The stately and sometimes controversial Drayton Manor estate has finally been purchased by a Dover Delaware couple who plan to move to Kent County and renovate the original house. It will be returned to being used as a private residence.
Drayton Manor is over 12,000 square feet located on Kinnaird Point overlooking Still Pond Creek. Drayton Manor was built by Wayne Johnson, New York lawyer and advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt. The interior include woodwork and a stairs moved from a 1790 house in Rhode Island.
Formerly owned by the Peninsula Conference of the United Methodist Church, plans to develop Drayton into a more signifiacant development met with strong community opposition a decade ago.
Jack Offett says
No way. Millionaires moving to Maryland? Sounds like a neighborhood upgrade or nice second home. In any case, this is a good sign for those who are concerned about Kent County’s foreclosure backlog.
Janet Brandon says
When money talks we all listen….xxx
bill arrowood says
while its good news that this stately manor wont be mothballed any longer, it is a shame that there was such short sightedness in the communities willingness to have the space a conference and event venue. That type of concept, while it might increase traffic on an otherwise sleepy country road and wrangle a dozen or so neighbors, could have brought potential tens of thousands of dollars into local coffers for the county and surrounding supporting businesses.
sometimes we need to remember that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
Bob Kramer says
Bill, you should stick to issues that you know all of the facts. The neighbors objected to the size, scope and scale of the project. Nothing more, nothing less. Sometimes good guys finish first.
bill arrowood says
that’s fair bob, i can only go from what i get in the press, which, after an initial dustup on this issue was pretty meager…
kate o'donnell says
My husband and I met the good doctor and his wonderful dog a month or so ago. He–the OB/GYN, not the dog–was eating in the outdoor space at Molly Mason’s just north of Kennedyville. Actually the doc AND the dog were eating because the doc had ordered a cheeseburger for his dog. an extremely well behaved Chesapeake Bay Retriever, who was being fork fed Crow farm-raised ground beef. We had a grand time chatting with Drayton’s new owner about a wide range of topics and learned that his family is ecstatic at the prospect of a dream-come-true of living on the Eastern Shore. We learned that he’d connected with Michael Bourne who will mentor Drayton’s restoration, thus sparing it a remuddling. My best advice to the new owner is to retain the grand, in scale and in period bathroom fixtures. Anything smaller in Drayton’s over-sized bathrooms would be like a marble rolling around in a bathtub. It is so good to see Drayton coming back to life with the grounds being groomed. Fingers crossed, in a few years’ time when the Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage revisits Kent County we’ll have the opportunity to admire Drayton fully restored.
Faye Kennedy Irvin says
I am a descendant of Charles Willard Geekie who had owned Drayton Manor in the late 1880s. The family attended the I. U. Epsicopal Church where my grandmother, Lucia Adele Geekie, and siblings were christened. I had the privelege to visit the house one time with my grandmother and hear her wonderful stories about growing up there. She was a happy childhood. I was pleased to read the manor had been sold to someone who apparently cares about it. I am looking forward to reading more reports about the house.
Faye K. Irvin. Orange Park, Florida