House Tour: Yellow Victorian in Columbia Tusculum
As promised, today we’re taking a tour of this charming yellow-painted Victorian home in Columbia Tusculum, which was the first neighborhood founded in the Cincinnati area (then known as Losantiville) in the late 1700s. (To read more about it, check out yesterday’s post.)
It was on the market earlier this year and I found interior photos on the MLS site (it sold in February ‘08 for $205,000). According to the Hamilton County Auditor, it was built in 1890 and has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths.
Let’s take the tour!
I’m intrigued by that door that’s way up off the ground in the kitchen. What do you suppose that is? Where does it lead?
I can’t even imagine the amount of work that would be involved with a house like this that’s over 100 years old. It looks like it needs a little updating and fresh paint (I’m not crazy about the kitchen, for one thing), but I love the bones of it–the staircase, the fireplaces, the woodwork, and all the big windows. Do you?
If You’re Hooked on Old Houses:
- Columbia Tusculum’s Victorian Painted Ladies
- Walking and Gawking in Historic North Avondale, Part 1
- Walking and Gawking in Historic North Avondale, Part 2
- 1908 Mitchell Mansion on Rose Hill
- Normandy Manor: The Levine House
- Tudor Revival-Style Home of the “Cantaloupe King”
- The Belvedere: Luxury Apartment Building from 1925
- The Telford Mansion
- The Spite House
- Cobble Court
- Stokesay Court
- Coco Chanel’s Parisian Apartment
- 1908 Gaslight Mansion
- Mark Twain’s Mansion
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s William P. Boswell House
- Sears Honor-Bilt Home: The Lynnhaven Model
- Sears Modern Homes: House Kits from Catalogs
- Pheasant-Hill Farm
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:30 am
hmmm…i’d love to know about that door!
i love it. it doesn’t have enough bedrooms for us, but it’s beautiful. who wouldn’t want to live there?
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:48 am
I’m thinking that door may have originally been a back staircase to the kitchen. They probably didn’t need it so they removed the steps and turned it into a cupboard or pantry maybe. The house is adorable.
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:32 am
If that door is on an outside wall it may have been the “ice door”, where the blocks of ice were delivered for ” refrigeration. You see them a lot in houses that age although they are usually somewhat smaller. Also could have been ( but less likely) the door to a coal shute. The coal shute door was usually just an exterior door, but it could have been converted at some time into a pantry. Just my two cents. I love the layout, but I especially love the windows and the patina on the floors.
Janet
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:35 am
Hello,
I found your blog through The Inspired Room. I would love to see what is inside those neat houses I drive by. This blog is awesome.
I’ll be visiting often, Smiles, Christine
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:52 am
That’s awful cute for the price its sold for (of course, I don’t know what the neighborhood’s like…) I agree on the paint, the ‘realtor beige’ really doesn’t match the victorian details.
I gotta say I’m a little disapointed - for how ornate and time consuming the outside must be, the inside’s a little plain.
As for the door, we have a door half way up a wall with a step on the outside that leads to a staircase. This house doesn’t look big enough for a second stair, so my second guess is a pantry of some sort, with structural items running along the floor so it couldn’t be full height. Or maybe the basement stairs run underneath it. Who likes rummaging for things on the bottom of the pantry anyway?
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:24 am
I hate the tile floor in the kitchen!
All in all, I think the house is cute! Very charming. Love the baseboards, tall windows and those interior doors!
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:36 am
I love the transoms and the high windows/ceilings. The house has a ton of charm and detail, it would definitely require some updating though. That kitchen is terrible!
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:31 am
Wow! A mechanical doorbell! Love it. Weird that they didn’t paint the back of the house — what’s with that? $205K sounds great. What is the median home price in Cincinnati? I took a double take on that door and then I thought, oh, maybe it’s a window. I know it looks like a knob on the left, but there is that other door right next to it. I love the house, it’s so cute and charming. I would repaint some of those rooms, but . . .
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:47 am
Bonnie–I looked it up and the median house price in Cincinnati is $127,800. This is one of the nicer neighborhoods downtown. At the top of these hills are newer mansions overlooking the river (also got some pics of them I might show you sometime). -Julia
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:31 am
The house is awesome from the outside, not the inside is terrible or anything. I’m just surprised that it’s only 2 bedrooms! I guess that’s just how they made them ‘back in the day’.
I’m thinking that the door thingy in the kitchen could be a dumb waiter?
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:41 am
I love all their black furniture and black kitchen cabinets. I have black furniture and I love it. I like this house, it’s cute
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I am the Realtor who took the photos you see in this blog. I sell predominately in this area of Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout, Columbia Tusculum and Oakley. If you are looking to purchase an old home, I have the attention to detail to help you find the little character items that you would be looking for. If you like this house, the area is full of them! Check out my sold homes on my website to see hundereds of photos and my other website http://www.cincinnatihomeshowcase.com
Have a great weekend!
Amy Broghamer
ReMAX Preferred
513-377-3637
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:09 pm
My favorite feature is the blue tile around the dining room fireplace. I think it should be more of a feature and not a place to set giant wine glasses! Gorgeous work.
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I really like all the character, but what is up with that BRIGHT yellow bathroom??!?
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:48 pm
That poor little sad kitchen
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I love this little house. I actually liked the green paint they used in two of the rooms. I loved all the single-hung, gridded windows (my favorite kind)–especially the one at the top of the stairs. It’s my goal in life to have a house with a window at the top of the stairs or in the hallway. I just like wasted space. Actually, I like being able to look out the window from anywhere in the house. I don’t want anyone looking in, though.
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Maybe the next owners will redo the kitchen in keeping with the period of the house. It could be a real beauty.
Jane
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Very nice. Puzzling about the back being blue, hmmm…
I love the detail close ups!!
Pat
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:04 pm
I’d love me some transom windows–I’m thinking it would be a good thing for when the kids are teenagers. A little tiptoeing and a step ladder and I am all into their business…on the sly.
May 24th, 2008 at 7:35 am
I love the house! It’s just beautiful, and mysterious with
‘the door.’ Mysterious houses are the very best, because
they will keep you wondering for years to come. About the
odd outdoor paint job. Well, in all honesty, I don’t really know
what it’s about, but we have one of those houses in our
neighborhood too. I mean, we have a half painted Victorian
house–part of it is more of the Victorian and the other
part is white with green trim. So maybe it’s just some odd
thing were people can’t decide when it comes to Victorian
houses. Or maybe painters charge a lot to paint a Victorian
house or something.
May 24th, 2008 at 9:07 am
I would love to live in a house like this….very cool. Jen R
May 26th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
I love it’s bones and the facade…the floors, the glorious, bright windows.
The kitchen, erm…nooo…not so much.
I do love those paintings! Bright and full of life!
May 27th, 2008 at 8:08 am
I am the previous owner of this home, and when I purchased it the lady who lived in the house said that the small door in the kitchen, which has now been converted to a pantry, used to be a dumbwaiter at some point. And we were never really sure why the back of the house was blue and the front was yellow, that was a mystery to us also.
May 27th, 2008 at 8:18 am
Thanks to Alison, the former owner of this home, for solving the “door mystery” for us! Looks like Deanne guessed correctly that it was once a dumbwaiter. -Julia
May 27th, 2008 at 10:59 am
What a cute home! THis is a great post! You always see these fabulous houses on the outside and it always makes me wonder what the inside looks like - this is why I love your blog! Great post!
October 24th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
I am just adoring your posts on the old Victorians.
I am trying to pick a color for our old house so I am in heaven today.
Thanks for a great tour
Becky