The Butcher Mansion: Are We Having Fun Yet?

 As I mentioned in an earlier post, the conversion of the Butcher mansion into condominiums hurt the chance of  future re-sale. But establishing a Home Owner's Association for the neighborhood mortally wounded re-sale.

Above is the floor plan of the South wing of the house before and after the condo conversion. This was the side of the house that held the family room, the dining room, the two-story sunroom, the $100,000 kitchen, the maids room, the laundry room, a single car garage, and the pool baths.

As you can see from the pictures to the right, the interior is less than one would imagine in a home with an asking price of $1,200,000.

The two-story sunroom was enclosed to make additional room for the condominium above.

You might have noticed, there's no flooring. And that's because the unit flooded.

The Butcher home, once converted into a commercial project, required the installation of sprinklers for code. The problem: when a house sits empty for 5 years and the pipes freeze, you can have a big freakin' mess on your hands. The sprinkler flooded the unit so the kitchen had to be removed, walls had to be taken down to the studs. And back in the former maid's room the studs bow out behind what once was a shower stall.

What the pictures don't reveal is...

Butcher Mansion Floor Plan | Main Floor - original

It took 2 years and $300,000 to complete the Jake Butcher Mansion. Whirlwind, as it's called, is a classic antebellum home with cream colored brick, white corinthian columns and a red metal roof. A circular drive delivers guests beneath a two-story portico.

The portico opens to a grand foyer, 20 feet wide and 47 feet long. The foyer extends to a covered portico 10 feet wide and 80 feet long. Where there was once an unobstructed view of the river and valley beyond, the view is now gone.

As you entered the home, the dining and family rooms were to your left. 

The dining room is now gone (converted to a bedroom, closet and bath in the 1980's condo conversion).

The family room is much as it was in the 1970s. Arched double doors flank either side of the rich walnut paneled fireplace and enter into what was once a two-story sunroom to the right and the family kitchen to the left. 

When the kitchen was remodeled (around the time of the 1982 World's Fair), it was said to have cost $100,000.

When the Butcher's lived in Whirlwind, the dining room was dressed to impress, decked out in reds and golds with a huge leaded glass chandelier centered over a large oval table. The wallpaper in the dining room was reportedly designed specifically for the Butchers at a cost of $16,000 with the design to be destroyed immediately after installation so no one else could copy it.

On the other side of the main foyer is the sunken ballroom, measuring 30 feet wide by 40 feet long for a total of 1,200 square feet. The ceilings in the ballroom are 12 feet high, the fireplace and paneling are gorgeous, the floors are teak parquet and these floors are carried throughout the formal areas of the main floor as well as Jake's office wing.

It's been said...

Whirlwind Home Owner's Association - Be Careful What You Wish For

I live in a neighborhood protected by covenants, codes and restrictions. My Home Owner's Association takes care of: the exterior of my home; all exterior painting; repairs; roofing; my landscaping; my driveway, sidewalk and, when necessary, my snow removal - basically, all the things I don't want to mess with. I pay $250 a month for that. And it's been great.

Great, that is, until my sister moved in across the street. Because my sister moved in with all 17 of her children (I'm exaggerating here, but only by a little), all the rules set forth by the HOA quickly changed. No more roller skating, no skateboards, no basketball in the street, no scooters, no dogs off leash, no dogs barking after 9 pm, no garage doors open unless you're physically standing there, no feeding the ducks, no skating on the pond, no toys in the yard, no sidewalk chalk. No issues, no problems, no noise, no nuisance whatsoever. Or, you will be fined. A lot.

Do all the rule changes bother me? Not really. My kids are older, the rules don't really apply to me. But I can see where it makes my sister a nervous wreck. A month or so ago she was fined $150 for a nugget of poo found on the outskirts of her yard. She took the poo to the board meeting and asked them to prove the poo was in fact dog poo and further, that if it were dog poo that the poo in question came from her dog. The board members weren't prepared for this line of questioning and the fine was removed. But my sister was pretty pissed off and she hasn't settled down much since. And now, for sport, she looks for ways to push the envelope. And unfortunately, we look enough alike that people mistake me for her.

Thanks, Amy.

When Whirlwind's previous owner, Charlie Hicks, and his partners subdivided the former Butcher estate and created a Home Owner's Association, they seriously diminished the resale value of the property. Specifically...

The Butcher Mansion - a Retirement Home?

Q. Kathie asked: "What was all the business about a nursing/retirement home going in the Butcher Mansion? Does the man that bought it years ago still own it?"

A.The short answer is, aside from the lending institutions, there have been 3 owners: The Butchers, the Barbours and Charlie Hicks. But the long answer is a bit more complicated.

The Butchers moved into their dream home in 1974. But by 1985, Sonya Butcher was forced to sell the home due to Jake Butcher's arrest and subsequent bankruptcy.

Clifford and Dorothy Barbour picked up the home from Sonya for $800,000. The Barbours then lost the home less than eight years later to their own foreclosure (1993).

In 1993, Charlie Hicks and partners picked up the property at the Barbour's foreclosure for $621,000. Hicks and his partners subdivided the 27 acres into parcels and chopped the home into 5 condos. 

Restrictive covenants for a Home Owners Association were filed in 1994 and a condominium master deed was filed in 1997.

Though the Home Owner's Association for the neighborhood continued, the condo project was terminated 10 years after filing because...

Is 182 Whirlwind Lane Off Market?

Is 182 Whirlwind Lane, the former Jake Butcher Mansion, off market? It appears so. At least, temporarily.

Sometime after my meeting with the bank Monday and my search Wednesday morning, the Jake Butcher listing was pulled.

I emailed the bank Wednesday and it appears Whirlwind is being pulled from the market temporarily only to be re-listed at the original price. The original price, at the time of my bid, was $1,200,000.

So why does a lender or realtor pull a listing only to put it back on the market a few weeks or months later?

Generally, there are two reasons:

Jake Butcher Mansion sunroom in current condition

1-The house needs repairs, isn't showing well or the market indicates the value isn't there. This scenario typically results in a price adjustment.

2-The house has been on the market too long. Showings drop off and a stigma develops that there's something wrong with the house. This scenario does not always result in a price adjustment. Typically, the home is removed from the market, staged, new photos are taken and the home goes back on the market at the original price a few weeks to a few months later.

In my opinion, the bank is off the mark in their approach to selling this house.

Whirlwind Mansion: An Essay

I wrote this essay called "Riches" about the Whirlwind Mansion for a writing class in 1996.

Whirlwind Mansion family room circa 1980s

It was 25,000 square feet of dreams. Perched on a hill to avoid being touched by the trivial problems of the middle-class, stood "my house"; a southern colonial mansion built in the early 1970's by a banker for his wife.

In similar surroundings the house may not have afforded much attention, but this was the Tennessee Valley. This was, for the most part, farm country.

The Fourth of July fireworks were once held at the marina across from my house. Beautiful purples, pinks and golds lit up the sky. How lucky the people who lived there must have been; the fireworks probably much better from their view.

I imagined every view had to be better in my house on the hill. Christmas must have been...

The Jake Butcher Mansion in Clinton, TN

Jake Butcher Mansion sales brochure from 1984.

The Jake Butcher mansion in Clinton, TN captured my imagination when I was 4 years old. I fell under its spell the first time I saw it, looming large on the hill surveying the river and valley below. Once I turned 16 and had my driver's license I drove by the mansion every day just to catch a glimpse of "the good life."

I'm 41-years-old now and the estate is up for sale.

On Monday, April 23rd, 2012 at 10 am, I presented my offer to the bank that owns the Jake Butcher Mansion.

Now I wait.