Party like it’s 1889! That’s the year pharmacist Samuel McDonnell and his wife Mary moved into 1212 Fell Street, becoming the first of only three owners of this resplendent Victorian single-family home in its 134 year history. Fit for a preservationist — or a time traveller with a taste for the finer things — this uncommonly intact specimen serving up all kinds of bygone glamor is now on the market for $2,995,000 (approximately $91,400 in 1889 dollars).
The house is one of two Stick-Eastlake style buildings that were constructed on a 50′ by 137.5′ lot bordering Panhandle Park as it was originally conceived to extend along Fell Street to Market Street. Unfortunately, plans to expand the park were rejected by voters in 1899 and never realized. The neighborhood’s decline accelerated with a WWII-era population boom when investors began bastardizing multiple units from many of the area’s single-family dwellings. By the 1970s, North Panhandle was widely regarded as undesirable, rife with homes in disrepair or abandoned.
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1212 Fell Street miraculously survived it all in one piece. Over the past three decades, the neighborhood has come roaring back thanks, in part, to the establishment of the North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association, a variety of redevelopment and beautification initiatives, and a new generation of homeowners. The home’s current owner purchased it in 1995, just as things were beginning to turn around.
The facade of 1212 Fell Street is largely the same today as it was when built in 1888. Exquisite craftsmanship is on full display with scrolled brackets, paneled cornices and delicate mouldings. Corinthian columns grace the portico and fluted colonnettes frame each window. A stylized sunburst pediment atop the upper-floor square bay is typical of the naturalistic motifs that define Eastlake architecture.
Step inside and prepare to be transported back in time. Broadloom carpeting, lincrusta wallcovering, chunky crown moulding, and an elaborate carved mahogany staircase… wow. Just off the entryway, a triple parlor is all done up with hand-stenciled ceilings, Bradbury & Bradbury wallpapers, and one-of-a-kind crystal chandeliers hanging from painted polychrome medallions.
From leaded glass windows and pocket doors to sculpted corbels and fully-functioning call tubes, the trappings of rich Victorian design go on and on. If these walls could talk, imagine the stories they would tell. And on that note, the home’s garage was a Masonic Lodge meeting room up until 1914 — there’s surely an intriguing story there!
Click here to see more of this fabulous home from the official MLS listing.
