Brookline home melds classic, new
Julia Kim is among the few people who can boast that one of the most famous presidents in U.S. history once lived on her street.
“JFK was born down the street,” Kim said while listing the reasons her family was first drawn to their picturesque attached fourbedroom Colonial Revival at 56 Beals St. in Brookline. The home, now on the market for just over $1.7 million, is only about a minute walk from the John F. Kennedy National Historic Site, birthplace of the 35th president.
But this stately eightroom home has much more to offer than a famous neighbor. The century-old dwelling is spacious, full of period details and has been completed with many modern updates and upgrades.
Set on the historic street lined with towering sycamore trees, 56 Beals takes up the right half of a big, yellow house with a fullwidth porch, hipped roof with dentil moulding along the cornice and two pedimented dormers at the top.
“You step out of Coolidge Corner, and you’re in a quiet oasis,” Kim said of the home that is just a block from downtown Brookline.
Inside, the nearly 1,900-square-foot place is rich with architectural ornaments: the arched, leaded window off the entrance; the transom windows in the first and second floors; the door mouldings and narrow, but detailed, ceiling mouldings in the foyer; the arched entryway before the wooden staircase; and the first-floor window bays.
Kim poured time and money into renovating much of the place when she moved in six years ago. The first floor was remodeled, creating a bright and open kitchen with a massive stainless steel six-burner range, white cabinetry and granite countertops.
“I basically had to gutrenovate the first floor,” she said.
The third-floor master bath was also transformed, only with marble — on the vanity, floor and shower. And the small, private backyard was landscaped with a permeable stone patio and system to redirect rain water into the ground.
Plus, Kim updated the electrical systems, plumbing, furnace, and windows, and waterproofed the unfinished basement.
In all, Kim estimated the work took more than eight months to complete and cost “in the multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
But she left much of the appearance of the old home intact, retaining the original feel — and keeping it with the look of the other early 20th-century homes on Beals.
“We worked with the beauty that is there,” she said. “It’s a part of what gives the house its character.”
The sale of the home is being handled by Stacey Steck, 617-515-3396.