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.
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...
