Foreclosure sparks auction of Edenton's Pembroke Hall

By Connie Sage, Correspondent

EDENTON, N.C.

Another historic landmark here is heading to the auction block.

The 17-room Pembroke Hall, with its dozen Italian marble fireplaces, is to be sold at auction Aug. 13, said Darlene Rhoden, foreclosure processor with Kellam & Pettit law firm in Charlotte.

A foreclosure hearing for the 1850 Greek Revival mansion overlooking Edenton Bay will be July 23 at the Chowan County Courthouse.

Pembroke Hall owners Sharon and Marvin B. "Jerry" Smith III owe nearly $1.4 million on the house, according to court records.

The mansion has been for sale for seven years and had been priced at $3 million at one point. It was featured in The Wall Street Journal in December.

Its owners, who live in Sea Island, Ga., took the unusual step of trying to sell the house via an Internet auction over Christmas and New Year's.

The highest bid of $750,000 wasn't enough, Jerry Smith said after the auction.

Smith's mother, Gertrude Murray Rosevear, who died in 1993, had owned the home. She was a descendant of Josiah Collins, whose family built it.

Two lots next to Pembroke Hall, also belonging to the Smiths, are not part of the auction.

The couple has filed repeated challenges with the town and in court after plans to build a house on each of the lots were rejected.

The Smiths filed for bankruptcy protection in Georgia in May 2008.

Pembroke Hall is the second Edenton landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places to be auctioned over the past two months.

Lords Proprietors' Inn and five adjoining parcels sold June 20 for a total of $707,000. They had been appraised for $2.2 million in 2007 and were listed for $1.9 million.

Included in the sale of the 1902 Lords Proprietors' Inn were a restaurant, a house moved from a nearby 1785 plantation and used as part of the inn, the 1890s Tillie Bond House, the 1801 Satterfield House and a parking lot.

The properties were sold in three separate parcels and are expected to be used as two inns and a private residence.

In an unrelated court filing, Cypress Landing Development Co. and Downeast Investment Co. also head into foreclosure July 6 at the Chowan County Courthouse.

The companies are owned by Edenton attorney Max Busby.

Busby had planned to build the 48-unit Cypress Landing Marina condominium project in Edenton on the Chowan River at the mouth of Rocky Hock Creek.

A dozen units had been pre-sold when work on the development began in May 2008, Busby said last year.