Bloomfield house on quiet street priced under $300,000
Tucked away in a corner of Bloomfield is Woodworth Street. It’s a one-block, dead-end street with a few spaces and a lot of green space. It’s hard to imagine it’s right around the corner from the hustle of Bloomfield, Shadyside and East Liberty.
For the past 36 years, Janet and Harold Agnew have lived at 5137 Woodworth St., the last house on the right. Now they’re looking for something smaller but still in their beloved Bloomfield. They put this two-bedroom, 1½-bath house on the market for $299,900 with Bobby Altimore of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services (www.howardhanna.com or 412969-2276). The house went under contract 19 days after it was listed.
The early 1900s house has unique scalloped siding on one side and a variety of roof angles, not something you expect to find in this neighborhood of small row houses and apartment buildings.
“We were told stories by Mr. Dadaro, the man who used to own the house,” Janet Agnew said. “He said it was originally the servant quarters to the old Baum estate.”
Another mystery is a door with no steps on one side of the house. The Agnews believe they were removed by a previous owner. Not wanting to mess with the original structure, they “painted the door white to make it look nice.”
The house also has a large fenced-in backyard.
“The whole backyard is grass. We use it for our dog, so it is fenced in,” explained Janet Agnew, adding with a chuckle: “We have a Chihuahua and he couldn’t get out, and he did try.”
Inside,the focal point of the 14-by15-foot living room is a fireplace with an ornate metal firebox, imposing stone mantel and tiled hearth. Around the corner is the dining room with a second decorative fireplace. The back-to-back fireplacesshare the same chimney.
The Agnews are leaving the two vintage mirrors in the living room as a present of sorts for the new owners.
“They were left for us —
gorgeous, gold-leaf beautiful antique mirrors that were just left on the wall,” she said.
Agnew also noted the large walk-in cupboard in her bedroom.
“For an old building to have a walk-in cupboard? It’s huge, as big as a bowling alley. … OK, half a bowling alley, and I’m going to miss it,” she said.
Next to the dining room is a large kitchen with adjoining mud room and first-floor laundry room. The gas stove, refrigerator, washer and dryer will remain in the house.
“It’s a huge kitchen, a little too big for two people,” Agnew said. “We had a six-person table in there.”
The dining room’s vintage ceiling tile motif is repeated in the kitchen backsplash.
At one end of the kitchen, there is the back door leading to the backyard. On the other end is a built-in cupboard and a twodoor pantry of sorts. One side is shelving and the other is tall storage for mops, brooms and vacuums.
“We recently got those special drawers, the ones on rollers,” said Agnew.
The old drawers tended to stick. Fortunately, they found a talented craftsman to work on the built-in cupboard. “They did the work, and now they slide rightout.”
The property assessment is $55,000. No houses have sold on Woodworth Street over the past five years (www2.alleghenycounty.us/RealEstate/GeneralInfo.
There are two bedrooms on the second floor along with the family bathroom. The powder room is on the first floor.
There is a full basement and a small crawl space above the third floor, mainly for access, not storage.
A new asphalt roof was installed in the past two years along with a new gas furnace and a water heater. There is street parking with a city permit, but the Agnews have never had any problems finding a spot onthis quiet street.
“It’s been a wonderful place to live, a very quiet neighborhood,” she said.