Expensive and Creepy Old Home for Sale in the Berkshires

Positively ghostly.

It says it has sunken gardens, how would you go about pumping those back up?

That’s a house, a building. Not a “home.”

Looks like a private boarding school, FOR GIRLS.

Rose Red

There’s a reason there’s so few inside images. And it ain’t good.

Great find, OP

The lack of interior pictures is telling ...

Let's be the objects in the rooms that aren't shown!

I'm the mold and asbestos.

I'm the mannequin missing a leg.

I'm the Dell Dimension desktop managing to be less old than than the Gateway 2000s still operated by some crypt dwelling data loungers in 2025.

REDRUM!

Needs severe landscaping. Were there any Midsomer Murders there?

There's a portal in there.

Probably rodent infested

Thank you, Ms. Warwick r3.

All exterior shots and not a single good interior one. No grand rooms and even the staircases shown are ugly and institutional.

I would love to have a home in the Berkshires but this one doesn’t feel very homey.

Let me see what I can do, R17. There’s enough bullshit in my bang and you already think this house is a “home.”

How many bodies are buried in the cellar?

Okay, I know for a fact we have some Berkshire gays here--one of you bitches simply MUST tour this place and report back to us. I have never been this intrigued by a real estate listing before.

I’d kill to have an indoor swimming pool. My friend had one when I was growing up and it was great.

If I were a gazillionaire, I’d buy it, fix it up, rent it for events and then have the coolest haunted house imaginable for the month of October.

The kitchen and bathroom must be horrors.

This would make a great set for a horror movie.

Who the helltook those pictures? $5m house and it looks like my 7 year old nephew was in charge of photography

The Zillow listing states it’s in Great Barrington whereas the Redfin Listing states New Marlborough—why the difference for an MLS listing? Per Google Maps, it’s not in Great Barrington, it’s in New Marlborough. The Google Maps camera car didn’t venture down the road the house is at the end of.

Warning in the Redfin listing to potential buyers: “For showings, agent will meet at the entrance. PLEASE DO NOT DRIVE ONTO THE PROPERTY.” What’s there—land mines? Quicksand?

It didn’t sell for $2,950,000 in 2020, so it seems unlikely to sell for $4,900,000 now.

[quote]Stare into the mildewed abyss of the indoor pool

My parents (years ago) bought a house with an indoor hot tub. They thought it be great during the winter.

Quickly realized that not only does the humidity cause real issues in the room the hot tub is in, but it costs a fortune to keep it heated. They had it ripped out within 5 years.

[quote]“For showings, agent will meet at the entrance. PLEASE DO NOT DRIVE ONTO THE PROPERTY.”

If this isn't a horror movie plot ...

I found the guy who was last listed as owning the place. His name is Paul Joffe. He's 63 and looks like an artist. A lot of the pictures from the listing are on his Instagram.

Tudor? More like Queen Anne Cow Barn.

r28 that Instagram is oddly mesmerizing.

R28 Yep, he’s a building contractor, opened and ran a coffee house, and ran a cow farm on the listed property. Why is the mansion such a mess if he’s a contractor?

R30 I know, right? It makes me want to move there and be in his world.

R19

And then there were none…

Well, I think it’s beautiful. Are the owners looking for a caretaker?

Looks like the kind of place that you'd buy for millions, sink another 10 or so into it, and then not be able to move into for a decade.. Some of the foliage and sunset shots are wonderful, and I love that the Berkshires are their own world, but way too troublesome for me. And creeeeeeepy!

OP here. There are some real beauts for sale in nearby Stockbridge listed for less than this. But I’m fascinated by the whole package: the delusional price, the weird institutional feel of the interior, the address discrepancy (although they kind of overlap), and whole vibe of Great Barrington and a creepy Santa.

Great Barrington is a nice place to live but you’re likely to be cut off in a traffic circle by an old lady driving a Subaru. She has a dreamcatcher the size of a pie plate hanging from the rear view. She does not yield.

R36 It may be in bucolic Berkshire county, but it’s still in Massachusetts. From Nantucket to Great Barrington, the roads are filled with Masshole drivers.

R37 I lived in Hampden County for years, so I’m a Masshole in that sense. But I see worse stuff around Virginia.

Beautiful but very aged and, yes—creepy. I traveled through the Berkshires a few times while I was in grad school on the east coast and always found that region weirdly creepy. Something about the landscape. The land surrounding the house is picturesque yet still somehow foreboding.

And you could possibly have dorinda medley in the neighborhood. Isn’t bluestone manor in great Barrington?

Joffe bought it for TEN DOLLARS in 2023 from an LLC named Old School Farm. Everything about this property and its owner is weird.

Sorry 2013 not 2023. And that link to the deed didn’t work. You have to start at the top of the search system and drill down to the deed.

