The Copperwood Estate, a huge property spanning 18,000 sq ft in Chestnut Hill, was being considered as a new location for the John Jay Institute. School officials told neighbors that they didn't want to be someplace where they were unwanted, and neighbors said they didn't want a school in the residential neighborhood. The rest is history, but the question remains: what does it take to sell off a French Norman mansion?
This place has been on the market for years, but when it dropped its price in 2011, it was cut down to an ask of $3.2M. It is also the only house on the Philly market with the following features:
1. A false shelf of books that, when pushed, opens into a speakeasy bar
2. A bowling alley
3. A ballroom with 16th-century paneling from a King James Hunting Lodge
4. An enormous hearth with a hand-carved mantle that will make you want to either go to church or play chess
5. A tennis court
6. A full-sized in-ground pool with a limestone terrace
7. A guest cottage with three bedrooms
8. A raised herb garden outside the kitchen
9. An office wing with cloister-like hallways
10. A billiards room-slash-library
11. A fountain anchored by a naked lady
Perhaps the John Jay school could have put the place to good use, but neighbors weren't thrilled about the traffic and congestion they thought it would bring into the neighborhood. The school is named for John Jay because he was "arguably the most religious, social, and politically conservative of the principal founders of the American Republic". Perhaps the school would not have fully appreciated the hidden speakeasy.
When the listing was last removed (presumably because of the John Jay Institute's plan to buy the place,) the ask was $4.75M. Anyone in the market for an eight bedroom mansion?
· Conservative institute withdraws variance application for Copperwood estate [Plan Philly][Newsworks]
· All Copperwood Estate Posts [Curbed Philly]
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