In December of 2021, self-described Millenial, Sarah Magnuson, waxed nearly poetic in the ever-so-hip ApartmentTherapy.com – about split-level houses.
She wrote – I’m calling on all millennials and Gen Zers to consider the split-level — even if you think it appears outdated. First, let’s think about space. The tiny home movement is in full swing. Split levels are far from the square footage of those spaces, but they’re also not comparable to McMansions. Younger generations just don’t need or want the extra space… but we do want to make the most of what we have.
If Sarah Magnuson has you convinced about the virtues of split levels (which some realtors think will sell for more if they call them “Mid Century Moderns”), you might want to look at this one on Sprague Road in Penn Valley, listed for $979,000. It was built in 1968. By that time the split level boom, that started in 1949, was just about at its peak.
In 1949, for the entire year, there were a total of two ads in the Inquirer for split-level houses, and both of them happened to be for new homes in Lower Merion.
By 1956 the Inquirer ran more than 1,600 ads for split levels. As late as 1982, the paper still carried more than a thousand ads for split- levels. But by 2000, the number of Inquirer ads for split levels had dropped to a little more than 200.
The most famous split level in the world is located at 11222 Dilling Street in Studio City, California
But we’ve got one here (on Remington Road, in Wynnewood) that’s also kind of famous.
In Lower Merion, there are hundreds of split levels. They’re most heavily concentrated in Bala Cynwyd, Penn Valley and Wynnewood, but split levels also dot the landscape in almost every other part of the township.
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