Oceanfront Castle on 40 Acres - 10 bedrooms, AC, & WiFi in Manchester-by-the-Sea

We offer the perfect retreat for you and yours. The Sharksmouth Estate is a private family-owned 40-acre woodland and oceanfront estate in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. Our ⅓ of a mile shoreline of rugged and enticing rock formations are for artists and adventurers alike, with swimming, gazing and tidal pools galore to explore. Beyond the ocean views and access, enjoy the clay tennis court, fields, goats, chickens and more by following our winding woodland paths. Dogs are welcome. We also provide parking passes and beach passes for Singing Beach, a beautiful white sand beach where the sand "sings" as you walk across it.

An excerpt from "The Aunts" by Isabella Halsted describes the early history of the Sharksmouth Estate and the "Stone House" at its center:

"The estate was named "Sharksmouth" for an upreach of jagged rock on the ocean's edge - a gigantic slab, slanting skyward, forming beneath it a mawlike cave of orange granite. Slightly inland and to the west of this landmark stood the Curtis house, on the brow of a wooded ridge overlooking the sea.

In 1865, soon after the Curtis parents had returned from their extended honeymoon in Europe, they visited the Danas in Manchester. Richard Henry Dana, father of the author of "Two Years Before the Mast," was the first "summer resident" of Manchester, and owned shoreland, a beach and island east of the town. Greely Curtis, riding through the woods one day, reined in his horse on a pine-covered cliff set back from the shore. Before him Massachusetts Bay glittered all the way from Gloucester Harbor in the east to Boston Harbor in the west. We are told that he made up his mind instantly; this land with its great pines and oaks, its wave-thundering craggy shore and the long arc of the horizon should be his domain. He would build his house on this cliff and establish his family here for the long seasons when he was not using the winter house on Beacon Hill. So, although Boston society criticized him for marooning his wife so far away from civilization (Nahant and Lynn being the summer resorts of the 1850s and 60s), he bought parcels of land from neighboring farmers and engaged Van Brunt (already appointed as architect of Harvard's Memorial Hall) to design his house. This turned out to be a Victorian-Gothic castle, complete with porte-cochere, wrought iron flourishes topping elaborate facades framing high gabled windows set into a steep slate roof, and a mysterious tower brandishing an iron banner against the sky."