Checking out the inside of many different houses is a great perk of being a real estate agent. I’m not at all curious about the homeowners’ stuff, or how they live, rather I love to look at the design and architecture of different homes. Looking at the outside is nice, but the interiors can be even more interesting.
I see a lot of structures from the 1890s through the present day. The housing stock in Greater Hartford has been gradually built up through the years, with different towns and neighborhoods developed in different eras. Each period has design characteristics that reflect the priorities of the times. My favorite era was around the turn of the century when single family homes had evolved into basically their modern form, yet still had a lot of interesting, and custom, features.
At the top of my list of favorite interior architectural details are transom windows, which are windows over doors. Some still even work, with the mechanisms in place that can open and close the windows. They are not all that common, but I sometimes see them in homes built around 1900 – generally in properties in the West End of Hartford. The brief Wikipedia page for transom windows notes that they were “a common feature in office buildings and apartments before air conditioning became common.” The idea being that it’s a good way to encourage air circulation in a building while maintaining a certain amount of privacy.
Another favorite are pocket doors, which slide into the walls when they’re not in use. The fact that they’re hidden is part of their charm – it’s a nice surprise when they get pulled out. And when they are closed, pocket doors are usually in great shape, since homeowners rarely use them. More often than not they match the style and finish of the normal sized doors in the home.
Finally, I really like built-in cabinetry. Most of the time it takes the form of shelving in the living room, china cabinets in the dining room, and the butler’s pantry. Built-ins are usually more practical than dazzling, but I appreciate how the architects and builders made an effort to thoughtfully utilize all the space in a home. They’re functional, and they help define how the different spaces might be used.
Transom windows, pocket doors, and built-in cabinetry are just a few of the interior architectural elements available in Greater Hartford. They happen to be some of my favorites, but not the only things about a home that make it shine.
What interior architectural features do you look for in a home?
I enjoy the unpainted trim in many of the turn of the century houses… also, the solid wood 4, 5 and 6 panel doors.