One of Traverse City’s most famous historic properties is on the market – offering the right buyer a chance to take over a popular bed-and-breakfast as well as a fully antique-furnished neoclassical mansion.

Owners Barb and Hank Rishel have put the Wellington Inn up for sale at the corner of Wellington and Washington streets. The 10,000 square-foot, nine-bedroom house – which features an original carriage house with an additional two apartments – is listed for $3.25 million, including all the furnishings.

The Rishels have owned the property since 1999. “The last couple years I’ve run into some health issues, and it’s time to retire,” says Barb, 67. “It’s been a big job, a full-time job (running the B&B). My husband has retired from his teaching career, and we’d like to do some other things.”

The potential changing of hands marks another key moment in the property’s storied history, which first began in 1905. That year, William Cary Hull – son of Oval Wood Dish Company owner Henry Hull – started construction on the mansion. Work was completed in 1908. The Hull House, as the property came to be known, was surrounded by several other notable properties: Henry Hull built his own mansion across the street, while the boyhood home of former Governor William Milliken was kitty-corner to the site.

A lively social gathering spot for town parties, the Hull House was eventually put up for sale in 1916. In 1929, it was split into four separate family units. In ensuing decades, the property fell into disrepair.

It largely remained off the public’s radar until 1998, when Traverse City police were summoned to the home by neighbors reporting then-occupant John Charles Clark was acting erratically in his yard while displaying a handgun. An eventual standoff between Clark and police resulted in the shooting death of Sgt. Dennis Finch, the first TCPD officer to be killed in the line of duty. Finch’s death rocked the community; Clark was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The following year, Clark’s family sold the property to the Rishels. “It was a rundown apartment house when we bought it,” says Barb, whose sister proposed partnering together to open a B&B at the site. Barb had restored 13 historical homes prior to the Hull House – but says she had no idea what she was in for with the property.

“It was a crime scene for quite a while; there were hundreds of bullet holes that had to be fixed,” she says. “Everything we touched collapsed. The whole front porch collapsed, ceilings collapsed. Everything was ten times harder than it should have been.”

Midway through the intensive four-year restoration, Barb’s sister departed the project. While some area developers warned her the house was in such bad shape it should be torn down and rebuilt, Barb persisted with the restoration, working off the original 1905 plans to bring the house back to its former glory. The inn was outfitted with period-accurate furnishings combed from antique shops and auctions across the country. Every detail had to meet strict historic preservation standards. “It took me a year on eBay just to find a set of the (authentic) pocket door pulls we needed,” Barb says.

The Rishels' hard work paid off: In 2003, the property opened as the Wellington Inn, a year-round downtown B&B. Over the past 13 years, the site has welcomed thousands of guests through its stately mahogany doors, hosting countless weddings, luncheons, business conferences, and public tours. Up until a few years ago – when her health issues began – Barb hosted popular annual Christmas open houses at the property for the public. The inn now offers a combination of turn-of-the-century living and modern amenities (permitted under historical preservation standards), such as air conditioning and WiFi.

“The guests have been the greatest part (of the job),” says Barb. “They’ve come from all over the world. People love it because they can stay right downtown. When they come for the film festival, they park and don’t move their cars all week.”

Barb’s close relationships with her guests and the work that went into restoring the house have prompted her to “carefully” look for the next owner. She’d like to see the Wellington Inn maintained as a B&B and sold to someone with an appreciation for its historical value. “One buyer looked at the house, and their only complaint was that the furnishings were dated,” she says. “I had a good laugh over that. We went through a lot of trouble to get those dated furnishings!”

Barb says she’s willing to help transition the inn over and train the next owner on the B&B operations and maintaining the home’s historic standards. “I’m really proud of what we did to preserve it,” she says. “I feel like we protected a landmark in Traverse City. I would think it should stay nice for another 100 years now."