Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-01-04
REAL ESTATE I'm NEWPORT.
A Farm Bought for &12, 600 Now Worth,
$1.5O0,OOOs

S1.5OO, OOG.
From the Newport {R. IL Mercury, Dec. "a.
The late Gov. William Beach Lawrence, in
1850, purchased of George Armstrong and
Others the magnificent Ochre Point property,
comprising sixty acres for S12 GOO. On the estate
there was the old farm house, which is still
standing near the greenhouse on the Lawrence
homestead property. Gov. Lawrence set about
improving his estate, and erected the present
Lawrence mansion. which was fine residence
for the Newport of that day. He came here to
live, and resided there for some years. He at
one time not very long after acquiring the
property, was hard pressed for ready money.
and offered the estate to Alfred Smith
for $4,000. Six months later he offered
it second time, this time raising the price
to $4,000. Mr.. Smith declined to invest,
and Gov. Lawrence retained the estate, which
continued to increase rapidly in value. with
the general and wonderful advance in New
port real estate that came with its devel-
opment into cottage summer resort for the
cultured and wealthy class in our country. The
first sale of this property made by Gov. Law
renee was in 1862. when r. M. Staigg bought at
| auction, for 81, 1868 a. a fine building lot This
gave occasion for the famous Lawrence against
Stagg case which was not settled on the death
of both parties this year. The same year Mr..
Lawrence sold to Marshall Woods for 50 S25 g
the tract of land which not long ago was resold
to Walter Fl. Lewis, and on which he has erected
a handsome villa. In September 1874. Alfred
Smith sold for Mr. Lawrence to Prof. Fairman
Rogers, of Philadelphia, for S35. 795, tract of
three acres, on which Mr.. Rogers villa stands.
Three years later Mr.. Smith sold for Mr.. Law
renee an additional acre to Mr.. Rogers for
Eli 400 In October, 1876, Mrs. George H.
Pendleton purchased, through Mr.. Smith, for
*lo,9oO, an acre of the farm where was built her
villa. The following August Gov Lawrence.
40 vol hla frop nf
ten acres to Pierre Lorillard, of New York, for
x96, AZ Here Mr.. Lorard has erected one of
the finest summer residences in Newport. In
1879 Mr.. Lorillard added three-quarters of an
acre to his estate. paying for it $4,000 This
sale was also made by Mr.. Smith
No more sales of this valuable tract were
made until the present year. when, beginning
with September, several sales are recorded
amounting in the aggregate to several hundred
thousand dollars. The first OF these were lot
on Ochre Point and Shepard avenues measur-
ing 15l by 80 feet. to Mrs. NJ C. Acosta, of
Baltimore. for $40. 40; another lot of the same
SIZE on Ochre Point and Victoria avenues to
Mrs. h. c. O'Donneli, of Maryland, for $40, 49,
and third lot, measuring 27l by 1913 feet, on
kuggles and Lawrence avenues, to Prof Chas
W. Shields. of Princeton College, for $4,000
TN the two first named sites handsome resi-
dences are in process Of building for the pur-
chasers
A few weeks since Mr.. E. A. Crocker effected
tLc Sdic vi the Law TeHCc DOIDeSJedu ana COlr-
teen acres of lana to Miss Catherine l.. Wolfe, of
New York, for 1892, OOO. Mr.. Croker followed
this with another important transfer. This was
the sale of a fine tract of ten acres on Lawrence,
Ochre Point. LIE Roy, and Shepard avenues, to
Gen. II. J. Van Allen, of New York, for
S9S 94250 The long list ends with the pur-
chase by Miss Julia Rhinelander, of New York,
OF four acres of land on the Cliffs between the
kernochan and Fairman Rogers estates. The
price paid for this tract is said to have been
$50 900.
In the last seven years on the Lawrence
farm there have been erected the fine villas Of
Prof Fairman Rogers, Mrs. George II. Pende-
ton, Mr.. Pierre LOrillard and Mr.. w. H. Lewis
and to these will soon be added the cottages of
Mrs. AcOsta and Mrs. O'DOnnell.
The amount realized by Gov. Lawrence from
his $4,000 farm was $176, 1851, and since his
death the sales aggregate 1884 222. 50. making
the total sum $500 1887. This is pretty fair
profit to make in thirty years on an investment
OF $4,000. When the farm was sold some fifty
years or more ago for $465, little did seller or
buyer imagine that its value would be counted
in millions. Taking into consideration the i'm
provements and valuing the land on the basis
of recent sales it is not eXtravagant to estimate
the present value of the sixty acres and the
villas on it at not much less than 81 SOC, 600.
Verify, Newport has made some progress,
despite the venerable pessllnists who look back
regretfuly at the good old times.