After three years on the market, historic Lakeville home has new owners

LAKEVILLE — The historic Holley-Williams house in Lakeville on Route 44 has been sold to two New Yorkers with experience in renovating historic buildings, according to Digby Brown of John Harney Assocates, a Salisbury real estate agency.

The sale was closed Friday, July 16, and transfers the property from the Salisbury Association to Luis Arroyo and Tom Callahan of New York City. The price was an even $500,000.

Dave Heck, president of the Salisbury Association, said the house had been on the market for about three years. The association has owned the house since 1971.

The house had been designated as a historic house museum with furnishings and even clothing from the 1800s that had belonged to the Holley and Williams families. The Salisbury Cannon Museum was also on the grounds. Events of all kinds were held there, from spooky Halloween story readings for children in the outbuildings to Revolutionary War encampments to Victorian Christmas concerts.

But the house required more funds than were being collected and it became a financial burden and, after many efforts to make it solvent, it was put up for sale.  Heck said the annual cost to the association of maintenance was between $20,000 and $25,000.

What made the property tricky for buyers were preservation requirements. Heck said the exterior must be preserved as is, including the grounds. The 4.75 acres of the lot are not developable.

The interior of the “new� part of the house (built in 1808 by Lakeville businessman John Milton Holley) must also remain as is, apart from maintenance and things like new wallpaper.

The interior of the older part of the property (the original Salisbury ironmaster’s house, from 1768) may, however, be reconfigured.

 Brown said several potential buyers were deterred by the preservation requirements, but Arroyo and Callahan “understand — and they’ve done it before.â€�

Although they are listed as New York residents, they have lived in Sharon and Salisbury and most recently owned and renovated the house on Route 41/44 in Lakeville still known by the name of its previous owner, antiques dealer Virginia Rosen.

With that project, and with others done in the Northwest Corner, Callahan and Arroyo gained experience with the challenges of living in and updating a historic and visually prominent older house.

Many of the contents of the Holley-Williams house were sold at auction; some items of historical value to the town remain in the association’s collection.

Heck said the sale was a pleasant development for the association.

“I think it’s a win-win,� he said. “We got a reasonable price, as did the buyers.�

Callahan and Arroyo were not available at press time to comment on their plans for the building.

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