Iconic Jerome hilltop mansion up for sale

JEROME, Ariz. (KSAZ) -- The Little Daisy Mansion in Jerome is for sale.

In case you don't know what it is, the Little Daisy Mansion sits on a hilltop near the Yavapai County town. It's easy to see, and people visiting Jerome have wondered about it for years. It has, however, never been open to tourists.

A couple bought the property in 1995, and spent 10 years rebuilding the former hotel into a private home. Now, FOX 10 is getting the very first look inside the mansion.

"We just liked old places, and we loved building things together," said mansion owner Lisa Acker.

The mansion was built for the United Verde Extension mining camp in 1919. It was a 40-room hotel for miners that was built by copper tycoon James "Rawhide" Jimmy Douglas. Walter and Lisa Acker bought it in 1995, at a time when it was nothing buy a concrete shell without a roof. They bought what was lift of the mansion for $190,000.

"We looked at this for two years before we bought it, and we did a lot of crunching numbers and figuring out what we would do," said Lisa.

At the time, the mansion had no windows and no doors.

"Even though there were no windows and doors, you could just wander through," said Lisa.

The mansion came without spiritual residents, despite Jerome's reputation as a ghost town.

"Didnt feel any ghosts in here," said Lisa. "One night, we had pizza and wine on the top deck and realized it was just a beautiful place."

Lisa and Walter then went to work, and there was work to be done.

"One of the stair cases we never even saw, because it was covered up with rubble and plywood," said Lisa. "Al the walls were rusted. All the water had gone through."

The couple then started to make some progress. They tore up both the first and second story floors to install a radiant heat system, with hot water from pipes being fed into the floor to keep the home warm. The first floor was restored to look as much like the old hotel as possible, including the hotel check-in desk, which comes complete with mail slots and room keys.

"When we went through the State Park, they gave us the blueprints which showed that this was the type of window they had in here with the oak, and their reception desk when the miners would check in and get their mail and messages," said Lisa.

Tile work around the fireplace was painstakingly researched and re-created.

"There were words in the concrete, and it said something that looked really foreign," said Lisa. "We did a rubbing and put it in a mirror and it said 'batch elder', so it was out of Pasadena. A tile company."

Even the phone booth, which Lisa said was the phone booth for the entire hotel, was restored. Lisa also said some of the bedrooms on the second floor are just like the original hotel rooms. The couple had a different idea for the third floor. The roof that was over it was never restored. Instead, it's now a beautiful outdoor area.

"We just looked at this -- who needs 9,000 more feet to clean and sweep?" said Lisa. "So, we decided no roof. We would do a rooftop garden, and that's where we started with the roof."

There;s a hot tub, fish pond, kitchen, fireplace pit, and even a lawn perfect for a wedding. It's all surrounded by a balcony, with one of the most beautiful views anywhere in the state.

"It's beautiful in the winter, because of all the snowcap on all the mountains you can see," said Lisa.

"This is a listing of a lifetime for me," said Donna Chesler. Chesler, a Jerome realtor, knows all about how this mansion was Lisa and Walter's passion.

"10 years of really hard work, and I know that they loved every minute of it," said Chesler.

At Walter's old workroom, every glove Walter and Lisa wore during the construction is nailed to a wall. Walter suddenly passed away last year, leaving Lisa to maintain this property on her own.

"Being alone, I'm keeping up with it and I love this place, but I'm on to something else," said Lisa.

The couple's ten-year mission to remake this rock pile into a home is unmistakable, everywhere you look, aAnd now, for $6.2 million, it can be yours.

"That Walter and Lisa put so much love and attention into every square inch of this home makes everyone really proud of it," said Chesler. "It's just a fabulous building."

According to the listing, the home has 12,000 square feet of living space. A 20% down payment will get you a mortgage of $23,773 a month, for 30 years.

Little Daisy Mansion sale
https://www.russlyon.com/homes-for-sale/AZ/jerome/86331/300-upper-bell-rd/lid-5b6b3cb4c9e72ec692aadf04