PERSONALIZED FRIENDLY & FLEXIBLE guided walking tours of downtown Marblehead and its compelling social history & rare early architecture. By appointment or by chance. Flexible topics & times. Conversational & tailored to your interests. SEE THE TOWN FROM NEW PERSPECTIVES ! Hear some of its DRAMATIC STORIES and PERSONAL EXPERIENCES of people from the 1600s, 1700s & 1800s. Learn about the RARE EARLY ARCHITECTURE which includes nearly 300 houses built before 1775, when the American war for independence began. ... In the mid-1700s, Marblehead was apparently the sixth most populous town in British North America, with nearly 5,000 people -- living in 520 houses -- behind Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Charleston SC and Newport RI. For a short time, it was the second most populous (and crowded !) town in Massachusetts -- even larger than Salem by 700 people & 150 working men. .... From the town of about 900 families, over 1,000 Marblehead men and boys fought in the Revolution that won independence for Britain's North American colonies, and then an equal number served in the devastating War of 1812, just a generation later, which strengthened the United States as a nation but took a severe toll on Marblehead, socially and economically. However, the economic devastation that followed the Revolution until about the 1830s was what preserved so much of the historic downtown that residents and visitors enjoy today, and which tells so many human stories of many types.
Route 1A north or 114 east into Marblehead. Tours usually start at the main town office building, Abbot Hall, 188 Washington St., Marblehead, MA - or at another agreed location in downtown Marblehead.
