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After a long bus ride from Camden to Boston and another bus ride back out, I arrived in Marblehead, MA, one of the two towns that claim to be the birthplace of the American Navy and my home base for the week. When General Washington sat in siege outside Boston, he commissioned six ships to harass British shipping. He enlisted the help of Colonel John Glover – a Marblehead man, who would later help Washington cross the Delaware – in finding and converting schooners into ships of war. The ships sailed out of both Beverly and Marblehead, thus the duel claims.
Once I was settled at my lodgings – the Harbor Gardens Inn (friendliest and most welcoming proprietor I have met yet) – went off to explore a bit of the town before sunset. The first stop of Fort Sewall, which was established well before the Revolution, but the cannon in the fort helped to defend the harbor, making it an ideal place to launch naval and privateer ships. Only the embankments and view are left of the fort now, but it is a nice little walk.
From the fort, I made my way around
the old part of town, admiring all the houses that were first built in the 1700s. Unlike Portland, Marblehead did not get burned to the ground, so it is much easier to imagine what it would have been like here in during the Revolution.
My last stop for the evening was Old Burial Hill, where many Revolutionary War heroes were laid to rest. Some of the stones were much older and beautifully carved. I lamented the fact that many of the stones were – I believe – marble, which does not weather as well as slate, so much of the engraving was difficult or impossible to read on these stones. However, I did find the stone of Brigadier General (formerly Colonel) Glover and a monument to Captain James Mugford, one of the commanders in Washington’s navy. There were also two rather larger wild turkeys, and not wanting to be set upon, I made my exit (4.1 miles).
I have to take a moment to give a shout-out to Harbor Gardens Inn and the owners – Bob and Lisa – who were more than awesome. If you are staying in Marblehead, this is a great
place to stay. Since the Inn is their home, they treat you like family – great conversation and great recommendations for things to do and eat locally. The location is also excellent.
Tuesday was my venture to Beverly for some research time. Now, here I have to make a complaint. Beverly is about 3 miles from Salem and Salem is about 4 miles west of Marblehead. But, there is no bus – or train or other public transit – directly from Marblehead to Salem. Salem to Beverly, no problem, but Marblehead... What is going on Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority? This makes no sense at all – especially when there is a road (Lafayette St) that runs directly between them! Gah!
So using a roundabout way, I made it over to Beverly and spent a few hours scribbling down notes in their research room. The ladies were very helpful, and I found a new book to add to my purchase list. Done researching, I toured the Cabot House – which houses the research library – and once belonged to the Cabot brothers, who made a lot of money running privateers during the American Revolution. Before
the war, it appears they had 2 fishing boats. During the war, a partial list suggests that they were part owners of at least 39 privateers! Crazy! After I was done at the Cabot House, I made my way around town following the Privateer Trail, which led to several important houses from the Revolution era and Independence Park, where Colonel John Glover read the Declaration of Independence on July 17, 1776. With storm clouds on the horizon, I made my way back to Marblehead.
It was still sunny when I reached Marblehead, so I dropped off my computer and other unnecessary stuff and went to find the Lafayette House. According to local tradition (I found somewhere that the house was built like this for a shop entrance, but local legend is better), General Lafayette was coming through in a parade in 1824, and his carriage was too wide to make one of the corners. So, instead of changing the route or something else simple, they cut out a corner of the house so his carriage could make the turn.
As I was making my way down to Crocker Park, a lady pulled up and
told me a severe storm warning had just come across – hail was expected within ten minutes. That didn’t sound like fun, so I headed back to my lodgings to eat some dinner. Halfway through, the storm stopped, and I thought the clouds would be awesome over the water. Leaving my dinner half eaten, I grabbed my phone and headed out to Fort Sewall.
My timing was perfect. Moments after I arrived – full rainbow. I won’t try to describe; I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves (7.3 miles).
Wednesday was another research day, this time in Marblehead. Lauren, who works there, was extremely helpful and had a whole pile of material waiting for me when I arrived. The Ashley Bowen journals – transcriptions, thank goodness, not the originals (I don’t know how much more 1700s print I can decipher!) – were the most helpful as he kept a good record of weather and ships coming in and out of Marblehead. There was also a stack of papers related to privateering that were great – bills and power of attorney forms and distributions of prize money – so much information!
