‘It’s a Unicorn’—1950s Ranch Vies for a Price Record in Savannah’s Historic Ardsley Park

Listing of the Day

Location: Savannah, Georgia

Price: $2.195 million

This renovated and completely reimagined 1950s ranch house is on a triple lot in Savannah’s historic Ardsley Park neighborhood and walkable to downtown.

“Ardsley Park was the first commuter neighborhood built with the onset of the car,” said listing agent Staci Donegan, of Seabolt Real Estate, Christie’s International Real Estate. “Like downtown Savannah, there are parks scattered throughout the subdivision. It’s also on a grid, like downtown.”

This house is on Entelman Park, one of the larger and quieter green spaces in the neighborhood, she said.

The one-story brick house on Entelman Place was designed by John LeBay, a “well-known local architect in Savannah” and built in 1957, she said. “His properties have a cottage feel.”

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Mary Jo Bochner is the “owner, designer and contractor,” Donegan said. “She’s very, very talented and has a great eye.”

The property was in foreclosure when Bochner bought it from a bank in March 2020 for $551,000, Donegan said. “It was in disrepair and people thought she was crazy to pay that high a price.”

“This has always been a revered property,” Donegan said. Before Bochner bought it, the home traded hands for $654,000 in 2007, a record-breaking price at the time. It’s now under contract for $2.09 million, which would be a record-breaking price per square foot for Ardsley Park, Donegan said. “That’s a testament to the high-quality design, construction and materials—and it has a very good floor plan.”

Bochner took down walls, added a bathroom and moved the kitchen to where the primary bedroom suite had been, Donegan said. “And she opened it up completely to the courtyard.”

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“You’ve got three en-suite bedrooms, an attached two-car garage and a private courtyard on three lots,” she explained. “It’s a unicorn.”

Bochner replaced all of the flooring with white oak throughout, adding marble in the bathrooms, Donegan said. “It lightens it all up.”

In the living/dining room, Bochner took down the ceilings and exposed the beams and added floor-to-ceiling double doors that open to the courtyard, Donegan said. In the kitchen she took down the ceilings and vaulted them.

The kitchen features custom cabinetry, Carrara marble countertops, twin Thermador refrigerators and a 48-inch Viking six-burner gas stove, according to the listing. There is an Informal sitting room off the kitchen.

The primary bedroom suite, which can be closed off, has double doors, a walk-in closet and an en-suite with Carrara marble floors, double vanities and a soaking tub.

“I just love this house,” Donegan said. “It’s one of the top five homes I’ve ever been in in Savannah.”

Stats

The 3,484-square-foot house has three bedrooms, three full bathrooms and one partial bathroom. It sits on a 0.28-acre lot.

Amenities

Amenities include an attached two-car garage, a private courtyard and patio, a fireplace, an outdoor fire feature, a covered front porch, a back deck, privacy fencing, a gazebo and an exercise room.

Neighborhood Notes

The home is near the Bull Street corridor and walkable to shops, restaurants and galleries, Donegan said.

“You get all of the benefits of downtown—the walkability—and you’ve got a very horizontal one-story house,” she said. “The houses downtown are vertical and you may want an elevator, and that’s hard to do in many of those houses.”

This Entelman Place home has a “really nice private courtyard, like the homes downtown,” she said.

Agent: Staci Donegan, Seabolt Real Estate, Christie’s International Real Estate

View the original listing.

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