COHASSET /Windy Hill Road
Colonials provide a distinctive look

By BARRY SMITH
The Patriot Ledger Area: 10.06 square miles

POPULATION
2000: 7,261
2007: 7,525

Density: 763 res./square mile
Median age: 43
Median household income: $100,938

FINANCES
Tax rate: $10.50
Town budget: $35.3 million
Avg. water/sewer bill: $1,450

HOUSING
Median home price
2006: $815,000
2007: $713,750 (114 through Dec.)
Median condo price
2006: $446,700
2007: $481,000 (20 through Dec.)

SCHOOLS
Number of students: 1,489
Number of teachers: 103
H.S. grads to 4-yr. college: 78%
H.S. grads to 2-yr. college: 8%
Median SAT score (2006): 1,637

The creative hand of renowned architect Royal Barry Wills can be seen in several homes along Windy Hill Road.

A large center chimney and traditional multi-paned windows with blinds were classic features of a Wills design, homeowner Michael F. Lombardy said.

Lombardy and his wife, Barbara, bought their nine-room colonial 30 years ago.

“He designed basically colonial homes but he updated them,” said James A. Reilly, another Windy Hill resident of more than 30 years. Wills updated with contemporary features like a family room or small office along with traditional Cape elements such as the central chimney, he said.

Wills developed houses on Surrey Drive, Fernway and Deep Run as well, historian David Wadsworth said, and Wills, who died in 1962, had a second home in Cohasset.

The late Gov. Foster Furcolo and his second wife, Lucy, once lived at 34 Windy Hill Road.

Retired lawyer Anthony Camardo and his wife, Faye, bought the garrison colonial from the Furcolos in 1971.

“It was a wonderful place to raise children,” Faye Camardo said.

The picturesque prosperous street runs up to higher ground from Jerusalem Road near Straits Pond and ends in a dead-end.

The road was carved out of a former estate whose nearby main house is now called Clifftop condominiums.

A grand stone and cement stairway leading down from the Camardos’ front lawn is a remnant of the estate gardens, Faye Camardo said.

According to 2007 town assessments, the 20 houses on Windy Hill ranged in value from about $650,000 to three just over $1 million with the median around $800,000.

Five recorded sales involving four homes occurred on the street during the past 36 months, real estate agent Richard J. Long said. One house sold for $910,000 on June 27, he said.

Werner and Marcia Diekmann bought a 1961 house on Windy Hill Road 10 years ago when they moved from upstate New York to be closer to their children and grandchildren.

“The glass conservatory and the gardens” won Marcia Diekmann’s attention.

The proximity to a yacht club (her husband joined Hull Yacht Club) and being able to travel to Boston by boat or train are pluses, she said.

“I can’t think of anything about the street that isn’t perfect,” said resident Rita Burke.

Helen M. Kelly, a resident since 1977, remembers how she and her late husband, Leo Kelly, “used to drive down from Quincy and say, gee, ‘I’d love to live here in Cohasset’ – and it came to be.”

Some families in the neighborhood, like Paul and Patricia Berube, have children in school. “I think the neighbors are great,” said Paul Berube, who has three school-aged children said.

“It’s easily accessible to Hingham and Hull,” Anne Reel said. “We can actually walk over to Nantasket Beach” in Hull as well as the closer Black Rock Beach.