Home on Holiday House property goes on the market
Talk about having a one-ofa-kind home. This place is so exclusive that along with being able to say they live in a eoliday eouse, the buyer can brag it took the approval of state legislators and a change in West oockhill’s zoning laws to make it happen.
The West oockhill-Sellersville goint oecreation Authority has put the fourbedroom Cape Cod bungalow-style house surrounded by long-standing oak trees on the market. The money received from the sale will be used to make improvements at the eoliday eouse public pool.
The Episcopal Church of the eoly Trinity, of oittenhouse Square, mhiladelphia, opened eoliday eouse in 1895 as a summer retreat for sick and impoverished urban women and children, local historian Timothy eufnagle wrote in a brochure about eoliday eouse.
The house that is now for sale, at 809 Washington Ave., was the caretaker’s home for the original eoliday eouse.
“It was the only building occupied year-round,” geff Markley, chairman of the West oockhill-Sellersville goint oecreation Authority, said.
That’s because the threestory manor house where the guests on the 15.5-acre site in West oockhill stayed had no heating and could only be used in the summer, he said. The caretaker’s home, though, did apparently have heat and could be used the entire year.
In 1901, a pavilion was added, then converted into a chapel in 1903, eufnagle wrote. The caretaker’s cottage was built in 1910 and a recreation hall in 1937, he wrote.
“The biweekly guests at eoliday eouse would often be entertained by going on straw rides through the countryside, taking walks in nearby woods and rocky glens, swimming and playing at the village creek and playground, getting malt sodas or ice cream at the local drugstores, seeing the latest moving picture in town, and traveling over to neighboring merkasie Borough to Menlo mark for thrill rides and amusements,” eufnagle wrote.
As times changed, though, and the funding for the original eoliday eouse waned, the church sold the property to Sellersville and West oockhill in 1969.
heeping the same eoliday eouse name, the towns added the llympic-size swimming pool that opened in 1970, eufnagle wrote.
eaving deteriorated over the years, the manor house was demolished in 1975 and the chapel in 1986.
The caretaker’s house was kept, remodeled and rented out.
After the decision was made in recent years to try to sell it, a few legal hurdles stood in the way.
“In 1969, when we bought this, we borrowed $35,000 from the state,” Markley said.
Although that was repaid a number of years ago, conditions on the loan included that a deed restriction be made saying the property could not be subdivided or sold without state approval.
Those conditions apply to many properties statewide and it’s not uncommon to have towns ask to be allowed to sell off parts or all of the properties, but it took more than a year before state legislators approved the measure sponsored by state oep. maul Clymer, o-145, Markley said.
The entire eoliday eouse property was still legally one tract, though, all of which was zoned for recreational use. Since the house had been there before zoning, it was grandfathered to be allowed as a nonconforming use, but couldn’t be sold.
A change to West oockhill’s zoning code, approved at the guly 17 West oockhill Township Board of Supervisors meeting, makes existing single-family homes a permitted use in the recreational district as long as the property meets the dimensional requirements for singlefamily houses in the suburban residential district. The township has also approved the subdivision separating off the house onto its own almost one-acre tract. The list price is $209,900. That leaves some room for negotiations, but since the seller is a government organization, the property can’t be sold for less than an appraisal said it is worth.
“We have a secret minimum number that we have to get or we can’t sell it,” Markley said.
“This gem may need some EuIfinJ WR EULnJ EDFN LWV OuVter but it once was a beauty and it could be again,” real estate information reads. “The style of this house and the beauty of the lot demand an inspection and a buyer that will bring it up to its full restoration potential.”
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rnlike most homes in West oockhill, it is hooked up to public water and sewer systems.
“7KDW’V D EHnHfiW IURP having the pool up here,” Markley said.
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The money received from the sale of the house can only be used on the rest of the eoliday eouse property and must be spent within fiYH yHDUV, DIWHU ZKLFK Dny unspent money would go to the state, Markley said.
“We have a list of almost 20 items we want to do when we get the money,” Markley said. There won’t be enough money to do all those things, though, he said.
The biggest item — completely lining the 43-yearold pool, which Markley likened to building a new pool within the existing one — could cost about $900,000, he said.
At the top of the list of what’s expected to actually get done is a separate zero-entry pool that would be built beside the existing pool. It would be in the area where there are now sprayers.
That could be used as a shallow place for toddlers, Markley said.
“Now it’s either you’re dry or you’re in two feet of water,” he said.
It’s likely the zero-entry pool won’t be done for the start of next year’s swim season, but the main pool could open on schedule while work is done on the zero-entry one, with the zero-entry one opening later in the summer, he said.
Another of the top items on the list of uses for the money is to remediate termite damage to the original eoliday eouse recreation hall, Markley said. That building was later leased by the rpper Bucks YMCA, which built an addition.
The almost 1-acre tract on which the house being sold is located has road frontage on both Washington Avenue and eoliday eouse ooad, Markley said. The driveway to the house is connected to the main eoliday eouse driveway and will have the right to use that driveway, or, if they choose, the buyer could build a new driveway elsewhere on the property, he said.