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Marblehead,
Massachusetts
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I've now been away from it for 36 years, and counting. Most people who leave their home towns still retain some link with them. In my case, my family still lives there, and I return occasionally for a short visit. So the following pages are the links I've kept to Marblehead. I haven't kept in touch with any of my schoolmates from 1958-1966. Click on the link below if you knew me from the 50's or 60's and arrived at this page, and I'll respond. Even if you have never met me, I'd love to hear from you.
I can't say a lot about Marblehead, as I don't live there anymore. However, I recently came across a number of links to town sites, and I'd like to present some of these below with reminiscences (or no reminiscences, as the case may be).
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| Marblehead Museum and Historical Society | Marblehead has a rich history. Besides being the Birthplace of the American Navy and the Yachting Capital of the World, it has the Lee Mansion, one of the best-preserved pre-Revolutionary War merchants' mansions, as well as one of the few surviving Grand Army of the Republic meeting rooms in the country. Visit its new website and see what Marblehead has offered the country. |
| Herreshoff Castle | This "castle" was built by a famous yacht designer near Crocker Park. When I lived in Marblehead, it was a private residence, but it now seems to be a bed and breakfast. |
| Marblehead Images | There are a lot of interesting photos of the town here. |
| Marblehead Magazine | This is a very comprehensive site, covering both up-to-date news of the town and historical material, of interest to those of us who've been gone for a while. |
| Marblehead Light | This lighthouse is on Marblehead Neck, and is a local landmark. Dad used to drive us around the Neck when we were young, and going to the lighthouse was one of the highlights of the trip. Occasionally we'd stop and clamber around. Such rides often ended with a trip to the little store for ice cream. |
| Directions to Marblehead | This is how you get there from most anywhere. |
| Old Burial Hill | One thing old towns have in abundance is cemeteries. This one is the oldest one in town, and contains many interesting headstones and burials. The page on the only Marblehead victim of the Salem Witch Trials is here. |
| Glover’s Marblehead Regiment | General Glover was a Marbleheader who most famously rowed George Washington across the Delaware without a slip. He is buried on Old Burial Hill (see above) and this is a historic regimental society dedicated to commemorating him and all the other Marbleheaders who served with him. |
| Skipper Ireson's Ride | When I was in 7th grade, Miss Walsh, our terrifying English teacher, made us read this poem by John Greenleaf Whittier. It's an account of what the women of Marblehead did to a sea captain who abandoned a sinking ship and its Marblehead crewmen to die. Lines 20-22 give a good rendition of what the Marblehead dialect sounded like. The story is a true one, with the exception that some of the crewmen were the ones who abandoned the ship, and to cover up their misdeed, charged the captain with the crime. Spare a thought for old Captain Ireson, then. |
| Abbot Public Library | For a while this site wasn't working, but it is now. It's the public library from which I learned how to read. I used to take out 5 books at a time and read one on the way home. Several times I bumped into telephone poles since my nose was buried in a book. |
| Marblehead Harbormaster | The Harbormaster is one of the most important public servants in Marblehead, since s/he maintains the harbor, the docks and moorings, and keeps order on the water. There are a multitude of sites referenced on this page that refer to Marblehead civic organisations, so go there if you'd like to browse around. |
| Marblehead Police Department | The cop shop. My great-uncle and my second cousin were Marblehead police officers. It wasn't hard to keep Marblehead safe in those days. Now it's gotten more difficult as all the ills of suburbia have come to haunt it. They do a great job and my hat's off to them. Note that there's a link in the lower left-hand corner to each week's police log. It's much more detailed than the one in the Marblehead Reporter. |
| Marblehead Animal Hospital | This is where my sister works, and I guess it qualifies as a civic organisation. |
| Oko's Veteran Fireman's Association | My brother's the president. They used to have a fife and drum band that was the envy of the state. Now, sadly, the band is defunct, but the engine lives on to fight for Marblehead's honour at Fireman's Musters throughout the Northeast. |
| Gerry 5 VFA | Gerry's is the other VFA in Marblehead. I understand they no longer feel that they have to beat the Okos every time they compete against each other. |
| Marblehead Chamber of Commerce | It looks like a promising site, but the walking tour was broken before I got started trying to access it. Keep it in mind for later. |
| Our Lady Star of the Sea Chursh | Star of the Sea is the Roman Catholic parish in which I was baptised and confirmed.