Head
swimming, I crossed the street to the Lee mansion. It is a huge house, almost untouched – thanks to some weird quirks of fate – since the 1700s. When I say huge, I mean huge – they were definitely building to impress. The second floor has hand-painted wallpaper, and I think there are four different staircases in the house! What they think was the guest bedroom – no records have yet been found for the house – was beautiful and spacious. The view from the cupola was pretty amazing as well. I have to say, my tour guide was one of the best I have ever had. Since another tour was going on at the same time, he took me on an unorthodox route, but the information – and humor – was great.
When I finished my tour, I headed up to Abbot Hall where the famous “Spirit of ‘76” painting hangs. It stretches from floor to ceiling! Also of note in the same room is an address from Lafayette to the people of Marblehead, the town deed, and a bust of Elbridge Gerry and the political cartoon that accompanied the first use of the term “gerrymandering.”
I apparently hit my exhaustion point as I fell asleep watching the Twins, but woke up to watch them win J (2.8 miles)
Thursday was for Salem, and I must admit disappointment. First, I believe that Marblehead spoiled me. Since Marblehead hit economic decline very soon after the Revolution, many of the original houses still stand, and even if they are not original, the historic area of town is full of colonial-style houses – many of them marked with who lived there or what business was there in the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s. Second, sometimes you have this picture in your head of what a place should look like, and when you get there and the place does not look like that... I knew that Salem had grown and much of it had been commercialized. One only has to try and weed through the numerous tours and witch-related shops and activities to know that Salem is not the quaint little village or town that it once was. But seeing the change is something else.
So, I used the Marblehead Rail Trail and walked over to Salem (hence the ridiculous amount of walking today)
and set about trying to find some of the actual history beneath all the commercialism. If I knew it at one time, I had forgotten that Salem was also the home of Nathaniel Hawthorne. So the first place that I went was the House of Seven Gables. Originally, this was built in colonial times, went through many changes, inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book of the same name, and then was returned to the seven-gabled appearance by Caroline Emmerton, who ran a settlement school out of the house and was the first to open it for tours. She added a few things that appear in the novel – a secret staircase for Clifford to secretly get around the house is the main one. She also added a cent shop. These would have been popular in colonial houses, especially in ones run by women when their husbands were at sea. Cent shops were a way for the women to sell the goods brought into America by their husbands and a way to make a bit of money while their husband was away.
Right next to the House of Seven Gables is Nathanial Hawthorne’s birthplace – moved there in 1958. This
was a much more modest dwelling. He didn’t live in the house very long because his father died when Nathaniel was 4.
My next stop was also Hawthorne related – the Customs House. It was here that Hawthorne worked for a few years when Salem was declining as a port town. It was also while he worked here that he started working on The Scarlet Letter. The Customs House is run by the National Park Service, and they do an excellent little tour. I highly recommend it.
I figured I needed to do at least one witch related thing, so I went to the Salem Witch Museum. I don’t know if I would call it a museum so much as a show – using manikins, lights, and disembodied voices. It actually reminded me a lot of the Cork Gaol, just on a much smalled scale. Animatronics would make the show better, but it was quite informative – taking the audience through the events of the Witch Trials and then going through the changing opinions/ideas of witches through the centuries. Did I mention it is in an old gothic style church?
I
then wandered through the old cemetery – one can never visit enough old cemeteries – and found the Hawthorne family graves (one of them was a judge during the Witch Trials). Right next to the cemetery is a memorial to those who were killed as witches.
Toured out, I headed back to Marblehead. (10.1 miles)
Friday was my last trip out from Marblehead and it was solely to visit the 1634 Meadery and Privateer Rum in Ipswich. Unfortunately, Privateer was closed (I had emailed them and they never responded. Just saying, someone could have answered one of the emails in the like 3 months I gave them to reply), but 1634 Meadery was great. It is a small operation, but they have great meads spanning the gambit from traditional meads to super sweet. I also – no surprise – wandered around the old cemetery. (7.6 miles)
If you plan to visit Marblehead, I recommend the days right around the 4
th of July. For three or four days – depending on when the 4
th falls – they have the Marblehead Festival of the Arts. This includes a craft fair, street
festival, live music every night, and a film festival. The music was great – Mad Yonder and the Hillyer Orchestra were my favorites. A 14-year-old violinist soloed with the orchestra – she was phenomenal! I also spent Sunday morning making my own map of Marblehead historic homes – a great way to end the week! (Sat. 5.7 miles; Sun 7.1 miles)
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Nice rainbow
Great shot