Wednesday, November 19, 2003

By Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

It shouldn't be this hard to find Chateau Malmaison, the 17-room mansion that lumber baron Joe Hardy built high on a knoll in Westmoreland County in 1997.

The narrow road winds its way through a neighborhood of modest split-levels and ranches in Rostraver and down what looks like someone's driveway. As you pass between two small pillars and by a not-very-baronial Colonial, you start to wonder: Am I lost?

	The front entrance gives an indication of the opulence that lies within Joe Hardy's 17-room mansion in Rostraver, Westmoreland County. (V.W.H.Campbell Jr. , Post-Gazette) Click photo for larger image.

Then you catch a glimpse of a huge terra-cotta tile roof, high red-brick walls and a series of terraces jutting from the back. The road turns from asphalt to bricklike stamped concrete after you pass through monogrammed iron gates that separate the nearly 10 1/2-acre estate from nearby Belle Vernon Area High School.

Nowhere along the tree-lined drive or vast lawn is a For Sale sign.

There apparently aren't many drive-by buyers for a house selling for $7 million. And if you can afford such a house, you probably don't mind its being hard to find.

"You can't go to Southpointe and have this kind of privacy and acreage," says Ruth Young-Novice, Howard Hanna's vice president in charge of the Christie's Great Estates Program.

Young-Novice, who shares the listing with agent Mary Eve Kearns, was comparing the property to an upscale golf-course community in Cecil, Washington County. But she admits there really aren't any comparables for a 12,400-square-foot house whose price is a record for Western Pennsylvania. Until now, the most expensive house sold here was a $4.5 million home on Windermere Court in Peters, which changed hands in September.

	Looking for a mansion? More photos of the interior of Chateau Malmaison

Multimillion-dollar houses are more common in northern Washington County and the Sewickley Valley. So why did Hardy build here, in the wilds of Westmoreland?

"I just saw the possibilities with the view," says Hardy, the 80-year-old founder of 84 Lumber. An avid traveler and frequent host to the rich and famous, he also wanted a place where he could properly display his vast collection of artwork -- and throw a heck of a good party.

	Joe Hardy (Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette) Click photo for larger image.

"It's a great house for entertaining," he says.

Hardy lived here with his former wife, Debbie, and their two young daughters for about three years, but the house has sat pretty much empty for the past two. Hardy's primary residence is now Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa, the lavish five-star resort he owns near Farmington, Fayette County.

"I don't need all that room," says Hardy, who was just elected a Fayette County commissioner.

In 1997, Hardy bought an existing house and added onto it. The home, which was designed by several architects including Don Gmitter of Sewickley, is a patchwork of chateauesque and other architectural styles. The interior was decorated by Pamela Hughes of Hughes Design Associates in McLean, Va., who also decorated Nemacolin.

"The house is elaborate but not overdone, and in very fine taste," Young-Novice says.

How elaborate is it? For $7 million, you get seven bedrooms and seven baths, including a 15-by-14-foot master bath with 14-karat gold-plated fixtures.

The home's opulence begins with a 41-by-15-foot foyer of polished marble. A 6-foot-wide crystal chandelier casts a soft glow clear up to the 24-foot-high ceiling. Above a gas fireplace leafed in 14-karat gold is the room's focal point, an 8-by-5-foot painting of Napoleon Bonaparte. Canonsburg artist James Sulkowski spent two months re-creating an 1801 painting by Jacques-Louis David that depicts the French emperor crossing the Alps.

"Joe really wanted a special effect there," says Sulkowski.

The painting is one of a half-dozen images of Napoleon in the house, which is named for the country house outside Paris that Empress Josephine de Beauharnais bought for her and Napoleon in 1799. So what's Hardy's interest in Napoleon?

"He's French, and we have a lot of things from France," says Hardy, adding that several pieces came from Versailles.

To the right of a spiral staircase is the formal parlor. Gold wallpaper stretches along 26-foot walls and 14-karat gold leaf embellishes the elaborate tray ceiling. Furniture includes an antique baby grand piano and tall-case clock from Paris' Left Bank. French doors open onto a stone patio that runs along the back of the house and overlooks the manicured lawn.

