By Ken Doherty
Editor’s note: This is Part 2 of a three-part series on Methuen millionaire Edward F. Searles. The city recently purchased 19 acres of his historic Searles Estate (including 12 buildings and structures and $1 million in artwork) for $3.25 million and its potential is currently being explored. A Searles Estate Future Use Advisory Committee, established by Mayor DJ Beauregard, has been meeting and the public is invited to attend.
Edward F. Searles was deeply hurt by the criticism directed toward him after his wife Mary died in 1891 after less than three years of marriage. He withdrew from the public eye and highly guarded his privacy. He lost interest in the Great Barrington estate and the Dream House on Block Island. He very rarely visited either place. He donated a vast amount of acreage at Great Barrington and began removing furniture, artifacts and other features out of the mansion, including the large concert hall pipe organ manufactured here in Methuen. He brought many of those pieces to Pine Lodge.
Edward had a great passion for large pipe organs. In 1889, he purchased the vacant Methuen Woolen Company factory on Broadway at Harvey’s Falls (where the Methuen Memorial parking lot is now) which he turned into an organ factory. In 1893, he teamed up with noted organ builder James E. Treat to form the Methuen Organ Company. The company produced many of the country’s finest organs, several of which Edward donated to local churches. Many still exist. He had several organs in his Pine Lodge home.
In 1896, Edward suffered a sad loss when his beloved mother died at Pine Lodge at the age of 84. She was buried in the tomb alongside his wife in the Lawrence Street Cemetery.
Edward was seemingly obsessed with acquiring buildings and large parcels of property in Methuen and over the state border in Salem and Windham, N.H. He expanded his Pine Lodge property to include the adjacent Butters’ farm on the eastern side and the Waldo property on the western side. He intended to create an elegant entrance to his estate from Park Street through the Waldo property (now the Kenneth H. Pollard Funeral Home at 233 Lawrence St.). He even had two massive Corinthian columns topped with gas torches brought in from the former Bank of America building in New York installed along his proposed entrance. But he couldn’t secure a small piece of land at the corner of Park Street from the First Baptist Church that he needed to complete his plans.
East Street originally ran through his property from what is now the estate’s entrance near the Pollard Funeral Home and out to the exit just below St. Basil’s property. Edward owned property on both sides of that roadway. His residence was on the north side and his stables were on the south side. Being a very private man, he lined his property with high stone walls adorned with medieval castle-like features. He had a magnificent Tudor-style, covered footbridge built over the street to get to his stables without crossing the public roadway. In 1913, he secured permission from the town to reroute East Street away from his property to where it now intersects with Lawrence Street near Brown Street. He blocked the old entrance to East Street opposite the Lawrence Street Cemetery with a tall granite wall.
As for Edward’s signature stone walls lining his many properties in Methuen, Salem and Windham, he undoubtedly had them built for privacy. But he had another altruistic reason for these ongoing projects: They provided much-needed work for unemployed local laborers.
Edward was an eccentric man with eclectic architectural tastes. He collaborated with Henry Vaughan to build many different styles of structures at Pine Lodge and elsewhere. Their favored style was English Tudor, but they also incorporated other styles and construction materials into their projects. Everything was done with elegance and with the finest of workmanship. He spared no expense. On the property were a former windmill converted to a chime tower, a newer granite chime tower and a stunning brownstone chapel building. Attached to his home were a Marble Museum, an International wing, a Jacobean wing, a Tapestry Hall, a Banquet Hall and an Italian Gallery. The Jacobean wing replaced the Spring Brook Cottage. Inside each of his buildings were many pieces of exquisite artwork, tapestries and statues. Pipe organs were featured in several sections of the home. The grounds were beautifully adorned with terraced gardens, fountains and expensive statuary. It was his own personal showplace.
While expanding Pine Lodge, Edward also built many spectacular structures outside of his walled property. In 1900, he erected famed American sculptor Thomas Ball’s Washington Monument masterpiece at the corner of Lawrence and Park streets (now St. Monica’s property). He built the Red Tavern on Pleasant Street as a guest house a short time later. He converted the former Exchange Hotel on Broadway into a beautiful YMCA building (later the Masonic Lodge). He converted the former James Dodge grocery building on the opposite corner into the Turnpike Hotel and Tavern (recently known as the Page Building). He also completely renovated the stately Waldo House next to his home. Perhaps his greatest endeavor, however, was the magnificent organ hall designed by Henry Vaughan next to his organ factory on Broadway. He also built a beautiful concrete bridge and medieval-style turrets on Broadway adjacent to the hall.
Edward was very generous to the people of Methuen and surrounding communities. In Methuen, he built and donated the Searles High School on Pleasant Street and the Central Elementary School on Ditson Place. He built and donated All Saints Church (now St. Andrew’s) on Broadway, St. George’s Church on Carleton Street and the Second Primitive Methodist Church on Oakland Avenue. He beautified the Lawrence Street and Meeting House Hill (East St.) cemeteries. He donated land for playgrounds and open spaces. He built and donated the railroad depot on Railroad Street. He also paid the construction costs of the Central Fire Station and donated a hose wagon and a motorized fire truck to the fire department. For the police department, he donated their first motorcycle. When the town was struggling with finances, he generously gave several thousands of dollars to pay its bills. He paid to widen Pleasant Street and build the tall stone retaining wall opposite the Searles Building. He also provided many generous gifts to surrounding communities.
Edward owned a vast amount of property in Methuen, Salem and Windham. He owned many buildings in the center of Methuen and most of the property along Lawrence Street to the Lawrence border. Incredibly, he possessed a chain of properties stretching northward from his Oakside Farm property on the Lawrence border at Lawrence and East streets to the present Northeast Rehab facility on Butler Street in Salem. The only interruption in this chain was the neighboring Charles H. Tenney Greycourt estate. His Highland Farm ran from the top of East Street to Pleasant Street and down to Jackson Street, encompassing what is now the Holy Family Hospital and Methuen High and Timony School properties. On the northern end, he owned property from the corner of Howe and Maple Street all the way westward to Lawrence Road in Salem, including World’s End Pond. He attempted to extend his land even further northward of Butler Road, but the owner refused to sell the property.
In 1906, famed golf course architect Donald Ross designed the Merrimack Valley Country Club on Edward’s Orchard Hill property along Howe and Pond streets. Edward also owned Rockingham Park in Salem for several years.
He owned most of Pond Street in Salem and he spent much effort and money developing his Stillwater property along that road into a self-sustaining dairy farm. He visited the site regularly, traveling from Pine Lodge over his own private road through the woods. The road is all grown over now, but an abandoned and still magnificent stone bridge remains on the edge of the woods in Salem.
About 1905, he abruptly turned his focus to building another grand castle and estate designed by Henry Vaughan in Windham. It was completed in 1912 and still exists as a function facility.
In 1913, the U. S. government instituted a federal income tax. Three years later, Massachusetts joined other states in instituting a personal income tax. These acts put a damper on the philanthropic works of many of the nation’s wealthy citizens. Many of them moved to more tax-friendly states. By this time, Edward was in his 70s and was mostly focused on his Windham estate in tax-free New Hampshire. Later in the decade, he established his legal residence in New York City where he also owned a residence at the posh Murray Hill Hotel. Nevertheless, he still considered Pine Lodge his home.
Edward died at Pine Lodge on Aug. 6, 1920 at age 79 following complications from prostate surgery and other contributing causes. He was laid to rest in a crypt in the brownstone chapel he called Egypt at the back of his property. He had no children of his own. He left the bulk of his vast estate to his personal secretary, Arthur T. Walker. Edward willed the Pine Lodge property to Benjamin Allan Rowland, the 10-year-old son of his cousin, Mary Allen. Mary was the guardian of the property until Benjamin reached the legal age. The family lived on the estate.
NEXT in Part III: The Searles properties today.
Ken Doherty is a lifelong resident of Methuen. He served on the Methuen Fire Department from 1980 to 2010. He is the Fire Department historian and a former member of the Methuen Historical Commission. He wrote “Á History of Methuen and its Fire Department” in 1996. He is retired and still living in Methuen with his wife, Paula.
