{"id":32613,"date":"2022-03-06T05:15:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-06T13:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=32613"},"modified":"2024-01-03T08:31:59","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T16:31:59","slug":"roll-of-the-dice-mansion-on-the-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/06\/roll-of-the-dice-mansion-on-the-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"Roll of the Dice: Mansion on the Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"

“This is a song about when I was a kid. My father was always transfixed… he used to drive me outside of town, there was this nice white house, used to sit up on this hill. Later on, when I thought back on it… as I got older, [the house] took on a lot of meaning for me. It became very mystical, like a touchstone.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Now when I dream, sometimes I\u2019m outside the gates looking in, and sometimes I\u2019m the man inside.” — Bruce Springsteen, June 29, 1984<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In 1886, a Nebraska banker and businessman named Leonidas Brandhoefer was seriously wooing his intended bride-to-be, who lived in Chicago. Determined to impress her with a life of luxury beyond what he could afford in the big city, Brandhoefer moved to the town of Ogallala, where land was cheap and plentiful.<\/p>\n

Ogallala was a baby town at the time–nowhere near the bustling metropolis of over 5,000 people it is today. Brandhoefer knew that if he and his intended were going to live a comfortable life, he’d need to help jumpstart the town. He ran for mayor and was elected, started a bank and a lumber business, and then he started construction on the house that he intended as a wedding gift for his beloved.<\/p>\n

And oh, what a home. He hired the best builders available from back in Chicago and (relatively) nearby Denver; he sourced the highest-quality materials New Jersey had to offer.<\/p>\n

The finished three-story, red brick Victorian home had ten-foot ceilings, sixteen-inch thick walls, two hand-carved cherry fireplaces, beautiful walnut windows, two in-home bathrooms (almost unheard of at the time), running water with a reservoir, and a plethora of beautiful and tasteful touches throughout.<\/p>\n

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Situated at the hilltop corner of 10th and Spruce Streets, the Mansion on the Hill (as it came to be called) loomed over the town of Ogallala as a symbol of luxury and prosperity. Satisfied that he’d built the perfect wedding house, he returned to Chicago to share the news with his beloved.<\/p>\n

But his beloved had betrothed another.<\/p>\n

Absent for too long, Brandhoefer was now left with his perfect home and no one to share it with. Devastated, he couldn’t bear to move into it, so he sold it and the house became known as “Heartbreak House,” and then later, “The Mansion on the Hill.”<\/p>\n

Eighty years after Brandhoefer sold his heartbreak house, the great American singer-songwriter Hank Williams wrote a song called, “A Mansion on the Hill,” with lyrics that would have hit Brandhoefer pretty close to home had he still been alive.<\/p>\n