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 third installment features The Moorings.
The Moorings is situated at the tip of Converse Point, the southernmost of the two necks that shelter Marion’s Sippican Harbor. Converse Point was formerly called Charles Neck and was a Native American campground for centuries before the English settlement of Marion (Old Rochester) in 1679. His colonial revival-style home was built in the mid-1920s to replace the much larger late-19th-century shingle-style Moorings estate that had 40 rooms.
The original Moorings was built in 1890 for Harry E. Converse, who was an heir of Elisha Converse. The founder of a rubber products industry in Malden during the 1850s, Elisha Converse’s rubber shoes were in great demand worldwide. Harry E. Converse was an important local philanthropist who funded many causes, including Marion’s fire department.
