Walpole Homefront: A primer on the quintessential cape – Wicked Local Walpole

By Dave Pasquantonio, Correspondent

Capes are the quintessential New England home style. Towns throughout Massachusetts, including Walpole, have neighborhoods peppered with capes, many springing up during the post-WWII housing boom. Theyre reassuringly familiar even in places where they werent built in large numbers. When kids learn to draw a house, they draw a cape. And those green Monopoly houses? Theyre capes, too, down to the customary center chimney.

Early traditional capes, designed with Yankee practicality to combat the regions harsh climate, shared several common design features. They were side gabled, with steep roofs to quickly shed water and snow, and had small roof overhangs. A center front door was flanked with either one or two pairs of windows, depending on the homes footprint. Center chimneys provided heat and light to the first floor, which often consisted of simply a cooking and gathering space and a bedroom separate spaces for the kitchen, dining room, living room and bedroom came later. The smaller second level was accessed by a steep, narrow staircase to maximize the first-floor living space, and was either unused or turned into two small (and often unheated) rooms for children or guests. The homes were finished with cedar shingles or clapboard.

Most modern-day cape owners need more space and function than those original homes could provide. Upgraded and more recently built capes feature gable dormer windows, shed dormers or Nantucket dormers (two gable dormer windows joined by a shed dormer) to increase living space vertically. Where theres room to expand horizontally, capes are outfitted with wing, extension or bump-out additions. Basements are easily finished due to the simplicity of the original foundation. Common exterior add-ons include sunrooms, porches, and garages, either attached directly to the home or accessed through a breezeway.

Though its rare to see a newly-built conventional cape in an age of ever-more-enormous homes, some recently-constructed houses take the essence of a traditional cape and add a larger footprint, multi-level flooring, dormers, and higher first-floor ceilings, giving the home the square footage and feel of a colonial, but with a unique style.

Here are a few examples of capes currently for sale in Walpole.

Built in 1942, the traditional cape at 82 Norfolk St. eschews a second floor in favor of a single level of living space, along with a walk-out basement ripe for finishing. A half-acre of land and a modern interior, coupled with the potential for vertical expansion, make this a great home for the buyer with an eye on the future. ($360,000; agent Thomas Blount; 781-417-5256).

At 324 Coney St. in East Walpole is a 1939 cape that received a two-story addition in 2009, and now boasts almost 2,200 square feet of living space. With three bedrooms and three baths, this 10-room beauty is a great example of an older home taken to new heights with smart improvements. ($499,900; agent Jen Conley; 508-265-3824).

The 1980s-built Gambrel cape at 7 Deerfield Drive retains traditional features while adding a shed dormer in the rear and three gable dormer windows and a gambrel roof in the front, along with an attached garage connected by additional living space. With over 2,500 square feet of living space, its an excellent example of a cape crossing into colonial-feel territory. ($635,000; agent Robin Wish; 508-944-1967).

The home at 7 Jessie Way also has three gable dormer windows and a shed dormer, and a front-gabled attached garage. It, too, was constructed in the 1980s, well after the initial wave of smaller capes, and thus has more pizzazz than its forebears. With about two acres of land and an 1,800 square-foot basement ready for finishing, this home provides living space on par with many homes found in executive developments, but without a cookie-cutter feel. ($719,900; agent Tony Ruggiero; 508-648-7393).

Its not difficult to spot capes during a drive through Walpole. Our town has plenty of these rugged little homes, which are easy to live in, easy to upgrade and easy to draw.

Original post:
Walpole Homefront: A primer on the quintessential cape - Wicked Local Walpole