The most recent buyer of the historic Walter C. Witherbee Mansion, also known as “Ledgetop”, in Port Henry, New York had ambitious plans to restore the 13,100 square foot residence and open it to the community as a Bed & Breakfast. The buyer, Mike Horrell of Sacramento, California, purchased the 141-year-old property from Tom Eliopolis for $500,000. According to a 2007 article on The Sun Community News, Horrell planned to spend up to $2 million over a period of two years transforming the twenty-year vacant mansion into a seventeen-bedroom Bed & Breakfast. An engineering firm was hired to study the building and work was well underway when it was suddenly halted. According to a recent listing, the property sits gutted and is need of a heating system. The current owner has invested more than $500,000 with structural restorations and infrastructure upgrades including concrete foundations walls and floors, new public water and sewer lines, new roofing and exterior sheathing and new 400 amp electrical service. Despite the immense amount of work already completed, whoever ends up taking on the task of completing the job better be ready for a long road ahead.
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The interiors have been stripped to the studs. Designed by architect Henry Hobson Richardson in 1880 for Walter C. Witherbee, the mansion, on two lots totalling over 4.13 acres in the center of town, overlooks Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains from a prominent hilltop. Located less than a mile from the train station which is halfway between Montreal and NYC on the Adirondack Route. There is more than 13,000 square feet with eight fireplaces and a spectacular grand staircase. Plans and renderings are available for an Inn with a restaurant and lounge but it would make a spectacular family home. Much of the original woodwork, doors, stonework has been preserved. The mansion was previously used by the local Knights of Columbus and the American Legion for decades. It will be interesting if somebody will step up to the plate and give this old mansion the restoration it deserves. Until then, it sits empty and alone. The historic Walter C. Witherbee Mansion is on the market for $795,000 with Kelly Lane of Brannock Properties LLC.
