Sold – Under $75K Thursday ~ c.1877 Graves Mansion w/9.5 Acres Under $55K

This once lavish mansion for sale in Essex County, NY, was built in 1877 in the former bustling paper mill town of Au Sable Forks. (You may be familiar with the beautiful Au Sable Chasm.) In 1870, brothers and business partners James and John Rogers formed J. and J. Rogers Company. The business moguls built an empire in iron and paper. Henry Graves married into the Rogers’ family, and in a bid to outdo his in-laws, built this sprawling mansion.

Graves, born in Plattsburgh, NY, was a grandson of one of George Washington’s Revolutionary War orderlies. At age 20 he began working for the Rogers Company, starting as a clerk and climbing his way up the ladder to board of directors, vice president, and finally company president.

It was during this early period that Graves met James Rogers’ youngest daughter Mary. When he asked her father for her hand in marriage, Rogers said the older daughter Kate had to marry first. Not to be deterred, Graves romanced the older sister, and he and Kate tied the knot in 1861.

According to NYUp.com, “In the mid-1870s, Graves started building his mansion at a cost of $75,000 – equivalent to about $1.25 million today. The Second Empire-style home had 20 bedrooms, nine bathrooms and nine marble fireplaces. The copper door handles and hinges had carvings of hummingbirds – his wife’s favorite creature. Among other extravagant features included solid oak doors, some weighing over 350 pounds; imported ceramic Italian tiles; intricate wood carvings on the ceilings; handcrafted oak and black walnut staircases; and an enclosed-glass garden room.”

Life for Graves was wonderful. Even President Grover Cleveland visited the Graves Mansion in the summer of 1886. But things aren’t always as they seem. An 1890 internal audit revealed that Graves had embezzled money from the Rogers Company. His in-laws immediately fired him. They did not kick him out of the mansion, however. Well, not entirely. The Rogers allowed Graves and his family to move their belongings into the spacious servants’ quarters at the rear of the house. Graves died in the mansion at age 91, on July 1, 1917, and some say he haunts the place.

Condition

After years of neglect, windows are boarded up and there are cracks in the verandas. The property is being sold “as is” and only drive by inspections are allowed. No one is permitted to enter due to safety concerns. The broker reports that no vandalism has occurred, and although there is some water damage, much of the original interior is intact.

The last person to live in the mansion was a caretaker for the San Diego-based owner, Rodney Fye, who purchased the mansion in the 1990s. Fye spent about $150,000 on the home in hopes of it becoming a wedding venue/historic home tour. He did not have it long, however, before selling it to someone who let it fall into foreclosure. It is now bank owned, and this once exquisite mansion for sale is on the market for under $55K.

The first group of photos below come from a 1993 youtube video. You can watch it here. The broker also took a few photos of the interior in January 2020.

The four bottom photos are how the mansion looks today.