Hundreds enter ‘Mary’s Place’ home for estate sale that offers rare glimpse inside

Curious people and antiques buyers arrived by the hundreds to “Mary’s Place” on Monday for glimpse inside the historic house surrounded by Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center.

An estate sale at the home, located at 104 W. Eighth Ave., drew people looking for household goods, antiques and memorabilia during the first day. The sale is expected to last through Saturday.

“If they’re going to knock the house down, I want a little piece of it,” said Goldie Lions, a former employee at Sacred Heart who waited in line at the sale just to finally see what was inside of Mary’s Place.

Hospital employees, current and former, as well as antique hunters, seasoned estate sale veterans and others all came for the same reason: to get a peek inside the 117-year-old home.

The home’s longtime occupant Mary Gianetsas, a first-generation Greek immigrant, resisted selling the home to the hospital for decades. Gianetsas, who died in 1991, purchased the home in 1944. Her daughter Dorothy Alex inherited the home, where she lived until she died in 2022. At one point in the ’60s, the hospital offered Gianetsas $200,000, but she refused, according to her son who is now selling the home, George Alex. She wanted $215,000.

Today, the home is listed for $5 million, which is down about $1 million from last year when it was first listed. The home is valued at about $1 million, according to the Spokane County Assessor’s Office.

Alex wanted Providence to purchase the home because of the positive relationship the hospital has had with his family, but he said they can’t afford it anymore. Diamond Parking is now looking at the property, he said. What they would do with the home is unclear, he said.

“It’s very sentimental, but, you know, at my age, I just can’t dwell on that sentimentality, so what the heck,” said Alex, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday. “I got into real estate myself through the years, but I swore I would not marry my properties. It’s tough. We had a fantastic life here. When it gets torn down, that’s when I’m really going to get sick.”

Trinkets, teapots, blankets and books were displayed throughout the house, along with furniture. Everything was for sale inside the 4,800-square-foot home. Letters, post cards, hand-written notes and photo albums filled the nooks and crannies of the home where multiple generations lived.

Some men searched for old tools, while young mothers with babies in carriers turned over ornaments before moving on.

Jackie Caro always wondered about the home while growing up in Spokane. She was on her way to work on Thursday morning when she saw the signs for the estate sale and had to take a look inside.

“There’s some really interesting stuff, but just to see the architecture…” she said as she carried with her a large ceramic bowl. “Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

In her assessment, that’s why most people were there.

John Rothstrum has noticed Mary’s Place almost every day for almost four decades working as an intensive care nurse at Sacred Heart. On Thursday, he got his chance to enter.

“It has been something I have coveted and wanted to do for my entire career,” he said from one of the bedrooms on the upper floor. “I wanted to get a trinket from Mary’s house.”

Rothstrum found a set of Three Wise Men for sale that he intended to bring back to his wife. The home was exactly what he expected and more.

The home is a gold mine of antiques from different eras, said Nicki Krossen, co-owner of Spokane antique store Tossed and Found, as she directed a small team of people with armfuls of various items out to their car.

“There’s more than I thought since they lived here for so long,” she said.

Marianne Bornhoft, a real estate broker of more than two decades, said she was searching for antique furniture to help furnish a historic home she is selling in the West Central Neighborhood. But even the home’s parts, including its floor tiles, light fixtures and wooden cabinets, are valuable historic items, she said.

“There’s nothing here that’s not of value,” she said. “It’s such a piece of history.”