The doors from the hall into the living room came from an old house in India that was being torn down.
The back of the house looks out onto Rye Golf Course.
Closeup of the back patio, complete with firepit, which was once the front entrance of the carriage house. You can shop around here for some great deals on patio and other furniture options.
The dining room has beamed ceilings and opens to the patio.
Keeping in Character
By Robin Jovanovich
As more and more older homes are razed or dramatically altered, it’s always a pleasure to be invited into an old Rye house that still possesses much of its original character. It was especially delightful to walk through 2 Soundview Avenue, a stone carriage house on what was once part of the grounds of Whitby Castle, the 1852 Tudor Castle built by noted architect Alexander Jackson Davis.
While not a castle, the owners have treated it like one.
The building, which dates back to the late 19th century, was converted into a private home in the 1920s.
The current owners have done a fine job updating the home, while preserving its good bones. The listing agent, Judy Croughan of Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s, showed us some of the renovation highlights: enclosure of a second-floor porch that ran the length of the house and incorporation of that space as interior living space; keeping the exterior stone wall of the porch within what is now the master bath; and repurposing the original exterior porch doors for the new second-floor playroom.
While the brick surround in the kitchen is original, almost everything else is new. “The new wood floors in the kitchen/family room were purposely distressed to match the original cherry floors in the original spaces, and the extensive custom cabinetry throughout was designed to mimic what the original looked like — only better.”
The homeowners are originally from India and their heritage and interest in old houses and the arts permeates every corner. On a trip to India, they spied two decorative doors in a house that was being torn down and brought them back to frame the opening from the entry to the living room.
They repurposed the mud room to also serve as an art studio. In the second-floor hall they carved out space for two workstations. They transformed the former sleeping porch into a big and flexible room where they can work out or lounge in front of a fireplace.
It’s not often that you find a house of this vintage with a three-car garage and a driveway courtyard, but then this old house has been blessed with smart and creative owners over the years.
