Saratoga Springs landmark to remain inn, guesthouse

The landmark Batcheller Mansion Inn on Circular Street has been sold, with the new owner being a top Capital Region General Electric executive.

The historic mansion was sold by Bruce J. Levinsky to Victor and Karen Abate for $1.8 million, according to a statement from Reynolds Real Estate of Saratoga Springs and Greenwich, which handled the transaction.

Victor Abate is GE’s chief technology office and a senior vice president, in charge of GE’s Global Research operations based in Niskayuna. He and his wife live in Saratoga Springs.

The inn will continue to operate as an inn and guesthouse, with nine guest rooms. It is located about a mile from Saratoga Race Course and within walking distance of downtown.

“We are so happy that the Batcheller Mansion Inn will change hands to a local couple who also love this spectacular Victorian building,” said Lucette Levinsky, whose husband, owner of Merlin Development of Saratoga Springs, has owned the building since 1983.

“It’s a magnificent building that represents old-world sophisticated elegance with a new world attitude — and we are fortunate to have rescued, loved and maintained it so that it can continue to be enjoyed by the community and its guests,” Lucette Levinsky said.

The neo-Gothic house was built in 1873 by lawyer, judge, state assemblyman and diplomat George M. Batcheller, a native of Edinburg who settled in Saratoga Springs. Its distinctive design and prominent location at Circular Street and Whitney Place, across the street from Congress Park, make it among Saratoga Springs’ best-known buildings.

The outside of the mansion demonstrates French Renaissance, Italian and Egyptian influences, and the inside includes hand-carved woodwork and marble fireplaces.

Batcheller called the mansion Kaser-el-Nouzha, an Arabic term meaning “palace of pleasure.” It cost $100,000 to build, according to the inn’s website history.

In 1875, President Ulysses S. Grant named Batcheller judge and American representative to the international trial courts in Cairo, Egypt. He served there for a decade. He later held diplomatic or legal appointments under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Batcheller died in 1908.

The house’s condition declined under subsequent owners, to the point where by the late 1960s it was considered derelict. The city public works department condemned it in 1973.

Shortly afterward, it was purchased by Eugene Turchi and Ray Marshall for $40,000, and they estimated they invested $250,000 in renovations.

Bruce Levinsky bought it for $500,000 in 1983, and used it as his corporate office until 1994, when he moved out to convert it to a rooming house.

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