A ranchhouse quite like no other
Ted Turner opens Vemejo Park residence to paying guests
VERMEJO PARK RANCH – With towering mountains at one end of the valley and rolling green meadows at the other, Casa Grande was unveiled Wednesday and opened for business following a four-year, multimillion-dollar renovation project.
The centerpiece of Ted Turner’s 590,000-acre ranch, Casa Grande — created as a mansion in the early 1900s — will serve as upscale guest quarters for those who wish to commune with nature on a grand scale.
The costs are on something of a grand scale, as well, as room rates for two at Casa Grande start at $850 (including all meals) per night, although there are other, lessexpensive rooms available at the Vermejo.
The opening of the 25,000-squarefoot Casa Grande coincides with last year’s creation of Ted Turner Expeditions as the media mogul has thrown open his three New Mexico ranches, covering about one million acres to sportsmen, adventurers and ecotourists.
“Casa Grande is a national treasure set amidst the national treasure that is America’s West,” Turner said. “By opening this mansion to global travelers, I invite visitors to explore our American heritage and assist in its preservation.”
Seven bedrooms are located in the opulent, stone-faced mansion, built by Chicago businessman and former Vermejo Park owner William H. Bartlett. The structure also houses a billiards room, library, plant-filled atrium and a ballroom complete with a grand piano.
“Of course, this project would not have been possible without the support of Ted Turner and his vision for the ranches,” ranch manager Gus Holm said. “We’ve not only preserved a piece of the Vermejo with the Casa Grande, but sustained the Vermejo going into the future.”
Turner said at this point in his life, it’s time to start letting other people enjoy some of what he’s been fortunate to own.
“I have too many places to enjoy them all myself,” he said to reporters here. “So that’s the reason I’m going to rent them out a little bit so they can be utilized. This has really been a wonderful experience and it gives me something to live for beside cable television.”
Turner, founder of cable television stations CNN, TBS and TNT, bought the Vermejo ranch in 1996, but the 106-year-old Casa Grande needed to be modernized. It was built between 1907 and 1909 by prominent architect Joseph Lyman Sisbee, a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright.
The ranch has long served as a playground for the wealthy. For instance, in the 1920s, notable luminaries such as Cecil B. deMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and President Herbert Hoover each paid an annual $1,000 fee for the rights to use the ranch to hunt and fish.