Mid century modern homes in NJ? (Union, Orange: for sale, 2013, houses)
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In the process of looking for a home in North Jersey (focusing on Essex and Bergen but open to other areas within hour of NYC). We are hoping to find a mid century home (ideally open concept) and are wondering if there are any specific towns that tend to have these types of homes?
They are really all over the state, and they come in varying sizes and price categories, so I think that the most important detail for us to know is...What is your budget for this home purchase?
When you say mid-century are you talking about a run-of-the-mill split level ranch which were built en masse between 1950-1970 or some high-end custom built house w/ custom sunken living room a la Ron Burgundy?
Likely Mid-Century Modern, the latter part, but more open-plan like Frank LLoyd Wright. Living rooms weren't always sunken, that kind of defeats the open plan. The idea was more about blending indoors and outdoors, so living rooms opened into exterior patios.
I think you'll find more Craftsman style than MCM around New York just based on when things were built, think more 1920's than 1940's. Any towns expanding rapidly during the MCM era ended up more like Levittown than Mid-Century. We just don't have the climate to do a lot of MCM.
Yes jaymoney that is what I meant, thank you for your response! I saw an amazing one listed in Princeton a couple weeks back but that's farther away than we would like. Wanted to see if I should keep an eye out in certain towns.
Yeah, I wouldn't say there are any Mid-Century towns, just individual homes. Most of the inventory you'll find was built around the 1920's and Craftsman is the closest thing you'll find, mostly because the style had evolved into one that could create a number of kit homes that could reuse elements quickly and inexpensively to meet the housing boom at the time.
Getting further than an hour out or higher than 500K will put you into more of the zones to find Mid-Century, but it didn't really catch on as much in NJ as, say, Southern California since there are only a few months a year to open all the windows and make that transition from indoors to outdoors. Otherwise it's too cold and you're killing yourself on the heating bill or too hot without the constant coastal winds and mosquitoes having a run of the place. I did see one great one about three years ago, the budget was about yours but it needed a ton of work. But the grotto pool area was filled with opportunity.
That said, Craftsman are rife in the Westfield area, but I don't think you'll meet the budget over there. Cranford has a run of them around the S. Union area past Lincoln sweeping down to Walnut Ave, but inventory is low. Maybe Scotch Plains or Mountainside might have some available. But that's also getting more than an hour outside New York.
There are some fabulous MCM houses in South Orange, but they may be out of your price range.
Check out 672 Brentwood Dr, South Orange, NJ 07079.
These houses are mostly in the Newstead section, which was built out in the 1950's, unlike the rest of the town. Here's a blog article from a local realtor. She might be a good contact for you.
I was able to visit a few during an architectural open house tour. So beautiful.
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