Inside the Woods Residence: Restoring a 1932 Yalecrest Tudor

The Woods Residence on Harvard Avenue is a 1932 Tudor in Salt Lake City's Yalecrest historic district. It was our 2026 Salt Lake Parade of Homes entry, and it won five awards: Best Interior and Curb Appeal from the judges, and Best Kitchen, Best Interior Design, and Favorite Home from the public.

Here is what the house was, what the owners needed, and what it took to get there.

The starting point

The bones were beautiful. The house was not working. Everything was dated, and the three rooms the owners use most, the kitchen, the living room, and the primary bath, did not function for how they actually live.

The owners did not want a different house. They wanted this house, working the way a family lives now.

The scope

This was a full-scale remodel, inside and out. On the exterior, that meant restoring the hand-laid stonework and cedar shake that give the house its presence on the street. Inside, it meant reworking the kitchen, living spaces, and primary suite, updating the systems behind the walls, and building new cabinetry and millwork throughout in our own shop, Citizen Millworks.

The hard part: restore, don't erase

Yalecrest is a locally designated historic district, and this house is exactly the kind of home the district exists to protect. That set the rule for every decision: keep what is original, and make it work for modern life without anyone being able to see where the old house ends and the new work begins.

That is harder than building new. Proportions, trim profiles, and the relationship between rooms all had to feel like 1932, even where everything behind the wall is new. And like every house of this age, it had unforeseen conditions waiting behind the plaster. Each one had to be solved in a way that did not compromise the original character, which usually meant more careful work, not a shortcut.

The kitchen

The kitchen is the room the house turns on now. A custom plaster range hood and sage green tile, hand-set floor to ceiling behind the range, give it one clear focal point. A full-slab marble island anchors the work zone, and glass display cabinetry built in our shop flanks the hood so the whole wall reads as one piece of furniture. The adjoining breakfast nook keeps the home's 1932 character while working for how the family gathers.

It won People's Choice Best Kitchen. We wrote about why in What Makes an Award-Winning Kitchen.

The primary bath

The primary bath went from the least functional room in the house to one of its standouts. Period-appropriate materials give it the character of the original house, with the layout, storage, and performance of a modern primary suite.

The rest of the house

The same approach runs through every room. The original wood-paneled library, restored around its fireplace, a dining room against original stone, a staircase wrapped in botanical wallpaper, and an oxblood-tiled guest bath. None of it is themed. It is the house it always was, finished the way it deserved to be.

Five awards

At the 2026 Salt Lake Parade of Homes, the Woods Residence won:

• Judges' Award, Best Interior
• Judges' Award, Curb Appeal
• People's Choice, Best Kitchen
• People's Choice, Best Interior Design
• People's Choice, Favorite Home

It was our second Parade win in Yalecrest, two years after our 2024 entry, the Princeton home, just around the corner.

What it means for your house

If you own an older home in Yalecrest, the Avenues, Sugar House, or Holladay that has great bones and does not work for how you live, this is the kind of project we do best: keep the character, fix the function, and handle what you find behind the walls without cutting corners. See the full Woods Residence gallery, read how we approach whole-home remodels, or book a free site walk and we will send you a written budget range within 7 days.

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