AMESBURY – If you have dreamed of owning a home overlooking the Merrimack River, built by the man who nurtured the American carriage and car industries, Erica Puorro with Lamacchia Realty can fulfill that dream with the nine-bedroom mansion at 372 Main St.
Built by William Biddle in 1912, just down river from the Marina at Amesbury Point, the home features mahogany box beams above hardwood flooring and leaded glass bookcases and windows.
The current owners have made improvements, including a dumbwaiter that adds charm along with the home’s original craftsmanship. Even its servant bells remain.
Offered for $2.2 million, the 8,480-square-foot mansion still has six fireplaces.
Lee Knapp, a neighbor, who lived on Point Shore as a child 75 years ago, recalled the Biddle mansion as “warm and inviting” with cultivated berry patches on the side of the house where the Powow River runs.
“The entire property was the perfect venue for adults at Great Gatsby-type galas,” Knapp was quoted.
For the Gatsby-style parties, the 18-room mansion has a crystal chandelier and a well-equipped kitchen with a 10-foot island, a double oven and three pantries. While two pantries are in the kitchen, one is on the second floor in what was a breakfast room that provides an outstanding view of the river. The room is now used as a bedroom.
The sunroom, wrapped in windows, is heated with its own fireplace. The views of the river follow from room to room and along from the rooftop deck.
A three-car garage caters to the car lover, and the set-back home has a private backyard. With the large number of bedrooms, this home, just an hour from Boston, could be a primary home or multi-generational with au pair suites.
“At the turn of the 20th Century, Amesbury stood at the forefront of American innovation as the birthplace of the carriage industry and an early pioneer of automobile body manufacturing,” a book on the mansion states. “It was against this backdrop of prosperity and ingenuity that prominent industrialist William Biddle, co-founder of the celebrated Bidle & Smart Co. commissioned this remarkable residence along one of the city’s most distinguished thoroughfares.”
Biddle founded the company, the Biddle, Smart Carriage Co., with William Smart and M. D. F. Steeve in 1878 and began production of carriages two years later. Biddle began building club cars in 1910. Seven years later, it purchased the S.R. Bailey company and entered the car business.
By 1923, it was manufacturing 12,000 car bodies for Hudson and would produce bodies for Lincoln and Roll Royce in Springfield.
For a tour of the Biddle mansion, contact Erica Puorro, the top Realtor in the Lamacchia Realty in Amesbury for transactions in 2025. She can be reached at 857-225-2436 or visit her at the Lamacchia office at 20 Market St. Amesbury. ♦
