3320 Hyde Park Avenue (1993)

Numerous pictures and art objects add a high degree of interest to this brick Colonial Revival that was part of the Deming Realty Co. allotment. The building date is a puzzle. The original permit is dated June 30,1916, with C. W. Washburn listed as both architect and contractor. County records give the date as 1920 and the "effective" date as 1922. However, the original owner is first listed at this address in the city telephone directory of 1914, two years before the permit to build was issued and eight years before the county records' "effective building date."

During the 30s, an arch was cut between the living and dining room and an opening was cut into the enclosed stairway to the second floor. The house was extended along its east side, adding what is now the music studio on the first floor and an extension of the master bedroom on the second.

Six years ago the present owners remodeled and further extended the house. At one end of the original kitchen they built a bathroom with marble floor and shower; its glass block "window" replaces the original outside window. A skylight in the kitchen area adds greatly to the open feeling of the entire house. Both upstairs and down, the solid oak floors and doors, long hidden by layer upon layer of paint, were stripped and refinished. In the remodeling process, the door on the west side of the master bedroom became a window, and a new door was added opening onto the deck.

All of the many beautiful oil paintings in the house are the work of the owners' daughter.

The owners have made quite a handsome recreation room in the basement by simply painting the walls and the floor and leaving the furnace pipes exposed. Before they could do this, however, they had to make a major investment in waterproofing the outside walls of the basement.

A deck leads out from the addition to a patio and the pretty back yard, which backs onto Cain Park.