Elegant Boston corner duplex has private roof deck

Location, location – plus privacy and a view.

This top-floor, modern, two-bedroom duplex in the Rollins Square complex in the heart of the South End’s new and artistic SoWa (south of Washington Street) neighborhood is spacious enough to house the needs of a family with a couple of kids.

Yet it is intimate enough for the individual or couple who could use an extra bedroom for guests or office space.

“People like the fact that it’s private here – they feel like it’s a home as opposed to a condo,” says Kim Baccari of Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty who has listed No. D-308 at 15 Savoy St. for $899,000.

The condo enters off its own landing at the top of two flights of stairs – no running into neighbors on the elevator. An added bonus is a portion of the building’s roof deck is set aside for Unit 308’s exclusive use.

Views of the John Hancock Tower and the nearby architecturally marvelous Cathedral of the Holy Cross are yours, accessible up just one more flight of stairs.

Boston's South End penthouse has extraordinary details

The locust trees on Holyoke Street are golden yellow, and the high stoop townhouses on this street seem to glow in the autumn light. One of the prettiest houses on the street is located at 15 Holyoke St.

Its original walnut doors have been carefully restored.

“Exterior doors were always done in walnut because it doesn’t fade,” says John Neale of Sprogis & Neal Real Estate.

“Modern stuff can be replaced, but original woodwork and doors, you can’t get them back once they’re gone.”

Neale is something of a South End historian, having lived in the neighborhood for 31 years. “The houses on Holyoke on this side of Columbus Avenue tend to have a different level of finish in them,” he explains.

Boston townhouse with courtyard is exquisite

Sometimes a townhouse, a single-family home, is almost beyond words or photographs to depict its true essence.

Such is the case of the distinctive Queen Anne style brick and sandstone bow front home at 410 Beacon St. in the Back Bay, constructed in 1886. Cabot and Chandler designed the four-story mansion for I. Tucker Burr Jr., a banker. C.A. Dodge was the builder.

It stands in quiet elegance on the riverside of tree-lined Beacon Street, concealing a stunning interior comprising a gracious reception hall off which are the formal living room and dining room, a beautiful library and a unique penthouse with outdoor terraces looking out to the Charles River and M.I.T. or, in the other direction, to the neighborhood rooftops and Back Bay skyscrapers.

Shelagh Brennan of Cabot & Company has listed this magnificent home at $9.65 million.

The current owners purchased this home 18 years ago and engaged Linea 5 Inc. architects and Marc Truant & Associates, general contractors, in an 18-month-long total renovation and restoration project to create state-of-the-art living space.

New Bradley Mansion offers unique Boston homes

At the turn of the last century, when the Gilded Age enveloped Boston, prominent businessmen were seeking out the city’s premier architectural firms to design homes for themselves in the westerly portion of the Back Bay.

Three of those grand mansions endured many changes during the 20th century and are being transformed again on a quiet, tree-lined section of Commonwealth Avenue, between Massachusetts Avenue and Charlesgate East.

The first of these houses is 409 Commonwealth Ave., designed by Peabody and Stearns in 1898 for William Minot, a real estate and trust lawyer.

A year later, No. 411, designed by Little and Browne, was constructed for Robert Stow Bradley, who was a manufacturer of agricultural chemicals. In 1901, Little and Browne designed the house at 407 Commonwealth Ave. for William Amory, a textile manufacturer.

The facades comprise limestone with ornately carved decorations, although one building has yellow brick on the upper floors. The buildings extend to Marlborough Street. The two attached buildings that flank No. 409 have wide, red brick bow backs; one has three windows, and the other has four.

These homes ultimately were converted to school dormitories and classrooms, first by the Garland School of Homemaking in the 1940s (which became Garland Junior College) and later by Simmons College.

Today, these three buildings have been combined to create a dozen magnificent residences in a complex to be called the Bradley Mansion or, simply, the Bradley.

The address for all of the units will be 409 Commonwealth Ave.

“There is nothing else like this in the city,” says Tracy Campion of Campion and Company Real Estate who has been marketing these Park Avenue-style condominiums, which are priced between $2.55 million and $4.35 million.

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Charlestown one-family home looks historic, yet is modern

The Training Field on Winthrop Square in Charlestown is a glorious urban green space where colonial militia trained in the 1600s and troops mustered for the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill.

