text:
In 1928 William Telling began building, for his own use, a mansion constructed on part of his family farm on the north side of Mayfield Road, east of Green Road. The mansion and adjoining buildings were completed about 1931 at a cost of $700,000.00. This would be about $10,000,000.00 in current dollars.
Telling's wife had died by the time he started building the main mansion and his plans to have one of his daughters live with him never worked out. When the house was finished the Great Depression was settling in, so Telling shared the house with his brother Frank and sister-in-law Gertrude as well as a cook and gardener.