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 135 Converse Road. The Cape Cod cottage at 135 Converse Road reportedly dates to the mid-to-late 18th century. This home provides evidence that before the development of Wharf Village as the town’s center in the early 1800s, housing in Marion was widely dispersed among the most remote areas of its road system. Converse Road, variously known as Nye and Pleasant Streets, once extended only as far as this house. Weston Allen, a farmer, owned this house in 1855. By the early 1900s, this house had passed from the Allens to E. H. Wisner.
