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Facts:
- Square footage under roof: 3300 s.f..
- Approximately 23 acres
- 4 bedrooms upstairs (20x14,
15x14, 14x14, 14x15, the smaller with large, double-door closets; the
master with 8x10 walk-in closet with custom shelves), with a center room
(11 x 11.5 with Roman arch vista open to entry), which has been used as
a sitting room, a play room, or a work space. The center room also
includes a washer/dryer space in a closet.
- 3.5 bathrooms, the largest
(14x7.5) contains a separate sunken bathtub, separate shower, tiled
floors, marble counter.
- Showcase kitchen (25x9.5) with
brick floors, ivory wainscoting, tile countertop, built-in, hand-made
wood drawers and cabinets under the counter (not over the counter so the
kitchen is light and open!), walk-in pantry (4.5 x 4.5 with six shelves
on three sides), built-in for two refrigerators, Gen-Aire countertop,
double sink with Moen fixtures, new dishwasher and new Whirlpool oven,
and a French door leading to the mud room on the back.
- Downstairs includes ten rooms,
including the kitchen and 12x9 entry (with 20 foot ceiling, ivory
wainscoting, brick floors); 20x15.5 living room (with fireplace, brick
floors, ivory wainscoting, 10-foot ceiling); 17x16 library (with
fireplace, walnut bookshelves and walnut wainscoting, double-hung wood
windows, French doors to screened porch); 14x15 dining room (with wood
floor, 10 foot ceiling, antique light fixture); large storage room (16 x
9.5) with closet that is off dining room, which is plumbed for large
downstairs bath or utility room; office (10x10); downstairs half-bath
(5x7 with marble countertop); breakfast room (13x14, with custom,
hand-made, built-in china cabinet, ivory wainscoting, 10-ft. ceilings),
and screened-in porch and supply, shelved storage area (26x9.5), which
overlooks the "Indian tree" and faces west for sunsets.
- Income producing with 22 acres in hay
production. with approximately 100 large bales in one cutting,
with an estimated 2-5 cuttings per year. Hay bales sold last year in
the $65 average range. You can fertilize (approximately $2300) and cut
yourself or you can split the crop with someone who will do it for you
(at no charge).
- Bed & Breakfast has been run
intermittently in the last five years, but, even so, income
was generally in the $2100+ range in the last quarter of its operation.
Dunsavage Farms has been featured in The Best Bed & Breakfasts of
Texas, among numerous other publications and on-line sites. The B&B
has been discontinued in lieu of its sale.
- Taxes: Texas has no
income tax, no corporate tax, and no personal property tax
(e.g. auto, furnishings). The taxes include sales tax on Bed &
Breakfast guests (6.2%) and local school and county taxes on property,
which amounts to approximately $3000 - $3600 annually.
- The house is required to be insured
for at least $310,000 (minimum replacement value, without recent
improvements).
- Prices of farm acreage in the area
(not necessarily in production) sells for $5,000 - $8,000 an acre, with
attractive, productive farm properties (e.g. overlooking water, which
Dunsavage Farms does) selling in the $8,000 - $40,000 an acre range).
- Dunsavage Farms was the home of the New
York, Texas, Cheesecake, a business that was sold almost a
decade ago; however, the house and farm were a tourist attraction for
almost ten years to approximately 100 people daily who would trek out to
the farm to experience sitting on the front porch or in front of the
fireplaces (always going in the winter) to drink gourmet coffee and eat
the free prize-winning cheesecake that was primarily distributed by
Neiman Marcus. The farm is therefore known locally as "the cheesecake
house." The cakes were baked in a kitchen, which no longer exists, but
the original cakes were created in the kitchen that does. The New York,
Texas, Cheesecake won the Chef's Gold Medal Award for Dessert
Excellence, was one of the top fifteen international food products of
the year (chosen by a New York paper), and was written up in national
magazines such as Bon Appetit, Time, the New Yorker, and
newspapers and other magazines all over the country.
