Sippican Historical Society

In 1998, the Sippican Historical Society commissioned an architectural survey of Marion’s historic homes and buildings. The survey was funded one-half by the Sippican Historical Society and one-half by the Massachusetts Historical Commission. Because of the limits of funding, not all of the historic buildings were surveyed, but over 100 were catalogued and photographed. The results of the survey are in digital form on the Massachusetts Historical Commission’s website and in four binders in the Sippican Historical Society’s office (and at the Marion Town Clerk’s office). Marion (Old Rochester) is one of the oldest towns in the United States, and the Sippican Historical Society maintains an extensive collection of documentation on its historic buildings. The Sippican Historical Society will preview one building a week so that the residents of Marion can understand more about its unique historical architecture. This installment features 14 Main Street.

Built in 1760, the Cape Cod cottage at 14 Main Street was built for the Bates family. Behind this house is a small one-room schoolhouse where Elizabeth Pitcher Taber taught before her marriage in 1823. At one time, Miss Roberta Bates and her sister, Nancy Bates Crowell, kept a calico and notions shop in part of this house. At the turn of the century, noted artist and magazine illustrator Charles Dana Gibson lived here. He was the creator of the famous Gibson Girl, which helped to define female fashion in the 1890s. Charles Dana Gibson was a member of the wedding party of the famous war correspondent Richard Harding Davis and Cecil Clark at St. Gabriel’s Church in May 1899. Ethel Barrymore was also in the wedding party as the maid of honor.

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