New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Tudor Revival on Prospect Hill
Historic home with copious windows and open feel
This Tudor Revival on Prospect Hill is bright and airy. In 2005, after falling in love with its history and being captured by its architecture, Hao Phan and Thuy Le purchased the home. Built in 1907 for the dean of Yale University, the halftimber home has been a stop on the New Haven Historical Society’s Historical Tour. The half-timber design—a distinctive stucco and wood pattern—is a mainstay throughout northern European countries, including Germany, Holland, and Denmark, according to Wojtek Borowski, listing agent for Pearce Real Estate. Sitting on a nicely landscaped half-acre lot, the home is hidden behind ledges and very private.
Inside, features such as a bell to ring for the help evoke the home’s past. There are also luminous original wood floors and beams and nine-foot ceilings. Le, however, was most impressed by the home’s open feel. Inside and out, the architecture is beautiful, she said. To further expand on that, she went to New York City and purchased historic and replica lighting, including chandeliers made in Italy. These handpicked pieces hang throughout the home. “It’s a very well-restored historical house, one of the grand homes of Prospect Hill,” Borowski said. From the entry foyer, the eye is drawn to the dining room and a wall of windows that opens to the backyard, giving depth to the space. “The flow, the feng shui, is just really nice,” Le said.
The living room has a 10-foot beamed ceiling and is flooded with light from three large windows, including two flanking the wood-burning fireplace. Off the living room, the sunroom is surrounded by windows and opens to the backyard. With “windows, windows, windows everywhere,” the home opens to the outside world, Le said. “That’s what we love.” To the left of the foyer, the library has built-in bookcases, two sets of windows—one looking out at a dogwood tree in the enclosed front yard—and original wood paneling. “I love the wood in the house; it’s just outstanding,” Le said. The updated kitchen has and “windows everywhere,” granite countertops, an island, high-end appliances, and great flow for cooking and entertaining. A huge window with a seat pours light into the stairs and hallway.
The bright primary suite is spacious with a sitting area around a fireplace and another nook where Le and Phan have a home office overlooking the backyard. “It’s just views everywhere you sit,” Le said. The room’s en-suite bathroom opens to a nursery or office and is where Phan and Le’s daughter slept, “so we felt very connected to her,” Le said. There are two more bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms. The third-floor guest suite has two bedrooms and a remodeled bathroom.
During small winter gatherings, folks congregate in the dining room, where they sit and chat for hours, Le said. Larger parties or summertime celebrations find people sitting outside on the porch or in the backyard. The large backyard is so inviting that during one party, Le was asked by a guest if they could hold a wedding there. It didn’t end up happening, she said, but if it had, 100 guests would have easily been comfortable in the space. The beautiful and private backyard blooms with ever-changing flowers from spring through summer. “We could sit in the backyard and feel like we were in our own world,” she said.
Now living in North Carolina, she says she misses the home’s architecture. “In North Carolina, you don’t have that kind of architecture,” she said. “the period, solid fantastic architecture that is no longer feasible to build.”