Marblehead "42:30.46N 70:50.34W"
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Thu 11 Aug 2011 10:59
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Marblehead is a very pretty town with the best
collection of seventeenth and eighteenth century houses in the USA. There are
literally dozens and dozens of beautiful old wooden houses.
The picture below shows the Jeremiah Lee mansion
from 1768, now a museum. Lee was the wealthiest merchant in Massachusetts at the
time and the interior of the house has magnificent imported hand painted English
wallpaper (no photography allowed). The exterior is wooden tiles carved to look
like stone. Lee was a 'Patriot' in American parlance - i.e. a rebel, who died of
natural causes in 1775 just as the shooting war was starting. Had he lived he
would have been as famous as other patrons of the Revolution and probably a
signatory of the Declaration of Independence.
 And here is another grand mansion almost next door,
this one slightly earlier at 1728.
 And the old Town Hall from 1727, even earlier than
Faneuil Hall in Boston
 The place really is a treasure trove, and we liked
it a lot.
Americans love their traditions. Every yacht club
fires a small cannon at 0800hrs and again at dusk, announcing the raising and
lowering of the national flag. Here there are I think five clubs around the bay
so there is a veritable barrage of cannonfire every day - but all slightly out
of synch with each other. Quaint.
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