Clairview

Harry Torrey was a senior surgeon in Detroit and in 1916 he hosted a medical convention here for 1,200 of his contemporaries. The Torreys lived here for half of the year, but to avoid the cold winters they purchased Greenwich Place in Savannah. After their winter home burned down in 1923, they bought the 26,000-acre Ossabaw Island - Georgia's third largest barrier - with which they are more famously associated today. Clairview remained in their family until their son's, Bill Torrey's, death in 1958. In May, 1959, an auction was held here to sell off its contents but the following year (1960) vandals broke in and started a fire which destroyed the roof and badly damaged the ballroom. What remained was subsequently demolished that year  and the estate was subdivided for development.