alphastreet said:

PatrickS77 said:

alphastreet said:

Just a regular old property. Mj lost interest in it after the raids and it was a symbol of almost ending everything good he stood for cause of corrupt society, but hey that’s just me.

Had he lost interest, he wouldn't have held on to it.
It's a spectacular piece of property and a damn shame that the estate didn't buy it back and tried to find a way to turn it into a museum. We have Graceland, we have Paisley Park, but Neverland turned to shit. Hoping that Burke will explore this option. At least he's not a total stranger to MJ.

PatrickS77 said:

alphastreet said:

Just a regular old property. Mj lost interest in it after the raids and it was a symbol of almost ending everything good he stood for cause of corrupt society, but hey that’s just me.

Had he lost interest, he wouldn't have held on to it.
It's a spectacular piece of property and a damn shame that the estate didn't buy it back and tried to find a way to turn it into a museum. We have Graceland, we have Paisley Park, but Neverland turned to shit. Hoping that Burke will explore this option. At least he's not a total stranger to MJ.

Free2BMe said:

PatrickS77 said:

Had he lost interest, he wouldn't have held on to it.
It's a spectacular piece of property and a damn shame that the estate didn't buy it back and tried to find a way to turn it into a museum. We have Graceland, we have Paisley Park, but Neverland turned to shit. Hoping that Burke will explore this option. At least he's not a total stranger to MJ.

The Estate always wanted to turn Neverland into a Graceland or Paisley Park. However, they couldn’t or didn’t for several reasons. Location, zoning, logistics,etc.- people in community complained about narrow road to the ranch and how it would cause un fathomable congestion with the millions upon millions of fans converging.
Michael’s children-Prince, Paris and Bigi- could easily have taken control of Neverland; however, IMO they didn’t want it because Michael never wanted anything more to do with it after the trial. He knew that Sneddon had tainted his beautiful home and sanctuary.
Hopefully, they can find some way around the problems of location, zoning, etc. and give Neverland the historical and wonderful status it deserves. Btw, Paris always considered Havenhurst more historical and felt closer to that home. That’s the very reason that she and her siblings still own it and she lives or lived there.

$22M doesn't seem like a bad price for what it is and its location. It's a huge house, tons of acres and lots of privacy, plus the HIStory of it.

It was originally called the Sycamore Ranch, because of the trees on the property. The tree engravings on the bannister etc reflect that.

I can understand the logics and nightmares of making into a tourist area. Just to pave the road to the house, create parking, etc would have been a huge undertaking.

I do think there is room for an MJ museum or whatever. MJ saved everything (per his own admission and Janet's) that to display it in a large way, and create an experience... that wouldn't be hard. Not something to just whip together, but it's doable. I hope it happens. The estate seems to just be sitting on everything and doing nothing but keeping their social media alive. I hope they're taking notes from Prince's estate.

To be clear on the "lost interest" thing, that's a misnomer. He said he'd never live there again because of Sneddon's white supremacist raid on the house. If he lost that much interest in general he'd have just sold the damn thing. But it is property and nothing wrong with owning land. (Look at how much Prince owned and we never knew it.) To say MJ never went back to Neverland would be uninformed. He certainly went back there. I would even venture a small wager to say he did sleep there a couple of times. But even if he didn't, he definitely visited the place, had things packed up, maybe sold off other things, whatever.

Neverland seems to really be its own enigma. Havenhurst is the go-to Jackson estate. So much happened in Jackson history at that house or once the family was in it. They've been there since 1971. That is pretty impressive. So many celebs buy and sell homes so frequently. That seems like the more likely go-to for a Graceland style museum. But man, those houses are packed in there. It's sort tucked in between other homes. It's almost like it's in everyone else's backyard. Not sure that'd work out well with the neighbors (without buying one of those home, knocking it down and creating parking, etc.)

TrivialPursuit said:

I can understand the logics and nightmares of making into a tourist area. Just to pave the road to the house, create parking, etc would have been a huge undertaking.

I do think there is room for an MJ museum or whatever. MJ saved everything (per his own admission and Janet's) that to display it in a large way, and create an experience... that wouldn't be hard. Not something to just whip together, but it's doable. I hope it happens. The estate seems to just be sitting on everything and doing nothing but keeping their social media alive. I hope they're taking notes from Prince's estate.

The road to the house is alright. There is even a huge parking lot on the grounds and there certainly would be plenty of room to display stuff. But like it has been pointed out, individual traffic there is not feasible. I know first hand. That's why the way to go would be to collect the visitors somewhere else and just bus them there. Of course, begs the question if Buelton or Santa Barbara or whatever would be the one having to grant permissions would want to be that closely associated with Michael, given what happened last year. But if they are not, they should be publicly shamed. Plans to turn Neverland into a museum did exist at least since '97.

To be clear on the "lost interest" thing, that's a misnomer. He said he'd never live there again because of Sneddon's white supremacist raid on the house. If he lost that much interest in general he'd have just sold the damn thing. But it is property and nothing wrong with owning land. (Look at how much Prince owned and we never knew it.) To say MJ never went back to Neverland would be uninformed. He certainly went back there. I would even venture a small wager to say he did sleep there a couple of times. But even if he didn't, he definitely visited the place, had things packed up, maybe sold off other things, whatever.

Exactly. He lived there during the trial and much of the time between the raid and the verdict.
And I also seem to recall that Prince and Paris actually went back to visit in the last 10 years.

Neverland seems to really be its own enigma. Havenhurst is the go-to Jackson estate. So much happened in Jackson history at that house or once the family was in it. They've been there since 1971. That is pretty impressive. So many celebs buy and sell homes so frequently. That seems like the more likely go-to for a Graceland style museum. But man, those houses are packed in there. It's sort tucked in between other homes. It's almost like it's in everyone else's backyard. Not sure that'd work out well with the neighbors (without buying one of those home, knocking it down and creating parking, etc.)

Turning Hayenhurst into a museum, should be even more of a problem. I can see much more resistance to that.

[Edited 12/25/20 15:51pm]