A historic Montco mansion is free for the taking. But you have to move it.
Imagine owning a piece of history for free! The catch? You need to move it quickly or this Pennsylvania gem will be lost forever.
How’s this for a deal?
A 1834 mansion, Pennsylvania brownstone exterior, 17 rooms, oak beams, chestnut floors, nine fireplaces. And it can be all yours for FREE. No kidding.
There’s just one catch: You have to move it somewhere else. And soon.
“Otherwise, she will sadly be reduced to a pile of rubble,” reads the notice posted recently by Tyler Schumacher, president of the Eastern Pennsylvania Preservation Society.
The offer “FREE TO ANYONE WHO CAN MOVE HER!” posted on the nonprofit’s website, may well be the real estate opportunity of a lifetime for the right person, and possibly the last chance to save a historic Delaware Valley property.
The house in question is the Hood Mansion, built in Limerick by Philadelphia merchant and northern Ireland immigrant John McClellan Hood as a summer residence for his wife and their 13 children. Called the Bessie Belle, the Montgomery County property reportedly served as a stop on the Underground Railroad for enslaved people fleeing north.
Relatives of Hood family owned the house into the 1980s, and the house was occupied by caretakers until 2008, according to Schumacher.
Over the years, various plans for the property have fallen through, including preserving it and also razing to make way for a casino. The old house has been vandalized and graffiti scribbled on its walls.
Schumacher’s interest in Hood Mansion inspired him to form the EPPS in 2019. The group has been helping to maintain the historic Sterling Inn property in the Poconos’ Wayne County, but their hopes for the Hood property have proven more elusive.
Schumacher, who is the facilities site manager at Lynnewood Hall in Elkins Park, said recently that he met with the Brooklyn developer who currently owns the Hood property and plans to turn it into a warehouse center.
The offer
Schumacher said he initially was speaking with the developer about making arrangements to salvage certain historic elements from the property, including a monument to Washington Hood, one of the founder’s sons and a West Point graduate.
Then the preservationist said he asked the owner about giving the house away. The developer said no. But that changed.
“He said, ‘You know what, if somebody is willing to pay to have it removed, I don’t have to put it on my property, and I don’t have to be involved hardly at all, I will allow it,’” Schumacher said. “So here we are. I’ve been trying to find somebody who wants to take the house off the property and preserve it as a kind of last ditch effort to save the mansion from demolition.”
A local attorney for the developer could not be reached for comment.
But word of the free-mansion-if-it-could-be-moved quickly has caused quite an online flurry thanks to a post from the Instagram account Cheap Old Houses.
Schumacher, however, said he has received at least two potential inquiries.
“One person I heard from … is interested in dismantling the house and reconstructing it elsewhere on a property not too far away,” he said. “The other person I just spoke with this morning. He’s interested in possibly moving the house to a property in Chadds Ford. So conversations are ongoing. We don’t have anything in writing yet.”
The second person, he added, wants to use the house as his personal residence.
The cost
Moving a building the size of the Hood Mansion would be a challenge in terms of finding a feasible route, said Jimmy Stavinski, an estimator with Wolfe House & Building Movers, a company that specializes in relocating historic buildings around the country. One of Wolfe’s other projects was moving the old stone building section of the River House at Odette’s in New Hope.
Stavinski estimated that moving the Hood house would cost $700,000 to $1 million. That does not include the price of building a foundation or securing permits. But it would save the house.
“It’s a lot of work, but it can be done,” Stavinski said.
When Schumacher has a firm offer from someone who wants to acquire the Hood Mansion and will move it, he said he will present it to the developer’s lawyer. He’s fielding interest via his group’s website, easternpapreservation.org or his email, president@easternpapreservation.org. But he seemed to feel there isn’t much time to waste.
“The house needs to be moved semi-quickly,” Schumacher said. “It’s really whoever can get it done first.”