1936 Crocus Hill ‘limo house’ designed by famed St. Paul architect lists for $2 million

Marielena Radecki remembers the big Crocus Hill house from her childhood, when her family lived a couple of blocks away. Built by an heir to the Theodore Hamm Brewing Co. fortune, the three-story house was often called “the limo house” because of all the fancy parties held there.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago, when Radecki and her husband, Joseph, moved back from the Chicago area to their hometown of St. Paul to care for her ailing mother. When they looked for a home, the limo house “just happened to pop up as available, and I thought, oh my gosh, that house has always intrigued me,” she said.

When the couple, who are now both 60, bought the house, they planned to make it a destination for family gatherings. “This was going to be where we’d all come and stay for the big holidays and birthdays,” Joseph said.

But Marielena’s mother died five weeks after they closed on the house, and the Radeckis decided to move back to Illinois. They have put the house on the market for just under $2 million.

The house was built in 1936 at the direction of Theodora “Pinkie” Hamm, granddaughter of Hamm’s Brewing Co. founder Theodore Hamm. She was married to William Lang, a St. Paul business executive.

The 9,188-square-foot Georgian Revival house on a 2-acre lot was designed by renowned St. Paul architect Clarence H. Johnston, whose other works include the Glensheen Mansion in Duluth, Northrop auditorium on the University of Minnesota campus, and the F. Scott Fitzgerald House in St. Paul.

The three-story house has eight bedrooms and eight bathrooms, two offices and two sets of stairs, including a grand curved front staircase with a brass railing. There’s also a finished basement, a sauna, a full workshop, an exercise room and a lot of almost 2 acres.

“Everyone laughs: ‘There’s only two of you in this house?‘” Marielena said. “But it doesn’t feel that big.”

But it’s big enough to comfortably accommodate guests; the Radeckis have had as many as 16 people overnight. The third floor alone has six bedrooms: two larger rooms that share a bathroom and four smaller bedrooms designed as staff’s quarters that share a bathroom and office, all reachable by the back staircase off the kitchen.

Those third-floor rooms “could be a wonderful nanny’s quarters, even an in-laws apartment,” Joseph said. “Quite a few people have looked at the house for multigenerational living.”

The second-floor owner’s suite has not just one but two — his and hers — bathrooms. Each bathroom includes a spacious dressing room with built-in closets. A closet could accommodate a second-floor laundry room, Marielena said, although there’s already “a huge laundry room in the basement.” And the second floor has two additional bedrooms, each with its own bathroom.

The kitchen has a sunny bump-out breakfast nook with three walls of windows, a heated floor and a large pantry.

The home’s two offices could also be called his and hers, as well. Joseph uses one with pecan paneling, which includes a hidden door leading to a secret room, they said. (That and the house’s ample closet space make it “the best hide-and-seek house in the world,” Marielena said.) Her office, with a black-and-white-checked tile floor she had installed, is also known as “the garden room.”

There are five wood-burning fireplaces, some with hand-carved marble. Most have recently relined chimney stacks.

“Architecturally it’s quite stunning,” Marielena said. “The dentil crown moldings, the inlaid floors, the original brass curving grand staircase.”

In winter, the upper windows offer dramatic long views, Joseph said. And “in spring, when the trees leaf out, this becomes a remarkably private sanctuary. You can’t see another house.”

The basement, which the Radeckis use as a family room, has “kind of a fun feature,” Marielena said. Three drop-down tables come out of the walls. “Pinkie and her husband were big puzzle people,” she said. “Today they could be small card tables.”

Outdoor highlights include an in-ground swimming pool, a patio with a wood-fired Italian pizza oven, a sunken garden with a fountain. The Radeckis have spotted wild turkeys, foxes, coyotes and even possums on the property.

Overall, the Radeckis have enjoyed their time being “caretakers” of the house, they said.

“This house is so well built, it is so quiet, you don’t hear anybody upstairs or downstairs,” Marielena said. “You know when a house just has a good feeling?”

Mike Lynch (Mike.lynch@lakesmn.com; 612-619-8227) of Lakes Sotheby’s International Realty has the $1,999,000 listing.