Living Large

Rachel Slade's off-kilter take on hub dwellings.

Photograph by Boston Virtual Imaging

On the Market
Maybe you were low on cash in 1967. Or perhaps you couldn’t stomach a bidding war with the daughter of a Michigan lumber kingpin. Fortunately for you, good things come to those who wait. After holding onto it for more than four decades, the heiress is selling this 11,118-square-foot Georgian Revival wonder located in the Back Bay. We love the 1905 single-family home — a rare survivor of the Depression, suburban flight, and the Great Recession — for its grandeur, of course, but also for the one thing it’s missing: recessed lights, a.k.a. the calling card of mediocre renovations everywhere. In fact, the Little & Browne–designed abode, with its claw-foot tubs and high ceilings, is almost perfect. Only the tired carpeting and a 1970s-style kitchen — featuring (ugh) a creepy Mansard range hood — stand between you and complete bliss.

Address: 10 Marlborough St., Boston,  Listing price: $13,500,000, Listing agent: Anthony Winter, Campion and Company, 617-236-0711, campionre.com, Stats: Ten bedrooms, six full bathrooms, three half bathrooms.

Auld Lang Syne
Let us remember the stores that shuttered in 2011: Matsu on Newbury Street; Greenward near Porter Square; the Velvet Fly in the North End; Dame in Jamaica Plain; Priscilla of Boston; Looc in the South End; the Attic in Central Square; Macy’s in Chestnut Hill; Passport and Curious George in Harvard Square; Ski Market and Borders in various locations; and… Friendly’s? Au revoir.

Power Players
The U.S. Department of Energy’s annual Solar Decathlon challenges college teams to design and build efficient, affordable solar-powered homes. This year, Team Massachusetts (from MassArt and UMass Lowell) placed ninth out of 19 international competitors, with a dwelling that produces more energy than it consumes. A couple has since taken the very green (and apparently portable) vacation home up to Maine.