Wretched Excess: Georgia Megamansion Sold to Tyler Perry

Mr. Dean, 67, who grew up without indoor plumbing in a low-income section of Atlanta, founded a financial services software company, Stockholder Systems Inc., in the early 1970s and became a millionaire many times over. He and his first wife, Lynda, spent four years and $25 million building their own private Versailles, which they called “Dean Gardens” and finished in 1992. Their architect, Bill Harrison, said each square inch of it was given the attention to detail of a Faberge egg.

The Deans’ dream was to raise their four children here in an atmosphere like “Dynasty,” “only happy,” and then leave the 58-acre estate, with its 18-hole golf course, wedding chapel, band shell and formal gardens to a foundation that would open it to the public for charity events.

They scrutinized every object ...

• 10 bathrooms, including one built like Egyptian tombs
• 8 bedrooms, including an “Alice in Wonderland” master bedroom
• 58 acres of landscaped Italian and French gardens that rival that of Versailles
• 18-hole golf course
• grass tennis courts
• an amphitheater
• a conservatory
• 1950s game room
• a 24-karat gold sink for which he paid $88,000
• a Hawaiian-art gallery
• French Empire furniture
• 13 fireplaces
• $60,000 dolphin-sculpture fountain
• $17,500 leaded glass and mahogany double front doors, which came from the Chicago Cotton Exchange
• a 24-seat dining room complete with a wall-sized aquarium called the Predator Tank
• parking for a dozen cars

Tyler Perry plans to demolish the home and build a more energy efficient and sustainable multimillion dollar mansion.

Visit Dean Gardens web site

NYT slideshow 

Photo Credit: Erik S. Lesser for The New York Times