The future of the historic Clinton Whitmore Mansion will be the focus of future discussions the city will need to hold, said City Manager Doug Dunford.

The city owns the former home of Clinton Whitmore, a son of Ceres founder Daniel Whitmore, which was built in 1903. The city also owns the Daniel Whitmore Home, which was constructed 1869-70 as Ceres’ first house, located a one block south on Fifth Street.

When the mansion was lost by Cary and Nancy Pope and went into foreclosure in 2013, the city purchased it. For a time the mansion was rented out for weddings, private parties and public events through the non-profit Whitmore Mansion Foundation. In recent years the mansion, however, largely has not been available for weddings, parties and other events and remains locked up behind a wrought iron fence.

In 2019 the Chris Vierra led city council signaled that it wanted to sell the house and gave the foundation over a year to work up a plan to acquire the historic mansion from the city through a lease-purchase agreement. The last option was to put the house on the market.

Dunford said the house is expensive to operate and it needs improvements to look “more presentable” to be offered for rentals.

The most pressing need is to reinforce the sagging front porch, he said.

“We haven’t got the house up to snuff and it’s been neglected over the years and so we’re trying to figure out, if we want to improve it how much is it going to cost? We have to get some quotes and be able to take that back to the council, going ‘okay, here’s the decision that we need to make: Are we going to furbish it and maybe rent out sections of it or events or do you want to sell it?’ ”

Dunford said that for now the city would like to see the mansion once again be made available for event rentals.

In 2019 Lisa Mantarro Moore of the foundation said her group realized little income above and beyond the $8,000 in annual costs for power and water and other costs. The group made improvements to the mansion’s air conditioning system and secured funding for a new coat of exterior paint. 

The Courier reached out to Moore who did not return messages.