BUENA PARK — A historic mansion that currently houses children's programming is now on the market in Buena Park for $3.6 million.
Nonprofit organization The Menomonee Club, which offers services for school-aged children, has decided to put their property at 800 W. Buena Ave. up for sale.
Built in 1917, the building housed the Day School from 1943 to 2009, which is when The Menomonee Club acquired it, intending to host its own programming there.
(Dana Galowich/Jameson Sotheby's International Realty)
"As it turns out, we just didn't end up doing any programming there," said Neal Batter, executive director for the organization. "It was all of our nonprofit partners in there. And our mission isn't to own real estate, it's to do programming."
While the lease isn't up for a little more than two years, Batter said listing it now not only gives developers or other potential buyers "lead time," but it also gives the nonprofit partners currently housed in the building time to find a new location.
According to the one of the listing agents, Dana Galowich with Jameson Sotheby's International Realty, the masonry building has a full basement, a coach house and is situated on a corner lot. It offers nine bedrooms and six bathrooms.
Despite the building's age, it's in "magnificent shape," Batter said.
The land was once owned by the Wallers, a family that holds historical significance in the neighborhood.
In the late 1880s, James B. Waller owned 53 acres of lakefront property — one of which he called the Buena House. The area surrounding the house was later dubbed Buena Park.
The Waller family subdivided the land to build mansions. It was not until 1910 that the architect Doerr Brothers built the home for C. Zimmerman, Galowich said.
Many of the original interior architectural elements have been preserved and the exterior looks exactly as it did when it was originally constructed, she said.
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