Free historic mansion in Limerick offered to anyone who can move it

LIMERICK — Historic preservationists have a great deal for someone looking for the ultimate fixer-upper.

You can have a historic 1834 mansion for free. All you have to do is pick it up and move it.

The roughly 5,000-square-foot brownstone building is called The Hood Mansion. It has 17 rooms, nine fireplaces, chestnut floors, oak beams and solid brownstone construction, according to Tyler Schumacher, president of the Eastern Pennsylvania Preservation Society, which has “probably more information about this house and its occupants than any other organization.”

The catch is that the society does not own the building. It is owned by a limited liability corporation called CB Limerick LLC, which has submitted plans to build four large storage/warehouse buildings and a small retail center on 117 acres across Lightcap Road from the Philadelphia Premium Outlets.

However, Schumacher said the preservation society has secured permission from the owner to remove the mansion, which will save the expense of having it torn down.

“We got an estimate from one company of $700,000 to move it, so I think instead it would have to be dismantled and re-constructed,” Schumacher said. The society “doesn’t have the funding” necessary to undertake the project itself.

The building’s historic value draws as much from who lived in it, as its architectural features.

The mansion was built by John M. Hood, an Irish immigrant who was born in County Tyrone, came to America at the age of 21, and made his fortune in Philadelphia in the grocery business, according to the Eastern Pennsylvania Preservation Society.

The house, named “Bessy Bell,” was a copy of a house he had admired in Ireland, and was a summer house built for when yellow fever would sweep Philadelphia every summer. Ironically, Hood’s eldest son died of yellow fever at the age of 32 and his father erected a monument in his honor on the property.

The property was also a frequent “stop” on the Underground Railroad, sheltering those who had escaped slavery in the South in the years leading up to the Civil War.

John Hood’s business papers are archived as part of a collection at Yale University.

But it was his son, Washington Hood, who was the most important, said Schumacher. A graduate of West Point, he worked with General Robert E. Lee, prior to the Civil War, he worked in the mid-west plotting the lines for new states. He is buried on the property.

“The passing of the last Hood to own the home in the late 80s resulted in the property being auctioned off,” the society posted on its Facebook page. “It was sold to a series of developers who rented the home out to caretakers until it was sold in 2008 to a casino company. That company wanted to build a casino there but was denied the permits. As a result, the home was left abandoned.”

Schumacher said the current property owner has allowed the Society onto the property to preserve Washington Hood’s memorial obelisk on the grounds, as well as other artifacts from the house, but the society would like to preserve the entire house.

It has made the offer on social media, which has attracted some interest, said Schumacher. The house “is being offered for FREE to anyone who can move her to a new location. Otherwise, she will be reduced to a pile of rubble by the developer,” the society posted on its Facebook page. To garner interest, it also continues to post historic photos of the property, which has been badly vandalized in the interior.

“It’s truly heartbreaking that we had to make a post about moving the mansion — trust us: we would much rather it stay where it is. But the fact of the matter is there is nothing left that we can do. The developer is being kind enough to allow us salvage rights, and allow someone to move the home off his property,” read one recent post.