Elkins Park midcentury modern asks $425K after top to bottom restoration

It sits on the same street as Louis Kahn’s Oser House, too

By Melissa Romero Oct 12, 2017, 9:00am EDT

A light-filled modern home in Elkins Park just hit the market for $425,000, wowing with its bright interiors and upgraded finishes. What makes it even more impressive is that the home only sold in 2014 at an auction for just $179,300.

It also sits among good company: Louis Kahn’s Oser House, his earliest residential commission that was designed in 1940 with Norman Rice, is just down the street.

The home at 655 Stetson Road in Elkins Park is a classic modern home built in 1950. Although the architect is unknown, listing agent Craig Wakefield suspects that whoever designed it was influenced by modern buildings built in Europe.

When it hit the auction block in 2014, it was in a sorry state, as so often is the case with midcentury modern homes. But the buyers, who are in the design field, put a lot of elbow grease into the property, transforming it into the 2,417-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home it is today.

The spacious living room is one of the most striking spaces in the home. It’s lined with floor-to-ceiling, south-facing windows looking out to the property’s yard, and the brick fireplace harkens back to Kahn’s Mercer tiled fireplace in the nearby Oser House.

Much of home’s original features have been restored, including that epic staircase. But there have been a number of upgrades, including the bathrooms, which are now adorned in hexagon tiling. Meanwhile, the home’s roof, windows, and system are all new.