GREENVILLE — In an established neighborhood like Botany Woods, which is loaded with elegant homes from the 1950s to the 1970s, there’s a saying: the moving truck pulls out of the driveway, and the dumpster rolls in. That’s how necessary renovations can be in a community where some homes are like time warps on the inside. But that’s no longer the case at 305 Botany Road, a midcentury modern residence in Botany Woods that dates from 1962.
The home’s refreshed natural wood and blue-gray exterior hint at further changes within, where the current owner has updated the kitchen and master bathroom, carved out space for a huge walk-in closet, and opened up a wall to facilitate better flow between the kitchen and den. “In this neighborhood, to buy something with this type of square footage, you’re typically getting something you have to totally redo,” said agent Kim Guest of The Guest Group, who is listing the home for $1.15 million.
“So we think it’s priced right. You're also so close to downtown Greenville — you can be downtown in less than 10 minutes, but you also have these mature trees and wide streets and just kids riding their bikes everywhere.” Comprised of nearly 400 homes on the east side of Greenville, Botany Woods dates from the 1950s, and continues to offer a refreshing variety of the home styles popular in that era.
That includes midcentury modern homes, of which Greenville is an unlikely Southern capital. The city even boasts a genuine Frank Lloyd Wight design, Broad Margin at 9 West Avondale Ave., one of just two Wright creations in the Palmetto State.
Vintage “MCMs” can be found throughout the established neighborhoods ringing downtown, and many newer builds echo the city’s midcentury legacy. The listing at 305 Botany Road fits the MCM template in that it boasts extensive exterior overhangs, massive floor-to-ceiling windows to merge the inside and outside, and large, airy open interior spaces with little in the way of ornamentation. When renovating the home, Guest said, the current owner went back and researched midcentury modern color palettes before deciding on the blue-gray paint and the wood accents — which also meshes with the MCM approach of highlighting natural materials.
The exterior had previously been cream brick and pale yellow. Kim Guest “That changed the whole thing,” Guest said. “It looked like a little Minecraft box before, and now it looks much better.
” Inside, the seller left the home’s terrazzo flooring intact, and updated the areas that had hardwood. She opened up a wall connecting the kitchen and the den, so someone in one room can see and converse with someone in the other. She replaced the kitchen countertops with quartz, and updated the cabinets.
She reconfigured the home from five bedrooms to four, giving the master suite “a bedroom-sized closet,” as Guest calls it, and renovating the master bathroom with an open, tiled shower, soaking tub and double vanity. “Before, it wasn’t really a room that you wanted to be in,” Guest said. “If you’re the one using the primary bathroom, you want it to be a beautiful space — especially if you’re spending $1 million.
So we wanted to upscale the master, because that's who's buying it. That's who deserves to have all of the upgrades and all the good stuff.” While midcentury modern homes are more popular in Greenville than in other Southern markets, they can still be polarizing among prospective buyers.
MCMs often have carports rather than garages, they don’t have the wide front porches that many see as a hallmark of a Southern home, and they lack interior details like crown molding. Those who love them really love them, but the market for a midcentury can be more limited than it would be for a more conventional home. “It is definitely a niche market,” Guest said.
“The floorplan is definitely different. Some midcentury moderns are mainly one level, but this one, when you go in the front door, you're going up or you're going down. Your main level is like your living room, and then you go downstairs for your dining room, your kitchen, and your main living area.
” Having all the bedrooms upstairs “does make it nice if you're having a party, because you're not going to be bothered. You won't hear anybody downstairs,” she added. “It might be good for someone with kids who doesn’t mind stairs and likes this style of design.
But it’s going to take a minute for someone to appreciate it for what it is.” Botany Woods, though, needs no selling. A classic neighborhood in every sense, it’s known for its pool and swim team and large lots with old-growth trees.
There are Easter egg hunts, Halloween parties, golf cart parades and fireworks on July 4. “It’s a great neighborhood,” said Guest, who would know — she lives there herself. “Growing up, I was like, ‘I'm going to raise my family in that neighborhood,’” she added.
“And it's truly a dream to live there.”.
