A group of Sanford residents remains optimistic it will be able to buy the Goodall Mansion after the historic home was sold to a bank during a foreclosure auction Thursday.

Joe Doiron, who formed the Goodall Mansion Society with the intent of preserving its namesake building, attended the auction Thursday at a South Portland law firm and said Deutsche Bank bought the mansion for about $280,000. Doiron said his group plans to submit a purchase bid to the bank next week. The group has not yet decided how much to offer for the building and surrounding property, which is assessed by the city at $577,100.

Additional Photos

Goodall Mansion in Sanford was auctioned off Thursday. A group called the Goodall Mansion Society hopes to buy the historic home from the bank and turn it into a cultural center. Photographed on Monday, January 14, 2013. Gregory Rec / Staff Photographer

The Goodall Mansion, built in 1871 by Thomas Goodall, an industrialist and philanthropist who founded Sanford’s mills. The stately mansion sits on 2.5 acres on Main Street and has been called the “Jewel of Sanford” by residents.

The Goodall Mansion Society wants to transform the 18-room mansion into a preservation workshop and cultural center with English gardens and an artist-in-residence program. Doiron estimates it will take $120,000 to stabilize the building and about $500,000 to restore it enough to open it to the public. Doiron said the group wants to restore the Goodall Mansion to “its glorious past.”

While the Goodall Mansion Society has moneyto put a deposit on the building if its offer is accepted by Deutsche Bank, it would launch a fundraising effort to complete the purchase and restore the building.

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