3081 Fairfax Road (1997)

Since 1919, when the building permit was issued, this house has undergone many transformations. Basically a center hall colonial, it has a Georgian front, red brick with flat fluted wood pillars and slate roof, and a very modern addition at the rear. When the present owners purchased it thirty years ago, there was no place to eat in the kitchen, so they made the kitchen into a breakfast room and the pantry into a kitchen. Three years ago they reversed the move when they built an addition that included a breakfast room. The former garage is now a doctor's office, with another office above it. A sunroom became the master bedroom. The casement windows, which had opened inward, have all been replaced, and the French doors are now in the doctor's office.

At one time there was a real conservatory with its own furnace, but when the furnace gave out on the sixth day of a fierce cold snap, all of the plants died. The conservatory is now a dance studio with a sprung floor. A particularly attractive feature of the entire addition is the visibility of the original outside brick. Note the stained glass window looking into the studio from the hall.

In the original section of the house, an unusual feature is the staircase. The flat wood between the stairs and railing has an arts-and-crafts look, which is however belied by the curved ceiling and doorways. The iron work in the corners of the windows on the landing is a later addition.