Tasteful friends: a 1920s French Eclectic mini-mansion in West Virginia

The McMansion-esque roofline would bother me. But it is very pretty.

that's not a bad deal for that price

That's a great house. Great price too.

When morning comes to Morgantown, the merchants pull their awnings down/The milk truck makes his morning rounds ....

the only main problem is the kitchen would have to be gutted and getting rid of that blue carpet

Shitty location, look at the houses around it.

It's in West Virginia, this is as good as it gets

I love the kitchen cabinets! They look so 1930s. The problem is the other elements in the kitchen. I would change the floor to black-and-white checked linoleum and install appliances that have a more period feel, as well as moving that range out of the corner--so awkward!

no, R7

that would look really nice decorated at Christmas

Careful, R8. An Aga will turn you overly dramatic.

:D I know what that clip is without even clicking on it, R11.

It hasn't changed hands in 54 years. I'll bet there's a crazy-eccentric story with the seller.

Did anyone say mini French eclair?

lots of potential

I thought it looked like there was a mental institution just across the street in one photo but even worse it is a high school.

R16 What's the age of consent in WV? I bet it's 17 or 18.

Morgantown is home to WVU so you should be able to find cute college boys to ogle

WOW! That is a ton of house for that kind of money. I love it. Of course the blue carpet would be ripped out immediately, and the kitchen would be ripped down to the studs, and I imagine the bathrooms are all old and would need to be ripped out. But for that kind of money it would be worth it.

R17 It's 16. Giggity

You may not be able to get rid of the tenants for some time (24 hour notice required blah blah blah).

Also, you’re facing that highschool.

Wild and Wonderful West Virginia!

I've never seen coal in a coal fireplace, but it's West Virginia.

As an old gay man alone in a mansion it would be cheerful to see busy school activity everyday. They might not feel the same about seeing me.

R8

AGA ranges like La Cornue and similar are very substantial hefty appliances. Unless house/kitchen was built with such a range in mind you may have to place it where floor will support. Usually corners of rooms are structurally strongest which explains why other heavy appliances like front loading washing machines often are placed there as well.

As for house in general it was built in 1920 and seems to have been converted or used as apartments at some point. Am going by those ranges and other kitchen bits installed in uppermost floors under roof.

See so much evidence of water damage on exterior am wondering about interior walls as well. Heating is a hot mess with mixture of hot water rads and gas (forced air?). Window air conditioning units abound speak to no central air, but a that could be handled as part of major renovation job.

Mansion is has landmark status and also sits in historical district (IIRC), those bits pile on layers of aggravation and costs to any sort of work including renovation or restoration.

As with many grand homes likely area surrounding 106 Wilson avenue was quite different over 100 years ago when place went up. Over years as things changed more went up surrounding property until you have what is seen today; a grand mansion basically crammed into a residential street.

Beautiful old house, listing doesnt have a floor plan or any pics of the grounds, but Google Street View helps with that as it is on a corner section and you can see most of it from the street view. The landscaping is actually fairly good for the price point and it looks reasonably manageable too, only .46 of an acre

I could actually live with the blue carpet, but it does need the window unit air con replaced with heat pumps which can be installed quite discretely at a cost. Some of the upstairs rooms look a bit tragic, I think R25 is right, seems to have been converted or used as apartments at some point.

I could live in it as it is, kitchen included, but it does seem to need a lot of work, but that is reflected in the price, it still looks good value for what it it is, roof looks OK in R25's video which can be a big cost

Wat's Morgantown like anyway? Street view looks quite pleasant

Is that a sleeping porch I see?

Place last sold in 1966 for $50k to current owners who still reside and are ones selling I presume.

Yes, there is one or more apartments in this unit, or at least were going by listings.

Can't be sure, but think this is house in question...

And so convenient to the high school so the senior boys can slip in to your basement dungeon between classes.

