The hulking lodge that overlooks the St. Croix River Valley from 893 Crane Hill Trl. once accommodated dozens of Girl Scout campers at a single time. Now, the 12,298-square-foot Hudson, Wisconsin, structure is being marketed as a $975,000 single-family home.
“The wood beams, the massive wall of 20-foot windows overlooking the seven-acre lot—the views are just amazing,” listing agent Brian Beaubien with J. Fletch Real Estate Group tells us. “It’s got that grand lodge feel: It’s kinda like what you get in Colorado; the ceiling height isn't comparable to anything available in the metro.”
The soon-to-be home is part of the Crane Hill of Hudson luxury housing development, which consists of newer builds situated on five-acre lots, all of which share access to a heated pool, community center, and bocce ball courts. So far, the former lodge has attracted nature-loving prospective buyers with multiple teens, Beaubien reports. Spec designs have been mocked up to demonstrate what the finished product could look like, though the eventual owner isn't locked into any one concept.
Completed in 2003, Camp Rolling Ridges only belonged to the Girl Scouts for a short time. Throughout 2010, the group Friends of Rolling Ridges attempted to save the camp that that was losing millions due to declining enrollment, the Pioneer Press reported.
“Rolling Ridges was built with us in mind,” Lorrie Beaulieu of Friends of Rolling Ridges told the PiPress at the time. “It was built for our girls with special facilities that fit our campers, our girls, and the way we operate.”
By the end of '10, the 555-acre camp was listed for sale. Private development projects like Crane Hill of Hudson would gobble up parcels of that prime real estate for the next decade.
Camp Rolling Ridges's closure wasn't uncontroversial.
"The decision was essentially made behind closed doors and announced with no public input," by the governing Girl Scouts River Valleys council, reads a 2010 editorial from Red Wing's Republican Eagle newspaper. The paper cites figures, such as a record 77% camp utilization rate, that challenge rationales provided by the councilmembers, most of whom lacked "any ties to eastern Minnesota or Western Wisconsin."
"As information continues to surface," the editorial concludes, "we question whether the River Valleys Council decision was in the best interest of the very Girl Scouts served by the leaders."
Draw your own societal conclusions from that saga, as well as its mega-dollar mansion resolution.
But for now, let's take a photo tour of the ol' lodge courtesy of the property listing:
