Some very astute readers of the Newburyport Blog sent me in some information on the new owners of 87 High Street, the house/mansion that I got nosy about and then went for a snoop. (See earlier entry.)

I went back and took a look at the Newburyport Planning Board minutes to make sure that yes indeed, these were the same folks.

And I thought, yippee, is this ever going to be fun to research. Forget about researching zoning stuff, I can research a California gentleman who is a producer, writer and director and whose wife is no slouch either, an independent TV producer and editor, I think. Wow.

Plus the gentleman in question co-produces a show with Denis Leary. Now forget about the “easy on the eyes” stuff (see previous post), Denis Leary is “hot,” often literally smok’n hot.

However… let’s just say that researching these folks made Stephen Karp look available. Researching these folks was like excavating slabs of granite with a plastic spoon (sort of alliterates with Peter Tolan or maybe doesn’t alliterate with Peter Tolan, I don’t know). Ok, so you get to scrap away a little dust, but that’s it.

Salemdeeds.com did give me an address in California. So having Googled myself half to death on these folks and getting nowhere, I decided, let’s find out about the town that they list as their primary residence.

Answers.com and Wikepedia.org call this place in California one of the wealthiest communities in the United States.

Epondunk.com says that in 2002 it was ranked No. 3 in Worth magazine’s list of 250 Richest Towns.

According to the Answers.com folks like Oprah Winfrey, Kevin Costner, Steve Martin and even Steven Spielberg, dwell in this community, just to name a few.

Before I started my research, I was thinking real seriously of calling up this family up and saying, “Hi, I’m Mary Eaton from the Newburyport Blog, why in the world did you pick us?” Not a hope of a phone number anywhere, much less, if I found one, getting through what I’m sure is the wall of people to protect our new neighbors from everyone who would like a “piece” of these folks.

I was going to say that Peter McClelland’s piece was pretty unwelcoming to the new owners of 87 High Street. I thought it was unwelcoming, didn’t you think it was unwelcoming?

I was also concerned that people in New England could be somewhat taciturn and careful about their acquaintances. Not often a group to run over with cookies and casseroles.

But I have a feeling that the new owners of 87 High Street might be happy that no one would run over with cookies and casseroles when they come for a visit. I have a feeling that the cookies and casserole thing, with this sort of moola, could kind of take care of itself.

This is really a whole new breed of buyer for Newburyport, Massachusetts.

And is this the beginning of a trend? Good grief, what if we become the New England version of the “Hamptons?” I’m not kidding here.

This makes the folks that bought homes in Newburyport, MA starting around 2002, and at the height of the current market look impoverished, not to mention the rest of us lowly peons.

I came away from researching these folks not with a smile on my face, but with a migraine headache. Zoning research ended up looking very soothing and relaxing. Who knew.

Mary Eaton
Newburyport