For a few years, Tom Nagle had his eye on an old Victorian-influenced house in Wilmington. Perched on a corner in the charming Triangle neighborhood, it was surrounded by homes of various styles and sizes—no cookie-cutter quality in sight, he notes. The 3,000-square-foot home with the wraparound porch and whimsical stone turret also boasted a big yard (especially for the city) and close proximity to a park and zoo. What was not to like?
The eclectic quasi-utopian community vibe was also unbeatable for Nagle, his wife Sarah, their two kids, yellow Lab, and two cats.
“There are a lot of young families, and also people who have lived here for 40 or 50 years—it’s a city neighborhood,” Nagle says. “They do a big Halloween parade, the neighbors have parties in the summers, and a couple dozen people host happy hours. It’s a pretty robust social calendar for the neighborhood.”
It helped that Nagle knew the previous owner. “I said, ‘Look, if you ever want to sell this, please let me make the first offer.’” This was in 2015, and the legacy stone home, which was completed more than a century ago, didn’t require a full gut renovation; Nagle figures he rehabbed roughly half of the four-bedroom house in approximately six months. It had great bones—with a few questionable configuration choices. “We wanted to take a house that we loved and make it more lovable and livable,” he says.
The couple fully remodeled most of the second story and reconfigured the first-floor layout, Nagle says. They removed dividing walls from the dining room to accommodate a larger kitchen with an expansive island and a breakfast nook. Edward Chew Builders executed the remodel, including the kitchen and bathrooms.
The galley kitchen conceived around 1916 simply wasn’t workable, so the Nagles tapped Ashley Heath Watson for her aesthetic and functional expertise. The kitchen tile (as well as the bathroom tile) came from the Design Center Philadelphia, the refrigerator is Sub-Zero, the range and steam oven are from Wolf, and the induction cooktop is from Thermador. A&C Cabinets added the Elkay cabinetry.
Though the Nagles barely touched the living area, they sourced a sofa from Ethan Allen (a neighbor is a designer and top salesperson for the furniture brand) and purchased a piano from a different neighbor. The family enjoys pointing out the stately pair of floor-to-ceiling pocket doors—repurposed from a church by previous owners—that lead to the living space. “They’re at least 9 feet tall,” Nagle says. “They add an eclectic element to the house, and we put them on new tracks so they open and shut smoothly.”
While several interior designers contributed to the reno, Eye for Design’s Karen Kennedy reimagined major spaces on multiple floors, including the dining room. She sourced the table from CB2 and the dining chairs from Target. “They already had art, and the wall worked beautifully as the perfect place to showcase it,” Kennedy says.
The checkerboard floor beneath what are now the dining room and main living area—though not original to the home—is perhaps a half-century old, by Nagle’s estimation. It’s a beauty—and a story. “I was told [it] dates from an old orthodontist’s office—from one of the previous owners, several owners before us,” he says.
Finally, in the last year, Kennedy designed a third-floor guest bedroom that oozes cozy character. “It was a challenge with all of the eaves, and they wanted this space to serve as a multipurpose room with a couch for the kiddos to watch TV when it wasn’t being used as a guest room,” she recalls. “There are built-in cabinets in either side of the bed in the eaves that were installed by my carpenter, Mike Durkee.” The bed is from AllModern, while the plug-in sconces are from Barnes and Ivy, sourced from Lamps Plus.
The guest room is not the only social hideaway. A brick patio on the side of the house, complete with a floor-to-ceiling fireplace wall and beadboard ceiling, is an idyllic space to have coffee or gather with guests. Occasionally, the Nagles welcome friends into the turret for a glass of wine. “People are always curious about that little tower,” Nagle says—but they really focused their restoration work on the front porch, which can accommodate larger parties.
“The porch had been in disrepair for decades,” Nagle says. “We redid the whole thing with composite materials [for durability].” He had the load-bearing pillars replaced, painted the ceiling blue, and mounted overhead fans. Now the porch is as much admired for the Nagles’ elaborate holidays decorations as it is for its grandeur.
The Nagles are thrilled with their sprawling family home. They were decisive about what to retain and what to overhaul. In the end, they enlisted a pool of talent, and the house came together quickly, emerging seamlessly—with a little help from their neighbors.
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