Historic Guilford estate on the market for $1.45M
A sprawling Cotswold-style mansion located adjacent to North Baltimore’s beflowered Sherwood Gardens at 4303 Underwood Road is currently on the market for $1.45 million.
The 5,222-square-foot property in the Guilford neighborhood was built in the mid-to-late 1920s for electrical pioneer George H. Whittingham and his wife Eleanor Van Deventer Whittingham.
Whittingham, who invented the automated motor starter and the rheostat, also held dozens of patents. He was considered one of the early leaders in electrical development, and many of the light-adjusting rheostats he developed remain in the home. He was chairman of the board of the Monitor Controller Co. of Baltimore.
The brick home features six bedrooms, four full bathrooms, a sunroom and hardwood floors. French doors open onto a patio with a decorative pond on the nearly half acre of land. There’s also an attached garage.
Ann Margaret Schaller, a realtor with The Schaller Elliott Group of Cummings & Co. Realtors who is handling the listing, said the home also comes with upgrades worth over $760,000.
Those upgrades include upgrading the home’s plumbing, air conditioning and electrical systems, except for those rheostats; interior renovations to the first and second floors, including the kitchen, bathrooms and sunroom; and exterior makeovers to the patio, pond and landscaping.
The home also features new energy efficient windows and “green” appliances that Schaller said drive down the cost of utilities.
“It’s a statement house for sure, but as far as the energy efficiency of a home this size, it’s pretty incredible,” she said. “A lot of homes in the area may be large in square feet, but as far as what it costs to live in this house, it’s not as much as one may think because of the energy efficiency.”
Such improvements would no doubt please the inventor in Whittingham, whose family crest adorns the home’s front exterior above the front doorway. The Whittinghams lived there with their four children Nora, Frances, John and Ann, Schaller said.
In addition to its proximity to Sherwood Gardens, Schaller said the level of detail invested in the home makes the listing desirable, citing the antique lighting and chandeliers.
The listing was first made available last week.