- Water comes from the Virginia Hill
Cooperative, which is drilled from the aquifer that functions
as a major water basin in East Texas. In fact, Ozarka also takes its
water from the same aquifer. People often bring jugs into the area to
take the water home, because of its purity. Water bills range in the
$25 a month range.
- All-electric house, with its own
Trinity Valley Electric Cooperative generator, which can be repaired
with a phone call. Bills range in the $200-$250 range monthly.
- East Texas Medical Hospital is five
minutes away (no stops or lights in between); the firehouse
is on the next hill over, south of the farm, and the volunteer
fire chief is personally familiar with the farm because he has
previously managed the hay operation.
- Closest town: Athens (population 11,000+,
with the largest industry being the biotech industry) - seven minutes
away; closest city: Tyler, the rose capitol of Texas,
with population of 85,000+ (30 minutes away). Athens was recently
selected as one of the four best small counties in the country that a
poll of 15,000,000 businesses have shown to be the place they'd like to
locate to or have located to and retained their businesses. Athens was
also selected one of the top 15 places in the country to retire (by ARP)
several years ago. Tyler has also been named a quality retirement city.
- The house sits on a high hill,
considerably back from the road so it presently can not be seen
visually from the road, although trees could be cut back so it could. A
gate and fencing encloses the property upon entrance.
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Dunsavage Farms looks like
a historic Texas farmhouse, located on a hill, overlooking a lake (not
on the property), with vistas seven miles in to the east and west. However,
it was built approximately 24 years ago, which means it has central air
and heat, large closets, two fireplaces, and three full bathrooms with
modern fixtures upstairs and one half bath downstairs. It has the amenities
of an old house -- wainscoting, brick floors, high ceilings (ten foot
downstairs; nine foot upstairs), and double hung wood windows, frech
doors in the library and kitchen -- but it
has all the conveniences of a modern house.
The house has recently had the following additions:
- A huge
closet downstairs, which could easily be converted into a master bath
downstairs (because of plumbing already installed), if the dining room
was converted to a downstairs bedroom.
- New screened-in back porch;
- New front porch columns, floor, and roof;
- Septic tank restoration;
- New oven/microwave built-in; new dishwasher; and new countertops in tile throughout
the kitchen;
- New guaranteed indestructable trim around all
windows, doors, and house corners;
- Re-roofing of the house;
- New floor tile and new tile shower in master
bath;
- New hot water heater;
- Re-painting of entire house outside;
- New downstairs air conditioning unit;
The house is 3300 square feet, with an open front porch and a screened
in back porch (under roof),
favorite locations of the B&B guests, although a huge number love the
library, which has a fireplace always burning in the winter season.
Built on 22+ acres of costal Bermuda, Dunsavage Farms is a "working farm,"*
which generally produces 100-120 large bales with each cutting. Cuttings can
range from 2 to 5 during the season. Off season, the "lawn" becomes a
field of wild flowers (blue bonnets, jonquils, paint brush and black-eye Susans) in the spring and a pallet of fall colors in late October and
November.
About ten miles west of Dunsavage Farms, the central Texas terrain
begins (which means it, generally, is flat with small trees such as Mesquite
and live oak), and about twenty miles to the east, north and south of
Dunsavage Farms, the "Piney Woods" of East Texas begins (which means
there are, generally, dense areas of pine trees, which do not allow hard
woods to grow), so Dunsavage Farms is in the heart of the only hard wood
country in Texas, sandwiched between the two areas described
above. In the fall of the year, this area looks like Virginia or New York,
with full fall colors all around.
Dunsavage Farms is also the original home of the New York, Texas, Cheesecake
so many people
still remember coming to the farm to eat the prize-winning cheesecake
with a cup of coffee, which were always offered free to anyone who came!
Visitors can still purchase a New York, Texas, Cheesecake online.
The farm is surrounded by cattle property, which makes it private and
picturesque. It is "just down the road" (that's East Texas for "within
driving distance") from several major wholesale bedding, herb, bush and
tree wholesale operations.
