Get This Historic Montgomery Co. Mansion For Free, If You Can Move It

LIMERICK, PA — A historic Montgomery County mansion could be yours for free. All you need to do is figure out how to move it.

Limerick's Hood Mansion, originally built in 1834, is located just off Possum Hollow Road near Sanatoga Road. It's an icon of formative period of 19th century American history, and historians and local officials are racing to save it.

But they need help.

Developers from Brooklyn have gotten ahold of the land and are planning to raze the mansion and build a warehouse complex on the property, according to the Eastern Pennsylvania Preservation Society. Efforts to work with various owners of the land have not been fruitful.

"We have tried to communicate with three separate developers of the property over the years - none of which ever wanted anything to do with the mansion, or with us," a spokesperson for the Society said. "But we continued to try."

The house still has 17 rooms, 8 fireplaces, and around 5,000 square feet of space. The "bones are rock solid," preservationists say. But it needs both to be moved, and new home to move it to.

The house was built by John McClellan Hood, a first generation Irish immigrant who brought his wife and 13 children out to Limerick to escape disease in Philadelphia. One of those 13, Washington Hood, went on to graduate from West Point and later, as a Captain in the US Army, become among the first to map what was then known as the Oregon Territory and the Northwest. A monument to Washington is at the home in Limerick.

Hood descendants owned the family until the 1980s, when it was sold at auction to a developer who planned to build a golf course. The developer then sold it to Boyd Gaming, who planned to build a casino. Boyd sold it to the current owners. The Society said that until around 2016, it was still in pretty good shape. But vandals and thieves began ransacking it after it was abandoned at some point in the transition between owners.

"It’s truly heartbreaking that we had to make a post about moving the mansion - trust us: we would much rather it stay where it is," the Society added. "But the fact of the matter is there is nothing left that we can do. The developer is being kind enough to allow us salvage rights, and allow someone to move the home off his property."

See more details and photos of the home here. If you are interested in taking the home, email president@easternpapreservation.org.