis’ love of Colonial Revival. But a few European styles, like the Tudor Revival, crept in too. Today Memphis still loves Colonial Revival, but this house was recast in a rambling French country style.

The main, two-story block features hand-mold brick. A central one-story wing is clad in rough-sawn board and batten. The antique pine entry door is under a long, copper-roofed front porch with hefty cedar posts and a Tennessee Crab Orchard stone floor. Cedar lintels over window openings add to the rustic character. The house has the feel of an old estate that has been refined over the years by a series of loving inhabitants.

The entry hall has a limestone floor and is ingeniously skylighted by one of the shed dormers. The living and dining rooms run across the front as they always have, but their ceilings have been vaulted to 12 feet and beamed. A custom limestone mantel holds pride of place in the living room.

The newly enlarged kitchen is now a suite of rooms. The butler’s pantry adjacent to dining has its own sink and dishwasher, and a walk-in pantry is close at hand. The main room has an island with the cooktop set in granite. Oiled, maple butcher block is featured on work surfaces around the walls. Both kitchen and adjoining family room have reclaimed heart-pine floors, and the hewn cedar beams are repeated here as is the family-room mantel supported by antique marble columns.

The house wraps around a rear courtyard that is best viewed from a long, screened porch across the back. Old pine French doors from New Orleans open to this porch from the family room, hall, and master bedroom. A guest wing over the three-car garage and a wine cellar are reached from the family room. Upstairs in the main house are another three bedrooms and two baths.

The master suite occupies the other side of the ground floor. It has a rear sleeping chamber with a seating alcove overlooking the shady yard. Separate dressing rooms share a spacious bath with marble floors and vanities. An attached library/home office has pocket doors which reconnect to the entry, adding the final grace note and bringing this house, just as has happened with Chickasaw Gardens, full circle.

88 Lombardy Road

5,500 square feet

5 bedrooms, 4 full and 2 half baths; $1,195,000

Realtor: Coleman, Etter, Fontaine,

767-4100

Agent: Jeanne Arthur