Overview:
The owner of The Revival Wheeler Mansion in Orange, Cynthia Butler, is offering guided tours of the Gilded Age mansion in an effort to cover her tax bill after the town increased the property's valuation to $1.669 million, resulting in a tax bill of $10,314 due by February 5 and another identical payment due in May. Butler plans to file a tax abatement, but cannot do so until the first payment is made. The mansion, which Butler bought at auction for $150,000 in June 2020, has been revitalized and opened as a bed-and-breakfast in April 2024.
ORANGE — The Revival Wheeler Mansion’s owner is offering guided tours of her business in an effort to help cover her tax bill after the town hiked the property’s valuation into the $1 million to $1.5 million range.
Cynthia Butler took to social media on Tuesday to explain she was blindsided when informed learned about the increase and that she must pay $10,314 by Feb. 5. She told the Greenfield Recorder that an identical payment is due May 4.
“I’m going to have to hire an attorney — I already 100% know that,” Butler said. “I don’t know how I’m going to do it by myself.”
According to state data, the building at 75 East Main St. is valued at $1,669,300.
Butler said she plans to file a tax abatement, but that cannot happen until the first $10,000 payment is made. So, Butler is selling tickets to two-hour tours of the North Quabbin region’s only Gilded Age mansion, which she bought at auction for $150,000 in June 2020. Guests will be able to see the majority of the mansion (besides Butler’s private living spaces), and she will host a question-and-answer session before walking the floors.
The newly-opened event bar inside the mansion will be available to guests after the tours, though drinks are not included in the cost of the ticket. Tickets for specific days can be purchased for $28.52 at shorturl.at/yLFgp.
Butler, a California transplant, told the Recorder that the email from the Board of Assessors “took me by surprise so badly.” The board’s approved statement to Butler explains that the 15,406-square-foot brick mansion had fallen into disrepair and decay by the time of its 2020 purchase, and the assessment account retained a base value in the $1 million to $1.5 million range. Prior abandonment and extensive neglect brought that total assessment down to the $300,000 to $450,000 range, where it remained through last year.
“Since 2020 there have been efforts to revitalize the Wheeler Mansion,” the assessors stated. “According to the property’s website and from an in-person cyclical inspection, the property record was updated accordingly this year to account for its current status. The property’s use was updated to include its use as a business, not just a residence, and the 70% value reduction was removed.”
A property valuation range is essentially an estimated price bracket reflecting a building’s location, condition, size and features. Butler told the Recorder her previous property taxes were based on a $409,000 valuation, but the valuation has changed to $1,445,800 in one year.
Butler’s ownership of the mansion has been strained and fraught with difficulties in dealing with Orange. She early on expressed frustration over the length of time it was taking to open the facility for business and what she perceived as a lack of guidance from town officials. Three years ago, she publicly clashed with Fire Chief James Young and then-Building Commissioner Jeffrey Cooke over safety codes.
Young told Selectboard members at a February 2023 meeting that he had “heard several different variations of what this business or this building is supposed to be,” which made it “difficult to provide accurate guidance as to what needs to be done.” But Butler shook her head in disagreement when Young said her plans had changed. She mentioned she had a lot to say but needed time to process the comments made by Cooke and Young because “there was a lot of misinformation in that delivery.”
Young also took issue with events having already been hosted in the mansion. Butler had held community Halloween and Christmas events as well as a paranormal investigation in 2021. The mansion opened as a bed-and-breakfast with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 1, 2024.
Butler recently wrote on Facebook that she thought her difficulties with the town were over until she opened her email this week to see a tax bill she initially thought had to have been an error.
“I thought that they were done bothering me, but I guess they just had one more sucker punch to give me,” she told the Recorder.
Butler also said the business model she has for the mansion cannot sustain an annual tax bill of $24,000, but she does not want to sell the property and relocate her family again.
The vast majority of comments on Butler’s Facebook posts have expressed sympathy and frustration, though some asked for help in understanding why her tax bill should not be increased if the mansion’s property value has gone up significantly.
Butler has also set up a GoFundMe crowdfunding page (tinyurl.com/3vhy3f74) to accept donations to help cover the tax bill.
The mansion was built in 1902 and 1903 by John W. Wheeler, who made his fortune manufacturing and selling sewing machines and served as president of the New Home Sewing Machine Co., for his wife, Almira.
Wheeler died in the building in 1910 and he deeded his home to the Order of the Eastern Star, a Masonic sisterhood. Former Athol Daily News writer Allen Young reported the building was owned by the Eastern Star for much of the 20th century, serving as a home for its elderly members, who are said to have surrendered their wealth “in exchange for unparalleled comfort and care in their last days.”
The Eastern Star closed the building in 1990, and Karen and Robert Anderson bought it from the Star Realty Trust for $240,000 in 1996, according to Young. The new owners had intended to open a bed-and-breakfast called Anderson Manor, but those plans fell through.