Open house pick of the week: Manoa

We’ve featured this historic home on the blog and in the magazine, but things might be different this time for the Oakley residence. It’s been renovated by the owner so that it retains its “English cottage” feeling, but with luxury amenities.

There are very few homes like this in Hawaii (let alone ones for sale), as it is on the National and State Registers of Historic Places. The home was built in 1928 for George D. Oakley of Scotland, who came to Hawaii in the early 1900s. He married Dean Spry in 1920 and started out as a manager of a pineapple farm in Kaneohe that shut down in 1923. He then found work as a linotype operator and writer for local newspapers, eventually serving as the music editor for The Honolulu Star-Bulletin in the 1930s.

I got to tour this property in 2011 on a biennial tour of Manoa put on by a historic preservation committee. When I saw this listing, I knew it looked familiar, but it has been upgraded quite a bit, within the historical register standards, so it doesn’t look old—it’s more retro cool, for those who can afford a classic kamaaina home.

This house still has its original woodwork, of course, as well as ohia floors, dramatic beamed ceilings and two fireplaces, one of which is in the master bedroom. People who live in Manoa and Nuuanu valleys have said fireplaces like this come in handy in the chilly winter months when the temperatures hit the 60s.

It has four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a fairly flat front yard and a rolling back yard. If nothing else, just check out the house so you can see what it’d be like to live in such a historic place.

This listing has been on the market just two days and will have its first open house this Sunday. Click here for more details.

Happy house hunting!

Money talk: $1,845,000 fee simple
Contact: Beth Chang, Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties, 808-478-7800, Beth@BethChang.com
MLS#: 201402689