UPHA February Home of the Month!
2713 Everett Avenue — Kearney House
Tom and Sue Kearney have recently completed a sizeable addition to their compact bungalow on Everett Avenue. The McDonald family built the house in 1929, the first house on the block that was subdivided out of the old State Fairgrounds site. Tom Kearney, host of “The Tom Kearney Show” on WPTF Radio, and Sue Kearney, an administrator at Meredith College during her career, bought the house in the 1970s. After nearly forty years of enjoyment, they faced a decision: find a different house with easy accessibility where they could enjoy their well-earned retirement or follow the concept of “aging in place.” This is a University Park trend, since many people in our well-located neighborhood are casting a critical eye at how to retrofit their house for a future when they might not be as mobile.
They found a house in West Raleigh that suited all of their requirements, but it wasn’t as near the Rose Garden, or Hillsborough Street, or Cameron Village. It didn’t have their neighbors around it. They decided to stay, and found 2SL Design Build, a team of designers and builders who helped them to replace the 500-foot rear wing, built in the 1940s, with a new rear addition that achieves their dreams. The old 1600-square-foot house needed more bedroom and bathroom space, a stair to the attic, a new sidewalk and steps to allow easier access to the front of the house, and major landscaping to solve a drainage problem at the rear. There was also no interior space where they could enjoy the southern exposure and their beautiful rear garden. Two important considerations were to maintain the character of the original house and to harmonize the addition to the scale and design rhythm of the houses on the block.
In February 2011 the project was finished. The result is a new two-story 1500 square foot wing. The sunroom overlooking the back garden is two stories high. The rest of the first floor contains a master bedroom and bath and a grand stair to the upper level. Upstairs area guest bedroom, study, bathroom, attic, and two balconies overlooking the sunroom. A new sidewalk and shallower steps with sturdy metal railings lead to their front door. A covered porch provides entry from their new driveway. From the street, the only clue to the addition is a small view of the upper level of the sunroom. The Kearneys happened to come up with a solution that has been used in New Orleans for years. People living in narrow one-story shotgun houses in the “Big Easy” build two-story additions to the back of their houses. The houses are known as “camel-backs” because they are one-story in front and rise to two stories at the rear, like a camel’s hump.
The Kearney House is honored as University Park’s home of the month for February as a creative architectural solution to a common problem, an old house that sits in just the right location but no longer fits the owners’ needs. Next time you walk through the Rose Garden, stroll down the 2700 block of Everett Avenue and admire the Kearneys’ new old house.
