Jon Carloftis partnership dispute sends historic Lexington home to courthouse auction
One of Lexington’s downtown historic showplaces is about to go up for sale on the courthouse steps: Botherum, created as a shrine to lost love, may be auctioned off to settle an acrimonious partnership dispute.
Current owners Jon Carloftis and Dale Fisher have been in a years-long court battle over dividing their assets in the wake of their 2018 split.
Now, Carloftis has asked the court to order the house at 341 Madison Place to be sold at public auction in a Master Commissioner’s sale.
The home has been a showcase for the well-known Jon Carloftis landscape and garden design business, used for a variety of fundraisers and has been featured in magazines including “Garden and Gun,” “Southern Living,” “Architectural Digest,” “Martha Stewart,” “The Salonniere” and “Keeneland Magazine.” It also was featured in an episode of “Kentucky Life” on KET.
According to the motion filed April 19 in Fayette Circuit Court by attorney Tom Miller, Carloftis and Fisher jointly own the historic house. It’s now valued at almost $1 million, according to the Fayette County Property Valuation Administrator.
Carloftis asked Circuit Judge Julie M. Goodman to schedule the auction because “the parties have a contentious relationship and it is difficult for both to remain occupants.” According to the motion, “Jon has had the lock changed 3 times for the house he occupies, but Dale has been able to get in. The parties attempted a mediation to resolve the remaining issues in this case, but were unsuccessful.”
The Master Commissioner’s sale is required because neither can agree on a price, according to the motion, which is scheduled to be heard on April 29 at 10 a.m.
“Because the property is jointly owned, the parties’ wealth is tied up in the home and the judge has ordered it sold,” Miller said Tuesday. “We believe the most efficient way to get it done is a Master Commissioner’s sale, which avoids the controversy between the two as to the terms of the sale.”
A request for comment from an attorney for Fisher was not immediately returned.
According to the Fayette PVA’s website, the one-story home has three bedrooms, two full baths, a full basement, a pool and a detached garage. The fair cash value is estimated at $925,000.
Botherum was built in 1850 or 1851 for Madison C. Johnson by Lexington architect John McMurtry, to honor Johnson’s late wife, Sally Ann, who had died in childbirth in 1828. A large ginkgo trees on the site is said to have been a gift from Henry Clay; Sally Ann was a sister of emancipationist Cassius Marcellus Clay.
The original 36-acre estate was subdivided to create the Woodward Heights neighborhood. Dr. John Cavendish owned the house from 1983 until he sold it to Carloftis and Fisher in 2012 for $695,000.
Carloftis and Fisher restored the house and grounds and 2013 were honored by the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation with the Landscape Preservation Award.
