Haven: A pharmacy-turned-home with a rejuvenated look

Approaching Micah and Aimee Hanson's home in Olde Richmond is like stepping back into the late 19th century, when there were stores on many a Philadelphia street corner.

Their house, located in a tiny pocket of Kensington, near Fishtown, is a former pharmacy.

Two sparkling storefront windows meet over three small stone steps, forming a sort of a "V." The tidy brick structure was built in 1892, with living quarters upstairs.

It was a gift shop and residence for 25 years before the couple, their two children, and the family cat made it their home and an architectural office for Micah Hanson.

Once a visitor arrives at the front door, it becomes obvious that this is no longer a commercial building. The colorful front room is visible from the street when light muslin curtains are not drawn over the very large windows.

Micah grew up in Kansas and practiced architecture in St. Louis for 13 years. He and Aimee, a librarian, met as students in Germany and lived in New York for eight years before coming to Philadelphia because it is "more affordable."

"We had been living in an 1,100-square-foot tiny house in Fishtown that was getting too crowded as our family grew," he says.

So their hunt for a house began.

"We searched over and over and saw nothing but cookie-cutter houses," Micah says. "We didn't feel good about anything we saw."

A real estate agent showed them the onetime pharmacy, and at first, they rejected it. Yet . . .

"We kept coming back and saw more and more of the advantages of the house, such as the fact that it had steel cabinets in the kitchen and beautiful wood floors, and it had been well-maintained as a doctor's office, a pharmacy, and a home," Micah says.

So they bought it.

Says Aimee Hanson, reached by telephone because she was working during a recent tour of the dwelling: "I love our home, and it is not the sort of place you would find anywhere."

A priority was finding schools for Georgia, now 6, and Atticus, now 3.

The Hansons had strong ideas about what they wanted for their children - and staying in Philadelphia, rather than moving to the suburbs, was part of that vision.

"We believe in public schools and working as part of a community in supporting the schools," Micah says. "We found one near our house and other parents who care about the schools in the neighborhood."

Also on their wish list was a yard, which this corner house did not have.

Micah solved that problem by designing a large, fenced deck for the second floor where the children and the cat could play and the adults could garden in large pots.

Inside, the living room's walls are painted a subtle shade of rose, and the floors are shiny walnut, uncarpeted except for small area rugs.

The 300-square-foot space is split between an office area lined with bookcases near the front windows and a sitting area with vibrant chairs and a sofa.

The 2,700-square-foot house had elements - wallpaper in the bedrooms, chartreuse paint in the kitchen - that had to be changed. Other spaces needed little work, such as a bathroom that had its original seashell tiles.

"All three floors, in fact, were in excellent condition," Micah says, "but the huge kitchen is what made us seal the deal."

Aimee says she and Micah painted the kitchen yellow, and now it is "the perfect kitchen, because we cook a lot and spend a lot of time there."

Between the living room and the kitchen is a large room with a well-polished wooden stairway leading to the second floor.

That space holds a dining room table and a cabinet in a polished Art Deco style that Micah says was from a previous owner. The furniture, he notes, probably dates from the 1940s.

"I am a modernist, but this period furniture fits in the style of the house, and we had to use it because it just fits in the basic design," he says.

Says Aimee: "I love the idea that all the families that have lived here since it was built loved the house and took care of it, and that is important to us."