The Oldest House in Tuscany Canterbury

The Oldest House  (still standing) in Tuscany-Canterbury (Built in 1892)

The oldest house in the neighborhood is a three story tall, narrow Victorian cottage built in 1892.  It is situated in a yard with tall trees and close to a tiny stream that runs under Charles Street.   Herons nest along the stream in the small wooded glen, now part of Calvert School.  All the other houses from that era are long since gone and only appear on old maps.

This very small house has been transformed into a comfortable family home that still maintains its Victorian character. The interior of the house is described by the owners in 2019:

“…The house is fourteen feet wide and about forty-five feet long, with an L-shape porch. The house went through several remodelings in the seventy-five years before we bought it in 1975.  The original kitchen was most likely the current dining room, and the kitchen and the second floor bathroom had apparently been back porches.  The kitchen was thirteen feet wide and four feet deep, with no counter or storage space.  The original toilet facilities were … an outhouse? (The city sewer line was extended to the house in 1913.)

We have remodeled several times.  With the help of a neighborhood architect, we moved the front entrance to the side of the house to permit a center hall with powder room and coat closet, and increased the depth of the kitchen to seven feet.  Later we turned the attic into a study, adding a small bathroom. We removed the second story porch to enlarge the bathroom and added a rear deck. We also added a stair tower and an additional room and deck at the back of the third floor.”