R37 Yes, Masshole driving has spread to many parts of the US. Too bad Massachusetts liberal democracy hasn’t.

I'm the sad gazebo. Somebody died inside of me.

The Shining

I'm trying to do a deep dive on the property and am getting NOTHING--nothing but the same real estate listing on multiple sites. You'd think the history of such an old mansion and property would be mentioned SOMEWHERE online.

The mansion housed "The Kolburne School" for special needs children, and later, adults before it closed due to dwindling enrollment and insufficient funds. Paul Joffe then somehow bought the whole place and land for $10, according to the deed of sale.

From an article in the "Connecticut Insider" on April 15, 2024 (linked below) that describes some of the history of the school: "The original mansion that housed the school is still there, though it’s long abandoned." That may explain the poor condition of the home.

From the August 2013 edition of the "New Marlborough Village News:"

[quote] Little more than a year ago, Kolburne School closed its doors forever. Its students and staff dispersed, and the property was put up for sale. Last December, a major portion of the property, 340 acres, was sold to Old School Farm LLC...Old School Farm [LLC] is headed by Paul Jaffe, a property redeveloper and restorer.

I think what happened is that Jaffe bought the property in 2012 from the Weinstein family, which owned the school property, for $1.7 million through his LLC, based on a deed in the Registry. Subsequently, Jaffe took the property out of the LLC and into his own name for "$10." It was easier to find the $10 deed than the $1.7 million deed.

Jaffe did a lot of smaller remodeling projects, but it looks like the much larger mansion project didn't go as well. He kept borrowing additional money using the property as collateral, based on mortage documents in the Registry. If the photos in the real estate listing are after whatever remodeling he was able to do, the place must have been a complete disaster when he bought it!

A mystery MUST be solved!

[quote]Why is the mansion such a mess if he’s a contractor?

Why do the cobbler's children have no shoes?

I would say it would be better for old houses if 95% of contractors never bought one. Contractors are not generally known for great taste and completing anything they start in their own houses. But this was never a great or even a good or very good house when built on 1920, and while it doesn't appear to have been much altered, there's not much to recommend. The exterior design looks like something cobbled together from a 1920 Pinterest page, 'Random Bad House Ideas.' it looks more 1930 - post Bust and scrambling.

You could cover the house in vines (covering some of the bad architecture), reclaim the landscape that nature is fast reclaiming for its own, plant some large trees near the house, and tart up the equally basic interior and have a nice enough house but at great cost, initially and in restorations/renovations. All to live in this rather forsaken landscape far from anything.

The photo of the cows in the snow is the prettiest.

That *is* the Marsten House!

R49 This is SO true about contractors. Just like how shrinks are often the most dysfunctional people you'll meet or physicians the most neglectful of their own physical health, or how professional chefs come home from work and feed themselves hot pockets and peanut butter sandwiches. One of my best friends is a top sommelier in Chicago and she drinks nothing but cheap Kirkland brand wine outside of work.

lets start a DL arts colony!

[quote] lets start a DL arts colony!

From which there is no escape.

Pretty sure there are kids buried somewhere in unmarked graves in this property.

Alpana Singh, r52? I used to work with her ex (in a very unrelated profession).

Love it, love it, love it! Perfect vibe, and isolated. Vast lands, no one an hear a thing for miles, and that swimming pool is to die for!

R56 Ha, no, not Alpana. Does she drink Kirkland brand wine as well?

[quote]I would love to have a home in the Berkshires but this one doesn’t feel very homey.

Sure it does, R17... R17, HELP!

Buying, renovating and living in a nice home are one thing, but what the hell would you do with 330 acres there unless you’re a serious developer?

I would enjoy the peace and quiet, r60!

[quote]what the hell would you do with 330 acres there unless you’re a serious developer?

A person needn't do much of anything with it. Left as forest it will go through the cycles that forests do, all in a time span greater than the lifespan of a potential buyer. Clear any fallen trees from the roads and access ways on the property. For around the house, get a guy with a tractor with a huge lawnmower to keep the lawn, or get a herd of sheep and some fencing. Or forestry. Do what you want. It's in the middle of nowhere, probably with no great need for housing or other development.

Massachusetts, in my experience, isn't big on new housing developments

‘’ Lovely Teardown In Massachusetts ‘’

Not a clue, r58. I only met her once in passing at a work function. Mixed drink.

Homey

In a couple of the overhead shots, you can see there are at least two buildings that have either collapsed or been torn down and the debris just left there.

What a fucking mess.

That “big lawnmower” would be a bushhog. You’d also need some sort of 4 wheeler to get to all areas of the property.

I mean, it would make a great horse farm for boarding. What a shit ton of work.