Tuesday’s column: A house with an extraordinary view
Here's a clear-day view from the side yard of a home on Bent Mountain that Jim and Joan Ferguson recently put up for sale.
If you’re in the market for a home with a spectacular view, Jim and Joan Ferguson may have the ideal place for you.
By virtue of its location, their place is one of the more eyeballed residences around, and the retired Floyd County couple recently put it up for sale.
Their two-story, 4,800-square-foot brick home hangs off of Bent Mountain along U.S. 221. It’s on the left at the final rightward sharp curve just before you reach the top of the mountain.
Oh my, what a view. I’m hardly an expert but I’d peg that alone as worth $1 million or so.
The Fergusons are offering both it and the house for $419,000, for sale by owner. That’s certainly not chump change but still seems like a deal, provided you have the money and no fear of heights.
The house dates back at least to the 1950s, perhaps earlier, when it was a gift and craft shop, part of a small tourist complex that stretched across U.S. 221, operated by E.L. and J.M. Glover.
An old poster advertising th Roanoke Lookout Motor Lodge and Gift Shop, along U.S. 221 near the top of Bent Mountain. The gift shop portion of the business closed long ago, probably in the 1950s. | Shot by Dan
Called the Roanoke Lookout Motor Lodge and Gift Shop, it was easily recognizable by a huge and kitschy roadside architecture sign that incorporated a large statue of a Native American, posed kneeling, who seemed to be peering into the valley below.
The gift shop, which advertised mountain crafts, souvenirs, gifts and tourist information, was in the structure the Fergusons now own.
A small restaurant may have been there, too, Jim Ferguson said. Across the highway and up above 221 were a three or four small rental rooms for travelers.
The gift shop was out of business by the late 1950s, though. Around 1958 a businessman named Frank Beamer (he was no close relation to the coach) bought the gift shop as his home.
The next year, he married Ann Boswell, of Roanoke, whose last name now is Breslin. They lived there until 1961, she said, then moved out of town when Beamer was transferred.
“It was a fun place to live — at the time I had no children,” said Breslin, who now lives in South Roanoke. “We used to invite people over. We’d tell them, bring your sweaters, because it was cool up there.”
The Beamers moved back to town a few years later, but by then they’d had their first child and because of that she didn’t want to live there.
Frank Beamer died a handful of years later in an airplane crash, and Breslin later remarried.
It’s unclear how many times the property changed hands between 1961 and the mid 1990s. It was 1995 when I got my first glimpse of the house, and by then it appeared to be in severe disrepair.
It looked like any strong wind — or a downhill tractor trailer that had lost its brakes on that sharp bend — could send the house crashing down Bent Mountain’s steep north-side slope.
The Fergusons lived for 38 years in a house just off 221 at the base of the mountain. They bought the mountaintop property in 1997 or 1998 — they can’t quite remember which year. By then it had been vacant for seven years. The owners lived in Florida.
“It was just sitting here, a big mess,” Joan Ferguson said.
Jim Ferguson, now 70, was a contractor who built custom homes. His initial idea was to demolish the old house and build a new one. But because the setback regulations had changed by then, Ferguson learned that he’d have build an all-new house further back from the highway, and there there was no room to do that.
So they rebuilt it, room by room and piece by piece, over two years, adding a 2-story, 1,800-square foot addition on the rear, a light brick exterior and a brick wall out front.
“Jim and I did most of it ourselves,” Joan Ferguson said. “We had a cousin who came and helped us out a bit, but we did it all, mostly.”
Jim and Joan Ferguson, in front of the house on Bent Mountain they rebuilt about 10 years ago and recently put up for sale. | Photo by Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times
The house now sports a modern kitchen, a home theater, a 30-foot by 30-foot rec room, 3 full baths and 3 bedrooms, including a 900-square-foot master bedroom suite.
Of course, there are huge picture windows on both upper and lower slope-side walls, for that amazing view.
It even has a small hiding room, accessible only through a secret latch hidden in a built-in bookcase, like something out of the movies.
