New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Quiet, peaceful estate
Tudor mansion in Hamden's East Rock neighborhood
With an 8,000-square foot Tudor mansion, a carriage house with an apartment and an in-ground swimming pool, this estate is an urban oasis.
“It’s just quiet, it’s peaceful,” Wendy Cohen Sadik, listing agent for Real Living Wareck D’Ostilio, said.
One of the largest estates in Hamden, it is on private cul-desac with only four other properties, is located five minutes to downtown New Haven, near Albertus Magnus College, directly on the shuttle route to Yale University, within walking distance to the Foote School and is the only property in the East Rock area with separate buildings, an in-ground pool and that much square footage, Sadik said.
With rooms that effortlessly flow together, the “inviting warm and cozy” house promotes “intimate interaction with friends and family,” she said.
The house was built in 1928 by architect and community planner George Gray and in the 1960s was home to Paier College of Art, seller Marc Suraci said. The school’s founder Edward Paier lived in the front portion of the mansion and classrooms were in back.
Suraci and his wife saw the home during a fundraiser and were “blown away by it,” he said. In 2006, they bought it, spending the next two years renovating, an effort he called “a labor of love.”
He stripped all the wood in the house, staining it lighter and adding a glaze. With help from an interior decorator, he chose paint colors that worked with the home’s unique features, adding special and custom touches along the way, such as a Tuscan sunset he commissioned a local artist to paint on the ceiling above the foyer.
The living room has built-in bookshelves with carvings of Tudors roses, “an unbelievable fireplace,” which also has Tudor roses on either side of the mantle, Suraci said. “That’s where we put our Christmas tree, that’s where our son opens his presents.”
Floor-to-ceiling windows bring in natural light and a chandelier hanging over the room was originally from a Newport mansion. A matching chandelier hangs in the dining room – with high ceilings and built-in cabinets with leaded glass doors with Tudor roses.
Sunlight floods through palladium windows in the bright and beautiful conservatory off the dining room – with a cathedral ceiling and hound’s-tooth floor.
The large kitchen has a high ceiling, custom cabinets, high end appliances, a butler’s pantry and great flow for cooking.
Off the kitchen is a cozy library where Suraci’s son does his studies. Over the fireplace is a painting Saruci commissioned of St. Michael with a drawn sword.
“In the winter we have a fire in there all the time,” he said, adding that the painting “looks great” when a fire is blazing.
A balcony looks down over the huge family room with 25-foot ceilings, a wet bar, wine cooler, sink and custom made Rhode Island railings.
“This room we use a lot,” Saruci said. “My son learned to walk in this room, lots of memories.”
The 1000-square feet master suite, which includes a bedroom, sitting room, dressing room, bath and walk-in closets, has a fireplace. The bath has a makeup vanity, whirlpool and walk-in steam shower.
There’s a fireplace in a guest bedroom and a bay widow in Saruci’s son’s room.
“My wife used to sit there and read him books at night,” Saruci said.
The third floor includes a walkin cedar closet the size of a small bedroom, a pool table room with a vaulted ceiling, a family room and a kitchen with marble countertops and vaulted ceilings. There’s also a chapel with a prayer station, which according to Saraci is “a very peaceful place to go.”