During the past weekend’s Fairmount home tour, I had the opportunity to walk through several historic homes in the neighborhood. Over the coming week, I’ll be talking a bit about those homes. Today, though, I’d like to talk about one of the two “bonus” homes on the tour – a brand-new home that serves as an excellent example of infill in a historic neighborhood.

For the uninitiated, Fairmount is a neighborhood in the Near Southside. It’s a classic “streetcar suburb” – developed along major streetcar lines, the neighborhood is essentially a traditional small town on its own. It is a mixed-use neighborhood on a compact, walkable street grid. The majority of structures are single-family homes of traditional bungalow design (most in Arts & Crafts, Four Square, or Prairie School architecture), but there are also numerous apartment buildings, retail structures, churches, and schools mixed in, all together in a fantastic example of traditional small-town urbanism. Here’s a description of the neighborhood from its web site:

The Fairmount/Southside Historic District is a large, early 20th-century neighborhood on the near south side of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas. The Fairmount area is set on a flat prairie, slightly higher in elevation than the surrounding area and approximately two miles south of downtown Fort Worth. Forming a rectangle of about 360 acres, the district is bounded generally by Magnolia Avenue on the north, Hemphill Street on the east, Jessamine Street on the south, and Eighth Avenue on the west. Fairmount was developed as a middle-class residential area between 1890 and 1938, with the largest concentration of houses dating from 1905 to 1920. The predominant building type is the single-family residence, with wood-frame bungalows being the most common configuration. Variations on the Four Square form are scattered throughout the district. The Southside’s grander homes are concentrated in the eastern sections of the district and reflect a variety of stylistic influences. Chase Court, a private, deed-restricted street, contains a small pocket of these finer homes within a distinct streetscape. The Fairmount/Southside district includes many early 20th-century commercial buildings, which were developed along the streetcar lines. Also included are church, school and apartment buildings, which represent the continuing development of the area as a neighborhood in the 20th century. The nominated Historic District contains 1,016 Contributing buildings, one Contributing structure, and 425 Non-contributing buildings, amounting to a ratio of 71% contributing structures.

A neighborhood that declined sharply due to suburban flight, Fairmount is headed back to its glory days with the increased interest in urban living in Fort Worth. As a protected historic district (the largest in the Southwest, and called by some the largest collection of bungalow architecture in the country), Fairmount’s historic homes are being restored and reoccupied at an amazing rate. There are some vacant lots (and incompatible newer buildings), though, and for those sites, infill housing must maintain the district’s integrity.

Which brings us to this house. The Mathis House, at first glance, is nearly indistinguishable from the historic homes that are being restored around the neighborhood. Look closer, though, and you’ll see that this is, in fact, a brand-new home built to be an integral part of the neighborhood’s architectural integrity.

On the exterior, the home’s big front porch, traditional bungalow shaping, and attractive color scheme are typical of the neighborhood’s classic homes. While not built on a pier-and-beam foundation as the historic homes were, the home’s raised slab foundation has a similar appearance. Moving inside, the home’s appearance is an attractive blend of modern (and I must point out, I mean “modern” definitely *not* in the sense of a tract house in Burleson) and traditional.

Layout and detailing are similar in many ways to the classic homes, perhaps with a slightly more open feel (especially apparent in the kitchen area). One interesting touch is that, because the home uses a slab foundation, the flooring is simply the slab – scored & stained for effect. This cost-effective design also imparts a cool urban feel to the interior.

The kitchen, while again more open in design than many of the historic homes, does an excellent job maintaining the look and feel of the traditional bungalow kitchen design. I was particularly pleased to see real tile and wood counters – no granite in this kitchen. I know this seems odd in this day and age, but I’m not a real big fan of most granite counters, and in traditionally-designed homes doubly so. Big thumbs up from me on this kitchen design.

Another wonderful aspect of this home is its use of color. Many of the traditional homes in Fairmount have absolutely wonderful color schemes, and often each room has its own striking color. This home maintains that sort of feel. Compare and contrast with the usual beige-and-taupe-dipped interiors of the typical suburban home.

At the rear of the property, the detached garage (thank you!) has a wonderful garage apartment above. These extra dwellings, once so integral to the fabric of the urban neighborhood, have long been banished by planning departments. It is fantastic to see them being allowed to return here in urban Fort Worth. Useful as apartments to lease out, or as office/studio space, garage apartments are great to have – and the presence of one at this modern house was another wonderful traditional touch.

The Mathis home shows that traditional architecture is alive and well and still absolutely relevant to the modern world (and that, contrary to the typical attitudes of today, you don’t need 7,000 square feet to live in the modern world). It has some wonderfully creative touches and is of attractive design. This is a perfect example of the sort of neighborhood-scaled infill that has slowly but surely been turning the Near Southside into an incredibly cool part of town.

Look for more discussions of homes from the Fairmount tour throughout the week!