House of the Week: Tolchester Estates

I have featured several homes in this neighborhood and love its breathtaking setting on the Chesapeake Bay.  Since I moved to the Eastern Shore only seventeen years ago, researching the history of the neighborhoods I feature always unearths intriguing insights. I learned Tolchester Estates was established in 1920, during the heyday of steamboat crossings that docked at Tolchester Beach and unloaded happy vacationers or day trippers to enjoy the sandy beach that had been a popular spot by swimmers for many generations. After a day in the sun, the amusement park beckoned that was inspired by New York’s Coney Island that also included a dance pavilion, grandstand, many rides and a racetrack to extend the fun into the evening. The popularity of Tolchester declined after the Bay Bridge was constructed and the steamboat era survived only in historic photographs.  

Everything old is new again and Tolchester Estates is now sought after for its cottages on the Bay, the park, marina and for incomparable sunsets. The drive to this cottage is lined with mature trees and ends with a vista to the Bay. The concrete sidewalk leads to the front door and continues to a covered terrace at the waterside corner of the house and to the screened porch on the opposite side of the house. The cottage’s rectangular shape is sited with the long wall parallel to the shoreline to give the open plan living-dining-kitchen-breakfast areas Bay views from wide and long windows and sliding doors for an easy flow from inside to outside. The corner of the living room has a four-unit window on one wall and a sliding door between double window units for great diagonal views of the Bay. 

The wood floors and the retro patterned ceiling was a delightful surprise to tie the living and dining areas together.  I imagined how pleasant it would be to attend a dinner party here and sit at the table on axis with the sliding doors to the terrace with views of the Bay and the distant Western Shore beyond. The finishes in the kitchen-breakfast area change to an easy care vinyl sheet flooring and pine boards for the wall, painted white to contrast with the stained pine board ceiling. The spacious kitchen has a center island and abundant sunlight from the double window over the sink with glass shelves containing a charming collection of miniature lighthouses and the triple window above the breakfast table and chairs.

If I were a guest, my favorite spot would be the waterside covered terrace. Sitting here you feel as if the water were just beyond the edge of the lawn instead of forty feet below. What a delightful space for relaxing in the shade and enjoying the Bay breezes on a lazy summer afternoon! Another outdoor space is the screened porch with its Bay view from its extension beyond the side of the house. Screen panels on three sides open the space to the landscape and the Bay view. A short hall from the screened porch passes by two of the bedrooms, the bath and laundry to end at the open plan area. The primary bedroom is located at the rear corner which gives windows on both exterior walls. The property also includes an additional lot with its own sewer allocation for a possible garage/guest house to create a family compound.

Bay front property, one-level floor plan with great flow among rooms and between the outdoor rooms of covered terrace and screened porch, low maintenance brick exterior, mature trees and landscaping-and did I mention the stunning sunsets….

For more information about this property, contact Retha Arrabal with Doug Ashley Realtors at 410-810-0010 (o), 410-708-2172 (c) or [email protected]. For more pictures and pricing, visit www.dougashleyrealtors.com,  “Equal Housing Opportunity”.

Spy House of the Week is an ongoing series that selects a different home each week. The Spy’s Habitat editor Jennifer Martella makes these selections based exclusively on her experience as a architect.

Jennifer Martella has pursued her dual careers in architecture and real estate since she moved to the Eastern Shore in 2004. Her award winning work has ranged from revitalization projects to a collaboration with the Maya Lin Studio for the Children’s Defense Fund’s corporate retreat in her home state of Tennessee.