American Heritage Realty Company History

Initially conceived as a combination realty brokerage firm and building company, American Heritage Realty & Builders opened its doors with a St. Patrick’s Day party to celebrate its incorporation. At the time, only four other real estate offices, Nauset Real Estate, Gould Real Estate, Rich Realty and Ivar Johnson Real Estate, offered real estate services in Orleans.

The fledgling American Heritage rented the former South Orleans General Store and Post Office at the junction of Routes 28 and 39, until 1972, when the present American Heritage Realty building was constructed. Interestingly, the original general store/post office building was moved two lots away and converted to a residential dwelling. As the building/brokerage business grew, it expanded into land development. A number of Orleans, Brewster and Harwich neighborhoods were created by American Heritage Realty. Among them, Heritage Drive, Sturbridge Drive and Sherman Road in Orleans; Pine Orchard in Harwich; and Timberlane and Stonehenge in Brewster, are familiar residents today.

Throughout the years, Tom Cronin has been and continues to be the inspiration behind the American Heritage success story. Within the community, he has served as an elected member of the Orleans Planning Board, where he was instrumental in instituting the one acre minimum zoning bylaw; coached Little League for seventeen years, and is well-known among the tennis crowd. Apart from business, Tom enjoyed fifteen years as a pilot, and actively works as a professional photographer. His love of travel allows him to practice photo-journalism the world over, and has included involvement in television documentaries on Viet Nam, Cuba, and locally, Provincetown.

With few exceptions, American Heritage has been the leading sales office in Orleans on a year-to-year basis; since the mid-‘90s it has been the #1 sales office in Orleans. The expertise of a team of self-motivated real estate professionals, the behind-the-scenes support of Judy Cronin (Tom’s wife), a fabulous marketing program, and a proven track record account, in part, for the achievement of American Heritage Realty, now a recognized Orleans success story.