They have recently (within the past 6 months) acquired a website, probably along with their
new pastor. I still have the 100th Anniversary book that was put out
in 1958 giving the history of the parish and it is interesting reading. However, recently serious allegations of sexual abuse have been filed against a priest who was a curate at Star of the Sea in the late 60's and early 70's. Father Rosenkranz never liked me very much--I suspect that he either didn't find me attractive (as I was quite overweight) or thought I was too holier-than-thou to be trusted if I were approached. I was very involved at the church, as Monsignor McCarthy hired me as the sexton and I earned pocket money all during my high school years by keeping the church clean. I am certain that I knew the kid who brought one of the charges against Rosenkranz as he and I were the same age. It's really sad for everyone concerned, especially since Monsignor has been accused (26 years after he died) of having seen Rosenkranz and the kid in a compromising position and doing nothing about it. I do hope that Monsignor is cleared as he was (and is) one of my heroes. Requiescat in pace, Monsignor. |
| St. Michael’s Church | St. Michael's would be my parish church if I moved back to Marblehead.
It is one of the oldest churches in town. Its historic building is really
beautiful in that New England homespun way. Of course, the bell was cast by
Paul Revere. It is Anglican in the best sense of that
word, and would be a great place for me if I returned.
The newsletters, however, have petered out as of 2004. I hope they resume shortly. |
| Church of St. Andrew | St. Andrew's was the church my father's mother used to attend. It is the other Anglican church in town, but it's too far away for me to attend when I go back there. |
| Clifton Lutheran Church | I don't know much about it now, but I always used to ask my grandmother whether she went there because it was the closest church to her house. She finally got it through my head by asking me if I went to the Christian Science church across the street from home. |
| First Baptist Church | The parsonage is on Elm Street just across from the ancestral manse. When
I was a child my mother was very friendly with the minister's wife and we
often played with their children. I was hit by a car on Elm Street going home
from an afternoon over there. This link is also dead as of July 2006. |
| Temple Emanu-El | I don't remember much about the Jewish synagogues in town, but in contradistinction to when my father was born there, we were very cosmopolitan and had people of all faiths (and occasionally none) in our school classes. I learned a lot from my Jewish classmates that stood me in good stead when I went to New York to attend Columbia University. |
| Marblehead Reporter | The Town newspaper. There used to be one, the Marblehead Messenger, and you had to pay for it. The Reporter started as a free newspaper, something like today's Metro. Now I gather you have to pay for a subscription, like any other newspaper. However, it's available on the web, free to surf. Check out the Police Log and Dawn Bucket's column (in Opinions and Letters). |
| National Grand Bank | This is the old townie bank; it's been around since the 1830's and almost
everyone in Old Town banks here, along with many in the newer part of town. They
held my student loan which I used to go to Columbia University ($2,000 over four
years--people would strangle someone to get a loan of that type today what with
tuition rising from $2,500 / year in 1970 to God-only-knows how much today).
The current building is built on the spot where the old railroad station was. I remember it well, and it was a sad day in 1958 when the trains stopped coming to Marblehead. |
| Philanthropic Lodge, F&AM | I became a joining member of Philanthropic Lodge in December, 2006, when I attended Lodge and signed the bye-laws. Philanthropic Lodge has nearly 500 members and is one of the oldest Masonic lodges in the United States. I was impressed by the quality of ritual practiced there, and the Raising which I attended in December 2006 was spectacular. |
| Web Directory | This is a Massachusetts web directory, and I'm sure that anything else you need to know about Marblehead you can find here. |
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