One of Ohio’s Largest and Most Historic Homes Relists for a Reduced $4 Million

Though he’s not exactly a household name among most residents of Northeast Ohio , many folks in the area likely have run across the handiwork of prolific Gilded Age architect Philip Small . In fact, the Cleveland based designer’s commercial and residential creations inundate the region in the form of the Shaker Square shopping district, Higbee’s department store and a handful of English style demonstration homes in the exclusive Shaker Heights suburb, just for starters.

Small also crafted an extravagant country home and corporate retreat for a pair of onetime affluent development brothers in the Daisy Hill enclave of Hunting Valley, east of Cleveland; and now, after floating on and off the market for the past several years, once for as much as nearly $7 million, that Colonial Revival residence known as “Roundwood Manor” has now returned to the market for a speck under $4 million.

Originally commissioned and built over a century ago for O.P and M.J. Van Swearingen at an estimated cost at the time of $2 million, the then 500 acre property was purchased by local restaurateur Gordon Stouffer in 1946. Several business leaders from wealthy industrialist James Bohannon to gasket maker Joseph Hrudka went on to occupy the place through the years, with the size of the house reduced and surrounding land subdivided along the way, before ultimately transferring to Sylvia Korey and her husband Samir, an international businessman, for $1.4 million in 1988.

Described in the listing held by David Ayers and Nick Zawitz of The Agency as a “property that speaks to another era, a time when the greatest luxury was a pastoral retreat away from the cares of the city,” the 10 bedroom, 14 bath home features roughly 55,000 square feet of living space, all of it adorned with wood beam ceilings, arched doorways, nine fireplaces, built ins and vintage hand painted tiles imported from Amsterdam.

Among the myriad highlights of the structure, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2019, are a double height central hallway topped with an elaborate stained glass skylight and handsome wood paneled library sporting built in shelves lined with leather bound novels. There’s also a spacious kitchen outfitted with a pricey Aga range, not one but three dining rooms, a nautical inspired drawing room, and 60 foot indoor swimming pool with access to a full bar and private dressing rooms, plus a tennis court and five bay garage with room for up to 13 vehicles.

According to published reports, the now divorced Korey initially decided to sell Roundwood Manor because her four daughters are now grown and living across the world. But after unsuccessfully trying to offload the massive property for several years, and failed attempts to preserve the landmark estate from the dreaded wrecking ball by transforming it into luxury condos , she has decided to lower the asking price.

Click here for more photos of Roundwood Manor..