NEWS

Former Sen. Baker's massive estate heads to auction

Dave Boucher
dboucher@tennessean.com
The Huntsville, Tenn., mansion and property of former U.S. Sen. Howard Baker is set for auction Saturday. Tennessee’s first Republican senator, Baker served as Senate majority leader, chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan and ambassador to Japan before his death in 2014.

Instead of the politicians and movie stars who once frequented former U.S. Sen. Howard Baker's massive estate, on Saturday the home is set to play host to its own auction.

The 11.5-acre Huntsville, Tenn., estate and much of its contents will be up for auction. None of Baker's family members had a use for the large property and wanted to "let someone else start enjoying" the home, said Don Stansberry Jr., executor of the estate.

Baker served 18 years in the U.S. Senate, including time as Senate Majority Leader, before serving as a chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan and ambassador to Japan for President George W. Bush. He died in 2014 at the age of 88.

Despite his time away from Tennessee, Baker loved to return to Huntsville, a small town more than 150 miles northeast of Nashville. Furrow Auction Co., which will operate Saturday's auction, said Baker hosted Reagan and his wife, Nancy, for an event that was eventually crashed by actress Dinah Shore. The Reagans, Baker, Shore and U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., appear in some of the many photographs of the home and grounds released by the auction company.

"Occasionally a young person will ask me, 'How can I become involved in politics?' My answer is always, 'Find someone you respect, volunteer to help him or her do anything legal and learn all you can from them'. That's what I did, and Howard Baker had more influence on my life than anyone outside my own family," said Alexander, who delivered Baker's eulogy.

Baker expanded the main house on the property to 6,175 square feet in the late 1980s, according to the auction company. A 2,000-square-foot guest house and the 2.77 acres it rests on is also up for sale; it may be purchased separately or with the 8.75 acres that include the main home.

Items for sale run the gamut: furniture, art, grills and a golf cart are among the more than 300 items included in the auction. Stansberry cautioned some of the items at auction never belonged to Baker: a prop-pistol billed as "Don Knotts' police revolver from The Andy Griffith Show" is among the items for sale, but "that has nothing on Earth to do with the Bakers," Stansberry said.

A well-known amateur photographer, some of Baker's prints are also among the items to be auctioned, Stansberry said.

The event starts at 9:30 a.m. Central time, with the property open for inspection from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Central time Friday. More information about the auction, including photos of the home and property, are available at www.Tennessean.com.

Reach Dave Boucher at 615-259-8892 and on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1.