Ben Carson Picks Up Mock-Med Mansion in Palm Beach Gardens

BUYER: Ben and Candy Carson
LOCATION: Palm Beach Gardens, FL
PRICE: $4,375,000
SIZE: 8,782 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: Retired pediatric neurosurgeon and former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson paid $4.375 million for an elaborately embellished mansion in a guard-gated golf community in Florida’s Palm Beach Gardens. The avid golfer, who dropped out of the presidential race and now serves as a prominent supporter of and frequent surrogate for GOP nominee Donald Trump, purchased the 8,782-square-foot mansion as we first heard from south Florida gossip slinger Jose Lambiet’s blog Gossip Extra, from a mortgage company that took possession of the property in a foreclosure proceeding. The five and potentially six bedroom and 5.5 bathroom mansion, which has more Corinthian columns throughout the interior and exterior than perhaps in all of ancient Greece, sits on 1.1 tropically landscaped acres that overlook the manicured fairways and clipped greens of the Old Palm Golf Club.

An arched entry flanked by a pair of garages capable of parking up to six cars opens to formal living and dining rooms, both with grandiose double-height ceilings and the former with a carved stone fireplace and a bowed wall of glass. The recently rehabbed kitchen has marble counter tops and top-quality appliances along with a center island that separates it from an informal dining space and huge family room with built-in entertainment unit, inset coffered ceiling treatment, and a broad bank of sliding glass pocket doors that open to a columned loggia with built-in grilling station. Also located on the main floor are a home theater with marble-topped wet bar, a privately situated bedroom and bathroom perfect for guests or live-in domestic staff, a den/library, and a meandering master suite with entry vestibule, morning bar, sitting area, glass sliders to the backyard, walk-in closet, and bathroom with garden tub surrounded by columns, an open shower space, and separate his and her toilet cubicles. A Corinthian column lined gallery and bridge links the two wings on the upper floor that contains a game room with pool table and wet bar, a bonus room, and three en suite bedrooms that all open to terraces that overlook the X-shaped and palm-shaded swimming pool and spa.

Our research indicates the devout evangelical Christian, who often and unapologetically espouses all sorts of odd and, frankly, dubious theories such as evolution being “an idea encouraged by the devil” and that the Egyptian pyramids were built by the biblical figure Joseph to store grain, owns at least two other large homes including a 6,155-square-foot Mediterranean in a gated golf course development in West Palm Beach that he and his wife, Candy, bought in early 2013 for $775,000 from former Pittsburgh Steelers co-owner John Rooney. The Carsons additionally continue to own a 47.75-acre country spread in rural Upperco, MD, about 25 miles northwest of The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore where until his 2013 retirement Dr. Carson was the esteemed head of pediatric surgery. The two-parcel estate was acquired, per property records, in September 2001 for $1.5 million and, according to numerous photographic reports, filled to the gills with awards, certificates and medals of Dr. Carson’s professional achievements along with several portraits of the doctor, one of them with Jesus resting his hand on Dr. Carson’s shoulder.

Listing photos: RSI Asset Management (via Redfin)

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