Speaking with Nicole Hannah, it’s evident that she loves her home at 116 Indian Hills Road in Manor, Armstrong County. Her only wish is to find someone who will appreciate the home for all the creativity and thought that went into its design and come to love it as she does.
“Once a year, Better Homes & Gardens would publish on the cover of their magazine their idea of what America's most perfect house would be, and that’s what this house is,” she said.
Readers could purchase the blueprints to build the house, and that’s what the first owners of this house did in the mid-1950s.
Now the three-bedroom, two-bathroom mid-century modern house with over an acre of land is priced at $155,000 (MLS No. 1565027) and listed with Paul Sinnett and Amanda Dickens of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices (www.thepreferredrealty.com or 412-831-0100).
“This is the house you asked for” is the title of the article by John Normile and James Riggs. For over a year, the staffers at Better Homes & Gardens magazine spoke with families across the country, asking what they wanted in a home.
“The house on these pages owes much to people like you,” the article says.
What may or may not be a surprise is that many of the things people were looking for in the 1950s are some of the same things people are looking for now.
The house wraps around a central courtyard with the living areas to one side and the playroom, bedrooms and bathrooms to the other, joined by the central entryway and dining room.
“It actually worked out beautifully because when I would be folding laundry in the kitchen, I could look through the whole house because the whole interior walls of the house are windows and you could see the whole way back in,” Hannah explained.
“I could watch my 2-year-old play – like spy on them, catch them in the act and they would be like ‘How did you even see me?’”
Clerestory windows near the ceilings allow for breezes to flow throughout the house, negating the need for air-conditioning. It’s just one of the many design details that now seem so forward-thinking. The kitchen has another.
The U-shaped kitchen was favored then and still is today. It’s home to the original Chambers Copper built-in oven and cooktop. Known as the “the range that cooks with the gas turned off,” the vintage appliance would heat to temperature and then, shutting off the gas, contain the heat, letting the cooking process continue with fuel savings.
Today, there is a whole range of retro Chamber appliances available, with their roots going back to the original gas cook stove created by John E. Chambers in 1910.
“We actually wanted to get them maintained and we found someone in New York who would fly down to do it,” said Hannah. “They said, ‘Well, we could fly down to do it, but you actually make money if you just sold them to us. They offered $5,000 each.”
Luckily for the new homeowner, that sale didn’t happen. As Hannah says, “They are solid copper and super cool.”
The Hannahs did some minor upgrades in the kitchen, painting the original cabinets and adding a subway tile backsplash to one wall.
Back in the entryway, polished slate stone reflects a combination of violet and gray, and runs across the entryway and dining room to the living area where there is carpeting. The whole wall to the one side is glass, looking out into the courtyard. The fireplace is at one end, built into a wall of stone topped by a beamed ceiling of redwood.
The redwood ceilings, incredibly expensive to replace at today’s prices, can be found throughout the house including the expansive dressing room off the master bedroom. Quite the master suite, the bedroom is spacious at 11 by 12 feet and has its own bathroom with a shower/tub combination.
Sadly, there are parts of the home that will need some care and attention; the master bathroom is a prime candidate for an upgrade. Off the large playroom are the remaining two bedrooms with their own bathroom.
Here again, we see something of a popular trend from today, a walk-in shower with a subway tile surround and mosaic tile flooring.
The house is designed for easy living with an open plan all on one floor. No steps and no real divisions except that created by partial walls and glass windows. Those windows bring the outdoors inside; a space of light combined with the deep color of the redwood creates a comfortable home for the family.
There is a utility room off the kitchen area with the hot water heater and furnace, which are not original to the home. Off that is the integral single-car garage.
Nearby Kittanning is going through something of a revival. Like many river towns in southwestern Pennsylvania, the area saw a loss of industry and population in the 1980s. Today it is home to a brewery, new restaurants and a long historical past.
The Hannah family lived in the house from 2008 until 2016, when they bought a farm. Going from a one-horse family to a many-horse family brought on the move. Now it’s time for the house to find a new family.
Currently listed on Cheap Old Homes’ Instagram account, the house has garnered over 43,000 likes and has raised interest across the country.
“Amanda's been doing such a great job. She’s got people flying in from California, a guy doing a virtual tour from Florida,” said Hannah.
A truly functional design, ahead of its time in many ways but in need of some love and attention, the house is a great opportunity for someone who enjoys mid-century modern style and is willing to put in some work to bring it back to the life it should have.
Lizabeth Gray: lgray@post-gazette.com
First Published: August 5, 2022, 10:00 a.m.