You can see clearly in some of the upper floor rooms there is water damage, my guess is downspouts or gutters are fouled with growth or haven't been cleared in ages. Either way water is leaking into home and hasn't been addressed. Worse it could be the roof needs work which in a landmark building means a whole lot of bother and expense to repair.

Someone asked above sale "contingent" upon what? For me it would be a top to bottom structural report to find out what's lurking in those 100 year old walls, roof and foundations.

Main detraction of this home is it lacks enough formal grounds to match grandeur of house. What's the point of having such a lovely mansion if it's crowded all around by mundane structures, and worse no gardens or lawns to enjoy or hold events.

Wow. There's an airport 10 minutes away that actually flies to places.

Get me to the airport, get me on a plane ✈️

Hurry hurry hurry before I go insane

[quote]It hasn't changed hands in 54 years. I'll bet there's a crazy-eccentric story with the seller.

Not much of a property-flipper's market in West Virginia, I'd think.

It's not good to be a noticeably wealthy person amid lots of struggling people in today's America. You would be a target. That's why wealthy people all cluster together in wealthy enclaves. (Not West Virginia.) They then ensure a higher level of police protection for themselves. But with the wealth gap getting wider, I see trouble ahead.

It's not a "mini-mansion" it's a mansion.

You guys are slipping.. not a single person picked up the really important thing about this house.

It's just few miles away from Don Knotts Blvd!

What a pile.

I love a parking lot view. So much activity.

R15, Morgantown is only 164 miles from DC. And other places in WV are even closer. Many in DC have weekend homes in WV.

A new slate roof would cost more than $100k, kitchens and baths with HD level fixtures would add at the very least $150k, I couldn't try to guess what the plastering and re-configuring some of the rooms that were broken up would cost, and you haven't yet ripped up the carpeting.

No.

R39 is Gladys Kravitz......

Can you use the $12,000 the state pays you to move there to help with the down payment?

I think I'm going to start referring to those inbred West Virginians as "French Eclectic". Thank you for the inspiration, OP.

[quote]It hasn't changed hands in 54 years. I'll bet there's a crazy-eccentric story with the seller.

Quite possibly; not only that, but the outdated kitchen, worn floors & water marks appear to indicate that they haven't invested $$ to maintain the place.

I picture some tale out of an Edith Wharton novel about a charming wealthy young man who moved to WV to take the waters & air, only to be driven slowly insane, forced to turn upper levels into apartments just to keep things going.

Downtown Morgantown is not too bad, but as I posted on another thread, it has a considerable homeless population (given the size of the city) who shamble around the downtown area like zombies. When I stopped for gas, a fight broke out between two meth heads. There were no cops around & I got out of there quickly in case one or more had a gun.

Given the homeless & the student population (not exactly the brightest bulbs), I would not want to live in Morgantown

I would make it into a rooming house / coop for students and live there. I like being around college kids and they don't have to be Ivy Leaguers

Its not a complete shit school

West Virginia University is ranked #241 in National Universities

And as the land grant college it's not going to disappear.

I lived in a coop in a mansion when I was in college and it was great and cheap, too. Students struggle so much. And lord knows they need real community and not just virtual socializing.

This house could be built out and accommodate 20 students easily. I wonder if one could get a tax exemption withOUT donating it to the UNI. I would guess not. I wonder though.

Maybe make it the "French house" for students who are learning/studying French and everyone is encouraged to speak French and maybe cook french sometimes. You could also get foreign visiting students who are francophones to live there by giving them free room and board in turn for doing activities in French.

It's not a complete shit school, but is very much a party school. As far as students go, that house is a considerable walk from campus

ah ha.

Hello boys! They look cute. Their coaches are FAT!

WVU gets a lot of students from New Jersey and has a huge, wild Greek scene, so think lots of guido frat boys.

