Harry Norton Torrey

Henry Norton Torrey (October 7, 1880 – December 29, 1945) was an American physician. He was eminent in Detroit, Michigan.

Life and career Torrey was born in 1880 in Creston, Iowa, to Dr. Bartlett Norton Torrey and Flora Reed. He studied at Knox College at the University of Michigan

During World War I, he served as a Major in the United States Army Medical Corps. He then became a surgeon and administrator at Detroit's Harper Hospita l. At the time of the Torreys' purchase of Greenwich Place, it had "an elaborately furnished main house, a six-car garage, a laundry building, a superintendent's office and cottage, a gate lodge, a chauffeur's cottage, other servants' quarters, an artificial pond, and formal gardens." It also contained "a ballroom, library, billiards room, reception room, drawing room, music room, butler's pantry, refrigeration pantry, twelve master bedrooms and ten baths." Outside there were stables (which are still visible), a dairy farm, a 200-foot-long greenhouse (at the western edge of the mansion), a bath and pool house, and a yacht dock. The house and grounds were used in several silent films, including Mice and Men (1916) and Stolen Moments (1920). The estate was destroyed in a fire on January 27, 1923. Instead of rebuilding, the family moved to Ossabaw Island, where they built a house between 1924 and 1926, taking with them the two large iron gates from Greenwich Place.

In 1926, Torrey wrote The Story of Ossabaw.

Death

Torrey died in 1945, aged 65. He was interred in Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery. His widow survived him by thirteen years and was buried beside Torrey.