Batcheller House Boarded Up, Data Unknown
Restoring historic buildings is never easy, but the results can be highly rewarding. Fortunately, Saratoga Springs over the last 40 years has seen many locals who, with creativity, fortitude and passion, have turned vacant and abandoned structures of great architectural significance into vibrant, useful buildings and properties of substantial economic value.
The Adelphi Hotel – in which the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation hosted an open house two weeks ago – is a stellar case in point. Purchased by Sheila Parkert and the late Gregg Siefker in 1978 for $100,000, it was acquired in April by RBC Hotels, a hotel management company owned by Richbell Capital LLC, for $4.5 million.
Equally compelling is the story of the Batcheller Mansion Inn. This pastiche of High Victorian Eclecticism – which has overlooked Congress Park since its construction in 1873 by lawyer, legislator, diplomat and entrepreneur George S. Batcheller – it was so plagued by vandals and on the verge of demolition it was condemned by the Saratoga Springs Department of Public Works. Purchased in 1973 by Eugene Turchi and Roy Marshall for $40,000 and subsequently acquired for about $400,000 in the 1986 by Merlin Development’s Bruce Levinsky, this architectural landmark – featured in 1999 as a Country Inns’ “Inn of the Month” – recently was listed on the market for an impressive $2.9 million, The Saratogian reported.
“Even in the upstate historic racing city of Saratoga Springs, known for Victorian mansions, the Batcheller Mansion Inn stands out like a fairy tale palace,” Associated Press travel writer Lynn Brezosky observed in a nationally distributed story.
The grandson of Ambrose Batcheller, who made a fortune in lumber from the Sacandaga River Valley, George Batcheller commissioned the Albany architectural firm of Nichols & Halcott to build the magnificent mansion that he would whimsically top with a minaret and name Kaser-el-Nouzha, Arabic for “palace of pleasure”. He invested $100,000 in the three-story structure, which contained 11 bedrooms, five bathrooms, two steam-vapor furnaces, a music room, and a library. The plans for the house were considered so unique and its modern features so effective that Nichols and Halcott were able to copyright them.
Batcheller Mansion Interior, 1973
Ironically, Batcheller would live in his splendid creation for only a few years. In 1875, President Ulysses S. Grant – who had been a guest of the Batchellers in their Victorian home – offered him a government appointment in Cairo, and so Batcheller and his wife and daughter would spend the next ten years in Egypt. From 1885 to 1888, he again served in the New York State Legislature, but then — offered additional presidential appointments — was off again to Portugal and back to Egypt. His wife, Catherine, died in Egypt in 1903 and was buried a year later in the Batcheller’s Egyptian style mausoleum in Greenridge Cemetery in Saratoga Springs. Five years later, Batcheller himself died while in Paris and he would also be buried in the pink granite mausoleum.
When Batcheller’s daughter, Kate, who had no children, sold her family’s home in 1916, a long downward spiral began. In the 1940s, the mansion was turned into a rooming house. In the 1950’s, it was converted into a 28-unit retirement home, but it closed in 1965 when the owner died. It remained vacant for the next eight years abandoned and vandalized. The house was in such poor condition it sold in 1972 for a mere $25,000. Determined to save the structure, Eugene Turchi, a local attorney, and his partner, Ray Marshall, a graphic artist at The Saratogian, purchased the building the following year and began a $250,000 restoration effort that included the installation of three 23-foot windows salvaged from a bank being demolished in Boston.
When Levinsky purchased Batcheller’s dream house in 1986 he admitted to Country Inn magazine’s Gail Rudder Kent that he didn’t know exactly what he would do with it — but was confident he would figure it out.
Batcheller Mansion Today
It took eight years of living in the house as it went through a major rehabilitation and restoration for Levinsky to decide to open the home to others as an inn. Today the Batcheller Mansion is considered one of the architectural crown jewels of Saratoga Springs and is one of the most photographed buildings in the city.
Founded in 1977, The Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation is a private, not-for-profit organization that promotes preservation and enhancement of the architectural, cultural, and landscaped heritage of Saratoga Springs.
See the Batcheller Egyptian mausoleum in Greenridge Cemetery during Gloria May’s “Here Lies Saratoga’s Past, Part 1” on Sunday, July 29th at 10:30am. This 90 minute tour is part of the Foundation’s Summer Sunday Stroll program, which each Sunday through Labor Day features a tour of different areas of the City. Cost: $5 for members / $8 non-members. To learn more, please visit our website www.saratogapreservation.org or call (518) 587-5030.