Ohio Valley Correspondent

WEIRTON — The new owners of a nearly 90-year-old Weirton mansion overlooking the Ohio River say they aren’t sure yet how they will use it, but it’s a safe bet it no longer will cater to alternative lifestyle enthusiasts.

The mansion, at one time known as the “President’s Lodge,” was purchased at auction last month by Williams Country Club after its last owner, Rosemary Susko, fell behind on her loan.

Williams Country Club General Manager Tom Boehm said the club paid $225,000 for the lodge, which is perched on a hillside behind the clubhouse and accessible only by crossing the club’s property.

“The feeling was, first, that we very much needed to get that property back,” Boehm said. “And secondly, we wanted to be able to control our neighbors: If we own it, we know what we’ve got going on there. (Before), there was only so much we could control.”

Both properties at one time were controlled by the now-defunct Weirton Steel Co. After the mill’s 1984 employee buyout, the country club was sold to its members. The lodge, originally built as the corporate residence, was repurposed as a retreat for customers and board members who traveled to Weirton for meetings.

Susko purchased the lodge for $470,000 in a 2004 bankruptcy auction for Weirton Steel, dubbed it “Rosemont Manor.” She operated it simultaneously as a bed-and-breakfast for her more mainstream clients and as the controversial “House on the Hill,” a meeting place for individuals pursuing alternative lifestyle activities.

Boehm said a committee is already tackling the question of what to do with the mansion now that it’s part of the country club. Committee members already have done a walk-through of the lodge. Although still structurally sound, he said the lodge’s contents were sold at a separate auction some time ago and the building will need a lot of work to make it habitable again. The first thing on the agenda is to repair a broken water main in the building, which should take place this week. The rest of the work will be done once the water main issue is resolved.

“We haven’t decided on anything yet,” he said. “It’s going to take some time, and we’re in the process of (figuring that out). We’re looking into a lot of different avenues, looking to see if we can come up with something that will work for everybody concerned. But there’s no hurry — we’re just glad it’s back in our hands and we’re looking forward to doing something with it.”

Boehm said having the property back in the hands of club is “the biggest achievement.

“It’s back and now we can do something with it, it’s in our hands where it was always meant to be. It was built with this club, the intention was that it would go together. That fell apart some years ago, but now we’ve got it back together.”