SCITUATE /Between Route 3A and Country Road
A place to get away from ‘fast pace of life’
By MAUREEN McCARTHY
The Patriot Ledger Area: 17.07 sq. mi.
POPULATION
2000: 17,863
2007: 18,288
Median household income: $87,066
FINANCES
Tax rate: $9.22
Town budget: $52.9 million
Average water/sewer bill: $333/$540
HOUSING
Median home price (# sales)
2007: $500,000 (211)
2008: $439,000 (149 through August)
Median condo price
2007: $427,825 (36)
2008: $368,000 (19 through August)
SCHOOLS
Number of students: 3,228
Number of teachers: 242
H.S. grads to 4-yr. college: 87%
H.S. grads to 2-yr. college: 3%
Median SAT score (2007): 1586
The Anacleto family lived on Pratt Road in a raised ranch for more than six years before deciding to move. With two small children and a baby on the way, Jen Anacleto and husband John needed more space. But they worried they would never be able to find a neighborhood as good as Pratt Road. So, they moved five houses away.
“A house opened on Fox Vine (Lane) and, we grabbed it,” Jen Anacleto said.
The sought-after neighborhood is nestled between Route 3A and Country Road and encompasses Bishops, Boulder and Fox Vine lanes and Creelman and Puritan drives.
“What is so beautiful about this neighborhood is it is eye-catching. It is lived in,” Jen Anacleto said of the place she calls home. “One of the great things is everyone takes care of their property. “
The Anacletos are raising their three children, ages, 8, 6 and 3, in the Fox Vine cul-de-sac at the far end of Pratt Road. A few hundred homes line the child-friendly area where bike riding or playing kickball is a daily ritual.
“Everyone is family-oriented and likes to get together,” Jen Anacleto said of block-party style barbecues, St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and weekend gatherings. “It was so refreshing because it makes you forget the fast pace of life and enjoy being with people you have so much in common with.”
The couple’s oldest daughter attends Cushing Elementary School on Aberdeen Drive and their son attends Hatherly Elementary School’s Primary Learning Center on Ann Vinal Road. Their youngest daughter is a student at the Beach Street preschool on Country Way. Each school is located just minutes from their home.
Alice Brennan, a real estate broker who works for Jack Conway, said Scituate is a wonderful place to live. “I have lived in Scituate for 52 years and think it is the nicest town on the South Shore,” Brennan said. “There is a very strong sense of community here.”
Most of the homes in the Pratt Road neighborhood were built during the 1970s, Brennan said. The area has a variety of styles including garrisons, colonials, raised ranches and capes.
In the past year, home sales have ranged from $375,000 for a 2,300-square-foot raised ranch built in 1970 to a 12-year-old 2,700-square-foot colonial that sold for $595,000. Currently, a 2,400-square-foot multi-level home is on the market for $599,000.
Just minutes from the Pratt Road neighborhood is the North Scituate commuter rail. Shopping, banking, specialty shops, restaurants, gas stations and hair dressers are easily accessible in North Scituate Village.
Jen Anacleto said she loves the town, her neighborhood and all of the people she calls neighbors.
“We are all so different but what bonds us is the love of our families,” she said. “We really feel blessed to be in a neighborhood like this.”
See more Neighborhood stories at http://tinyurl.com/patriotledger-neighborhoods.
