Antique Jamaica Plain farmhouse has many amenities
The Sumner Hill Historic District, placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, celebrates the beautiful architecture of the homes that were built there from the mid- to the late 1800s. One of those homes, 10 Harris Ave., has just come on the market.
Diane Pienta of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage has listed this single-family home at $1.149 million.
It is an Italianate farmhouse with brackets punctuating wide eaves and a one-story, four-columned porch across the front. The front door is flanked by beautiful sidelights marked by leaded glass.
Windows on either side run from floor to ceiling. In the second floor façade a center window with sidelights and windows on either side echo those of the first floor, achieving the formal balance typical of the Italianate style.
A wide paved driveway to the right of the home provides plenty of parking, and a new stone retaining wall separates it from the neighbor. The yard is large, 16,800 square feet.
In the front of the home, Weston Nursery designed and installed curving cobblestone paths that pass the shrubs and trees that they also planted at the front and the left side of the home.
Privacy fencing at the back of the drive and behind the gardens forms a pleasing backdrop for the areas. New specimen trees include a weeping cherry, a sand cherry, a white magnolia, three standard blue spruces and a miniature blue spruce.
Among the new shrubs are five rhododendrons, five hydrangeas, two red twig dogwoods, 10 azalea, and two Chamaecyprus as well as others.
Inside the home a bright, spacious entry hall showcases the unusually graceful curving stairway to the second floor.
A door on the left leads to the front parlor that opens to a back parlor; the door on the right leads to the dining room.
The moldings around the doors and windows on this floor are exceedingly pronounced, giving a feel of luxury. The floors are beautiful wide rich and mellow hard pine that hasn’t been available for new construction in generations.
Both the front and the back parlors have a center three-window bay in the exterior side wall.
A wide doorway permits the two rooms to be used as one, but pocket doors between them can be closed enough that they seem separate or closed completely for privacy.
Opposite the front parlor is the dining room, which has a fireplace with a variegated marble surround and two matching doorways on either side.
The doorway on the right hides a closet, and the one on the left surrounds a built-in china cabinet.
There are two windows in the room, and the door-sized front window is floor to ceiling, like the one in the front parlor.
The hallway beside the stairwell leads past a door to the back parlor and on to a full bath, the back stairway and finally the kitchen.
The kitchen is a lovely room with large windows, white cabinets and appliances and a wide built-in hutch. A half wall gives views of the family room that is in the center back ell of the home.
The present owners created the family room from an existing storage room, adding windows on all sides, large skylights and French doors that open to a flagstone terrace and a huge fenced back yard.
The second floor has four spacious bedrooms that fill each corner of the home. A study at the center front of the home includes the second floor window with sidelights.
A large full bath and laundry room is at the center back of the second floor beside the back stairway.
The generous master bedroom is on the third floor, as is a large storage room. Each has a dormer at the front. The master bedroom also has a window seat and charming twin arched windows in the side walls.
Since 2007 the owners have installed a new gas high-efficiency heating and air conditioning system for the first and second floors and a second system for the third floor.
When the interior and the exterior of the home were painted in 2008, the outside shutters were removed. The owners liked the look, but saved the shutters in the basement should the new owners prefer to use them.
The home is located just one block from Centre Street with its well-reviewed restaurants, but because of the one-way streets, the drive to the house is through the beautiful Sumner Hill neighborhood.
Both Jamaica Pond and the Arnold Arboretum are within walking distance.
DETAILS
Address: 10 Harris Ave., Jamaica Plain
BR/BA: Five bedrooms, two baths
Age: Circa 1870 with recent updates
Price: $1.149 million
Size: 3,362 +/- square feet
Taxes: $7,715 (with residential exemption)
Features of the home: Spacious, light-filled south-facing Italianate farmhouse with front and back parlors with pocket doors; landscaped grounds; new family room with skylights off the kitchen; separate dining room with fireplace; updated appliances, General Electric range and built-in microwave and Bosch dishwasher; new energy-efficient double-pane historically accurate windows; new light fixtures in baths; new 200-amp breaker panel and grounding and two new high-efficiency heating and cooling systems.
Close by: Jamaica Pond and Boathouse, Arnold Arboretum, shops and restaurants of Jamaica Plain and Brookline; golf courses in Boston and Brookline; easy access to MBTA bus and Green Street Orange Line; Route 203.
Contact: Diane Pienta, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, 713 Centre St., Jamaica Plain, MA 02130. Phones: 617-522-4600 (office), 617-796-8619 (voice). Web site: www.NewEnglandMoves.com
An open house will be held at this home Sunday, March 1, from 1 to 2:30 p.m.
