THE residence at 8914 Hamilton Avenue, recently purchased by John McKinlay, Jr., is one of the most charming of the new homes in the Beverly Woods district at the north end of the Ridge. The house combines both English and Spanish styles of architecture with English dominating for the exterior design and Spanish for the interior. The house contains six rooms and two baths.
The main entrance opens from a terrace porch on the southeast corner to a large reception hall, which bisects the first floor, opening on the north to a driveway entrance. The hallway contains the staircase, wide Spanish arches leading to the living room and to the dining room, and at the north end a corridor connecting with the kitchen and a lavatory. The hallway is beamed and the entrance door is of heavy wood in Spanish design.
The living room, at the front, occupies a separate wing of the first floor, providing exposures on three sides, the north, east and south through steel casement windows with leaded panes. The room is two steps lower than the hallway. The center of interest, as one enters, is the large Spanish fireplace in the center of the east wall. The west wall, on each side of the arch, is broken by built-in book cabinets. The fixtures in this room are of imported English iron work. The ceiling is paneled with plaster cast work. The south wall opens through three sets of French window doors to the terrace porch at the entrance.
The large dining room occupies the southwest corner of the first floor and is finished like the living room, with rough plaster walls in a pastel shade of grey. The fixtures here are of English brass. The kitchen is at the northwest corner and connects with a two car garage at the rear, constructed in a design and materials similar to the house proper.
The feature of the upper floor, and perhaps of the whole house, is the master bedroom directly above the living room. This bedroom is fully as large as the living room and like it has three exposures, on the north, east and south. Here, too, the east wall is broken by a large natural fireplace. The south wall is designed in a dormer effect, the dormer being between two huge twin closets. The room is done in a rich cream tone for the walls, a slightly lighter tone being used for the ceiling.
The main bath room is located on the south side, at the end of the upper hall and between the master bedroom and another bedroom on the southwest. The bath is done in white tile for the wainscoting, black and white tile for the floor, and is unusually large.
The other two bedrooms occupy corner positions on the west side, thus providing cross ventilation for all of the sleeping rooms. The other bath is on the west, adjacent to the north bed room.
Grey stucco is used for the exterior finish, with red brick and brown wood trim. Flagstone is used for the walks and a small pool on the south side enhances the well wooded site.
Original Article
