There are pricier listings in Edgartown but none with a pedigree like that of the Mayhew Parsonage, which hit the real estate market this month for the first time in its 200-year history.
The Federated Church, which has owned the house and grounds at 75 South Water street since the 1950s, is asking $9,995,000 for the property. The house was built in the 1820s by a descendant of Federated Church founder Thomas Mayhew, on land that had been Mr. Mayhew’s homestead in the 1600s. The property is assessed at $15 million, most of which is attributed to the half-acre waterfront parcel it sits on.
The property remained in the Mayhew family until the 1950s, when Sarah Joy Mayhew willed it to the church for use as a parsonage, a role it has played for close to seven decades. Over the years, the costs and complexities of maintaining the historic house have grown, as has the property’s value.
In 2020, the Federated Church prevailed in a complex court case against a historic preservation group off-Island that had claimed rights to the parsonage, under a clause in Ms. Mayhew’s will that stipulated the building must be used for church purposes. The legal decision backed the church’s assertion that its purposes would be served best by selling the property and using the proceeds for church activities such as mission work.
The Federated congregation took its next step this June, voting to put the parsonage up for sale. While a private transaction seemed likely at first, church historian Liz Villard said the buyer has dropped out and the parsonage committee decided to let the real estate community market the property.
Emptied of its longtime furnishings — with some antiques donated to the Martha’s Vineyard Museum — the old house’s interior will be getting a new look on Friday when professional stagers arrive with temporary furniture and props to enhance its appeal to buyers, Ms. Villard said.
“We’ve moved forward in an appropriate fashion historically, and we’re hitting the ground running trying to sell it,” she said.
The new Federated Church parsonage for settled ministers is a four-bedroom house on Dark Woods Road, Ms. Villard said.
The Rev. Mark T. Winters, who begins his Federated pastorship early next year, will be the first settled minister to live in the Dark Woods house, which Ms. Villard said the church is renting at present with the intention to buy outright once the South Water street property has sold.
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