EDITOR’S NOTE: In July, Mayor Neil Perry announced plans to purchase the historic Searles Estate on Lawrence Street. While part of the property is now owned and occupied by Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School, The Sisters of Presentation of Mary have continued caring for the remaining 19-acre parcel, which includes 12 historic buildings, since they moved there in 1957. The sisters offered to sell the Gilded Age property, valued at $10 million, to the city for $3.25 million. The city signed a purchase-and-sale July 12 and brought the matter before City Council on Aug. 5. The City Council did not get the necessary two-thirds vote to pass. City Council will consider the purchase a second time at the Sept. 4 meeting.

History seems to be repeating itself, as the historic Searles Estate has again been on the real-estate market.

Among my items belonging to the late Methuen millionaire Edward F. Searles is a listing of the sale of Pine Lodge by then-owner B. Allen Rowland. He used a company in Boston named Previews Incorporated to put together the listing of what was for sale on the grand Lawrence Street property which was being offered for $150,000. The heading described the property as a “Superlative 20-Room English Manor Residence with Large Marble Museum, Italian Gallery Building, 5 Houses, 8-Car Garage, Modern Cow Barn, 2 Large Barns, Duck Pond, Tennis Court And 22½ Acres of Land.” The mortgage was listed as free and clear, and the taxes were stated as $5,379. No date is given on the document, but it would have been before July 1957, when the Sisters of Presentation of Mary purchased the property. The description of what was for sale is quite descript and thorough, including interior and exterior photos. I realize, as of today, that part of the property is again for sale by Presentation of Mary, while the former Presentation of Mary Academy is now owned and occupied by Notre Dame Cristo Rey, a Catholic co-ed high school.

Joseph G. Bella is vice president/historian of the Methuen Historical Society and has an extensive collection of local memorabilia.