A 100-year-old Ocean City beach house

When Kerri McGinley-Kistler saw the home’s For Sale sign in March 2020, she knew she had to have it. It was tucked away on an Ocean City side street, on the same road where her parents owned a house when she was a teenager and young adult. Happy memories of summers spent there came flooding back.

“It was a dream to someday get back there,” said McGinley-Kistler, director of pupil services for the Marple Newtown School District, who lives in Manayunk during the work week. “The house has a lot of charm and style, and we were also looking for a fresh start.”

Her husband, Richard, had died in 2014, and she and her daughter Braedyn, now 26, and son Patrick, now 25, were ready for a change. While the Spanish-style house built in 1920 was new to them, the street came with wonderful memories.

“My son said, ‘Grandad taught me how to ride a bike on this street,’” she recalled. There are still a few neighbors left on the block from her teen years.

But there were some complications. The COVID-19 pandemic had just begun, and she wondered how difficult it would be to navigate a home sale. She also already owned a house in Ocean City, on the bay, that she would need to spruce up before putting on the market.

Over the next three months, as McGinley-Kistler got her bay house ready to sell, she drove past her dream home daily to make sure the For Sale sign was still up.

Once the bay house hit the market, things moved quickly. Her house sold in one day, to the first person who looked at it, and McGinley-Kistler promptly made an offer on the new house. The seller accepted, and she and her children settled on both houses and moved in June 2020.

The two-story, 1,950-square-foot house has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, an attic, and a garage. The house needed some improvements, including exterior paint, a new awning and trim, deck renovations, and kitchen updates.

She decorated the interior with an eclectic assortment of furnishings that all have personal meaning. Her dining room table, for instance, is actually a repurposed library table from James Dobson Elementary School in Philadelphia, where the 37-year educator had once been principal.

“It still has some marks and names carved into it by students from Manayunk, but I did sand out the F-word when I brought it home,” said McGinley-Kistler, who received her doctorate in educational leadership from Widener University in 2004. Education was a family affair for her family. “I was actually the sixth principal named McKinley in the School District of Philadelphia.”

Behind the table hangs an old colorful wall map, reminiscent of her days as a social studies teacher. Above the table hangs a lamp made of bronze metal, gears, and industrial light bulbs that she found online.

Her favorite room is the sunroom, which doubles as a home office, with large arched windows lining three walls. She painted the walls with Behr Toasted Bagel, a rich brown color, to let the striking architecture stand out. She made lights out of driftwood and rope, and built her desk out of a live-edge tabletop and metal legs shaped like the letter K, for her initials.

Next to the sunroom sits her living room, complete with a wood-burning fireplace. Three bedrooms are found on the second floor.

An avid baker, McGinley-Kistler loves to make shortbread and scones, though she gives most of the goodies away to her friends and neighbors. Even during the early days of COVID, those neighbors found a way to welcome her.

“I came outside to my driveway and was greeted by many neighbors from the street with a literal Welcome Wagon full of gifts,” she recalled. “They brought cookbooks, wine, candles, gift cards to local restaurants, homemade jam, and a cutting board with our name and the year carved into it.”

The large driveway provides space for socializing in lawn chairs or a family game of cornhole. Her dogs Moby Dick, a 9½-year-old Great Pyrenees, and Pug Sailor, 6, love to play in the backyard near a teacup from the original rides at Gillian’s Wonderland Pier.

McGinley-Kistler spends as much time as possible in Ocean City. Her kids and siblings — she’s one of eight — visit often.

“This is the place where I feel most relaxed and connected with my family,” she said. “Any day I get to walk up and see the ocean is a good day.”

Is your house a haven? Tell us about your haven by e-mail (and send some digital photographs) at properties@inquirer.com.