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A 150-acre estate in Indiana lists for $14 million, a state record
Palatial mansion owned by late timeshare pioneer DeHaan has 61 rooms
A 42,000-square-foot Indiana mansion modelled after an Italian Renaissance villa hit the market for $14 million – a record listing for the Hoosier State.
The estate, owned by the late philanthropist and time-share business pioneer Christel DeHaan, is bordered by a private lake and surrounded by 152 acres on the grounds of a former Benedictine monastery, according to Mansion Global and real estate listings.
The Palladian-style home has 61 rooms, seven bedrooms, 10 full baths and seven partial baths, wrapped in a landscape of terraces, formal gardens and more than 100 imported trees.
The property at 4501 N. Michigan Road, on the edge of Indianapolis, also includes a sauna, an indoor and outdoor pool, a tennis court, more than four fireplaces, a spa and hot tub, an elevator, fountains, patios, gardens, a billiards room and a five-car plus garage.
“Nowhere else in the city will you find an estate with such a commitment to design and aesthetics,” says the listing by Encore Sotheby’s International Realty.
The manse was inspired by the Villa la Rotonda in Italy, designed by the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, as well as Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, in Virginia, also in the Palladian style.
It has two-story columns and symmetrical wings on either side, plus a grand entrance hall that can accommodate a hundred guests for dinner. On each end of a loggia along the front of the house is a two-story apartment that can be used for family and guests.
DeHaan, born in Germany during World War II, died last year at 77. The self-made businesswoman immigrated to Indiana in 1962 and immediately launched typing and ironing services.
In 1974 she and then-husband Jon co-founded Resort Condominiums International, a timeshare exchange company, and went on to run it after he had a heart attack five years later. After their divorce in 1987, a court awarded her half the company. She bought out her ex-husband’s half for $67.5 million.
When she sold the global company in 1996 to NYSE-traded HFS, RCI had more than 4,000 employees.
Two years later, she founded Christel House International, an organization that provides educational and other resources to impoverished children and their families. Proceeds from the sale will fund an endowment for the organization.
[ Mansion Global, Sotheby’s] — Dana Bartholomew