Log Home Construction Financing

Posted on December 05, 2011 by Admin
Log Home Construction Financing

Log Home Construction Financing

After creating the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America during 1911, co-founders Father James Anthony Walsh and Father Thomas Frederick Price decided to establish their seminary in an old house located in Hawthorne, New York, about 15 miles north of Manhattan in the then semi-rural area of Westchester County. A class of six men had been accepted to enter the new seminary during September 1912. However, before they arrived, the house was deemed too small to accommodate them. Father Walsh and Father Price concluded that they needed to find another home for their students.

The Society, more well-known today as Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, signed a contract with a landowner (only known as Mr. Oussani) to purchase a 53-acre property adjoining an estate owned by John D. Rockefeller in a section of the county known as Pocantico Hills. However, Rockefeller did not want the new Catholic Society as a neighbor. He sent an agent to raise the offer by $15,000, and Mr. Oussani decided to sell the land to the new bidder.

In hindsight, this setback for Maryknoll proved to be a blessing. The Society sued and eventually received an $8,000 out of court settlement. The lessons learned from this first attempt to find a permanent home helped them better manage the next attempt.