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. Due to 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 61 Pleasant Street.  The home at 61 Pleasant Street was built c. 1850.  Its earliest identified owner was Austen Lovell, an expressman.  By the late 1870s, R.F. Hart owned this residence. His wife, Bertha M. Hart, lived here until her death in the late 1930s.  Mrs. Hart’s first husband was Gamaliel Morss of Marblehead, who was a member of the 8th regiment.  He was part of the unit that escorted the Prince of Wales during his 1859 visit to Massachusetts.  Morss was one of the first men killed in the Civil War.  The Harts remembered being in a boat moored alongside that of Abraham Lincoln on the Potomac River at City Point in Washington D.C.  The first eight years of the Harts’ marriage was spent at sea. They lived in this home for over 60 years.

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