Ferguson figures he’s got about $400,000 invested in the place, not counting his own labor rebuilding it.
The couple moved out last fall. Their four children are grown, married and have their own children.
“Really we’d like to stay here, but it’s too big for the two of us,” Jim Ferguson told me. “If [the market was] great, I might be able to get $600,000 for it.”
I’m sure they’re already missing that extraordinary view.
“You can see the center of downtown when it’s not smoggy like that,” Jim Ferguson said, pointing to toward Roanoke Monday morning.
Interested? You can call them at (540) 520-1009.
May 3, 2011 - 6:00 AM
What’s your commission on the sale. Please give us something interesting or nothing at all.
#1 I’ve always wondered about the history of that place and who renovated it. If you’re bored, stop reading and do something else.
gdad,
I thought we were free to express ourselves on this blog. I was just telling it like it is. It is hard to beleive with so much going on this is the best he can come up with. It is a nice view, however; nice views in Roanoke are a dime a dozen.
Sportsfan,
Thank you for reading the column, and for expressing yourself on this blog.
How close is the property to the proposed wind farm?
Dear Sportsfan,
Given your chosen blog handle, maybe you’d feel more at home at Aaron McFarling’s blog.
My dad had a friend who purchased an old home with 1000 acres in a hollow on Bent Mountain in the late 1980s. My dad and friends helped him fix up the house, and in the spring, summer and fall we would go up to his house on the weekends to work on the house. (This was great fun for me, having all this area to explore!) We passed this house on the way up and way down Bent Mountain and I always wondered how many vehicles had run through the yard of this home. At that time, it was just a ranch house by the road, nothing as beautiful as what the Ferguson’s transformed it to.
Elena, I believe the wind farm is farther south, a good ways. But if those towers are 40 stories tall, they’d be hard to miss from almost anywhere.
Speaking of wind power, have we heard anything from the Donald today?
Seriously, given the location of the house a couple of household wind turbines would likely power the house, thus taking it off the grid. Not a bad idea.
When I drive past that house I always wonder if they end up with a lot of bad drivers in their front yard.
Dan, the house does sound nice, the view is great, and I wouldn’t mind having a small home theater type setup, but I’m really not sure what I’d do with 4,900 square feet of space, especially with our youngest leaving for college in the fall. My wife thinks our house is already too much to deal with.
Thanks for this article, Dan. I, too, have always wondered about this place. Having renovated a few houses in my life, I know how hard it must have been for them to take that falling-down-ramshakle-mess and transform it into the lovely home it is today. I hope they get every penny of the asking price.
Million dollar view, four hundred dollar house and probably the worst lot in the RoVa. How long before some drunk in a pickup truck neglects to make that sweeping left turn and drives through that house? At least the last thing HE will see will be the million dollar view. It makes sense that the owners placed that boulder barrier across their 20 feet deep front yard but when the truck hits at 70mph, my money is on the truck. Not the barrier.
chickn,
Jim Ferguson explained to me that because of the layout of the road/curve/home, nothing’s going to hit the house. At least one car (before the wall existed) missed the curve and plunged down the mountainside in the home’s side yard (to the left of the house, facing it). Nobody was home at the time, and the car (and sadly the driver) we’ren’t discovered for years.
You can almost see my house in that top picture! I have always wondered who was brave enough to renovate that house…always thought it was a shame that it fell into disrepair. They did a beautiful job. If nothing has hit that place by now, nothing will…it’s almost always further down the road they wreck. Unfortunately I always hear the sirens when they do.
#13 I’m guessing from the look of the layout that Ferguson is right. You’d pretty much have to drive into the house on purpose. Still, not sure I’d be wild about the lot.
Seeing the wind towers wouldn’t bother me, but the sound of the turbines would if they were close enough…
Elena, I have stood within 100 feet of wind turbines in the mid-west and those made very little noise.
Lynda, this is a video someone made from turbines that were 1600 feet away. Personally, I couldn’t stand the constant “noise” 24/7. Even the boisterous beagles around the corner shut up once in a while
.