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The Evermore, formerly known as the MacKenzie-Childs estate, is back on the market.

The estate was listed for sale for $1.8 million by real estate broker Michael DeRosa. It consists of a 1790 farmhouse, cottage and shed on 3.71 acres at 1671 Route 90.

The estate has been owned since 2013 by Chet Manchester and Anne Sutherland Early, who bought it for $595,000. It was known as the MacKenzie-Childs Estate because Richard and Victoria MacKenzie-Childs started the interior design business of the same name there in 1983. Over the years, the estate “gradually became a work of art “, according to a summary written by the current owners.

“As their collection of ceramics grew into a boundary-pushing design enterprise, the house was a canvas for their creations, a theatrical backdrop for their imaginations,” Manchester and Early wrote.

MacKenzie-Childs eventually moved to its current headquarters on Route 90 north of the Village of Aurora. In 2001, the business went bankrupt and was sold to local tycoon Pleasant Rowland, who then sold it to an investment firm. Richard and Victoria MacKenzie-Childs left the estate shortly after the sale, although their daughter and son-in-law briefly lived there and rented its rooms.

By the time Manchester and Early moved in, the estate was “a shadow of its former glory”, they said. They have renamed it The Evermore as they have done extensive work there over the past eight years. Along with fixing leaky roofs, rotting wood and broken ovens, they installed a new vertical wind turbine designed by Kohilo Wind of Skaneateles Falls to make the estate more sustainable.

Manchester, a former president of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, and Early, his wife, used the estate as a home and “a place of spiritual respite”, they said. In 2015, they also started renting out rooms in the farmhouse and the shed through Airbnb and word of mouth. The Evermore’s new owner could earn “a steady stream of revenue” by continuing rentals, DeRosa noted.

The 4,280 square foot farmhouse on the estate has seven bedrooms, four full bathrooms and two half baths on three floors, while the 2,300 square foot shed has three bedrooms and two full bathrooms on three floors, a gym and a sauna. There is also a cottage with a powder room and private access to a 1 acre lot with 71 feet of shoreline along Cayuga Lake, including a dock and a cabin.

The majority of the property’s furniture and decor, much of which was salvaged by the MacKenzie-Childs, may be available for an additional fee, DeRosa told the Citizen.

Manchester and Early said they were selling the estate because their children, who lived there at university, are now elsewhere, with grandchildren on the way.

“We are so grateful to have the privilege of living here and being stewards of such an amazing place,” they said in their summary. “This house is a living entity, filled with birdsong, fragrant with gardens, dripping with flowers in the spring and fruit in the fall, magnificent at night with shining stars and comets against a black sky, and a soft herd of hens giving us fresh eggs every day.”

The estate garnered national attention when the MacKenzie-Childs put it up for sale, and DeRosa expects that to happen again.

He told the Citizen that he has received inquiries about the domain from around the world and also expects offers to top the $1.8 million price tag. Two-hour tours will be available for potential buyers who can provide proof they can afford the purchase from Friday, April 29. For more information, visit https://derosaexchange.com/the-evermore or call DeRosa at (315) 406-7355.

“Someone will buy an experience like no other,” he said. “It is impossible to predict what the property will eventually sell for.”

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