Would you pay $199,900 for Doc Davis’ home office and barn?
For more than 100 years, a small frame and shingle house has stood on this lot near the intersection of Clifton Road and Route 88 in Bethel Park. Built in 1914, the house at 1259 Clifton Road was once owned by Ethel and Emmett Davis, a physician who ran his practice out of the house for many years.
“My in-laws purchased the home in 1956 from Mrs. Davis,” said Donna Thwaite, whose mother-inlaw, June Thwaite, was a visiting nurse who tended to Mrs. Davis in her later years.
“Back then, there was a row of little red-brick ranches, then this house,” she said.
Now the three-bedroom, two-bath home with a two-story barn in back is on the market for $199,900 (MLS No.1404772) with the Karen Marshall group of Keller Williams Realty (412551-2124 or www.kw.com). An open house will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday.
The Crafsman-style cottage, which sits on a 0.64-acre lot, has its original trim, deep overhang and exposed rafter tails.
The front door opens into the 18by-14-foot living room, which has an original hardwood floor hidden beneath carpeting. Like the rest of the first floor, it has a 9-foot ceiling and arched entries featuring cherry columns. The staircase is also all originaland has been maintained.
The adjacent 12-by-24-foot dining room has a built-in china closet with glass doors and the Davises’ 1920s dining room set.
The 10-by-13-foot family room was once used as the doctor’s waiting room. An adjacent 12-by-8-foot room was his exam room and is now the TV room. Another part of the doctor’s office was turned into a full bathroom that could be part of a first-floor master suite.
The 12-by-10-foot kitchen has oak cabinets, laminate counter tops and vinyl tile floors. A firstfloor laundry room has a wall of original cabinets and may have been the pantry.
The three bedrooms on the second floor range in size from 12 by 9 feet to 18 by 13 feet. All have carpet, large windows and 9-foot ceilings. The full bathroom has its original tan ceramic tiles and a vintage bathtub.
Buying here
June Thwaite used an 8-by-7-foot room as an office. “She was always writing and believed highly in communicating with notes and letters,” her daughter-in-law said.
The house has a covered side porch, a small stone patio and a long drive that runs from Clifton Road to the entrance of the white barn with a red roof. The barn appears to be one of two buildings shown on a G.M. Hopkins Co. plat map from 1934. Large vacant pieces of land surround the property on three sides in the map.
“It was filled with boy stuff, and even the neighbors used the second floor for storage,” Mrs. Thwaite said. “It was the communal neighborhood storage shed.”
The property has an Allegheny County assessed value of $125,100. Over the past three years, three houses have sold in the 1200 block of Clifton Road for prices ranging from $125,000 in March 2018 to $169,900 in September 2016 (www2.county.allegheny.pa.us/ RealEstate/Search.aspx).
Nearby on Clifton Road is 26acre Simmons Park, with basketball and tennis courts, baseball/ softball fields, batting cages, a walking trail, a concession stand and picnic pavilions.
The house has radiator heat, window air conditioners and a walkout basement.
“My mother-in-law hosted every holiday in the house,” Mrs. Thwaite said. “Everyone came here. There was plenty of room and lots of laughter.”