Gateway Land For Sale

NEWBURYPORT – As you sit waiting your turn to enter the traffic rotary that links downtown and the Gillis Bridge over the Merrimack River in the city’s north end, have you wondered what are those houses and brick buildings off to east?
With its unspectacular houses and brick machine shop, the 5.5-acre tract does not look like what Realtor Lisa Newman calls “an opportunity for a lifetime.”
But it may be, and this unique property is for sale.
“No matter who decides to buy it, they will be creating a lasting legacy to be admired for years to come,” said Newman with the Laer Realty Partners’ Newman Group in Hampton, NH.
The property, which slopes to the river and has 250 feet of waterfront access, could be a showplace for a spectacular home. Or it could be subdivided into at least four premier estate homes on what is one of Newburyport’s major gateways.
Without a major zoning fight, the property, currently zoned R-1 residential, is not likely to become anything more than single family homes, although some developers have expressed an interest in that use, Newman said.
The property, called the Barkley Estate, is listed for $4.9 million. It has been on the market since May, waiting for the right buyer.
Initially there were multiple offers. The best one “was head and shoulders above the others,” Newman said, but the buyer pulled the offer at 10:30 p.m. in mid-July, which proved to be too late for other interested buyers to renew their offers.
“They had all moved on,” a disappointed Newman said.
The Barkley Estate, across the rotary from Moseley Park, the popular 16-acre riverfront park, was created by Lou Barkley, a quiet genius who with a third-grade education solved mechanical and engineering problems at Barkley Engineering that baffled engineers with master’s degrees.
Barkley, who died in 2011 at age 90, bought the property because the loam in the soil was good. One of 13 children in a Seabrook, NH family that grew up without running water and electricity, Barkley went to work for his uncle, a machinist in Amesbury.
He demonstrated a remarkable talent as a machinist, working with a lathe and dozens of other pieces of equipment, and soon went out on his own. Growing up in a farming family, he fell in love with the property on the Merrimack River. His nephew, Winthrop (Win) Martin, who has lived in the main house for the last seven years, said his uncle’s favorite pastimes were mowing the lawn and hitting golf balls into the river.
“I can’t imagine how many golf balls are at the bottom of the river,” Martin said.
Barkley took on jobs no one else could or wanted to do. He worked for yacht owners, local businesses and the city of Newburyport. He once solved an implacable challenge on one of the popular rides at Salisbury Beach, his nephew recalled.
He also raised bees and served as the city’s beekeeper.
People often dropped in to talk with him about a problem. “Even today, people stop in to tell me how Lou was incredible,” Martin said.
Martin, who worked for Western Electric Corp., brought engineers to talk with his uncle when they faced a daunting engineering problem. They sat in chairs in his workshop smoking cigars, talking about the problem.
“My uncle never said much, just sat with his arm folded. Then he would tell them how to fix it. He loved helping them out,” Martin said.
People would bring him a problem the size of a room, Martin said. He would listen and, in a few words, reduce the problem to a manageable size. He often did not charge for his advice, but did accept gifts of lobsters.
Barkley worked long hours and never went on vacation. His nephew once tricked him and wife, Eileen, into going to dine in a restaurant.
He had an inventor’s mind and invented a patented machine to inject jelly into donuts that Dunkin Donuts used. He also created a way to insert paper between the layers of cheesecake.
His primary focus was to make cleaning machines simple enough that a seventh grader, many of whom he mentored, could take them apart and clean them.
“He thought outside the box,” Martin said.
Potential buyers will have access to a master plan Martin had drafted 11 years ago. Included are soil conditions, survey, wetland outlines and the development possibilities along with an updated overview of what four ANR house lots would look like.
The property, at 5, 7 and 11 Spofford St.; 570 and 572 Merrimac St., is adjacent to $3 and $4 million homes.
“The possibilities here are endless,” Newman said.
His nephew believes Barkley would love the challenge.
For more information or to schedule a private viewing of this property, call Lisa Newman at 603-944-1062.