House of the week: A three-bedroom home in University City for $625,000
The house is near Clark Park, University of Pennsylvania, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Alanna Smith loved planting perennials in the front garden and shopping at the Clark Park farmer’s market. Her husband, Louis, liked the easy walk to Clark Park and the bike ride to the Penn campus.
And they both liked the combination of tradition and renovation in their three-bedroom, 2½-bathroom home in University City, built exactly a century ago.
“Comfortable but not too busy,” Louis said.
But as is often the case, career determines location. Alanna, an anthropologist, and Louis, a biophysics researcher, will soon be splitting time between Washington, D.C., and New York.
When they were house hunting several years ago, the Smiths had been looking in West Philadelphia and the Graduate Hospital area but found that many of the houses on the market had been gutted.
But the 1,680-square-foot University City house had undergone a top-to-bottom renovation in 2016, including plumbing, mechanical, and electrical systems and a water filtration system. And it was freshly painted.
The house has a traditional front sun porch, wood flooring, architectural moldings, and a rear garage. There is a full array of solar panels, and the new owners “will make more electricity than they’ll use,” Louis said.
The open-concept main floor has the living, dining, and kitchen areas and a south-facing sunroom, and a space for removing shoes and coats.
The kitchen has an island and hanging pot rack, and there is a windowed half-bath.
The bedrooms and two full bathrooms are on the next level, and the primary bathroom has a walk-in closet and skylight, double floating sink vanity, and frameless shower.
And there is a deck off the primary bedroom, and a washer and dryer.
The basement is unfinished but dry and watertight.
The house is in the Lea Elementary School catchment area. It is near the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and convenient to public transportation.
It is listed by David Feldman of Compass Realty for $625,000.