Abilene Mansions

[JamesAbilene]

There are some extremely large homes in other areas of town. You said you were aware of the new Guitar home--west of Elmwood and South of 7th on Ward. There is also a home on East North 10th Street, about a mile past Judge Ely Blvd, that an architect friend tells me is the largest house in the city. However, it is hard to see as it so far back from the street. If you drive up Postosi Road, just north of South 27th Street, there are a couple of huge homes on the east side. They are beautiful but fences and trees obscure your view somewhat. If you drive around to the east side of the lake on Lakeshore Blvd, and take one of the cul-de-sacs that circle toward the lake, the fronts of these houses actually face the lake, and they are beautiful from the lake-side view. Lyte Lake is a private lake, so it is difficult. If any of the houses on the south end of Lakeshore Drive have for sale signs, drive to the end of their driveways for the best views. I might get some time this weekend and drive around and give you exact addresses of homes that I think are interesting. Have you looked in the Parramore neighborhood near downtown at all of the early 1900 homes? Some of them are great. There is also a great new gated subdivision off of Postosi Road at Industrial. Some mansions are being built there. Since construction is going on, it is easy to get in--the gate is usually open during the day.

[Felixmp]

Originally Posted by JamesAbilene

There is also a home on East North 10th Street, about a mile past Judge Ely Blvd, that an architect friend tells me is the largest house in the city. However, it is hard to see as it so far back from the street.

This is great. I just went to live.local.com and looked at that house on NE 10th. It is huge, but very far back from the road. I'll have to drive by when I'm in Abilene next time.

[Toenails]

Originally Posted by mpgerma

This is great. I just went to live.local.com and looked at that house on NE 10th. It is huge, but very far back from the road. I'll have to drive by when I'm in Abilene next time.

That house is ~27,000 square feet all on one story. The man who built it was a local business man who never finished the house due to a tragic illness to his wife which took her life. They were private people so they built the house far from the road and planted a ton of trees to block the view from the road.

The house has a room with a swimming pool (I believe the room is about 8,000 sq ft) and another huge atrium room (about the same size as the swimming pool room) off of that room. It also has a racquetball court and huge game rooms. I think it only had 3 or 4 bedrooms. I was in it many years ago when it was about 85-90% finished and it was pretty much tailored to that particular family and not anything in the vein of "Gone with the Wind" type mansions...

ETA: The tax authority lists it as 21674.0 sqft livable space. I'm sure it grows every time someone tells someone about it... ;-)
Last I heard ACU owns the property now and I'm not sure how they finished it out.