Related Records

1. 2008.001.001 - Digital photograph

   A 2 DVD set of digital photographs scanned for use in the book "Postcard History of Marion". Individual digital photographs and descriptions follow.

   Record Type: Photo

   
2. 2008.001.002 - Digital photograph

   A digital photograph from the Postcard History of Marion book.

   Record Type: Photo

   
3. 2008.001.003 - Digital photograph

   Wharf Village - The commercial heart of Marion for nearly two centuries has been the area along Front Street bounded to the north by Cottage Street and to the south by South Street. To the east at the foot of Main Street lay Sherman's Wharf and nearly perpendicular to it, Bates Wharf. Within this zone, Marion's early maritime businesses bustled. Ships landed their cargoes and set sail loaded with the town's export goods--box wood, whale oil, and ...

   Record Type: Photo

   
4. 2008.001.004 - Digital photograph

   Wharf Village - This view of the southwest corner of Front and Main streets, looking west up Main Street and showing the facade of the Congregational Church, dates to the 1970 period. The gaslight on the stone post was one of about 50 such lamps installed by the Marion Gas Company in 1907. Marion entrepreneur Benjamin E. Waters drummed up support for his gas company by setting up a carbide-gas-fueled streetlamp in the churchyard on this corner, s...

   Record Type: Photo

   
5. 2008.001.005 - Digital photograph

   Wharf Village -The same corner as it appeared about fifteen years later, following the Great Storm of 1924. The streetlamp at the corner of the Congregational churchyard has been electrified, as of 1975, and some of the elm trees along the right side of Main Street are gone, victims of the storm. Automobiles indicate that parking was allowed on both sides of Main Street, and that the thoroughfare was two-way then. Signs on the elm tree at right g...

   Record Type: Photo

   
6. 2008.001.006 - Digital photograph

   Wharf Village - Club Hall, at 36 Main Street, was built in 1884, thanks to the efforts of Mr. and Mrs. James de Kay. The de Kays started a building fund to erect a clubhouse for Marion's summer colony of artists and literati and raised $350 for the purchase of the lot and $4,000 for the building. Club Hall had an upstairs stage with seating for 200. Productions included those of young playwright and summer resident Richard Harding Davis. By the t...

   Record Type: Photo

   
7. 2008.001.008 - Digital photograph

   Wharf Village -This real-photo view of The Village Shop and Tea House is easily dateable to the pre-1915 period thanks to the handsome gaslight at curbside. The half-cape structure at 27 Main Street was the fourth home built in Wharf Village (in 1697) and remains as the oldest surviving structure in the Village. The original central staircase to the cramped second floor was little more than a ladder leading directly into the two bedrooms left and...

   Record Type: Photo

   
8. 2008.001.009 - Digital photograph

   Wharf Village - Another, much later, real-photo view of 21 Main Street shows the building as it was in the mid-1950s, renumbered as Number 69 about 1950. Now a private residence, the home has had a screened porch added to its west side.

   Record Type: Photo

   
9. 2008.001.010 - Digital photograph

   Wharf Village - This real-photo view of Main Street looking east toward Sippican Harbor circa 1915-20 shows the lush canopy of mature elms that shaded the street then-now long-gone victims of storms and disease. The house at left with trellises around the entrance is Number 47; the house at right is Number 44. Nelson Block is visible at right in the distance, with Jimmy Nelson's barber pole out front.

   Record Type: Photo

   
10. 2008.001.011 - Digital photograph

    Wharf Village - A real-photo view toward the foot of Main Street. Judging from the vintage of the open Buick roadster approaching, the card dates to about 1910. At right, a shop or eatery is clearly open for business, with its large sign suspended from a tree, a sandwich board leaning against the trunk, and perhaps the day's menu posted above.

    Record Type: Photo

    
11. 2008.001.012 - Digital photograph

    Wharf Village - A rare wintertime real-photo view of lower Main Street, showing the Hiller Apartments, Number 25 at left. The building was originally a private home, built for Major Rowland Luce in the late 1800s. The '48 Chevy truck was parked legally for that time-about 1950-with its left wheels to the curb.

