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History / The Building
About the House
Completed in 1909, D.C. Bradley's home was built at 519 Drake, along Centerville's "Gold Coast" area. With
10,000 square feet and 22 rooms, depending on how you count them, the Bradley home became the social center
of Centerville, complete with a ballroom on the third floor.
The D.C. Bradley residence was featured in the July-August 1921 issue of Country Homes magazine. The
article's author described the home's massively built walls, high chimneys, clerestory and hip roof as Dutch
Colonial, with definite Japanese influence in the "saucy curl outwards of the roof at the eves," an effect
that is "harmonious, both artistically and historically."
Inside, there is an abundance of treasures, such as beautifully stained and leaded glass doors and windows,
massively beamed ceilings, mahogany paneled walls, cut-glass-candelabra, mosaic tile and hard wood floors,
cedar-lined closets, Corinthian columns. French doors, four fireplaces, and a mahogany-railed grand staircase,
frescoed ceilings and built in china and linen closets. Outside stands the carriage house, reminiscent of horse
drawn carriages filled with family and friends arriving under the portico. In its day, the home's grounds featured
large formal gardens with masses of flowers and shade and ornamental trees. A hothouse, complete with its own
stained glass windows, contributed to the upkeep of the grounds.
Through the years, the Bradley mansion served as a private residence, a nursing home, classrooms for college
and elementary students and administrative offices for the Centerville Community Schools. In 1998, Morgan
Cline, an East coast advertising executive with local roots, purchased the house from the public schools.
January through August of 1999 was the renovation stage. Partitions and fluorescent lights came down, the
woodwork was cleanded, the wood floors were refinished, walls were painted and papered, carpet was scraped
off the tile flooring and the ceramic tile roof was removed, repaired and in some areas, replaced. Mr. Cline's
philanthropic vision of Bradley Hall was to preserve it indefinitely and in a fashion that would allow it to
be enjoyed by all. Thus evolved The Shoppes At Bradley Hall.
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