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BuyingHere: Penn
Saturday, September 06, 2008

Alittle bit of Beverly Hills landed in Penn, Westmoreland County, the day developer R.E. Crawford finished this 7,000-square-foot art-deco-style house at 245 Saunders Station Road (MLS. No. 743262).

He and his late wife, Diane, saw a house like it while on a bus tour of that swanky California town 10 years ago. Working from Mrs. Crawford's photograph, Roy Penner of Penner & Associates Architects designed a white brick mansion with distinctive circular windows and other geometric details that were popular in the late 1920s and '30s. The eight-year-old house is listed for $1.8 million through Marie Pace and Dory Korber of Howard Hanna Real Estate (412-361-4000, ext. 265; 724-327-5161, or www.howardhanna.com). It also will be featured Oct. 11 in an absolute auction, which means the highest bidder wins, no reserve.

Alongside the art deco details inside are pieces of the Crawfords' favorite places, including an arched entry like one the couple danced in at The Priory's Grand Hall on the North Side and a 22-karat gold-plated pedestal sink and toilet like those in Donald Trump's penthouse bathroom, which Mrs. Crawford visited when she was a model.

That barrel-vaulted ceiling in the dining room? You'll find one like it at Loews Hotel in Miami Beach. Its shiny curved surface frames a clear view from the front hall through a back window to a 25-foot-high waterfall behind the house.

"Diane wanted to look straight through and see the waterfall," Mr. Crawford said.

The 40-foot-long waterfall ends in a pond toward the rear of the nearly two-acre property. Nearby is a 38-by-18-foot in-ground swimming pool with stone coping and an automatic locking cover. Its deck is raised about a foot from the exposed aggregate patio so it could be easily enclosed for year-round swimming. The pool, waterfall and yard filled with native plants are visible from the cabana room, a bright, open room with 20-foot ceilings that is tucked behind the dining room.

This unique home has 5 1/2 baths and four bedrooms, three of them on the first floor. A section of the huge second-floor rec room could easily be closed off for a fifth bedroom, and it has been plumbed for another bathroom. Other amenities include a computerized and programmable lighting system, four furnaces and air-conditioning/ventilation units, heated driveway (no shoveling!) and radiant floor heat throughout the first floor and the four-car attached garage. Mr. Crawford, whose company, R.E. Crawford Construction, was the builder, estimates construction costs at more than $3 million.

The property has an assessed market value of $152,050 (westmorelandweb400.us:8088/EGSPublicAccess.htm). In the past three years, 11 houses have sold on Saunders Station Road for prices ranging from $67,500 to $538,000 (www.realstats.net). Penn (www.penntwp.org) is part of the Penn-Trafford School District (www.penntrafford.org).


SALES SNAPSHOT

MURRYSVILLE

2007 2008
SALES 330 294
MEDIAN PRICE $198,000 $206,900
HIGHEST PRICE $1,100,000 $840,000


DELMONT

2007 2008
SALES 40 24
MEDIAN PRICE $132,500 $148,500
HIGHEST PRICE $239,000 $290,000


PENN TOWNSHIP

2007 2008
SALES 279 226
MEDIAN PRICE $172,000 $159,900
HIGHEST PRICE $838,000 $725,000


NORTH HUNTINGDON

2007 2008
SALES 503 447
MEDIAN PRICE $158,500 $155,000
HIGHEST PRICE $590,798 $773,852


JEANNETTE

2007 2008
SALES 199 163
MEDIAN PRICE $51,000 $40,000
HIGHEST PRICE $610,714 $590,000


HEMPFIELD

2007 2008
SALES 511 510
MEDIAN PRICE $149,000 $139,000
HIGHEST PRICE $1,100,000 $677,000


IRWIN

2007 2008
SALES 49 39
MEDIAN PRICE $116,500 $92,000
HIGHEST PRICE $610,000 $272,583


SALEM TOWNSHIP

2007 2008
SALES 71 59
MEDIAN PRICE $115,000 $125,000
HIGHEST PRICE $310,000 $388.285


GREENSBURG

2007 2008
SALES 265 202
MEDIAN PRICE $97,600 $88,000
HIGHEST PRICE $335,000 $340,000


SOUTH GREENSBURG

2007 2008
SALES 41 34
MEDIAN PRICE $87,000 $83,000
HIGHEST PRICE $294,094 $186,000


SOUTHWEST GREEENSBURG

2007 2008
SALES 41 40
MEDIAN PRICE $90,000 $73,000
HIGHEST PRICE $152,500 $147,000

First published on September 7, 2008 at 12:00 am
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