August 18, 2009

For sale: Prestigious Delaware address

36 The Green offers a rare chance to live among history

By J.L. MILLER
The News Journal

DOVER -- It's an address with the quiet cachet of a single-digit license plate: 36 The Green.

And for the first time in generations, it's for sale.

The stately Federal-period home, one of only four private residences on The Green in Dover's Colonial heart, has been put on the market by owner Mary Terry Mason Carroll.

The asking price: $1.1 million.

Carroll, a member of the Terry family that includes former Gov. Charles L. Terry and the late Superior Court Judge N. Maxson Terry Jr., has listed the home with Ocean Atlantic Sotheby's International Realty in Rehoboth Beach.

"It's a house that really needs a family," Carroll said.

That would continue a tradition of family ownership that began when it was built in 1790. Carroll, who grew up in the home, said it has been in the Terry family for 70 years.

Most of the buildings on The Green are state-owned, such as the Old State House, or have become law offices after the families who built and lived in them for generations faded away.

Only four are left in private hands. One goes on the market about as often as a single-digit Delaware tag -- in other words, almost never.

"It hasn't happened for quite a while," said Charles T. "Terry" Jackson, who lives on The Green with his wife, Theo. Their house has been in Theo Jackson's family since 1854.

A grassy square cleaved in two by busy State Street, The Green was laid out in 1717 in accordance with a 1683 order by William Penn.

With the county courthouse on its southeast corner, The Green has been the site of celebrated trials, political rallies and even an unusual funeral ceremony to quiet the restless ghost of Chief Justice Samuel Chew, who reportedly troubled late-night pedestrians not long after his death in 1744.

With Sotheby's global reach, it is difficult to predict whether someone from Delaware will purchase the property, said Denise Cain, the agent handling the listing.

"I wouldn't want to even venture a guess at that," Cain said, adding that the home "has a lot of potential." Because unique homes at the high end of the market are selling well, Cain said, she doesn't think there will be any problem finding a buyer.

And thanks to the mixed nature of the neighborhood -- private homes, law offices and state buildings -- 36 The Green is zoned for residential and limited commercial use.

A buyer could convert it into law offices, for example, or use a portion for an office and the remainder as a residence. Carroll said the large rooms and floor plan wouldn't lend themselves to office use, but the springhouse in the back of the property -- which contains an apartment -- would be ideal for an office.

Or it may well remain a private home.

"It's being listed with Sotheby's. That's going to give a regional, if not international, scope to the marketing," neighbor Jackson said. "I would imagine, like a lot of the Eastern Shore, retired folks moving to this area from the city would find it pretty affordable."

Steeped in history

A number of prominent families have lived in the house since Joshua Fisher began construction just three years after Delaware delegates ratified the federal Constitution at the Golden Fleece Tavern, a stone's throw away.

According to an entry in the Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware, Issues 50-55, Joshua Fisher was in "an advanced state of consumption" during the construction and died before it was completed.

His cousin, John Fisher, finished the construction and lived there before selling the home in 1823 to Dr. John Adams of Frederica. Adams died about 10 years later, and Joseph P. Comegys bought the property.

A Delaware chief justice, Comegys clerked for John M. Clayton, who served in the U.S. Senate and as secretary of state. Clayton died in office in his final Senate term, and Comegys served out the remainder of the term. Clayton also owned a significant home: Buena Vista, the mansion south of New Castle now used as a state conference center.

The house at 36 The Green, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Dover Green Historic District, started out as a two-story structure. Carroll said a third story was added in the 1850s, along with a wing, boosting the total space to 5,000 square feet.

Tucked into the southwest corner of The Green, the old home has been a silent witness to history, from the growing pains of the new nation to its near dissolution in the Civil War. Newspapers were published on The Green, troops bound for the nation's wars departed from its tree-shaded expanse and at least four presidents have spoken there.

In the 20th century, the house at 36 The Green was part of a vibrant neighborhood still made up mostly of families, although the Old State House and Kent County Courthouse anchored the east side of The Green.

"It was a neighborhood. It was simply that. I didn't grow up or live on The Green, but a lot of my friends did," Terry Jackson said, recalling his childhood in Dover.

"There used to be a ball diamond worn in The Green on the west side of State Street. That doesn't seem very likely now," he said.

Still, he said, The Green is a wonderful place to live.

"It's great," Jackson said. "Oddly enough, contrary to popular opinion it's very quiet -- until the ambulance goes by."