Mansion Was Couple's 'Dream Come True'

This article is Part 2 of a series. Part 1 is a photo gallery here.

Julie Charbonneau remembers clearly the sounds of her dream home being gutted by a fire back on April 4, 2012.

Anyone who has been near a burning fire knows the sound of snap, pop and crackle (“like my bones,” Charbonneau said) that it makes. She and her husband Dean Topolinski, both Canadians, were living in and in the process of owning (it’s complicated) the mansion known as Bloomfield at 200 South Ithan Avenue in Villanova last year when a fire destroyed much of the inside. 

The couple spoke with Radnor Patch recently to address accusations of arson and to talk about how they will move forward.

Topolinski and Charbonneau met about four years ago, a year after she was widowed, through friends. He was a successful businessman who turned flailing companies around and she was an equally successful interior designer with a taste for European style. 

Topolinski’s work brought them to the Main Line, and after looking at many properties here they found Bloomfield, which was designed by renowned Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer.

The home was “a dream come true… It could be in France,” where she often travels for work, Charbonneau said. “This is what we try to create... That craftsmanship doesn’t exist. You have to struggle a lot to get something close to this,” she said, pointing at the mansion’s façade.

She moved to Villanova in August, 2011 with the intent of continuing her business here. As Topolinski explains it, they had a lease with an option to purchase. They had paid a $2.2 million advance to owner Jerry Batoff with a $3 million balance to pay within the following five years.

Topolinski said the legal title didn’t transfer, but that the agreement was recorded on title. No transfer, no mortgage would have been allowed, so to them, it felt it was theirs. It was the same way Batoff himself had purchased it, he said.

Some parts of the mansion needed updating, and their intention was to go through the 24,000-square-foot home and renovate it. After months of meetings with landscapers and contractors they were ready to get started.

And then, the fire.

To be continued...