Recently my listing at 642 Corona Street was featured in the New York Times, What You Get For Your Money piece. I was thrilled to be featured in this article for many reasons. A little national exposure for a very nice listing along with some personal exposure was great. What I didn't expect was a reply I got from my website.
Real estate is so often about the sale. How fast you can sell the property, making both parties happy, what improvements have been made, and increasing the sales in the neighborhood. But when you actually get a reply like the one below I realized the real, and often secondary motivation, is what each neighborhood and house means to the people who've lived there.
Hello Denver people. I was browsing through the New York Times and found this listing (MLS #1242068). I am not looking for a property at all (we live in Cambridge MA and have for over 50 years)--but since I grew up in Denver in the 1940's and 1950's, I was of course interested to see what sort of place was for sale. Well, imagine my surprise when I saw the image and address of this house: from 1944 to 1993 my family lived at 654 Emerson Street, also a Denver Square. It brought tears to my eyes to see the pictures of the house--so familiar and so like my childhood home, just one block away. That neighborhood, if it is still at all as it was, is beautiful. I and my little friends used to go trick or treating in that block of Corona!
Anyhow, hello from Cambridge MA and good luck to you and the owners in selling the house. And for reading my note--I thought you might like to know that people really do see those ads in the Times!
--Hilary Hopkins
It's so nice to see how a neighborhood where Hilary grew up meant so much to her. Memories of trick-or-treating and a happy childhood are wonderful reminders of how satisfying selling real estate can be. Remembering that each home has treasured memories that change livesmakes this the career for me!What a wonderful reminder of the personal nature of each transaction, how we connect, and what a small world it really is. I asked Hilary to share some more memories...
I went to Dora Moore School, Morey Junior High and East High. Came back to East for my 50threunion in 2006, hardly recognized Denver as a wholebut the Capitol Hill neighborhood and my block on Emerson Street seemed unchanged. My best friend lived on the corner of Emerson and 7th, at 680. She lives in California now. I'm still in touch now and then with Tom Ward, with whom I grew up and whose family lived at 650 Emerson; he lives in Denver still. My parents and I moved to 654 Emerson from Bethesda, MD, in 1944, and after my father died my mother lived on there for some years, moving here to Cambridge in 1993.
I love the idea that houses themselves are neutral, but that every detail of them is so deeply familiar to so many people, families one after the other. My precious Mother loved her house, and it grieved her terribly to leave it. The raspberry bushes and peach tree she had planted in the yard, the attic room where she did her writing (she was a children's author). I miss, still, the œsleeping porch on the second floor, off my bedroomI slept out there for years, often even in the winter. My father was a rare/used book dealer and one of the rooms in the house was his library, floor to ceiling, as well as a large room in the basement. He had a bookstore, Collectors' Center, in a number of Denver locations, the last one being at the foot of Corona in half of a double house. My own children remember œMimi's house with so much love and nostalgia.
Anyhow, it is nice to hear back from you! Hope your day is good. Give my love to the neighborhood.
--Hilary
PS...You can visit my websitewww.hilarysplaces.com to see travel journals+images from all over the world, as well as my two blogs.
Thank you for sharing your memories, Hilary, and for reminding me of the true meaning of home...I can't wait to follow your amazing blogs.
Here are some more photos from my listing at 642 Corona, please let me know if you would like more information.
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