Exotic Stillwater home inspired by famed Spanish palace hits market for $1.6M – Minneapolis Star Tribune

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Step inside Judi and Marty Noras home in Stillwater and you can almost smell the orange blossoms and taste the tapas. The house, inspired by a real Spanish palace, is one of the most unusual dwellings in Minnesota.

With its soaring ceilings, gilded medallions, columns and arches, it was described as Fairyland when the first high-society gala was held there in 1902 soon after it was built.

Originally, the place was designed to be a party palace, not a residence. William Sauntry, a lumber baron, built what became the Noras house next door to his own Victorian mansion, now a B&B. He envisioned an exotic space for entertaining his friends, and modeled it after the Alhambra, the medieval palace in Granada, Spain, considered the pinnacle of Moorish architecture.

In his Gymnasium, Sauntry included a ballroom, connected to his mansion by skyway, as well as a bowling alley and indoor swimming pool in a separate poolhouse.

But after the logging business lagged, Sauntry tried his hand at mining, with disastrous results. He lost his fortune and committed suicide in 1914. The skyway connecting his house to his Moorish palace was taken down, and his exotic playground was converted into a boarding house and later a triplex.

It was in sad shape when the Noras bought it in 2000 and resolved to bring it back to its former glory. They started remodeling and worked with Henning Restoration to undertake a complete historic renovation. Original columns and decorative woodwork, discovered in the attic, were put back in place, and original chandeliers were replicated in India.

The house may look wildly exotic, but it has an open floor plan that works well as a family home, according to the Noras, who have three children.

Raising them in this space was easy and wonderful, said Judi. The kids always wanted to play here. Their children hosted dance parties and sleepovers in their unusual home. They once pitched a tent in the middle of the ballroom.

But now with their children grown, the Noras have decided its time to downsize from the 5,000-square-foot, four-bedroom house.

Now that the kids are gone, the house is too quiet, she said. Its a party house, a happy house.

Richard McDonough of Edina Realty has the listing, 612-819-3518.

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Exotic Stillwater home inspired by famed Spanish palace hits market for $1.6M - Minneapolis Star Tribune