Photo from Prudential Cape Shores Real Estate. Link Below.
Lorenzo Dow Baker – founder of the American banana industry. Now you can live in his house. Photo: Library of Congress.
This home – which sits on ten acres within the Cape Cod National Seashore, in Massachusetts, was the birthplace of Lorenzo Dow Baker, the sea captain whose first load of bananas to the United States – sold in 1870 – launched the Boston Fruit Company, later United Fruit, now known as Chiquita. After he became a banana mogul, Baker’s primary residence was at a mansion in the banana-rush town of Port Antonio, Jamaica – where he was said to light his cigars with five dollar bills – but that dwelling has long since burned to the ground. This seaside parcel was put on the market by its current owners, the Biddle family – a highbrow clan known for their literary salons, according a Boston Globe story – in mid-October. The property is also the former home of American writer John Dos Passos, who – ironically – was a critic of the company Baker founded.
Here’s (first entry on the page) the real estate listing, with more pictures, if you’re thinking of bidding.
Update: This entry was posted in October, 2008. As of March, 2009, the home was still for sale, and the price hasn’t changed.
Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman 
