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 324 Front Street. Begun in 1800, achieving its present Greek Revival and Italianate appearance by 1850, the building at 324 Front Street was the home of one of the town’s most colorful mariners. Capt. Obed Delano was a “whale man” who went to sea at an early age on the vessel Hopeton. He sailed from New Bedford and later served as a member of the Massachusetts legislature. He was one of the Old Landing seafarers who shaped town policies until the power base shifted to Wharf Village during the 1870s. By 1903, Obed’s widow, Verona Delano, lived here with her son, Capt. Stephen O. Delano, who died in 1925. This historic building was demolished in 2018.