Many people come to the farm so they can drive the East Texas back roads
to obtain the flowers, herbs, and bushes that they can buy wholesale.
Others come because they are within driving distance of Canton, where
the "First Monday" weekend sale draws hundreds of thousands of bargain-hunters.
Most, however, come to stay at the farm, where the huge country breakfast
is legendary and the books in the library are for borrowing and the views
are spectacular. It's known as a decompression- location for urbanites.
When Lyn Dunsavage first fully operated the B&B, she opened three bedrooms upstairs
and was always full; however, in recent year
(because of children's weddings and restoration of the house), she instituted
a policy of taking only one party at a time, thus guaranteeing total privacy
for the family, their friends, or couples who came. Assuming the property sells
to someone who wants a full operation, there will be many people pleased
to know of its availability because it has been limited in recent years.
The B&B was the first B&B in the Athens area when it was opened approximately
15 years ago.
Athens is a delightful town of approximately 11,000, in the heart of Henderson
County, which was selected as one of the top 15 places in the country
to retire to. The reasons? It has the Cain Center, a fabulous physical
fitness center (indoor swimming heated pool, sauna, handball courts, weight
rooms, walking paths, tennis courts, baseball and soccer fields), which
is open daily for a minimal fee ($90 for six months membership or $3 a
visit for visitors); extensive medical facilities and churches; unique
restaurants and a picturesque courthouse in the middle of the square,
a huge (clean) biotech industry, among other things.
The history of the town is fascinating, with numerous mega-oilmen having
"been reared in" or come from Athens, including the Murchisons, the Richardsons
(in fact, Dunsavage Farms is on the Sid Richardson family land), the Cains,
and the Coxes, among numerous others. In fact, until very recently when
he moved to central Texas on a much larger property (when he was considering
running for President), George "W" lived just to the south of Dunsavage
Farms at Rainbow Lake (which may or may not be viewed as an asset, depending
upon which side of the divide you may be on).
Perhaps the biggest reason Athens and Henderson County are so popular
among those who can choose to live here - - when they could choose from anyplace
is its reputation for openness, where people of all classes, race, and
financial standing find those strata aren't too stratified in Athens;
in other words, it's much more tolerant and open than many larger or smaller
communities. It's almost axiomatic that those who come from Dallas or
other larger cities "don't go back" after moving to this small town in
East Texas.
Personally, Lyn thinks the water has something to do with the value of
living in Henderson County. Dunsavage Farms is built on a huge aquifer,
which is the reason that springs are just about everywhere. The nine acre
lake at the bottom of the hill is the product of just three small springs,
for example. But the best part of it is that the water is delicious. It's
about the best thing you've ever drunk. In fact, it's so good, Ozarka
has created a great brouhaha in the area because it dug a well and is
filling up hundreds of thousands of its bottles every day from the same
water source, which some people view as a little greedy.
Lyn plans a major estate sale on all furnishings once the house is
contracted for close. The buyer will have first option on furnishings.
Call Lyn
at 903-675-4193 or 817-366-7138
(if no one answers the first line)
for an appointment
Realtor
commissions (3%) will be honored.
View of Breakfast Room
Front Porch view with the largest rosemary you've ever seen in the foreground
Pine grove beside house
Walk-in Pantry
Front garden view with rosemary
Master Bath
Tub
Master bathroom
Patio view from Master Bedroom and plum tree to north
Fall vista from
front porch
Rolls of Hay Baled in
the distance, with white Egrets in the
cut Bermuda Grass in the foreground."
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Views of Kitchen
Kitchen window view of Pine Grove
Views of Dining Room
View of the Library and Fireplace
A View of the Library.
View of Office (off living room and downstairs bath)
Entry (wainscoting and ten-ft. ceilings are throughout downstairs;
brick floors in living room, entry, kitchen, breakfast room)
Back Porch
Doug's bedroom
Master Bedroom
Sunset from back porch view, with Indian Marriage Tree in the
foreground
Office
Entrance Road to Dunsavage Farms, with house
approximately
1/16 mile off the road.
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