Jersey Shore mansion with rich opera history listed for $6.6 million. Take a look inside
A Jersey Shore getaway that has historically housed some of Philadelphia's more prominent names is ready for a new resident.
Located in Margate's Parkway section, 107 South Pembroke Ave., went back on the market in 2022 for $6.6 million. Joseph DiLorenzo, owner of the home's listing agency DiLorenzo Realty Group, said the nearly 92-year-old colonial mansion has drummed up considerable interest despite its lofty price.
"It's got southern exposure, a great location, proximity to the beach and the size," he said.
Topped with a distinctive green slate roof, the red brick home was built in 1931 for Henry M. Tracy and his wife Lillian May Tracy. He was a corporate attorney, court master and creditor in Philadelphia. She brought opera to the city's masses.
The daughter of Montreal's 21st mayor, James McShane, Tracy studied opera in Europe as a teenager, according to her obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer. However, after moving to Philadelphia at 18 in 1899, she married a man roughly twice her age and became a supporter rather than a singer.
Not the typical benefactor, Tracy launched the Philadelphia Civic Opera Company 25 years later, the first city-subsidized opera company in the U.S., the New York Times reported. With Tracy as the president, the company put on 10 to 15 performances a year before closing in 1930.
In Nov. 1930, Time magazine reported that the support for Philadelphia's opera scene was too thinly spread. The company's former conductor and artistic director Alexander Smallens called opera in the city a "bataille des dames," or battle of ladies, Time reported.
"The time had come, he said, when every lady with a lot of money felt that she should have her own opera company," the magazine reported.
Three wealthy women, Henry among them, each had their own opera company in 1928. Only one, the Pennsylvania Grand Opera Company, survived the fall 1929 stock market crash. It nonetheless closed in 1932 as funding dried up.
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By then, Tracy and her husband had made a partial retreat from Philadelphia. While they had spent time in various hotels and rental cottages in Cape May, Asbury Park and the Chelsea neighborhood of Atlantic City in previous years, the couple decided to make a second home in Margate. They bought a property 150 feet south of Atlantic Avenue in 1931. The following February, they moved into their new brick mansion, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The typical lot in the area is 50 feet by 80 feet, but 107 South Pembroke covers 10,000 square feet, DiLorenzo said. Framed by substantial landscaping, the property is an oasis amid an otherwise packed shoreline, he said.
"What makes it special is the opportunity to have a house and privacy and be a couple of feet from the beach," DiLorenzo said.
Though its exterior remains true to the 1930s, the home's interior is modern. A custom-designed kitchen features high-end appliances and yards of blue granite. The bathrooms were likewise updated with steel and stone. The living spaces retain classic hardwood floors and trim.
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Outside the manor is a massive stone patio with an outdoor pool. Tacked on to it is a long addition housing an indoor lap pool. Both have hot tubs and were added along with a cabana by the home's last owners: Philadelphia-based injury attorney Gene Locks and his wife Sueyun, who owns and runs a high-end art gallery in the city.
The home has four second-floor bedrooms and two more on the third floor. Six full bathrooms and a powder room accompany them.
DiLorenzo said most of the interest in 107 South Pembroke has been as a second home, just as it was designed for the Tracys. Even after moving to Margate, the couple spent winters in Philadelphia's high rises. Among them were the tony Barclay Condominiums, Warwick Condominiums and Benjamin Franklin Hotel, where the Tracys lived full-time after selling 107 South Pembroke to Charles G. Algase in the late 1940s.
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Algase, another notable Philadelphia personality, rose to prominence after Tracy's downfall. In early 1931, he created the “Dr. Algase Sunny Smile Club” to promote his East Market walk-in dental practice. Through the use of billboards and radio ads, the club grew to contain tens of thousands of members and spawned its own radio show that lasted until the mid-1950s, according to Algase's July 1970 obituary in the Camden Courier-Post.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Margate NJ mansion with Philly opera history for sale. Take a look
