Vermilion mansion sells to development company

VERMILION TWP. — A construction and development company purchased a multimillion-dollar mansion in Vermilion. DiGeronimo Companies — based out of Independence, Ohio — purchased the 58 acres lakeside property on West Lake Road (U.S. 6) for more than $3.6 million on Tuesday, according to the Erie County auditor's website. The company also spent an additional $772,000 to purchase 11 parcels of land around the mansion. The Register couldn't immediately reach the company to ask about its plans for the property. Famed architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen designed the mansion, known as the Waterford Estate, to be a series of concrete pods connected by glass corridors, according to architecture website iDesignArch.com. The property includes 100 rooms, a private marina, a helicopter pad, two indoor pools, a wine grotto, a sauna and more. The mansion, constructed in 1991, was home to Donald Brown, who made his fortune by patenting the accessible suspended ceiling, also known as a drop ceiling, in 1958. There had been patents for drop ceilings before Brown, but his invention made it easier to gain access to any point by removing a single tile. Brown and his wife lived at the estate until they died in a plane crash in 2010.