35 North Pearl Street

April 2007

This lovely brick home is typical of the strong and beautiful brick housing found on North Pearl Street.  The projecting front wing of the house features segmental arched windows on the firt floor and round arched windows on the second floor.  Notice the lovely pair of round arched windows in the gable.  The beautiful entrance features a side double door with a semi-circle transom.  The interior features a winding staircase and several slate fireplace mantles.

No. 35 is a brick Italianate house that was built as a set, along with 29 and 33, as rental properties for grocer Henry Hellriegel, who built at least seven brick houses on this block.  By 1882 the house was occupied by Henry J. Shuttleworth, a banker and stock and grain broker.  All three houses did not originally have front porches, as evidenced by the large blocks of cut stone above the front foundations; porches were later added, but have since been removed.

The current owners first discovered and fell in love with North Pearl while on the Garden Walk a few years ago. Having spent summer vacations in France for many years, they were struck by how much North Pearl reminded them of street scapes in some of the cities and towns in France. They went home to their North Buffalo apartment rental haunted by the beauty of North Pearl and the friendliness of its residents. In the months that followed they found themselves often talking about how much they would like to live on North Pearl.

They finally decided they had done enough talking and went to see if any houses were for sale on North Pearl.  The house they eventually chose had been vacant for many years and prior to that had been a boarding house that had plagued North Pearl with problems.  It was a cold winter day that they first viewed the interior of the house and their Realtor wouldn't even get out of the car because of allergies to mold that might exist in the house. Once inside they found themselves in a wonderful old house with great bones but was in deplorable condition. It was packed full of furniture and refuse. So much so that they pulled the equivalent of 10 three ton dumpsters out of the house after they purchased it.

Friends and family members who saw the house after they first purchased it questioned whether or not they had lost their sanity.  Once they had finally cleared all of the refuse and debris out of the house they began the painstaking task of restoration and renovation. They restored, walls, ceilings, refinished floors, installed a new custom bathroom upstairs, a new kitchen downstairs, insulated the house, and transformed a maze of boarding house rooms on the third floor into a lovely and elegant two bedroom apartment. They created a garden in the small back yard, and installed a new decorative iron gate on the side. The owners are hands-on homeowners who have devoted so much time and money into the reclamation and transformation of their home on North Pearl that they have had to forgo their annual summer vacations in France since they purchased their home a couple years ago. But they have no regrets since they are in the home on the street they want to spend the rest of their lives in.