The mansions of Manchester, NH
Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 7:49AM Working, as a I do, for a local affordable housing nonprofit, I have both a professional and personal interest in Manchester, NH's housing stock. For the most part, my professional dealings revolve around the city's affordable housing. But that's not to say I have no interest at all in what's a bit more unaffordable, at least to the vast majority of us.
Such housing stock has been on my mind as of late as I've been training for this year's Manchester Marathon. I find myself running a lot in the North End, partly because it contains a portion of the race route, but mainly because the streets are wide, traffic is relatively calm and there are few stop signs to impede me on River Road, Union Street and Campbell Street.
But what this area lacks in stops signs it makes up for in swank digs. And those are the digs I can see. There several I can't see from the street, hidden from view behind veritable forests in their massive front yards. Naturally, my curiousity has been piqued. For example, this is all one can see of 1300 Union Street from the street:
Not wanting to be arrested for tresspassing and have the owner "release the hounds," ala Mr. Burns, I chose not to get any closer to snag a better shot of the house. Thankfully, Vision Appraisal, used by the city Assessor's Office to maintain the city's online property information database, has a semi-decent photo of the house on its website:
According to the website, this five bedroom, four bath, 5,251 square foot Cape was built in 1953 and is assessed at $1,083,700. It was purchased in 2002 for $825,000 by a one Joyce S. Kiritsis, about whom I can't find much information othen than that she donated $1,000 to Jeanne Shaheen's failed U.S. Senate run in 2002 and has run in a few road races.
The city's fourth highest assessed home is the Gould Chandler mansion at 2321 Elm St.:
Assessed at $1,156,000, this 7,792 square foot Victorian was built in 1895. It contains nine bedrooms, five baths and two half baths. It was purchased in August, 2008, for $958, 200, by Mancheser Millrats owner Jason Briggs, a multimillionaire descendant of the founder of Merck Pharmaceuticals who retired from Wall Street at the age of 32.
And according to the Millrats' Wikipedia page, Briggs remodled the manse "to contain [a] sauna, steam rooms, a dinner table on stilts, and custom, seven-foot bunks. Players and coaches resided there and the garage became the business office."
But apparently the mansion isn't working out for Briggs as it's currently on the market for $899,000.
Coming in at number three on Manchester, NH's Top Five Highest Assessed Homes list is this contemporary home (built 2007) at 415 Kearney Circle:
Assessed at $1,160,400, this four bedroom, four bath home was built by Karen L. Heller, who apparently practices family law in Bedford and, in the 2008 Republican Presidential Primary, supported John McCain.
The house coming in at number two is owned by another Republican, a one Gregory Telge, owner of The Telge Companies, a local wealth management firm. His mailbox reads 1655 River Road, but the house itself, a four bedroom, five bath, 5,787 square foot colonial, sits far back from the road:
Mr. Telge apparently bought another, smaller house still located on the same lot, in 1997 for $300,000, before building the current structure in 2005. The property is assessed at $1,177,400.
The highest assessed home in the city is certainly the most mysterious of the Top Five. The house is owned by the Hobart G. Rand Revocable Trust. And Rand, as you might have guessed, is also a Republican donor, as well as the former President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Granite State Telephone.
The aforementioned Vision Appraisal website maintains that Rands's property is located 11 Pinecrest Road. The sits says further that it is a three bedroom, two bath, three half-bath, 6,013 square foot colonial built in 1950. However, when I went to Pinecrest Road to track it down, I couldn't find a property at number 11. Where number 11 logically should I been I found this much newer construction:
It's a nice house, to be sure, but it clearly is not a 1950 Colonial worth $1,419,700. Weirder still, a small sign attached to a fence around part of the property declares the house to be located on Elm Street, a small, unconnected stub of which is shown on maps to morph from Pinecrest, but which in fact does not exist:
View 11 Pinecrest St. in a larger map
And the weirdness continues. Each property page on Vision Appraisal shows a photo of each property in the city. The page for 11 Pinecrest Road, however, shows no picture at all.
What's going on here?
Manchester NH, North End, expensive, mansions, property in Manchester real estate
Reader Comments (5)
This housing conspiracy is fairly obvious Mr. Stewart. This is an attempt to cover up President Obama's true heritage as a citizen of Kenya.
The Pinecrest St property just underwent a major renovation. Prior to the work, it would have been a 1950's Colonial. I lived just up the street during the work.
Suprising that none of the beauties on River Road are worth more.
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