A couple have converted the CT church into a funky home – it’s up for sale for $1.8million

“The next time I go [to the property] with our broker, I said, ‘Do you mind if I stay alone for a few hours?’ “, he said. “I sat there for a few hours and the sun was streaming down.”

For Bonnie, what makes it look less like a sacred structure and more like a house are those tall windows that flood the house with light.

“If there had been stained glass, it might have felt more religious,” she said. “But those windows are beautiful.”

“Glorious” is just one of the words used to describe the North Street property, which is currently on the market for $1.8 million. The word that comes to mind for listing agent Liz Forrest is “special.”

“I’m truly honored to have this list,” she said. “It’s so special and so well done, inside and out. It is unlike anything else on the market, especially in Greenwich.

Long before it hit the market, the church was a focal point of local life. Located in the Conyers Farm area, Banksville Baptist Church was built in 1852 in what is known as Banksville, a section of Greenwich which is approximately 10 miles from Greenwich Avenue and a stone’s throw from the border from New York. When the church was built, it followed a design similar to that of the city’s Patent Medium Methodist Episcopal Church, but featured “a large baptistery under the front platform and a balcony above the vestibule “, according to information from the Greenwich Historical Society. .

The church was the site of an “active Sunday school,” according to the historical society, as well as church picnics and strawberry festivals. On Nov. 11, 1918, the church bell “ringed the glad tidings across the farms and meadows of the Mianus Valley,” the historical society notes, although in later years the membership numbers of the church declined despite several attempts in the 1930s and 1940s to revitalize it. Eventually it was transformed into the private home it is today.

Enter the Suarez family in 2005, who visited and eventually purchased the converted two-bedroom, two-bathroom church. While it was obvious to them that this was a one-of-a-kind property to own, they quickly realized the amount of work needed to turn it into the scaled-down studio and living space they envisioned after their three adult sons left them empty nests.

“We sat around him watching and saying, ‘What did we just do? says Santiago. “We inherited this beautiful building, but once you start looking at it, it’s like it needs everything.”

Describing a “hippie family” who lived there before buying it, Santiago recalled the “red carpet” that “was everywhere” in the church, as well as the altar-like structure in the house. They also discovered the baptistery which was “the size of a septic tank” as they began renovations. New Haven-based Gray Organschi Architecture led the charge for its “gut renovation,” which Santiago said he stumbled upon a year after buying the property while on a trip to Elm City to look at its architecture – and taste his pizza.

“We started looking everywhere [for an architect]and we went out for pizza near Yale, and we found out about a guy who had a business there that was doing some pretty cool stuff, and that’s what started the relationship,” he said.

Stripping the church down to its uprights, they set out to create a renovated living space as unique as the property itself, although its redesign was not without structural improvements, including repairs to the steeple.

“The next thing we saw was that they took the bell away,” Santiago said. “I was like, ‘Why did they take the bell off?’ The contractors came and started talking about it, and they said they took the bell down because the bell was pulling the steeple to one side…it was totally straightened and reinforced.

Instead of returning the bell to its former home, they decided to place it on the lawn as a decoration. Putting the bell on the lawn also made the steeple accessible, according to Forrest, who said the spot had been used as the site of several house parties.

The rest of the home’s renovations were chronicled in a Dwell magazine profile, which highlighted the journey of Santiago (a former advertising executive) and Bonnie (a professional chef) in renovating and redesigning the house. home. The changes included the addition of a ‘birch pod’ which ‘floats above the great hall, hovering where the choir stood silent as parishioners entered the church’, according to the Dwell profile, which houses the master suite.

The kitchen has also been upgraded to meet Bonnie’s professional standards, although it has entered a second phase of renovations. They also removed stone from the basement of the church which was used on the outside to build a wall at the back of the house. Forrest noted that their additions only enhanced the church’s intrinsic features, like the 16-foot high windows in the “great hall” with 20-foot ceilings, or the dramatic S-shaped hall that adjoins the kitchen and serves as a back wall.

“It’s very dramatic, actually,” Forrest said. “When you stand in front and look at these columns, they are just beautiful. They frame this front door beautifully.

The drama of the home doesn’t just come from these large-scale features. The Suarezes also incorporated several unique finishes throughout the home to polish its design. Look no further than the front door to see that this is not a standard church entrance.

“The front door was inspired by a sushi bar in Japan that was admired by Santiago and Bonnie,” Forrest said. “So they came back here and had a replica of this gate made. It’s just beautiful, it’s like a piece of art.

The door is just one of many globally inspired features that are part of the home. Inside, there are two Murano glass chandeliers that the couple received from Venice, which was no small feat.

“We have a Venetian friend…and we were looking for chandeliers with the right proportion for a 20 foot ceiling,” Bonnie said. “A weekend was a Friday, he said, ‘I’ve got two ages, you have to come now – can you come this weekend? Because people smell them. It was a Friday after noon, and we took a flight on Saturday morning, and we were like, ‘Are we crazy?

They bought the two chandeliers – one in multicolored glass and one in transparent glass – which were shipped from Venice and arrived at their house disassembled.

“There were no instructions,” Santiago said.

“It took Santiago a week to open all the crates because they put miles of cotton netting all around it,” Bonnie said. “He unpacked all these pieces, put these stacks of glass all around the carpet, and when we were in Venice he would climb a ladder and take close-up pictures of exactly every arm, every angle, how everything was supposed to be. .”

With the help of two Greenwich locals who previously worked on chandeliers, Bonnie said it took them a week to four to rebuild the chandeliers. The chandeliers joined the rest of the home’s art collection, which included a photograph by Matthew Rolston, a Warhol collage by Marilyn Monroe and a glass piece by Italian artist Silvio Vigliaturo, according to Dwell.

Renovations to the home were completed in 2007, and since then the couple have split their time between the North Street Church and New York, where their three adult sons reside. When the COVID-19 pandemic crept into the area, the Suarez family found themselves spending more and more time in the Hudson Valley area with their sons and grandchildren than in the isolation of Greenwich.

“I used to only go back to Greenwich to go to the dentist and for knee replacement surgery,” Bonnie said. “And that was because I couldn’t find local doctors. So really, during the pandemic, I only went back for those services.

They have since relocated and permanently joined their sons in the Hudson Valley, becoming one of many Northeast movers to migrate during the pandemic. Along with enjoying the area’s open space and reduced traffic, the Suarez’s are also enjoying the success of their sons. We find new talent for the record companies. Their second son, Nick Suarez, owns and operates Gaskins — a restaurant with a local menu featured in The New York Times in 2016 — located on the ironically named Church Avenue in Germantown. The restaurant serves beer made at the Suarez family brewery, run by his brother, Dan.

But crossing state lines means abandoning their Greenwich church and finding a buyer who sees the same value as they do in owning the unique property.

“It’s great for someone who is creative,” Santiago said. “People in Greenwich wouldn’t think of living in a church. This is going to be the hardest thing to sell. It’s like, “I don’t want to live in a church!” “… But since the pandemic, people are starting to think differently: “What do I really want? What do I really need? »

According to Forrest, there’s still that post-COVID appetite among homebuyers to find unique properties like the church.

“People are looking for different things…They want something completely different from the traditional house – something cool,” she said. “They’re moving out west, they’re looking for different properties. And this house is a very inspiring house. You’re just inspired inside and out when you’re there.

1035 North Street Church is listed by Douglas Elliman – Greenwich and is presented by Liz Forrest (203-651-9674).