Las Vegas seems to have everything and anything. That includes an actual castle, which can be found in the upscale waterside community known as The Lakes. Rose Manor is a replica of an 1800s Victorian castle, and it can now be yours for a price of $3.85 million. The home is listed through broker Rob Jensen.
The estate features several floral touches making the home true to its name. The hand-carved wood features roses throughout the interior of the estate as well as an English garden filled with roses on the exterior. When speaking of the castle, homeowner Paul Zeppa, says “All the mansions in Europe are named, they call this the Rose Manor. We just call it the Zeppa House.”
Within The Lakes community, the castle features towering stone walls, elegant stained glass and a stone porte-cochere to present an eye-catching backdrop against other neighboring homes. “It’s very unique,” Zeppa says. “There isn’t another house like this west of the Rockies.”
Robert Symons Associates designed the four-level estate that features hand-carved mahogany wood, stained-glass windows, custom-designed Italian chandeliers and hand-painted woodwork. The home is 11,662 square-feet and contains six bedrooms, six baths, a private boat dock and a lap pool in which Zeppa calls “the dungeon” due to the hidden entrance behind a secret wall, which spins to unveil a staircase descending to a lower level. The Zeppas transformed “the dungeon” into a private family room with wood-beamed ceilings and brick-walls to view movies.
Zeppa and his wife Gemma said they are selling the estate to downsize. “We have so much space,” he says. “We’re not utilizing all the room.” The Zeppas are the third owners of the property and showed the Las Vegas Review Journal how to open an iron gated wall that closes part of the brick-walled lower level while saying the original owners “displayed mechanical knights in the alcoves along that wall.”
The castle was originally built by Larry and Lisa Miller in 1991 for $8.5 million according to Paul Zeppa. It’s believed Miller spent more than $700,000 for the 144 custom stained windows imported from the United Kingdom. The Millers sold the property to Robert Dyson in 2005 for $3.4 million according to public records and in 2008 went into foreclosure. Zeppa purchased the estate after learning it was headed for bankruptcy.
“I negotiated with the bank directly, before it even got to the courthouse steps,” he says, “Larry’s so happy we got the house. We are maintaining his vision.” The Zeppas invested nearly $400,000 to restore and maintain the home to its original condition. “We don’t want to change it,” Gemma Zeppa says. “If you go to Europe, this is what the castles look like. If you change it, it won’t be a castle anymore.”
Although the couple did make minor renovations to the estate, their focus was to restore the home back to its original features, including the kitchen. They removed the wallpaper in the master bedroom and hired a painter to create a stone effect on the wood window frames, displaying more of a castle vibe throughout the home.
“He was really talented,” Paul Zeppa says about the painter. “It looks like real stone. It took seven layers of paint to achieve the look.”
“There was a tremendous amount of detail put into this house during the design and construction phases,” Jensen adds. “I toured the home with the original owner over 10 years ago, and I remember him telling me there was over $1 million in Honduras mahogany millwork alone.”
The Lakes is an exclusive private gated community with 42 custom luxury homes. “We’re a small community,” Paul Zeppa says. “Most people know each other and take care of each other.” The Rose Manor castle is located at 2928 Coast Line Court, The Lakes. The HOA fees are roughly $302 a month and the current listing price is $3.85 million through Rob Jensen, broker and president, Rob Jensen Co.
