About three years ago, Casselberry paid just over $1 million for the historic home of the city’s late founder, with hopes of turning the two-story mansion on nine acres overlooking South Lake Triplet into a quiet retreat for its residents. But now the estimated price tag to renovate the timeworn 1953 house — designed by noted architect James Gamble Rogers II in Colonial Revival style — has risen as high as $16 million. That’s an amount equal to two-thirds of Casselberry’s annual general fund budget.
And it has confronted the Seminole County city of just over 30,000 with quite a dilemma. Should it press ahead in the name of historic preservation? Or should the city consider selling the family home of Hibbard Casselberry to a developer? “The property is beautiful, and history is important,” said Commissioner Chad Albritton at a contentious Aug. 12 city commission workshop.
“But this is $16 million that we’re potentially talking about...
And I wonder if the surplusing of the property could bring a better return for the city...
I think we need to get this in the hands of new residents who would bring in more investment and more wealth into the city.” But Deborah Bauer, president of the Society for Historic Casselberry, said she was “frankly offended” that anyone at the city would consider selling the historic home, initially dubbed “Brightwater” by the Casselberrys for the reflections cast on the lake. “The idea that we should just bulldoze the house f.