Aiken Winter Colony estate Rose Hill to be offered at auction online
Sep. 23—A well-known Winter Colony estate in Aiken is set to be auctioned off online .
Bidding on Rose Hill will open at noon on Oct. 18 at crexi.com and will start at $850,000.
Crexi is a commercial real estate marketplace and technology platform.
Andrew and Elizabeth Hobbs own Rose Hill, which is at 221 Greenville St. N.W.
The estate went on the market through the Carolina Real Estate Company in June.
Jane Page Thompson, a Realtor, is the listing agent.
The asking price was $3.29 million as of Thursday.
Elizabeth Hobbs "is always up for doing absolutely unique and different things," said Thompson of the decision to put Rose Hill up for auction. "She's pretty adventurous about that. I've been in this business for a long time, and it's kind of been fun working with a whole different type of approach to real estate. "After it went up on Crexi, we had our first phone calls probably 10 minutes later and people have come to look," Thompson added.
Auction previews will be held at Rose Hill from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
Refreshments will be served.
"All are welcome," Thompson said.
Earlier this year, Elizabeth Hobbs described the availability of Rose Hill to purchase as "an exciting opportunity for someone to write a whole new chapter in its glittering history by returning it to residential living or continuing with the commercial enterprises that exist."
Under the Hobbses ownership, Rose Hill has offered overnight accommodations and served as an event venue.
There are two restaurants on the property: Tiffany's at The Stables and Piece of Potato.
The Hobbses purchased Rose Hill for $1.375 million in August 2020 from Niki Inc.
Andrew was Elizabeth's fiancé at the time.
Ketan Patel, in the name of Niki Inc. bought Rose Hill while it was in foreclosure for $700,000 at an Aiken County Master-in-Equity deficiency sale in June 2018 at the Aiken County Judicial Center.
Afterward, under Patel's direction, workers replaced roofs on the estate's various structures, sanded and stained floors, put in new tiles and changed the driveways' surfaces from pebbles to concrete.
They also made many landscaping improvements.
Like the Hobbses, Patel operated the Rose Hill as a business offering accommodations and dining. The estate also was an event venue.
Rose Hill is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Constructed around 1898, it used to be the winter home of Col. Sheffield Phelps and his wife, Claudia Wright Phelps.
Rose Hill has a two-story shingle-style Dutch Colonial main house.
The estate's other buildings include a chapel.
Among the previous owners of the property was Andrew Holmes, a Confederate soldier. The antebellum home that used to be there was destroyed during the Civil War in the Battle of Aiken.
Rose Hill is located on a 4.14-acre tract, according to Aiken County land records.
For more information, visit rosehillinaiken.com or facebook.com/rosehillinaiken.
