HISTORY OF THE FOLEY HOME

LUNENBURG COURTHOUSE

This lovely old Lunenburg home, which is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Bob Foley, was built by Mordecai Cardozo in the 1890's. He was buried on the property until the 1960's when members of his family moved his body. Cardozo was from a distinguished family. One member, Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1932 until 1938, succeeding Oliver Wendell Holmes. Lunenburg County Sheriff, A.B. Shackleton, lived in the house in the early nineteen hundreds. His daughter Kathleen S. Pettus of Keysville was born in the house in 1913. William Edwin Neblett, Jr., a prominent Lunenburg attorney, purchased the house and property in the late 1930's after the home in which he was living burned to the ground. In the 1940's Roger Young, a Yale architect and cousin of Mr. Neblett's wife Virginia Akers Neblett, designed modifications to the house. His modifications included removing the grand staircase in the front hall and replacing it with a staircase between the two sections of the house and adding two bathrooms. Another bathroom on the ground floor was removed and was replaced by the porch on the west side of the house. The house remained in the Neblett family until about 1985. The Foleys purchased the house in March of 1994. In 1995 they purchased the property behind the house, bringing the house and land back together as it was originally. They have done extensive inside and outside renovations to the house. They have also built a 35-acre lake behind the house and numerous outbuildings. Their future plans are to open a recreational park with swimming, fishing, camping and picnic areas.