This gated mega estate is located on N Michigan Road in Indianapolis, Indiana and is owned by Christel Dehaan. Christel married Jon DeHaan, founder of Resort Condominiums International. They divorced in 1987 and the court awarded her half of the company. She bought the remainder from her ex-husband 2 years later for $67.5 million; expanded it, sold to HFS (now Cendant) in 1996 for $825 million. She was worth an estimated $750 million back in 2003. She started the Christel House charity and plans to donate the estate to them when she dies. The estate boasts a long driveway, 25,000+ square foot main house, swimming pool, tennis court, detached garage, power plant and a massive man-made lake.
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Tags: indiana
Dare I say the nicest house in the state…
Looks like a very authentic representation of Palladian architecture. A beautiful home from the aerials, but one that would be better suited in Florida or California.
While I’m not a fan of this type of architecture personally, I’ll echo Daniel’s sentiment that this is probably the nicest home I’ve seen from Indiana (though I am a bit partial to Scott Jones’s house).
This is an impressive looking estate, and actually looks quite elegant from these images; I’d love to see pics of the interior. With so much land, I would not have placed the home so close to the water…I feel like this kind of property needs some long, sweeping lawns leading down to the water. It’s weird to have that monumental driveway leading up to the house, only to have the home perched on the edge of the lake like that.
This looks very nice. I admire the classicism that doesn’t seem to be overdone. The setting is lovely as well; this is what an estate should look like. Sadly it looks like the surrounding neighborhoods are less than impressive. I actually like the rear of the house overlooking the lake, with the upper terrace that leads down to the water.
from what I can see I like it a lot. of course a well designed Italiante will always captivate me!
What a great house! At first glance reminded me of Ira Rennert’s house.
I feel affection for a classical architecture and I like this house.
To Daniel: I agree, but it would be difficult to find a large enough plot of land in California or Florida for the house.
This house as it stands is 262 feet long and 154 feet wide.
In S. Florida it would be fairly easy, if you’re willing to live a little west or have a lot of money to buy an oceanfront plot.
Love this place. Its flawless.
This house is a stunning example of Classical Palladian Revival! Not too overdone, not too underdone, juussttt right
i love the long straight driveway leading up to it but like others have mentioned it is a little odd to have such a long driveway leading up to the house just for it to be teetering on the edge of the lake. That being said however i do love the view of the house from the lake so it definitely works. Overall this is a very impressive estate!
We do Valet for Christel for her christmas party every year i have personally been on this estate many times the sheer size when you first come in is breathtaking she also puts all kind of art installations and sculpters around her property and the home it self is very warm and inviting its so nice knowing that she use’s her money for good to better the arts and childrens lives all around the world
This is funny to me, thought I’d share. I was passing thru Indianapolis on I70 heading west. I live 600 miles away. I made a detour north on I think I-65 to stop at a recommended pizza place. My GPS somehow suggested I take Michigan Rd back to the interstates. Got to love the GPS. I am driving along, not seeing anything particularly exciting, when I noticed this beautiful wall. Rock, brick, stucco, all topped with beautiful red tile. Really nice and extensive landscaping all along. Very impressive. And this wall keeps going. Its probably a half mile. Every section as beautiful as the first. The trees were all different colors, I couldn’t see any house behind the wall. I had assumed it was a resort, a private country club, maybe a University — something. I google’d to find out what was behind that wall and found Christel Dehaan and this website. Christel, if you ever read this page — well done!
I have a personal belief that estates should be far back as possible from the road. That no one just passing by should be be able to stop, gawk and take pictures so people like me can ogle them. But this took it a little too far. I don’t want to spend 30 minutes just getting out of my driveway and onto the main road. LMAO.
Anyway, this looks like a very tastefully done estate. Wish I could see how the inside was furnished. At first glance I thought it was the Ira Rennart estate. from afar it has a similar look. Like them both. And I know I’m late, but how wonderfully generous that the owner plans to donate the estate after her death. Lovely idea.