Century-old house of Ponzi -- yep, the schemer -- is for sale
The namesake of the Ponzi scheme lived here.
At the time, Charles Ponzi was quite a celebrity. He bought the Colonial Revival at 19 Slocum Road, Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1920, just months before his arrest for the fraudulent investment operations now commonly associated with his name. With 16 rooms, a carriage house, and a garden spanning nearly an acre, the property is grand — an audacious front for a swindler.
“There is newsreel showing hordes of photographers at the house. Ponzi would come out and talk to them on the front porch. He was so very proud,” said Christine McLaughlin, who is selling the 1913 home for $3.3 million.
He spared no expense letting his wife, Rose, cover the walls with green silk damask and other opulent decor. And he had his own chauffeur, butler and cook, McLaughlin said. (Click here or on a photo for a slideshow, with current and archival pictures.)
It was all subsidized by his claim that if investors gave him their money, he could give investors a 50 percent return within weeks. He financed this so-called pyramid con by paying existing investors with new investors' principal -- a fraud similar to the one perpetrated by Bernard Madoff and to another that virtually bankrupted Albania when Communism collapsed, according to the New York Times.
Ponzi’s wife continued to live in the home for three years, until he went bankrupt. John H. Devine, a distinguished lawyer, then purchased the property and owned it for the next 70 years.
“It was pretty much untouched from the time Ponzi left until a modern addition in the late ’90s,” said McLaughlin, who along with husband Ofer Gneezy purchased the home in 2000. “It still had the original refrigerator and a teeny freezer.”
Now there’s a much bigger kitchen and a less formal family room in the back of the house. But the views of the garden, the original molding and even the zinc sink in the butler’s pantry remain just the way they were when Ponzi lived there.
“You can imagine someone chipping ice with a pick” in the zinc sink, said listing agent Jodi Winchester of Hammond Residential. “There are definitely prints of Ponzi from the past in many, many rooms.”
The current owners have decided to downsize, but they admit the home is hard to leave.
“We had 900 people walk through the house when the historical society gave a tour,” McLaughlin said. “People in Lexington are aware of history and want to preserve it.”
In fact, “until the [Bernie] Madoff fraud, it was all an amusement,” McLaughlin said. “He was a status-oriented celebrity.”
Winchester agreed. “I have lived in Lexington for 53 years. My mother, being in the real estate business, would always say, ‘That’s the Ponzi estate.’ I have early recollections of the property.”
The home is also not far from the Lexington Battle Green, where the opening shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in 1775.
Besides its fascinating history, Winchester says, the home has a spectacular in-town location in its favor.
“Almost an acre of land near the center of Lexington — that’s a big deal,” she said. “This is the listing of a lifetime.”
Click here or on any photo to go to a slideshow, with current and archival pictures.
(Current home photos courtesy of David Ward. Historic photos courtesy of Christine McLaughlin and Ofer Gneezy.)
More from Zillow:
• Peter Madoff’s Long Island Home Listed as Ponzi Payback
• For Sale: Pilgrim-Era Saltbox Built by One of America’s Earliest Settlers
• Colonial Homes for Sale Across the US
