The floors have been refinished and the kitchens gutted and refurbished with new cabinets and appliances in all four units. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Many features of the building have been restored, including the pocket doors and original hardware.
The owners of the former inn on Fairbank Street are completing renovations on the historic property and have put four condominiums on the market. The two-bedroom condos are listed between $219,000 and $239,000 by Harvard Realty. One of them has been sold.
Rick Curtin, of Stow Road, had lived in Harvard for less than a month when he bought the inn at auction for $226,000 in May. The building had previously served as an affordable housing apartment complex owned by Harvard Trust Non-profit Properties (see related story).
When he and his business partner, Robert McGinty, first discovered the inn property, Curtin said, it was in “unsafe” condition. But, he said, “We’ve undertaken hundreds of renovations, and we just walk into a property and can tell if it has good bones, good potential.”
The developers approached the renovation project with a philosophy of historical restoration. Floors have been sanded down, but maintain their original wood. Wooden sliding doors, long stuck in their frames, have been made operable again.
A restored brass door knob
In the kitchens, Curtin said, “Instead of putting in Ikea cabinets, we put in something that would have been in the Inn at the time.”
Behind the scenes, though, the condos benefit from innovations that weren’t available in the 19th century. The heating system has been updated from oil to gas, and LEED certified insulation has been installed. The developers put in washer/dryer hookups in each condo to save residents trips to the basement.
The building exterior has been spruced up, too.
“We replaced all the broken shingles, broken windows,” Curtin said.
As for the fading murals in the entryway and stairs to the condos by 19th-century painter Rufus Porter, Curtin is having them restored.
“It would have been easier to paint over it. It was an expensive undertaking,” Curtin said. An art restorer who studied at the University of West Virginia is working on the project, he said. “She’s very familiar with Rufus Porter.”
