Many thanks to reader Jamie, who alerted me on Saturday that the home that Adrian Pearsall designed and built for his family outside Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1962-1964 is coming on the market for sale for the very first time. In fact, I reached out to the agent — Mr. Pearsall’s son Jim Pearsall — immediately, and found that the MLS listing for the house only was going online yesterday, May 1. You read it here first! What an AMAZING house!
Here is more detail about the house, which is listed for $1.5 million, from the real estate listing:
In 1962, at the height of mid-century furniture designer Adrian Pearsall’s career, Adrian created an atomic age masterpiece. Mr. Pearsall realized a dream by designing his family’s new home, nestled in the Lehigh Valley. Educated as an architect, Adrian incorporated every available modern convenience into a 10,000 s.f. ranch.
Finished in 1964, his six bedroom home was complete with an indoor pool, floor to ceiling glass, interior stone walls, custom fireplaces, multiple courtyards and a spectacular reflecting pond to mark the dining area.
Unusual amenites include a full-sized ice cream bar & fountain, atriums, photo dark room, enormous indoor pool area, extensive skylights & indoor/outdoor pet area. Regulation fenced tennis court and large enclosed rear yard provide year round enjoyment for all sorts of activities…
This is a dream house, and the new owner will own an amazing piece of Atomic Age history.
What an amazing house… such an important part of mid century design history. Thank you, Jamie, for the tip. And thank you very much, Jim Pearsall, for giving me permission to feature these photographs.
Read more about this house and Pearsall:
- Also see our followup story: Cindy, Jed and Jim Pearsall: On growing up in Adrian Pearsall’s 1964 masterpiece house
- Read more about SEE A BUNDLE of house photos … read more about Pearsall… and see a catalog of some of his designs — at AdrianPearsall.com.
- And oopsy, you can see the Adrian Pearsall coffee table that I let get away for a song in this story.
Elizabeth Boody says
The house recently sold in January 2015 for only $125,000! That’s equivalent to 10 pieces of Pearsall furniture. Wonder what went wrong.
Andrew says
Sad to report that it looks like the house experienced a devastating fire in 2014:
https://www.facebook.com/WyomingHoseCo1/posts/739336762790455
Heartbreaking to see.
pam kueber says
oh no!!!
Joel Bergsman says
oops, i posted to soon. apparently the property was sold just a few months ago, July 2013, for $500k. just a bit under the old asking price of $1.5m.
I guess if I were one of the few families in the area with any money — successful doctor or lawyer, for example — I could have picked up a marvelous bargain. Where I live now that house would be worth maybe $4m or more. And that’s in a modest neigborhood!
Joel Bergsman says
The street address is 1950 ENGLEWOOD TERRACE, Forty Fort, PA. It’s a cul-de-sac in a neighborhood of small, old single family houses on small lots that are worth, I’m guessing, less than $100k each. The entire town of Forty Fort, a suburb of Wilkes-Barre, has been economically depressed more or less constantly since the death of anthracite coal mining around the 1950s, and the subsequent rise of imports of clothing a few years later. I was born and raised there and my late father lived about one mile from this house for thirty years until his death in the 1980s. The house is gorgeous but I wonder what anyone who could afford it would do in that area. If real estate value is “location location location” then this house is worth maybe $100k or less. Sad to say…