Whatever happened to the Hall Estate in Hull?

Newport has its mansions, but the South Shore has its own grand historical homes where the public can marvel at the lives of the upper class. Most of these “cottages” were stately homes designed by notable architects. This is part of The Patriot Ledger's summer series "Summer Houses with History."

HULL − If one thing was true about the former Hall Estate in Hull, it’s that it was full of potential.

But that’s pretty much where the consensus about the 65-acre property ends.

For years, the wooded estate near the Hingham and Cohasset town lines, including its once-glamorous family home, was embroiled in bidding wars, disagreements over its future, and several failed redevelopment attempts.

The fate of the Hall Estate neatly parallels the course of history in Hull. Originally used as farm and grazing land starting in the 1800s, the property overlooking the Weir River became a summer residence for the Hall family from 1903 to 1966.

With a farmhouse, a carriage house and a barn built in the mid-1800s, the estate thrived when Hull was a popular summer destination for the powerful and the famous, including President Calvin Coolidge and Boston Mayor John F. Fitzgerald.

The Hall Estate remained a working farm until at least 1971. In the 1970s, Margaret Hall offered the property to the town for $1 with the condition it be used for a school called Hall High School, Ledger archives show. The town refused.

An heir to the Hall family sold the estate in 1981 to MGM for $460,000. MGM was looking to expand its successful Atlantic City venture to other East Coast states that would legalize casinos.

Hull’s history as an oceanfront resort, and its economic woes in the 1970s, made it a natural site for a casino proposal, and the idea caught fire as local politicians promoted it and town meeting voters approved it in 1981.

But the plan to turn Hull’s largest piece of undeveloped land into a casino died in 1985 after six years of failed attempts in the state's House and Senate to allow casinos. Massachusetts' first casino wouldn't be built for another 34 years.

A broker for the land said at the time it was worth more than $1 million, which is equivalent to about $2.7 million today but a massive underestimate for what such a large and valuable piece of land would sell for in today’s market. An undeveloped .28-acre lot on Highland Avenue is currently listed for $645,000.

The next owner of the Hall land was General Investment, a group that bought the property for $3.2 million in 1986 and planned to build 270 condominiums. After completing just 25, it proposed building a $31 million “Victorian-style” amusement park complete with a 125-foot-high Ferris wheel and a roller coaster.

More: Bigelow estate evokes memories of Cohasset's 'summer colony' era

Town meeting killed that project in 1993, and a proposal for the town to buy the land (valued at $2.8 million by 1999) didn't go far. As the development discussions went on, buildings on the property fell or burned, including a vacant 15-room Victorian house that was destroyed by a fire in 1999.

General Investment only built those 25 Nantucket-style condominiums before Avalon Properties bought 55 acres of the land and developed The Estates apartment complex. A portion of the land is now part of Weir River Estuary Park.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Former Hull estate's legacy lies in what came after it was gone