Original owner keeps control of Christmas House

George Weiland Rogers, the nephew of the Rogers Christmas House Village founder Margaret Rogers Ghiotto, places the only bid on the the mortgage. [Will Vragovic, Times]

BROOKSVILLE -- George Weiland Rogers, the nephew of Rogers’ Christmas House Village founder Margaret Rogers Ghiotto, regained his family’s interest in the business by buying the mortgage for $100 at a public auction Tuesday.

Rogers was the only registered bidder to show up at the Hernando County Courthouse when the historic property, a popular tourist attraction, was put on the auction block to satisfy the bankruptcy court case against former owner Donna R. Jones.

Jones, who bought the business from the Rogers family for $1.5-million in 2006, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy 18 months ago and was unable to meet payment deadlines set forth by the court. Court documents indicate that she had $1.2-million in debt.

Rogers said that the Christmas House, east of downtown Brooksville, will remain open while he looks for a new buyer for the store.

“I’d like to see it stay open,” Rogers said of the business his aunt first launched in the 1960s. “People see it as an institution around here. I’d just hate to see it fail.”

--Logan Neill, Times Staff Writer

[2007 flle photo, Maurice Rivenbarak, Times]