Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1024592
99 IF IT'S A GORGEOUS EARLY AUTUMN WEEK- end, don't be surprised to find a few roads closed in Andover's Johnson Acres neighbor- hood, where instead of cars you'll see a huge block party spilling into the street with a bouncy house for kids, cotton candy machine, fired-up grills, and maybe even a big outdoor screen with a Patriots game playing. Consisting of a handful of tree-lined roads off of Elm Street, Johnson Acres is a special neighborhood with old-fashioned charm. e Johnson Acres Book Group meets regularly to discuss their latest selections (e Life She Was Given was a recent favorite) over wine and potluck desserts. ere are Yankee Swaps, email chains about neighborhood news, kids playing, and families walking their dogs. Plus, Johnson Acres is imminently walkable, with access to both downtown abd the nearby Carmel Woods. Some neighbors are longtime residents, like Sarita Broccoli, who's lived there for nearly 30 years and even renovated a too-small house when her family outgrew it because "I couldn't bring myself to leave the neighborhood." According to Joanne Doherty Dee, a real- tor with William Raveis and lifelong Andover resident, the Johnson Acres neighborhood was built in the 1950s, and its homes are a mix of everything from small capes and ranches to stately English Tudors and everything in between—complemented by "just enough yard to tend." Not only do the many styles of homes blend beautifully together—and "fly" off the market ANDOVER'S JOHNSON ACRES O L D - FA S H I O N E D C H A R M when they're listed, Dee says—but there are options for nearly every stage of life. "I love when you have people who have lived in the neighborhood for 35-plus years combined with people who are just starting their families," she says. "It's just a great neigh- borhood feel." PHOTOGRAPHS BY, OPPOSITE PAGE, MATT KALINOWSKI, JARED CHARNEY, ADRIEN BISSON, ELISE SINAGRA, AND DOUG LEVY; THIS PAGE, ADRIEN BISSON Andover's Johnson Acres boasts old- fashioned charm and is walkable to downtown. Below, long-time resident Sarita Broccoli. There's something so intimate about a neighborhood. No matter how well you know a city, it takes living in a neighborhood to really understand and appreciate that particular corner of it—its quirks, its people, which house gives out the best Halloween candy, which tree blooms first in the spring. That's why we're so lucky that the North Shore is packed with hundreds of neighborhoods, each with its own personality and charms. Here we delve into just a few of our favorites to get the inside scoop on what makes them such fantastic places to call home. ANDOVER MEDIAN HOME PRICE* $ 660,000 *Resource: Zillow