2959 Fairmount Boulevard (1994)

This imposing nine-bedroom house combines formal elegance with gracious informality. One of its present owners grew up in this home with her seven brothers and sisters. She and her husband are now raising their four children here.

Built in 1915, the home, like its neighbors on Fairmount Boulevard, is a legacy of the heyday of eclectic domestic architecture. The expansive gray stucco exterior, symmetrical alignments, and red hipped roof are French in inspiration. The dramatically arched front door and first-floor windows are Italian-influenced. The French motif is sustained in the furnishings of the living room, dining room, and entrance hall, which are painted and papered in cream and gold and ornamented with the original antiqued plaster moldings and carved wood paneling. The library, sunroom, and family room (formerly a breakfast room) are decorated more casually in cheerful contemporary colors and fabrics.

The owner's parents renovated the bathrooms, turned the former maids' dining room into a laundry room, and uncovered and refinished the handsome hardwood floors. She and her husband painted and papered the kitchen and pantry themselves. Despite these adaptations, the house retains much of the character of a French manor house.