Listing of the Day
Location: Winchester, Massachusetts Price: $2.395 million
There’s a reason this Arts and Crafts-meets-Colonial-style home, nine miles north of Boston, fits in so well with the bucolic Winchester Country Club that abuts the property: they were both designed by the same architect.
A member of the venerable Warren, Smith, & Biscoe firm, which specialized in Arts and Crafts design, architect Frank Patterson Smith lived in Winchester, Mass. from 1895 until he died in 1943. He helped design the local Church of the Epiphany, the country club, and several impressive Winchester homes.
This one was built in 1915 for a local reverend, Carlton Putnam Mills, who used part of the house as his study and to hold masses. Much of the original detail is in tact, including leaded glass windows, a slate roof, wood paneling, and Moravian tiles (similar tiles are seen in Boston’s Gardner Museum).
In 1998, Marti Hood and her husband, Bill, purchased the property, which she describes as “needing a lot of work—a lot.” They undertook an extensive renovation and restoration, adding a couple of key updates, including radiant heat flooring, central air conditioning, and a new kitchen. “The kitchen had an orange shag rug and orange appliances,” says Mrs. Hood. “It was a ‘take down’,” she says.
The replacement is a chef’s kitchen with maple cabinets, limestone countertops, a Sub-Zero refrigerator, and a six-burner commercial grade Russell Range. There is also a Vermont Castings gas fireplace and a kitchen nook with a desk and wet bar.
Mrs. Hood commissioned murals in Mills’ former study, which has now become a foyer of sorts. They depict the nearby Mystic Lakes and the country club.
The home doesn’t come with membership to the Winchester Country Club. For that, you must ask a member in good standing — the club doesn’t give out public information about how to join.
The Stats
Each of the four bedrooms has an en-suite bathroom; there is an additional half bath. Though the 4,056-square-foot house sits on a wee .56-acre lot — some of the land and outbuildings were sold in the 1950s — the cedar shingle-clad home is perched on the fourth hole of the golf course, with 175 acres of smooth green lawn stretching out before it.
The home is surrounded by a bluestone patio, a courtyard and terraces. Mrs. Hood says the famed Olmsted firm designed the original garden walls and terraces, which remain intact.
Neighborhood Notes
Winchester, a wealthy town of around 21,000 residents, sits at the head of the Mystic Lakes. It was originally the territory of the Squaw Sachem, a Native American woman who ruled over the land after her husband died. Legend has it she willingly deeded land to the colonialists. During the Revolutionary War, Winchester’s Black Horse Tavern was a meeting place for soldiers and citizens.
Besides the country club, there are plenty of other opportunities for recreation, including a 378-year-old organic farm and the 2,575-acre Middlesex Fells Reservation.
Agent: Anna Hood, Waterfield Sotheby’s International Realty
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