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! State Pays Big Price
For Raccoon Tract
Land That Cost Appointed Head of Park
$2,200 in 1940 Is Sold for $25,000
Richard Gridley, superintendent of Raccoon State Park,!
paid $2,200 in 1940, for the 120-acre plot the state purchased
from him for $25,000 recently to add to the park area.
Although Gridley, 41, former navy lieutenant commander, has built a modern seven-room bungalow to add
to the value of the property, his* "" "]
entire holdings were assessed for property brought only $1,800 inj
taxing purposes at less than
$10,000.
In addition to receiving $25,000,
Gridley, who is paid an annual
salary of $3,516 a year for his
park duties, will be allowed to live
his home for 10 years for a
rental of a $1 a year.
Located on Dirt Road
Most of Gridley's plot is sub-
marginal land which could be used
for hunting and little else. His
neat white-clapboard home, with
numerous outbuildings, is located
on a one-lane dirt road, one and
one-half miles from Route 30, in
Hanover, township. Beaver count'
' AeXioYuiiig to' Tvliio F. DraeiinJi,
secretary of the Department of
Forest and Waters, who is
tilled admiral, former Commander
Gridley can live at the bungalow
for 10 years at $1 annual rental,
whether he continues as park
superintendent or not.
Seventy acres of Gridley's property will become part of the 102-
acre Raccoon Park lake, now
under construction.
Gridley was an assistant to former Navy Secretary James V.
Forrestal, now defense secretary,
during the war.
In 1940, Gridley purchased the
120 acres including a two-story
frame house from, the estate of
Andrew F. Peairs of Elizabeth,
for $2,200. In 1938, the same
another real estate transaction,
House Valued Highly
Secretary Draemel's $25,000
price to Gridley compares with
$4,000 paid to John F. Stuckwish
for 67 acres immediately adjacent
to Gridley's property, and bearing
almost identical characteristics.
SECRETARY M. F. DRAEMEL
This price was approximately
$60 per acre. At the same rate,
Gridley's 120 acres would cost $7,-
200, which would indicate that the
state estimated the value of Grid-
ley's home at $17,800, to bring
the total to $25,000.
Gridley x-eportedly did most of
the work on his home, himself. It
overlooks Raccoon creek and is
near Route 30, about 20 miles
from Pittsburgh.
The area is extremely isolated,
and the nearest house is almost a
half-mile away.
j Gridley would not comment
! Thursday on the property sale,
j stating that he had been in-
istructed to refer all queries ' r*«
'"---- •'• ir>ent of Forests and
x - '"'-■ V Rpvo,,.,: .. "
