Just Listed: Mid-Century Split-Level in Cherry Hill
What makes this house stand out from a thousand others like it? The private retreat its owner’s designer wife added to it, that’s what.
Why is this split-level different from all the others? Because this one at 3 Hickory Lane, Cherry Hill, NJ 08003 comes with its own private spa retreat in its side yard. / This photo and most other photos: HomeJab; pool photos: Chris Gregory, ClutchShot Pro; virtual staging by Peter Nguyen; photos courtesy Josh Dodes or *(including this photo) via Bright MLS and Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate
Stop me if you’ve seen this before.
On second thought, don’t, because you haven’t.
Sure, this Cherry Hill mid-century split-level house for sale looks like thousands of others like it. You will find them all over the Philadelphia metropolitan area, but they’re especially thick on the ground in South Jersey. That part of our region didn’t get turned into suburbia for the most part until after World War II, well after the Pennsylvania counties surrounding Philadelphia did.
Cherry Hill didn’t even get its current name until 1961, after several businesses and a shopping center rose on and across from the former Cherry Hill Farm on Route 38. All of them used the Cherry Hill name, and in a referendum that year, the 31,000-odd residents of what was then Delaware Township, Camden County, picked it as the municipality’s new name.
That figure, by the way, was three times the population it had a decade earlier. A decade later, it had more than doubled, to 64,000-plus — a figure that included the family who moved into this house in 1965. (Nearly 77,000 people live there now.)
Aerial view of Hickory Lane; the house for sale is in the right center of the photo, with the pool
Many families choose Cherry Hill because of its quality of life and the reputation of its schools. Both of those things drew psychotherapist Josh Dodes and his wife Carly Marks to this particular cul-de-sac in 2018.
“For neurotic parents like Carly and I, the safety of knowing we could let our kids play in the cul-de-sac without traffic flying through was huge,” he writes in an email. “And it was a great hangout space for all the families, who all happen to be lovely.”
And since no fences separate the houses on this cul-de-sac, the kids could roam freely with their neighbors’ kids as well.
Overhead view of pool
Now, however, there is one fence: the one Marks put up around the cocktail pool and spa she designed and had built in its side yard. As a pool in a subdivision with no fences becomes what lawyers call “an attractive nuisance,” the fence is a necessary defensive measure.
Pool
But it also means that the pool space becomes a private oasis. The pool can be used year-round — you can heat it to 104 degrees at the push of a button.
Marks is a freelance interior designer, and she redid the kids’ bedrooms, as well as the pool. They’ve been scrubbed of their personality since Dodes and Marks moved to a bigger house in Voorhees four months ago, but you can catch a glimpse of her style in two of them.
The house itself is in great shape. Its split-level design proved ideal for the way the family lived.
“The fact that it’s split-level means the house feels more unified somehow, and it also means no long staircases, which is a huge help with little kids (and parents with bad backs!),” writes Dodes.
It also means that the entertaining spaces are easily set apart from the private spaces. The living room, dining room and kitchen all sit one half-floor up from the foyer.
Living room
A large bay window floods the living room with natural light.
Dining room and kitchen*
And the dining room and kitchen are one. A counter with bar seating ties the two together.
Kitchen*
Kitchen*
The kitchen itself has been updated with new stainless-steel appliances and plenty of cabinet and counter space. A second stairwell leads from the kitchen down to a carpeted family room and the laundry.
Prinary bedroom
The private space sits a half-level up from the living room. It consists of three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The primary bedroom, of course, is extra spacious.
Primary bathroom*
And it has its own en-suite bathroom. The other two share a hall bath. Guests can use the powder room off the foyer.
Basement
A finished basement sits a half-level down from the foyer. “Inexplicably, the basement is almost completely sound-separated from the rest of the house, so I was able to use part of it as a confidential office space and part of it as a home studio,” Dodes writes. (Dodes, a former professional musician, still plays and records music on occasion.)
Chances are that you would outfit it as a recreation room, as was done in the virtually staged photo above. But if you need a soundproofed space for any reason, this basement provides it.
Backyard
This Cherry Hill mid-century split-level house for sale sits in the township’s southeasterly reaches, near its border with Marlton. While Dodes and Marks moved to Voorhees because their kids had gotten “bigger and more rambunctious” and needed even more room to roam, this house is close to the Henry C. Beck Middle School. And if you and your kids want to do some exploring off your cul-de-sac, next to the middle school is a trailhead for the Old Orchard Trails Red Trail, which winds through forested land.
You should be able to fill most of your shopping needs on nearby Route 73 in Marlton. And you will find more shops, restaurants and a Cooper University Hospital urgent-care clinic on equally close Route 70.
“We felt like we were part of an incredibly sweet, close community” on this Cherry Hill cul-de-sac, Dodes writes. If you want that kind of feeling for you and your kids, too, then you will definitely want to give this place a once-over. It may look like thousands of other suburban split-levels, but it comes with something extra.
THE FINE PRINT
BEDS: 3
BATHS: 2 full, 1 half
SQUARE FEET: 1,712
SALE PRICE: $469,000
3 Hickory Lane, Cherry Hill, NJ 08003 [Amy Rossano | Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate]
