Main Line Opulence in New Hope for $2.295M

1726 River Rd., New Hope, Pa. 18938 | TREND imaged via Joseph Borgad Real Estate – RE/MAX Elite

You’re probably familiar with the Bucks County aesthetic by now: Rustic stone farmhouses, barn doors with iron hinges, wood everywhere, unfussily elegant old Victorians a few blocks’ walk from the town center with its antique shops.

You’re probably also familiar with the Gladwyne aesthetic: huge honking mansions full of filigrees and crystal chandeliers, drapes so thick you can use them to put out fires, rococo plasterwork all over the place.

What you’re probably not too familiar with is the Gladwyne aesthetic in Bucks County.

There’s a first time for everything.

Exterior rear

Feast your eyes on “The Castle,” a European-inspired manor home outside New Hope that was custom-built in 2007 by D’Alessio Construction right beside the Delaware Canal.

Rear deck

Its location gives it great views of both the canal and the river just on the other side of it. But it may take you a while before you step out onto the elevated rear deck of this home to take in those views, because first you’ll have to digest all of the elaborate detailing on the inside.

Living room

“European-inspired” is about as accurate a term as possible to describe this home that has elements of a Normandy manor, an English country house on steroids and the castle of an Austrian baron all mixed together.

You’ll find elaborate plasterwork, moldings and trim in just about every room of this home.

Master bedroom

Both its living room and its master bedroom are huge, two-story-high spaces with plenty of room for sitting and plenty of large windows trimmed with thick drapes.

Master bathroom

The master bedroom also has a sumptuous bathroom and a 750-square-foot walk-in closet with mirrors built into its sloping ceiling.

Kitchen

Its kitchen has one of the most ornate islands we’ve run across along with an array of restaruant-quality appliances, including a warming drawer. It’s open to the living room, which we’re not so sure is a good idea; we’d be worried about spilling our food onto that plush furniture. Fortunately, there’s a breakfast room alcove where you can avoid that fate.

Library

There’s also a formal dining room, a cherry-paneled library with a granite fireplace, a fountain in the front courtyard, tray ceilings in most of the equally sumptuous bedrooms, a home theater in the walkout basement…

Playroom

…and a playroom with a bare stud ceiling in that same basement. We can’t figure out whether this was a design choice, a sign that the original owner of this home ran out of money before the project was complete, or a remodeling job in progress. Since the listing says that “no expense was spared” in building this home, we guess it must have been either the first or the last of these, because after the rest of this home, this room cries out for some plaster and filigrees.

THE FINE PRINT

BEDS: 5

BATHS: 5 full, 2 half

SQUARE FEET: 8,600

SALE PRICE: $2,295,000

1726 River Rd., New Hope, PA 18938 [Joseph Bograd | Joseph Bograd Real Estate | RE/MAX Elite]