Vince Fumo’s storied mansion up for sale, again

Former State Sen. Vince Fumo’s storied, 10,000-square-foot Philadelphia manor house — a property that played a role in the onetime political power broker’s downfall — could be yours.

The four-story 1880s Renaissance Revival brownstone, on Green Street near 22nd in the Spring Garden neighborhood, was listed this week for $3,950,000. The historically designated home was constructed in 1885 for 19th-century clothing magnate Samuel B. Fleisher, according to a registry for the surrounding historic district.

To say it’s roomy would be an understatement.

Along with six beds and 8.5 baths, the property boasts a wine cellar, elevator, roof deck, private shooting range, marble fireplaces, and a former ballroom converted into an “executive-sized” home office.

“It’s a big house. Nothing else really compares to it,” said broker Melanie Stecura, of Kurfiss Sotheby’s International Realty. “It’s obviously one of the finest Philadelphia mansions that’s still historically intact.”

All that luxury, plus a tax bill totaling roughly $40,000 a year.

Taxes were what brought the home into the limelight more than a decade ago — along with a string of other allegations of questionable conduct involving the property.

The home had been converted into a convent and then apartments by the time Fumo brought the Victorian in 1994, during his ascent to power in the Pennsylvania State Senate. The senator was indicted on a battery of corruption charges in 2007, including claims from federal prosecutors that he’d used Senate aides as housekeepers and to supervise extensive renovations on the building, at a cost to taxpayers.

Fumo would ultimately be convicted of defrauding the Senate and sentenced to prison time, and sought to sell the house for $7 million to pay his legal bills. There was no sale. At the time, the city’s tax board, known as the Board of Revision of Taxes (BRT), had assessed the property at just $250,000, which triggered yet more headlines.

The assessment, which lowered the home’s tax bill to about $7,000 back then, brought allegations of political favoritism, as a Fumo ally sat on the BRT. The ally was ejected from the board and, in 2009, then-Mayor Michael Nutter sought to dismantle the board, with mixed success.

Thursday, Fumo was mum on the sale, referring all questions to Stecura. She said the 79-year-old was simply ready to scale down.

“For Mr. Fumo, it’s more house than he needs anymore at his age. He’s downsizing and looking for something smaller,” she said.