House of the week: A three-bedroom Victorian in Germantown for $375,000
The home has modern upgrades along with maintained original character.
When Emily and Todd Grant were preparing to leave Fishtown for a larger house in a new neighborhood, Germantown seemed like a good fit.
“We love the Wissahickon,” said Emily. The prospect of a yard and a diverse neighborhood was also inviting.
But Emily, an artist and teacher, and Todd, an architect, said they also wanted to help the neighborhood by preserving old buildings.
They moved into and upgraded a 1750s farmhouse and saved an old firehouse that Emily now runs as Firehouse Arts Germantown. Last year, the couple took on another ambitious project: a three-bedroom house that had barely been touched in decades by its previous owner.
Now, after an intense year of upgrades, the house, built around 1900, is ready for its next owner.
“We tried to save as much as we could,” Todd said. “We wanted to make everything look like it was an original.”
They salvaged and sourced, added a powder room and an en suite bathroom, added low-energy double pane windows, and installed mini-split heating and cooling throughout.
The house is on a block with original historic red-brick paving dating to 1915, with new concrete sidewalks and granite curbs. Some homes have front and rear gardens with Wissahickon schist retaining walls.
The two-story, semi-detached home is 1,792 square feet.
There are two sets of original vestibule French doors, with the original marble thresholds, brass doorknobs, and wainscoting.
The first floor has the living room, the new powder room with tile flooring, the dining room, and the renovated kitchen with a waterfall-edged island.
Two sets of staircases lead to the second floor, which houses all three bedrooms and a laundry room. The en suite bathroom has radiant floor heat and a walk-in shower.
Stairs from the kitchen lead to the large heated basement spanning the house’s footprint.
And the backyard has slat fencing and original stone retaining walls.
The house is near the Wayne Junction transit station, Attic Brewery, Germantown Avenue shops, Happy Hollow Playground, and Fernhill Park.
It is listed by Tim Owen of Compass Realty for $375,000.