    Record Type: Photo

    
12. 2008.001.013 - Digital photograph

    Wharf Village - Looking east to the foot of Main Street about 1900, a horse and wagon are parked in front of Number 3, and three men are silhouetted at the entrance to Long Wharf. As of 1898, Water Street was paved only from the end of Main Street south for a distance of 1,700 feet, which included the frontage for both the Sippican Hotel and its Casino.

    Record Type: Photo

    
13. 2008.001.014 - Digital photograph

    Wharf Village - Lower Main Street looking west toward Front Street in the autumn, circa 1930. This real-photo view shows the marked difference in vegetation-with a whole generation of mature elms having been supplanted-as well as the additions of dormers and other build-outs to the original simple rectilinear capes and saltboxes that line the street.

    Record Type: Photo

    
14. 2008.001.015 - Digital photograph

    Wharf Village - Raybelle's cottage at 12 Main Street (left) was built in 1820 by a member of the Blankenship Family, and about 7900 was the first home of the Fin de Siecle Club. Robert's at Number 14 (right) was built in 1760 by the Bates Family. A Miss Roberta Bates, along with her sister Nancy, used a room in their home as a shop-a common practice of the time-selling sewing notions and calico fabric

    Record Type: Photo

    
15. 2008.001.016 - Digital photograph

    Wharf Village - The Edward Hamblin Cottage, called "Daddy's" in this real-photo view dating from the 1920s, was built in 1780 at 9 Main Street, where Hiller Street turns to the right to intersect with Main at the corner of the picket fence. As a rental property, the building housed a number of distinguished guests-including the author and journalist Richard Harding Davis, who rented rooms as his writing study (he wrote his novel Soldiers of Fortu...

    Record Type: Photo

    
16. 2008.001.017 - Digital photograph

    Wharf Village - The house at 13 Main Street was built in 1790. This view dating to 1906 shows the original well to the right of the house as well as fancy fretwork between the dormers and patterned shingles on the side. These ornaments-as well as the shutters-no longer remain. But the double-cross pattern on the front door can still be seen-a symbol to protect the house against evil doings of witches.

    Record Type: Photo

    
17. 2008.001.018 - Digital photograph

    Wharf Village - This is the second house to occupy the address at 3 Main Street, at the intersection with Water Street. The first, built in 1760, gave way to this three-story Georgian-Style building in 1806. Its original owner was AJ. Hadley, who operated a store and ships' chandlery in the right half of the ground floor, the left side of the floor was Marion's first post office. The second floor served as a clothesmaking factory, and the top flo...

    Record Type: Photo

    
18. 2008.001.019 - Digital photograph

    Wharf Village - Looking northward on Water Street toward its intersection with the foot of Main Street, about 1920 when two-way travel was still allowed on both streets. Descendents of the picket fence, hydrant, and streetlight are all still in place today. Note that the postcard publisher eliminated details in the area leading to Bates Wharf, for reasons unknown.

    Record Type: Photo

    
19. 2008.001.020 - Digital photograph

    Wharf Village - Front Street looking south at the intersection with South Street, about 1920. At right is the original St. Gabriel's Episcopal Chapel, once a two-story building when it operated as Sippican Seminary. The church bell was dedicated in 1919. Front Street had been formally laid out only in 1898 south of Pitcher Street (the next intersection in this view) to Allen Street, and is still unpaved here. Hidden from view behind the chapel ar...

    Record Type: Photo

    
20. 2008.001.021 - Digital photograph

    Wharf Village - The west side of Front Street, just north of Main Street, in the 1940s. At that time, the Marion General Store was owned by Charles Hathaway and Fred Cobb, who had purchased it from Andrew ]. Hadley. Note that in that period, the General Store had two entrances on Front Street-one the current doorway and a second further north, where the woman pushing a carriage is passing. The neighboring building to the right is the former Andre...

    Record Type: Photo