Paul Bernstein vividly remembers the day he stepped inside 80 South Main St. in Lambertville, New Jersey, he said.
Bernstein and his husband, Alfred, who are now selling the home for $2.75 million, were looking to buy the property at the time.
The ceiling tiles on the top floor were crumbling. There was a non-working hot tub in the front yard. Weeds were overgrown and covered in black asphalt in the backyard. The windows were rotted and unpainted. The entire house was drafty.
"We knew it needed major renovations," Bernstein told Homes.com. "It was falling apart. We have — from top to bottom — totally revamped this house."
Over the course of seven years, between 2014 and 2021, the couple spent well over $1 million renovating the property into what it is today, he said.
Bernstein said he's ready to part with the property because he and his spouse are entering the next chapter of their lives, which includes spending half of every year in Paris collecting art across Europe.
"Whoever buys this is getting a brand-new house built within a historic schoolhouse," said Bernstein, a real estate broker based in New York.
Owners found remnants of the school
Bernstein's property started its life in 1878 as the First Ward School of Lambertville. During its heyday, the schoolhouse was divided into four classrooms, with two for boys and two for girls. The city of Lambertville decommissioned the building in 1960 and subsequently sold the property at auction. However, a plaque mounted on the front entrance notes that the space was formerly a school.
To be sure, Bernstein wasn't the first owner of the building after its days as a schoolhouse.
A woman who sold African art won the 1960 bid — paying $3,000 at the time — and used it as her home and art gallery for her company, according to Bernstein. The art dealer then sold the home to a couple that owned a Benjamin Moore paint shop in Lambertville, and they raised their children in the home. The family sold the home to two sisters who owned an antique shop in Lambertville, and they sold the property to Bernstein.
The sounds of children's laughter no longer echo throughout the building, but there are still a few nods to history inside the property, when Bernstein bought it, he said. For example, Bernstein said workers tore down some existing walls during the renovation process and, to his surprise, there were older walls behind them that were painted either pink or blue from when the classrooms were divided by gender.
"And in the attic, students had gone up there and carved their names and initials into the wood beams," Bernstein said. "One even scratched his name out thinking maybe he'd get in trouble or something I guess, but it's cute because it's nice history up there."
Bernstein said he gutted and reconstructed the backyard gardens on the property, updated the structure's plumbing, lighting, windows and more. Bernstein noted that he and his husband bought the place when it had one bedroom and one and a half bathrooms, but now there's more space.
"There isn't an inch of the house I did not touch," Bernstein said.
School's out, but style's in
Nowadays, the Lambertville property features four bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms across 5,500 square feet. One of the former classrooms is now the home's living room, while another classroom is a current-day library and art gallery. A third classroom serves as the main bedroom, and the fourth holds a media room and a bathroom. The school-turned-home also has a fireplace and a basement.
On the exterior, two types of ivy grow across the brick facade — English Ivy and Virginia Creeper. The home's new owner will need to get those plants trimmed back regularly because, if left unchecked, they will cover the windows and seep their way into the woodwork, Bernstein said.
The revamped home sits in Lambertville, a small city in Central Jersey that sprouted up hundreds of years ago after railroad workers laid tracks through the city along the Delaware River. The housing stock there is a mix of detached and attached single-family homes with a range of architectural styles, from Cape Cods to Victorians.
Bernstein and his husband are avid art collectors who have amassed roughly 400 pieces. The couple purchased the home initially because they needed space to store their collection.
Even through those first years of renovation after renovation, Bernstein said the house grew on him and his husband and the two quickly found favorite spots in the home and built fond memories.
"The sunroom was a favorite spot because that's where I'd have my coffee, read the paper and start my business of the day," he said.
The kitchen was another favorite room, Bernstein said, because it's uniquely placed at the center of the home, giving the occupant a really unique view.
"When you're in it, you feel like you're the captain of the ship because you're looking up and down at the home at the same time," he said.