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 183 Front Street, Pond House.
Tabor Academy was founded in 1876 by Elizabeth Sprague Pitcher Taber (1791-1888). In 1916, Walter Huston Lillard became headmaster of the school and he consolidated the campus along the shores of Sippican Harbor. In 1936-1937, the “Tabor Swap” involved the exchange of three acres of the town’s waterfront land for ten acres of Tabor Academy’s land on Spring Street. Tabor gradually purchased homes along the waterfront, which were used as dormitories. The Pond House at 183 Front Street was built in 1797. In the 1880s, John Hay and John Nicholay, both former secretaries to President Abraham Lincoln, lived here while writing their biography of Lincoln for Century Magazine. After using this building as a dormitory for many years, Tabor Academy sold it in 2006.