Gamper said her mother refused to move out of the home she had shared with her husband unless she was assured it wouldn't be sold during her lifetime.
From her eighth-floor Vantage House residence, "she could look out her slider doors and see her house," said Jane Gooden, who has been the Rouses' housekeeper since 1979. Even during Patricia Rouse's years at Vantage, Gooden attended to the house twice a week, she said.
"Patty was opposed to replacing anything unless it was absolutely necessary," Gooden said. "She was always saying, 'Why do I want to fill up the landfill with stuff?' " recalled Gooden.
Her distaste for waste and her dedication to Enterprise — Patricia Rouse went into the nonprofit's Columbia office daily until she was no longer able, Gamper said — are why the house has not been renovated. Decades-old wallpaper still decorates several lower-level rooms and other finishes throughout could be replaced, Gary said.
But with some renovations, Gary thinks the property has the potential to be worth over $1 million.
Gamper, who stayed in one of the downstairs bedrooms during several summers as a young adult, is glad the home will be lived in again after several years without a regular tenant.
The sole thing she hopes the new owners will maintain about the house: the bright yellow double doors at the end of the red brick walkway leading up to the house. Some members of the neighborhood association were not pleased with James' unorthodox color choice, Gamper recalled.
"The yellow doors on Jim Rouse's house are really key," she said.
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Rouses' longtime home for sale
Address: 10450 Waterfowl Terrace, Columbia (Village of Wilde Lake)
List price: $795,000
Year built: 1969
Size: About 4,000 square feet of living space; waterfront lot is roughly 13,800 square feet, with about 100 feet of frontage
Specs: Two stories with four bedrooms and three full baths, two half-baths
Subdivision: Bryant Woods
Association fees and taxes: $1,600 annual fee; $7,500 taxes in 2011
Source: Mohler and Gary Realtors LLC
