Mason House Lists for $17.9M; $380K South End Chop

It's time for the weekly contribution from our sister site Curbed Boston: Curbed Cuts, all the latest neighborhood news...

BACK BAY - The achingly elegant Mason House at 211 Commonwealth Avenue hit the market this week for $17,900,000. This would normally be the point where we would search for adverbs and adjectives to go with "achingly elegant," but we'll let the nouns (and the photos above) do the talking: 11 bedrooms; 9 full bathrooms; 5 half-bathrooms; 14,580 square feet; an au pair suite; eat-in kitchen; an elevator to every floor; and a 5-car garage (O.K., some adjectives in there).

SOUTH END - In January, we told you about the 3-BR, 3.5-BA at the Atelier 505 once owned by former Red Sox All-Star Nomar Garciaparra and soccer Olympian Mia Hamm. They sold it in 2005, and their buyers had put it back on the market for $4,375,000, which made it the priciest Boston condo listing outside of Back Bay and Beacon Hill (and the Ritz in Chinatown). Well, it's been price-chopped by a whopping $380,000. Still, it remains the priciest condo listing outside of Back Bay, Beacon Hill and Chinatown.

CHARLESTOWN - We thought this South End townhouse had a lot of windows with 30. Puh-leeze: This 3-BR, 3.5-BA townhouse just off Winthrop Square has 32 over its four floors. The 3,260-square-foot spread hit the market just this week after a renovation that left the original antebellum detailing in the woodwork and molding. All yours for $2,300,000.

CAMBRIDGE - The landlord of Vertex Pharmaceuticals' current offices and lab space on Sidney Street near M.I.T. might turn it into apartments. A managing partner of Dinosaur Capital said that the firm wants to keep it commercial once Vertex splits at the end of next year for its massive new South Boston digs, but that if apartment rents stay Hub high (which they undoubtedly will) the space could become a block-size apartment complex.