The 15-by-15-foot library is paneled in cherry, the first hint that the house belongs to a multimillionaire who just happens to be in the lumber business. Much of the house boasts oak hardwood floors, hand-carved interior doors and architectural moldings from White River Hardwoods/Woodworks.

The work of other craftsmen shows up in the sunroom, with its faux-painted tray ceiling and marble floor with an elaborate starburst design.

The 455-square-foot gourmet kitchen offers the ultimate in luxury -- granite countertops, black-and-white marble floors and top-of-the-line appliances. Four faux-marble columns and an enormous crystal chandelier dress up the adjoining breakfast room, which is crowned by a 24-foot-tall ceiling painted with clouds.

Darker but no less impressive is the family room. Overstuffed leather furniture surrounds the massive wood-burning fireplace, and the wood-paneled walls and built-in bookcases are dotted with family photos. A table set up for chess stands in a windowed bay.

Two more of Hardy's heroes hold places of honor on pedestals in the corners. The foot-tall figurines of Groucho Marx and Mark Twain hint at Hardy's sense of humor, as does the copper wild boar in the adjoining bar area.

Furnishings are not included in the asking price. But they are negotiable, says Young-Novice.

Napoleon -- or rather a flag he once used -- shows up again in a glass case in the second-floor hallway. The second floor contains five bedrooms and a separate two-bedroom nanny's apartment with its own kitchen and living room.

A brass "H" in the floor marks the entrance to the 30-by-15-foot master bedroom with a sumptuous canopied bed and lavish gold-and-maroon window treatments. Glass-fronted his-and-her closets are only part of the suite's storage. A spiral staircase off a small hallway leads to a fragrant walk-in cedar closet that overlooks the bedroom through a circular window.

In addition to two water closets equipped with phones, the master bath holds a black Jacuzzi tub on a marble platform, a walk-in shower with six body jets and his-and-her monogrammed sinks. It opens onto a small glass-enclosed patio with a PDC spa and refrigerator.

Something of a homebody? The cavernous lower level (it measures 3,580 square feet) contains a state-of-the-art home theater with seating for six, a home gym with Trotter exercise equipment, a laundry room with marble floors, a home office and another full bath. There's also a billiard room with a built-in bar and signed artwork by LeRoy Neiman, and a children's playroom with hand-painted Disney characters.

A thermostatically controlled wine cellar stores more than 500 bottles and boasts separate cherry-paneled tasting and cigar rooms -- vented, of course, so there's no odor.

"A house of this stature should have a fine wine cellar. This has a very Old World feel to it," says Hardy, who paid $170,000 in 1990 for the British title Lord of the Manor of Henley-in-Arden.

Outdoor amenities include a 50-by-20-foot in-ground swimming pool and spa and a four-stall barn with adjoining riding arena. Alas, there is no helipad, so you'll have to make the 25-mile commute to Downtown on Route 51, like your neighbors. But unlike them, you could drive a different car every day of the week; two garages have space for seven cars.

Howard Hanna is going all-out to market this property, starting with a catered media tour today. And it's not just targeting upscale buyers from the Tri-State area -- it may help if the buyer's last name began with an "H." The house will be advertised in Christie's International magazine, The New York Times and the Robb Report, a magazine that caters to the "luxury lifestyle."

Despite its hefty price tag (taxes run more than $32,600 a year), Young-Novice is betting the estate will go quickly, especially when you consider all the amenities.

"It'll sell," she says with a confident smile. "I'm not sure it will be someone from Pittsburgh, but the right buyer will come along."

In Hardy's view, that buyer will be someone with "discriminating taste."

"It's for someone who wants something that is livable but also makes a statement," he says.

1 Hardy Lane, Rostraver, will be shown by appointment only. For more information, call Ruth Young-Novice at 412-967-9000, ext. 372 or Mary Eve Kearns at 724-941-8800, ext. 239.

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