June 25, 2014/Holmes Run Acres Virginia, Potomac Overlook /by Mid-Century Mike

Mid-Centuries in Potomac Overlook, Holmes Run Acres

We have seen a bit of a slow down in the number of listings coming on as we head toward the July 4th holiday but here are a couple for you. This renovated mid-century modern in Potomac Overlook just came on and they are looking for offers by Friday. It is listed for $1.15 million. Nestled into the hills of Glen Echo Heights close to the Potomac in Bethesda, developer Edmund Bennett along with architects Arthur Keyes, Francis Donald Lethbridge and David Condon designed the award-winning enclave of 19 mid-century modern homes, which rarely come on the market. Builder John Matthews built the homes. Speaking of Lethbridge, he also designed along with Nicholas Satterlee the homes in Holmes Run Acres in Falls Church. This 3 bed/2 bath two-level is is listed for $560K.

June 17, 2014/Mid-Century Modern /by Mid-Century Mike

Midwest Modern Road Trip

It’s summer, so time for a good old road trip. The Wall Street Journal has a short piece highlighting the plethora of mid-century modern and modern architecture between Cleveland and Chicago. “Thanks to preservation efforts and the museum-building boom of the past decade, America’s hot zone for modern and contemporary architecture is still the Midwest,” Dan Rubinstein writes. “And driving is the best way to see it all, including the star attraction, Chicago.” The article highlights the new such as Iranian-born architect Farshid Moussavi Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland to Eero Saarinen’s 1957 War Memorial in Milwaukee, which is pictured above and I highlighted here, and his Miller House in Columbus, Ind.

June 4, 2014/Mid-Century Modern /by Mid-Century Mike

Ken Freeman Designs in Bethesda, Rockville

Ken Freeman was a New York clothing designer who moved his family to Maryland in the 1960s to become a real estate developer. He briefly worked with his brother Carl M. Freeman, who introduced the “California Cottage” to East Coast when his company built an award-winning community in 1947 in Carole Highlands, Maryland, and became a major developer in the DC area.

This house pictured below is located in Lake Normandy Estates in Rockville. It is listed for $795K. About two dozen of Freeman’s designs remain with a few more having been altered or lost.

The vintage house pictured below is located in Bradley Park in Bethesda. It is listed for rent for $3650 per month. Freeman designed and built more than 100 mid-century modern homes in Bradley Park in the 1960s. Most remain but the the neighborhood continues to lose Freeman’s original designs to new, larger homes.

Like his brother, Ken sought to mix things up here in Washington. “He was nontraditional. He didn’t like the brick Colonials in Washington. He said they all looked the same. He said they were boring, very closed-in, old ideas. He just liked houses being different . . . clean lines, simple and tailored. It was like a religion to him,” Freeman’s daughter, Judith O’Callaghan, was quoted as saying in this 2005 Post story on Bradley Park in Bethesda. Freeman also built homes in Mantua in Fairfax.

Month: June 2014