It’s just a 10 minute walk from the listed house to the Don Knotts statue and sidewalk star on High Street, R37. Morgantown is a great town, and you can’t do better than to live in that section which is called South Park. Just a few blocks away from crummy student neighborhood where I used to haunt, but there are beautiful homes in this area and it has a very pleasant vibe. Just walk over the bridge into downtown which is small but vibrant. Nice college town that does get wild at times, but skip high street at midnight and you can avoid the drunken students. GREAT eye candy, definitely big Jersey/Mid-Atlantic presence, but the local mountaineer boys are the cute ones. Little bit of everything.

Thanks R54, that more or less answers my question at 26. Morgantown sounds OK bar the "homeless" that R45 mentioned, but most cities have that affliction now

Yes, the homeless population is huge, R55. I worked at the free clinic downtown which serviced a lot of that population, and also was a part of the syringe exchange program at that clinic (first in the state of WV). It’s a problem in Morgantown, but it is not San Francisco levels. There a few violent incidents, but the number of people is high per capita for the size of the town. I spent all of my time downtown for years and have never had a problem. But overall Morgantown is a nice little gem in the state.

Don't let "West Virginia" fool you into thinking WVU is some sort of hillbilly academy.

I literally gasped when I saw the a/c in the kitchen window.

No one's touching this place (yet) because it will likely cost equal to or more of current asking price in work that needs doing. Just dealing with that leaking slate roof and gutters/downspouts is going to cost dear. Then you have to repair damaged to walls, ceiling and everything else harmed by water going where it shouldn't have.

Makes you wonder what else you could get, in WV, for $400K. I'd rather live somewhere more remote but on-grid.

For like $65K, you can buy 20 acres in WV. You might as well just spend another 400K building a nicer home.

Yeah, I think I'd do a new build.

Me too r58... it's bad enough to have a window a/c, but who puts it in the window right above the kitchen sink??

It's a shame - I love that house just for that winding staircase...but that place needs considerable work

It is one of six houses in Morgantown, West Virginia with an entry in the Society of Architectural Historians Archipedia, although with a share of faint praise.

Assuming Morgantown was under consideration, the question for me would turn on the roof. A complex slate roof would cost, as R41 notes, more than $100,000. I only see one instance of plaster damage in the cornice in the second photo of the panelled dining room (Photo #11? - with fireplace and red chair on the left), and that is an easy fix from a proper plasterer. Not saying that to discount the possibility of water damage, only my surprise at not seeing a lot of evidence of it. With good luck the roof is dirtier than it is bad, but at the 101-year mark one should expect that it's on borrowed time. It needs central HVAC: even a furnace 10 years old would obsolete in terms of performance/cost savings, and that's just for the heat; a/c would be a necessity. Obviously the wall-to-wall carpet and a lot of the insensitive additions. At 4434 square feet, I'd clean up third floor and leave it as an attic, or at least largely so. It's a great space but probably not necessary living space for a gay man or two. The ugly aluminum framed vestibule at the main door needs to be opened or replaced with something substantial and fitting.

On the surface I almost like the kitchen. Mostly. Except that those sorts of drawers are rough as fuck to open and close, and the hardware shit, and the cabinet doors a little flimsy... I would replace it in specialty milled 1920s style cabinetry in a fairly similar configuration. It's not a huge kitchen by why spend $800,000 to have a $400,000 in Morgantown? The stairway is the best feature, the rooms look of good proportions and size. I like the casement big windows everywhere. The sunroom (hidden by trees and facing the school) is a pleasant space if in need of some work. Getting rid of all that old sub-par 1940s furniture and carpets and curtains...underneath it all there is a pleasant, even sunny house for almost no money upfront. It could be made a really handsome house without going overboard on housewife fantasy kitchens and huge ensuite bathrooms with five-star hotel fittings. Keep it simple and classic without busting the bank on something that will never appreciate beyond what you put into it. Barring worries about the roof, the house will outlast any of our lifetimes easily, so I would take it as what it is: a great, cheap house in Morgantown, West Virginia, not a trophy property in the Hamptons.

[quote]Don Knotts statue

I never realized he was from WV. He looks it.