Newton condo’s a historic ‘Old House’
One of the earliest tasks of public TV’s famed fixer-upper Bob Vila was to figure out what to do with a sprawling, red Shinglestyle Victorian home in Newton that held both a storied past and a dreadful state of disrepair.
The year was 1981 and the home on Ober Road was once the summer escape of prominent 19th century surgeon, Dr. Henry Jacobs Bigelow. The place was built for the doctor by the equally influential architect, Henry Hobson Richardson.
But these two famous names weren’t enough to keep interest in the Oak Hill estate on 5 lush acres of wooded land. By the early 1980s, the then-centuryold home had already been abandoned and dilapidated for a decade.
Over the next 27 episodes, however, Vila and his crew had the property restored and carved up into five modern, high-end condominiums.
Now, one of those condos is on the market for $950,000.
Today the home — having been renovated some 35 years ago — could once more be called “This Old House.” But the place is in immaculate condition, appearing like a time capsule of elegant ’80s design.
Set in what appears a forest once you’re on the grounds, the condo complex has a mythical feel. Covered in wood shingles with dragon-tooth detail and eyebrow windows, the main unit — not the one for sale — where the four-story Bigelow bungalow used to be has a steeply sloping roof and pointy fairytale-like turret poking from one side. The place surrounds a courtyard, where earlier this week some residents were babying their dog in the late afternoon sun.
The condo at 74 Ober Road can be seen on “This Old House” in the before, as a run-down, expansive old woodshed. In the present-day after, the place enters to a handsome living room whose centerpiece is a massive brick fireplace extending up the wall. Wood beams stretch across the cathedral ceiling.
Nearby is the kitchen that appears like it came from the pages of Bon Appetit circa 1982, with its brick-red terra-cotta tile floor, wood cabinetry, wood-burning stove and center island with a hanging pot-holder rack above.
The wallpapered dining room feels antique – thanks to its mirrored sconces, pickled driftwood floor, and low ceiling.
Upstairs are two bedrooms, one that’s been painted blue and turned into a library and another that’s white and traditional. In 1980s fashion, the stairway has a landing midway, overlooking the living room.
In all, the home is 2,003 square feet and has two and a half bathrooms over two levels. New roofing shingles were put on in 2013.
“This house is a typical white elephant, a house that nobody wants, and that nobody can afford,” says Vila at the show’s start, dramatically circling the property in a helicopter, and describing the area’s serious housing shortage. The cost of money is too high, he says, and “land costs are out of sight.”
The price for “This Old House” to take over the place for its rehab? $10,000.
Nancy Grissom of Hammond Residential (617-6860838) is handling the sale of the condo.