Butler's Point | Sippican Historical Society

2004.013.009 - Print, Photographic

Photo taken from a helicopter showing Butler's Point, Marion, MA. Bird Island Light at the entrance to Sippican Harbor in the background. This picture was taken in 1974.

Record Type: Photo

2005.007.003 - Tape, Audio

Interview with Peter Converse covering the following topics: Converse family history Converse Point history Second World War Marion to Bermuda race Marion summer community Peter Converse It is December the 5th, 1995, and this is Christina Kingston speaking with Peter Converse of the Moorings, Converse Road, Marion, MA as part of the Sippican Historical Society's - Oral History Project. Peter Converse: Well, what is now Converse Point b...

Record Type: Archive

2008.001.046 - Digital photograph

Sippican Harbor & Waterfront - An aerial view of Sippican Harbor from the 1970s. From this perspective, Marion's longtime attractions for mariners of all kinds can be easily appreciated. The protected harbor offers moorings for 1,700 craft-940 of them in the Inner Harbor-plus easy access to fishing and sailing on Buzzards Bay. Much of Marion's 25 miles of coastline is rocky, but several sandy beaches have been created for sunning and swimming. B...

Record Type: Photo

2008.001.048 - Digital photograph

Sippican Harbor & Waterfront - This aerial view shows Butler's Point about 1935. The Kittansett Club is in the background, mostly hidden by trees, and the Beverly Yacht Club with its long pier is situated close by in the foreground. From this perspective, the area's vulnerability to severe weather is evident

Record Type: Photo

2008.001.212 - Digital photograph

Camps & Clubs - The name Kittansett comes from two Wampanoag words: "kittan" ("sea") and "sett" ("near"). A group of thirteen wealthy Marion landowners founded a corporation in 1922 "to provide and maintain proper grounds and facilities for playing the game of golf and other sports as may be authorized by the board of governors and to maintain a clubhouse and such other buildings as may be deemed advisable for the accommodations of its members." ...

Record Type: Photo

2008.001.213 - Digital photograph

Camps & Clubs - The original clubhouse at Kittansett pictured above has been greatly enlarged in this view from the golf course dating to 1950. Despite its exposed oceanfront location, the club has successfully weathered storms and hurricanes over the years since its inception.

Record Type: Photo

2008.001.214 - Digital photograph

Camps & Clubs - The Beverly Yacht Club (BYC) has occupied several locations in Marion over the years. The BYC takes its name from Beverly, MA on the North Shore, the town in which the founding members had summer homes. Originally a yacht-racing organization, BYC held regattas in many harbors on the Massachusetts coast before settling in Marion. The clubhouse at Butler's Point was built on land purchased in 1973. After the 1938 hurricane swept thi...

Record Type: Photo

2008.001.220 - Digital photograph

Hurricanes - The Hurricane of 1938 was, by far, the most extensively documented in real-photo postcards of all of Marion's many encounters with severe coastal weather. This view shows the remnants of two of the guest cottages at the Kittansett Club on Butler's Point. The Club maintained several cottages with letter designations. Cottages F and I were closest to the tip of the Point and were swept clean from their foundations. The remains of one o...

Record Type: Photo

2008.001.221 - Digital photograph

Hurricanes - This Kittansett cottage-letter designation unknown-was transported by the 1938 storm's ferocious winds for over a mile, to finally pile up as rubble against this brake of scrub pines. A Mission-Style settle and a folding chair seem to be the only salvageable items from the whole house.

Record Type: Photo

2008.001.222 - Digital photograph

Hurricanes - The Beverly Yacht Club, twenty-six years at its original location at the tip of Butler's Point when the 1938 Hurricane struck, was a total loss after the storm. This real-photo view shows the foundation stones and fragments of the wooden dock as the only recognizable remains after pounding winds and an abnormally strong tidal surge had done their work. Fortuitously, the BYC scrapbooks had been sent to Boston just days before, and thu...

Record Type: Photo

2008.001.223 - Digital photograph

Hurricanes - One of the smaller cottages near the shoreline at Kittansett, this structure took the brunt of the 1938 hurricane head-on and was knocked from its foundation, the front of the cottage collapsing under the pounding of wind and surf. Whatever sand was once deposited here was swept away, leaving only rocks and debris.

Record Type: Photo

2008.007.069 - Digital image

1913 Beverly Yacht Club's clubhouse at Butler's Point

Record Type: Photo

2012.010.001 - Letter

A letter from Dick Evans listing web locations of pictures related to the artillery installation at Butler's Point duriing World War II.

Record Type: Archive

2012.010.002 - Digital image

A photo copy of a 90 mm gun like the ones installed at Butler's Point during World War II.

Record Type: Photo

2012.010.003 - Documents

An engineering schematic of the 90 MM-AMTB Batteries layout titled "Harbor Defense of Los Angeles, Calif. Terminal Island" the start of World War II used as the basis of the Butler's Point Artillery site.

Record Type: Archive