Wissahickon Style V, or Who will Spring for Spring Bank?

Post 32

Ahhh, Spring. Spring forward. Spring out. Usually once a year... unless you have a an actual spring stream running through your property..

Somewhere out there is a local history buff with a mere extra million burning a hold in her or his pocket. One who needs an interesting house where the kids get their own space, yet is intimate enough for a normal size family. One who wants a house with a bit of soul to it.

A peaceful place, with its own creek,with an extra lot of wilderness that can be gardened or, perhaps built on later. Maybe a small Green cottage to retire in, while the next generation takes over the main house. A house part colonial, part late Victorian,  part recent, sensitive renovations.

It  even has its own ruins-- two stone, spring houses, one of which houses what must be the most tastefully situated Jacuzzi ever. There is even a hook half-hidden in the stone for your towel, if you feel you need it. For notice the porch stairs on your left, you can spring back into the house without anyone the wiser.

So, why buy a McMansion when you can hang out where colonial Rittenhouses, Poe, lunatics, Frank Furness (his being the addition,) and the gentleman  who commissioned the "Toleration" statue in Fairmont Park, have hung out?

Did a mention that, besides this view, this wonder also includes a sleeping porch, a breakfast porch, a house-long glassed-in winter garden and a house-long open porch? A walled garden? A servants' back staircase so sunny and glossy you could sit there and read all day? A dining room fireplace mantel of King of Prussia marble? Did you know there -was- King of Prussia marble?

Sold?  I hope so. You will get your money's worth and more on this one. If so, contact the broker:

Loretta C. Witt, CRS, GRI Associate Broker
Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors 14 West Evergreen Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19118
office 215-247-3750 direct line 215-248-6522 e-mail Loretta@lorettawitt.com

P.S. If you google Spring Bank you will see the price listed as as $1,200.000. I believe it is now closer to a million. And no, I am not related to anyone involved with this, nor am I getting (nor want) any incentive for writing this post. I just think this property is part of what makes this part of the world such an interesting, beautiful and meaningful bit of earth, and would like to see it tended by an appreciative hand.

For old pictures of how Spring bank once looked, check out the Library Company's photo Here and some from the Univ. of Penn., Here

Wissahickon Style III, The Comfortable House

Post 24
Mansions, castles, etc. look great on the outside. In fiction, they are easy symbols of the multi-facited self. But in real life, would you pay to live in one?

Winchester Mansion in San Jose, CA

Too big and crazy ass to be comfortable, wouldn't you say?

People make fun of the midsize, comfortable house. Yet, in it's own way, it's close to perfection. And this area is replete with them.

                                                Here is one I love for its complex simplicity.

 I like the rough walls against the smooth door frame and the play of its shapes, rectangles and triangles. Your eye can break up the space into regular or irregular units.

The windows of the first and second floor are differentiated; the upper ones wink out from under indented eyebrows. The set-forward, right entrance rectangle feels like its upper window is dragged down by low ears, and then, to the left, the less formal, sideways rectangle opens up the space between the two stories. Compression and release.

I like how the colors work: drab stucco, pale limestone, bright blue wooden trim, blue-grayish slate roof and verdigrised copper piping. 

It looks like a good house to live in, solid and unpretentious, understating, yet stating, both virtue and style.

 Here is another one I like. Is it typical Stockbroker Tudor? Sure--but its a well done example.

This one feels like a house out of a late William Morris novel. It would belong to a hospitable yeoman with the sacred well right around the corner.                   

One thing I like is how it is landscaped. The curve of the right window is echoed  in the curve of the driveway and the raised hydrangea bed. The greenery seems to flow down from the house to the valley below, solid angularity contrasting with curves.

Both of these house share variegated blue-greyish slate roofs, limestone frames,verdigrised copper details and blue trim-- which I only realized after taking pictures of both of them. So here is one more house, more humble in materials and irregular in structure, to show I'm not too narrow in my tastes. But yeah, I do think it would look better with blue shutters.