Today, it is the site of the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial dedicated to Charlestown’s Civil War heroes and of tablets that honor the British and colonial soldiers who died at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The Freedom Trail comes right through.

Across the way at 24 Common St. stands a charming single-family home. From its exterior, the house appears to have seen all this history first hand through its lovely six-over-six paned windows. However, the home is less than 20 years old, although it fits perfectly into the neighborhood.

 “Anyone who saw this house would think it was a gut renovation of an antique, but you don’t have to deal with the idiosyncrasies of an antique home,” says Duncan Donahue of Keller Williams Realty.

Together with Chris Remmes, he is listing the house for $1.1 million. The home is more than 2,000 square feet and was actually built in 1993.

Two combined Boston condos could create grand living space

Imagine a magnificent and spacious residence in the Back Bay on just two floors on the sunny side of Commonwealth Avenue that comprises more than 7,200 square feet of living space.

Lili Banani of Coldwell Banker Residential has listed two residences within the stately limestone H.M. Sears mansion at 287 Commonwealth Ave. that together would create such a home.

Separately, they are just as distinctive. Unit 4, listed at $5.3 million, has six bedrooms, five baths and two powder rooms.

Unit 5, offered at $2.1 million, has three bedrooms and three en suite baths.

Herbert Mason Sears, a banker with the prominent firm of Lee Higginson & Company, built the four-story home in 1892 at a cost of $80,000.

Boston home is magnificent overlooking South End square

By the mid-1800s, as the city was selling house lots in the South End, 11 unique "Venetian-Gothic-style" row houses were constructed along the north side of Rutland Square, near Tremont Street.

These homes were built between 1859 and 1861; the ribbon-like garden that runs down the middle of the tree-lined street was added a few years later.

In fact, according to Phebe S. Goodman’s "The Garden Squares of Boston," homeowners gave up some of their frontage so that horse-drawn carriages would still have enough space to travel down the street.

These attached townhouses have low stoops, arched bay windows and ornate entries, presenting an attractive streetscape. The facades are buff-colored and have light-colored sandstone ornamentation around the windows and in between each story.

One of these fabulous single-family homes at 19 Rutland Square is on the market. Lili Banani, Annette Itzkan and Paul Whaley of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage have listed the residence at $3.15 million.

Boston waterfront condo has spacious wraparound deck 

When warm weather comes back to Boston, we’re all drawn to the water.

But there are some people fortunate enough to be able to enjoy the waterfront all year round.

They live in homes with great vistas and plenty of windows, high above the city.

Perhaps you’ve always imagined that lifestyle for yourself: a beautifully decorated condo with spectacular harbor views and outdoor space where you could relax and catch the sea breezes.

Carmela Laurella knows of a home exactly like that, and she would love to show it to you. This home is beautifully designed and filled with light.

It features harbor views from every window and sports a wraparound deck with 2,000 square feet of exquisitely landscaped gardens.

Laurella, president of CL Waterfront Properties, is marketing Residence 710 at the Mariner for $2.799 million.

“I don’t know of any outdoor space like this one,” she says.

Boston developer creates five fabulous Beacon Hill condos

High on Beacon Hill near the State House a five-story brick building has been completely renovated. Rose and Thistle Development LLC acquired the property at 62 Myrtle St. in 2008 and set about creating five well-designed condominiums.

“It was in really terrible shape. The pitch of the floors was dreadful,” said Robert McLean, one of the developers.

“We took everything out and were left with a brick shell.

“Everything is brand new, the plumbing, the wiring, a new roof, even a new water and sewer hookup,” in anticipation of a city project, he said.

“The finishes area comparable to $4 million to $5 million projects,” said Kelsey Abernathy of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, who is marketing the new condos. They are priced between $769,000 and $965,000.

Meyer and Meyer Architects of Boston designed the interior space.

The exterior doorway to the home was restored, as was the brickwork. The elaborate entrance includes fluted concrete pilasters on either side of the door, above which is an arch with rosettes and a stained glass fanlight.

Step inside and you’ll discover a second door and a large foyer with a side hall floor plan. The Duffy quarter-sawn white oak flooring, which is used throughout the units, is laid in a herringbone pattern. The lobby and the stairway feature paneled wainscoting.