Lovely Back Bay condo was totally renovated
You don’t have to walk far to get to 160 Commonwealth Ave. – from the train or MBTA station, the Public Garden or the Commonwealth Mall, part of Boston’s storied Emerald Necklace chain of green parks. It’s an easy stroll.
This historic building was once the Hotel Vendome, the Back Bay’s most fashionable away-from-home address, hosting the likes of U.S. President Grover Cleveland, French actress Sarah Bernhardt and writers Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain.
It was also the site of a tragic 1972 fire during renovations that would change its use to condominiums. The monument commemorating nine firefighters who lost their lives is across the street on the Mall.
Today, the elegant, gray-stone hotel facade remains, although much of the interior was redone during the condo conversion. There’s a tapas restaurant, Bar Lola, on the basement level, with an outdoor patio.
Unit 618 is about as brand new as you could expect in such historic digs. Its owners renovated it “to the studs” in 2006, according to Linda Barrett of Otis & Ahearn Real Estate who has listed the home for $1.325 million.
But the owners recreated it with interior living-space colors and charm that still look like yesteryear.
A visitor enters this home from a red-carpeted hallway outside through an eight-foot-tall, solid wood door.
Immediately to the left is a galley kitchen, and a red oriental-design carpet runner beautifully accents its hardwood floor.
The ceiling is coffered, and the walls are mostly taken up with pale-gray wooden cabinets.
The dining room flows into the living room, like a double parlor. Deep crown molding and classic columns define the spaces.
A stone, checker-tiled backsplash rises behind dark granite countertops.
Stainless steel appliances include a double sink with water filter and GE Profile electric stove. The Sub-Zero refrigerator has a faux wooden-cabinet door for its front. There’s also a built-in wine refrigerator.
The main living area, which consists of the living and dining rooms, takes up most of the space. Walls are painted a goldenrod yellow with white accents, including custom-designed, classic-style columns placed discreetly on either side, marking the halfway point between the rooms.
This space features hand-milled double crown molding as well as recessed areas and special wall styling suitable for hanging fine art.
Entering this home, a visitor is immediately drawn into the formal dining area. It opens directly onto the living room, which looks out over fashionable Commonwealth Avenue through oversized bay windows.
The living space and both bedrooms offer full views of the treetops on the mall, and beyond that, seasonal July 4 fireworks over the Charles River just a few blocks away.
The living room is large enough for two full-sized sofas and a coffee table of generous-enough size to support anything from heavy hors d’oeuvres to your paperwork-heavy home office project. To the right is a decorative, black marble fireplace with a white paneled mantel.
The galley kitchen has a coffered ceiling, stainless steel appliances, including a built-in wine refrigerator, and dark granite counters.
Aside from the formal living and entertaining space, this home offers luxurious comfort in a powder-blue master bedroom with a walk-in closet and a dressing room, painted a golden orange-yellow, and full en suite bath.
The master bedroom is accessed to one side, off the main living space. It features a partially dropped ceiling, walk-in dressing room and bath. A pocket door with full-length mirrors on both sides separates the dressing room and bath.
The carpeted master bedroom has white crown molding and walls and ceilings painted a soothing robin’s egg blue.
The Jacuzzi bath and oversized shower are enclosed within one unit (somewhat unusually) and behind half-inch thick glass shower doors. Tiling and fixtures are white and beige marble and stone, designed and installed by luxury bath furnishing purveyor Waterworks.
A telephone is installed in the bathroom, as is the Bang & Olufsen audio system that allows different music to be played in different rooms at the same time and hooks into the bedroom television set.
Directly opposite the master suite, on the other side of the living room, is a second bedroom with an additional full bath.
In this case, the two are separated by a small central hallway, where there’s a closet housing a stacked Bosch washer/dryer and separate linen cabinet.
Floor-to-ceiling white bookshelves surround a second, decorative black marble fireplace in the library, which could serve as a second bedroom.
In this household, the second bedroom doubles as a library for the current owners, who have painted it in cocoa brown. Floor-to-ceiling white bookshelves surround a second, decorative black marble fireplace.
The shelving currently holds an extensive book and knick-knack collection but could just as easily be storage for a child’s set of toys or a guest’s belongings.
The hardwood floors and darker-colored walls, and door to shut it off from the rest of the household make this room a cool retreat.
The same could be said about this private, elegant condo in the heart of the Back Bay. Come back home to your stylish retreat, and the space offers everything you need, until you’re ready to face the world again.
DETAILS
Address: 160 Commonwealth Ave., Unit 618, Back Bay
BR/BA: Two bedrooms, two baths
Size: 1,437 square feet
Age: 1872; 1974; 2006
Price: $1.325 million
Taxes: $10,350 (FY 2009)
Condo fee: $1,136 per month
Features of building: Stately, seven-story gray stone mixed-use historic building, once the Vendome Hotel, with 110 condos; carpeted hallways; elevator; 24-hour concierge; on-site professional management; pet-friendly. Association includes both 160 and 170 Commonwealth Ave., which has medical group offices.
Features of home: Completely renovated pied-a-terre facing Commonwealth Avenue and the mall; new soundproofing andhigh-security system; central air and central humidifier, good for preserving art work; Waterworks fixtures in kitchen and bath; master bath with glass doors, deep Jacuzzi tub and sap-like shower.
Close by: Boston Public Library in Copley Square; Back Bay restaurants and shopping on Newbury Street and at Copley Place Mall; steps from Public Garden, Arthur Fiedler Bridge to Esplanade and Hatch Shell; easy access to MBTA Green and Orange Lines, commuter rail and Amtrak at Back Bay Station, Storrow Drive, Routes 90 and 93.
Contact: Linda A. Barrett, Otis & Ahearn Real Estate, 200 Newbury St., Boston, MA 02116. Phone: 617-267-3500. Web site: www.OtisAhearn.com.
An open house at this property will be held from 1 to 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 2.
