By Stacey Altherr
Richard Albano drove by the old white house on Edgewood Road, and knew he had to buy it.
Built in 1843, and in a severe state of disrepair but with many of the original details, the Deer Park resident bought the house known as the Mansion at Ebo Hill. Albano, who owned an auto repair shop for 30 years in West Babylon and now owns pizza parlors in Commack and Deer Park, had also been buying and fixing up homes since 1984. This one, he wanted as his own home.
Albano was so enthralled by the thought of the project, he began work even before the closing, with the blessing of the previous owner, renovating to restore the grandeur of the old home by painstakingly going over every historic detail, working on it 7 days a week.
The Mansion at Ebo Hill fire 2018 “I worked on it five weeks before the purchase went through,” he said. “Two weeks later, it burnt down.”
The home was reduced to rubble on March 26, leaving behind a smoldering mess and chimney remnants. A cross beam in the fireplace, the only one fireplace of the four in the home deemed safe to use by an outside company, had caught fire. The fire must have been smoldering for hours before it flamed, he said.
“I was at my girlfriend’s house about five houses down and a neighbor called,” he said. “By the time I got there, it was fully engulfed.”
“Friends tried to console me, saying that everything happens for a reason,” but it wasn’t until his daughter told him that it could have happened while they were all asleep in the house, that the words rang true. “I was sure of it. The problem with the chimney wouldn’t have been found.”
Albano was devastated. He had gone so far in the process with structural work, and the roof work was to begin the day after the fire. Already “thousands of dollars” into the house, both by sale price and renovation, the home could either be abandoned or rebuilt. For Albano, there was no question. His love of the house and its history meant he would rebuild.
;)
Construction at The Mansion at Ebo Hill on Edgewood Ave. September 7, 2018With the community on his side (more than 6,800 follow his Facebook page), the house restorer has already laid the foundation and is working on the framing. He is using those same historic pictures to make the home as authentic as possible.
“My kids didn’t want me to do it,” Albano said. “They said it was too much of an undertaking and it will cost 10 times what it was going to cost, but I decided I would keep going. I feel a responsibility to the community and the home. Hundreds of souls have lived in that home.”
For anyone who would like to watch the process of the house restoration and rebuilding, follow The Mansion at Ebo Hill on Facebook where Albano puts up pictures and information on the progress of the project regularly.