Christmas landmark is on sale

Lights on house drew many to Jamaica Plain

Dominic Luberto stood in front of his home in December 2006. Last year, the house featured a 10-foot-high, 650-pound golden crown, 500,000 lights, and inflatable characters. (Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff/File)

Jamaica Plain's crown jewel is on the market.

Known for its outlandish Christmas display topped with a giant golden crown, Dominic Luberto's Arborway home was put up for sale Friday.

Asking price: $2.2 million - lights not included.

"I don't want to do it," said Luberto, who bought the 8,514-square-foot house in December 2005. "It's my wife. She thinks it's too much. And I say, I got to sleep with her, I don't want to argue with her."

The seven-bedroom, 4 1/2-bathroom home, built in 1760, then renovated and expanded in 1897, was a landmark long before Luberto started embellishing it with lights, said Dolores Boylan of Hammond Residential, who is the listing agent for the property.

"It's always attracted a grade of people that aren't your ordinary family," she said, noting that Republican politician Jack E. Robinson III and a former Celtics great Bill Russell have also called the Tudor-style castle home.

Turreted, with porte-cocheres in front and back and a wrought-iron Juliet balcony, the house boasts six living levels, 11 fireplaces, and an in-ground swimming pool. There's also an 840-square-foot pool house and a two-car garage. The living room is festooned with a rollicking band of rococo plaster cherubs playing lutes and harps.

"The house is beautiful," said Luberto's wife, Isora, who noted that the couple live there with their 12-year-old daughter.

"Anyone would love to live here, but it's for a bigger family," she said.

For the past two holiday seasons Luberto has created a Christmas spectacle on and around his home, featuring hundreds of thousand of lights, inflatable characters, and a reindeer and sleigh that appear to be flying.

The show, which featured 500,000 lights last year, costs thousands in supplies and power bills - $11,000 in 2007, by Luberto's count. Sightseers come by the hundreds and the house has been featured by news organizations around the world.

"It's definitely tacky, but in the best way possible," said Megan Webb, a Jamaica Plain resident whose 4-year-old daughter, Caroline, was delighted by last season's display.

Last fall, Luberto drew the ire of his neighbors and city officials when he installed a 10-foot-high, 650-pound golden crown on top of the three-story house. Neighbors worried about it blowing down in a storm, and the city cited him for installing a structure without a permit. But five months later, the crown remains atop the house.

"Trees have blown down, but it's still up there," Luberto said.

The crown, as well as the thousands of lights still adorning the house, will come down before it's sold, Luberto said. He said he's waiting until all the snow on the slate roof has melted and it's safe to walk on the structure again.

Some residents in this tony neighborhood punctuated by million-dollar homes nestled along the parkway near Jamaica Pond are thrilled by the prospect of the house changing hands. Neighbors have long complained about the light pollution and traffic backups that the display causes.

"Hooray!" said Sue Reid, who lives nearby on May Street.

An environmental activist, Reid said she's turned off by the vehicles that stop in front of the house as well as by the ecological impact of so many lights.

"I'm excited this mess might be moving on," she said. "It's such excess."

But there's no telling how long it will take the house to sell, Boylan said.

"It's such a unique house, it could sell straight away or it could take a long time," she said.

Luberto said he and his wife are not sure where they are going to move. They may decide to live in one of the seven other homes that they own in the city, or they might buy something new. But even if the house doesn't sell right away, neighbors can breathe a sigh of relief - Luberto has pledged to take the next two years off from his Christmas decorating.

"Then, I want to come back in 2010 with a million lights," he said.

Tania deLuzuriaga can be reached at deluzuriaga@globe.com.