House of the Day: A Beer Baron Draft Dodger's Sprawling Brownstone Hideout

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, April 28, 2011, by Rob Bear

Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We'd love to see what you've got.

Location: Philadelphia, Pa.
Price: $6,995,000
The Skinny: The beer-brewing business thrived in late-19th-century Philadelphia, and no family had more of hand in that success than the Bergdolls, who developed the process of cold-brewing. The German emigres built this detached brownstone in the then-ritzy neighborhood of Fairmount, and one scion, Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, dodged the draft for WWI by hiding out amid this opulence. Over the years, the 14,000-square-foot mansion was split up into apartments, but with the recent gentrification of the neighborhood, the sellers are hoping to cash in on a conversion back to single-family living, with some modern improvements. The house features extensive gardens, parking for eight cars, exceptional original details, and eight bedrooms; plus, it's just a short walk to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Still, has it been tainted too much by cowardice to command a $7M price?
· 2201-5 Green Street [Sotheby's]
· Bergdoll the Rich Draft Dodger [Philadelphia Reflections]

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Dispatches from Crazyville: Prissy, Perturbed Neighbors Say Heck, No to "Baron of Ballsbridge"

Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, December 14, 2010, by Sarah

Photo: David Ames/Greenwich Time

Quelle scandal! Today Greenwich Time publishes a completely manic story about the rather public Irish real estate developer Sean Dunne, AKA the Baron of Ballsbridge, and the controversy he has caused along the swank shores of Belle Haven, a tony enclave in Greenwich, Conn. The three-page account is filled with a dizzying variety of he saids, she saids, and whodunnits, so here's a Twitter-friendly rundown: SD buys house, starts tearing it down. Neighbors cry. SD denies owning house; denies ever meeting neighbors. Demolition at a standstill. Now, remember, this is Greenwich, so when the townspeople rise up, they do so with their own particular language and their own particular set of complaints. One even summoned the wisdom of his "tree expert."

· "He's just so out of character with Belle Haven," said Elaine Buss, who lives across the street from the house.
· "I said, `Send someone over because the house is coming down in front of my eyes,'" said Buss, who has lived on Bush Avenue for 15 years.
· "If he has troubles in Ireland, that's none of my business," Case said.
· "It's certainly an eyesore right now. Every time it rains, it puts mud in my driveway and my tree expert says it's suffocating the root system of a couple of trees I have in my backyard."
· "Frankly, one of the things that is most upsetting is it's not clear to me that there's a resolution," Case said.
· "He had people working on Saturdays," Buss said. "Everyone in Belle Haven objected because the land association does not permit work on Saturdays. But his response was that the Belle Haven rules have no legal standing."
· "He got one of the neighbors to invite him to the Belle Haven Club for a commissioning, clearly presenting himself as a potential resident who would become a member of the Belle Haven Club," said Buss, a club member.

· Irish real estate tycoon alienates Belle Haven neighbors [Greenwich Time]

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