In 2018, architect Pierre-Henri Hoppenot, who was born in France but grew up in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and his wife, tech entrepreneur Daphne Earp Hoppenot, who grew up in Washington, D.C., paid $2.43 million for a house they hated.
The couple planned to raise bilingual children, which had led them to Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, the one-time Italian immigrant neighborhood that now has a large French-speaking population.
But there was only one house in Carroll Gardens listed for under $3 million.
It had been slapped together in 1941 among a row of older, more substantial buildings.
For a long time after they bought it, “When friends came over we would tell them to look for the ugly house and they knew which one immediately,” says Daphne.
Persons:
Pierre, Henri Hoppenot, Daphne Earp Hoppenot, “, ”, Daphne
Organizations:
Washington , D.C, Carroll Gardens
Locations:
France, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Washington ,, Brooklyn, Carroll Gardens