MARIANNA — A mansion in an idyllic park like setting, with connections to a Civil War battlefield and rumors of a haunting, has gone up for sale.
The Russ House is a historic two story structure with a semi-circular promenade and Corinthian columns, built by Joseph Russ Jr. in about 1895.
The home sits directly in front of a park with a fountain and elegantly cut shrubbery.
“There are not stipulations on it,” said Mickey Gilmore, the chair of the Russ House Disposition Task Force.
“You can do what you want with it,” he said.
Gilmore said that house is not listed on the historical registry.
“It is just like buying a mixed use zoned house,” Gilmore added.
Marianna local historian Dale Cox said he hoped the buyer would maintain the historical look and integrity of the structure.
“It has real historic significance,” Cox said.
But even the historian had to admit the home has fallen on hard times in an era where budget cuts dominate the headlines.
“It’s kind of a testament to the state of the economy,” Cox said.
The home was originally built in the Queen Anne style between 1892 and 1895, according to the Jackson County Historical Society.
The society notes that in about 1910 the home was remodeled in the neoclassical architectural style when the columns are added.
The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce has listed the home on Lafayette Street with locally based real estate brokers.
The listing price is $550,000 with additional property and a smaller house added would be a grand total of $650,000
The house sits directly next to the site where the Battle of Marianna was begun on Sept. 27, 1864.
There have been rumors of ghost haunting at the home for years. Paranormal investigators came to the home last fall looking for evidence of spirits in the home.
According to Jackson County historical records, Joseph Russ Jr., shot himself in the head on Feb. 7, 1930.
A newspaper report at the time told of Russ’ losses in the economic crash of 1929.
The total offering includes property adjacent to the home and the 20-space paved parking lot inside a park like setting.
The county-managed Tourist Development Council (TDC) is currently a tenet in the building, where they staff the official Jackson County Visitors Center.
The TDC conducts tours of the historic building, and offers local tourism literature to visitors.
For almost a year the chamber has been publicly and privately pursuing a variety of ownership and occupancy plans with different local entities.
“Continuing to use the Russ House as the County Visitor’s Center makes sense to us, and that approach would respect the tourism branding investment that has already been made in the building, but that option has been rejected,” Gilmore said.
Gilmore said they merely ran out of options.
“We have tried very hard to avoid offering this valuable historic property publicly to private outside investors. It has always been the objective of the chamber to find a way to keep the Russ House open to the public and available for their use and enjoyment. Simply put: We’ve run out of options,” said Gilmore.
“The chamber can no longer meet the financial obligation needed to properly maintain the facility,” stated Gilmore.
Interested investors who contact the chamber will receive a list of brokers in the county and their contact information, along with a typical real estate information sheet describing the property.