DUXBURY /Hall's Corner
Private yet close to beach and shops

By TERI BORSETI
For The Patriot LedgerArea: 37.63 sq. mi.

POPULATION
2000: 14,248
2007: 15,294

Density: 644 res./sq. mi.
Median age: 42
Median household income: $108,611

FINANCES
Tax rate: $10.14
Town budget: $54.6 million
Avg. water bill: $491/yr.

HOUSING
Median home price (# sales)
2007: $638,250 (172)
2008: $592,500 (44 through May)
Median condo price
2007: $352,000 (21)
2008: $337,000 (13 through May)

SCHOOLS
Number of students: 3,372
umber of teachers: 199
H.S. grads to 4-yr. college: 87%
H.S. grads to 2-yr. college: 5%
Median SAT score (2006): 1656

Duxbury is well known for its magnificent oceanfront manses and close-knit family neighborhoods.

A cluster of streets in the Hall’s Corner area – which includes Hawkins Place, Prior Farm Road, Amos Sampson Lane and Reynolds Way off Depot Street – is home to people of all ages.

Hall’s Corner, which is in Duxbury Village, is just a short walk away from the neighborhood where children are plentiful and pickup games are an everyday event.

Alexa Matthews of Hawkins Place and her friend, Joanna Polcar, will begin their senior year at Duxbury High School in the fall. But before September arrives, they will walk to Duxbury Village countless times.

“There are a lot of nice little shops there, and it’s just a short walk. There are places to eat, antique shops and you can even walk to get a haircut if you want to,” Matthews said.

Polcari added: “I live on Prior Farm Road. It’s a bit of an older neighborhood, but I can walk to a few of my friends’ houses from there.”

The Matthews family moved from Tennessee in 1997 and has become fond of the area. Hawkins Place is lined with over-sized colonials. Some were purchased when they were small homes, torn down and rebuilt. The neighborhood features green lawns, huge oak trees, and plenty of colorful flowers and shrubs.

Dave Rezendes moved from Kingston into a farmhouse on Hawkins Place last year. “There are so many reasons we wanted to move here,” he said. Shortly before Rezendes bought the property, the previous owners razed three of the four cottages that sat on the parcel and built the house.

“At one time, there were quite a few smaller houses on this street - like bungalows - but many have been replaced,” he said.

Rezendes said he enjoys being able to walk with his young children to Shipyard Beach, a small resident-parking-only beach one-half mile from his house off Washington Street

“I’m 10 minutes from the highway, we have the small beach for short trips and Duxbury Beach for day trips, and being able to walk to the center is a nice feature of this area,” Rezendes said.

Houses in the neighborhood sell quickly and range in price from the mid-$600,000s to $2 million, said Dorry Arnold, a real estate agent for Coldwell-Banker. “In addition to all the things people like about this area, there’s the commuter train station just 10 minutes away in Kingston,” she said.

A 12-room house on Reynolds Way is for sale for $1,175,000. It has five bedrooms, three fireplaces, a three-car garage and an in-ground swimming pool. “It’s a great family house in a very desirable neighborhood,” Arnold said.

The Duxbury Thrift & Consignment Shop, which is next door to the post office, . has been open for 55 years and helps pay for scholarships for Duxbury High School seniors. Last year, the store raised $39,000 for the town scholarship fund.