The historic township home once lived in by Muhammad Ali is on the market for nearly $2 million.
The beloved boxer, who died in 2016, resided there from 1971 to 1973. The 6,688-square-foot property in the Volken Tract neighborhood sits on 1.5 acres with six bedrooms and five-and-a-half bathrooms, according to its Realtor.com listing.
It still has Ali’s personal prayer room on the lower level.
The home was built in 1965 and bought by Ali in 1971 for $115,000. In a 1973 interview with Philadelphia magazine, the heavyweight champ said he purchased the home from Major Benjamin Coxson, a civil rights advocate and alleged associate of the Philadelphia-area Black Mafia, according to the book “Philadelphia’s Black Mafia: A Social and Political History.”
Coxson was killed in his Cherry Hill home along with his daughter just blocks from Ali’s home, in 1973, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Ali referenced Coxson in 1972.
“Good luck to my friend back there in Cherry Hill, Major Coxson,” he said, “who is the next mayor of Camden New Jersey,” a reference to Coxson’s unsuccessful bid to become the city’s mayor.
Ali told Philadelphia magazine that he put more than $100,000 into the house after his purchase.
“The house needed a lot of work done to it, so I put another $150,000 into it,” he explained. “Plus I paid $115,000. And I made a little mansion out of it.”
The house was later sold to Anthony J. Micale, the owner of 42 McDonald’s franchises, who paid $175,000 for it in 1974. He sold it 11 years ago to its current owner for $899,000. According to Realtor.com, the property was first listed on that site for $1,250,000 in 2002.
Since then, BrightMLS – an area Multiple Listing Service – has listed and relisted the property, with its asking price as high as $3 million in 2018. It has since hovered between $1.7 million and $2.3 million. The current asking price is $1,975,000.
The home has undergone a modern redesign and has a private pool, five-car garage, tennis and basketball courts, a shuffleboard court and a gazebo. While it is on the New Jersey register of historic places, the property still awaits the national distinction. Nicholas Alvini, the property’s Realtor, explained that the owner is awaiting notification from the national registry.
According to the National Park Service website, once a nomination is submitted, it is reviewed by the National Register Review Board and the state’s Historic Preservation Office. The process takes a minimum of 90 days, followed by a final review from the park service that takes up to 45 more.
