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Marblehead By Nancy and Richard Woodworth It’s not difficult to understand why some call this beautiful town with so much cachet the jewel of the North Shore. Poised on a rocky headland jutting into the Atlantic, Marblehead has a lot going for it. It is seventeen roundabout miles northeast of Boston, whose skyline can be seen on clear days across the water, much as San Francisco’s can be seen from suburban Tiburon. Yet it’s a world removed – from big-city Boston, and even from tourist-crazed Salem, its better-known neighbor on the mainland. Founded in 1629 and apparently named for all the rocky (not marble) ledges upon which it grew without regard for 20th-century traffic needs, Marblehead was one of the earliest and richest settlements in America. Sea captains, merchant traders and cod fishermen erected houses and public buildings grand and small. Their edifices remain in use today, posted with discreet markers saying "Built for Ambrose Gale, Fisherman, 1663" and "Joseph Morse, Baker, 1715." The more than 300 pre-Revolutionary structures in the half-mile-square historic district have changed little since. A walking tour takes one past (and occasionally inside) the one-of-a-kind Jeremiah Lee Mansion, the art galleries in the King Hooper Mansion, the 1727 Old Town House that predates Boston’s Faneuil Hall, the brick-towered Abbot Hall landmark (permanent home of the famous painting "The Spirit of ‘76"), the Lafayette House (whose corner was removed, legend has it, to let General Lafayette’s carriage pass), the Fort Sewall harbor fortification and the second oldest Episcopal church still standing in this country. As opposed to restored Colonial Williamsburg or relentlessly perfect Nantucket, Marblehead is a "real" historic town, lived in year-round and bearing well any foibles or blemishes. Its original character endures – and townspeople fight fiercely to keep it that way. Small treasures abound: glimpses of the harbor through vest-pocket side yards, lush impatiens in window boxes and cosmos blooms waving beside doorways, oversize benches in the many small parks, antique signs, friendly townspeople, winding and impossibly narrow streets whose one-way directional signs thwart unknowing motorists at every turn. The fact that Marblehead is rather isolated and so difficult for visitors to navigate is both its bane and its charm. There are none of the tourist trappings that coax visitors to Salem, Gloucester or Portsmouth. It’s at the end of the road, so you do not pass through town on your way to somewhere else. You may come here for a quick visit and leave perplexed as to what the fuss is about. Or you are smitten and stay a while. Until recently, Marblehead – a bedroom suburb that seems far smaller than its official population of 20,000 – offered few overnight accommodations. The first inn of note emerged in 1986, and there has been a proliferation of small B&Bs only in the 1990s. The ’90s have also brought a changing succession of trendy restaurants and tony shops catering as much to the resident gentry on Marblehead Neck as to visitors in Old Town. Sailors have long been lured to Marblehead, which claims to be the birthplace of the American Navy and now the yachting capital of the nation. Some 2,500 pleasure craft bob at their moorings in Marblehead’s harbor. Members and guests assemble at six yacht clubs, where cannons are fired in a sonic ritual at sunrise and sundown. Thousands turned out in 1997 when the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") visited the harbor and fired a salute to the fort that was its salvation during a life-or-death chase with two British frigates in the War of 1812. Ordinarily, the town is at its busiest in late July during its century-old Race Week. Otherwise, as the world becomes homogenized, Marblehead retains a singular sense of place. As a local newspaper put it, "There is plenty of room for hollyhocks in 18th-century dooryards, but only grudging space made for automobiles. The arts flourish, public debate is often spirited, and Santa arrives by lobster boat." Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places in New England, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2004. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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