The Marblehead Historic District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

roughly bounded by

Marblehead Harbor Marblehead Harbor is a harbor located in Marblehead, Massachusetts, 17 miles northeast of Boston. It is considered the birthplace of the Continental Navy, forerunner of the United States Navy, and of United States Marine Corps Aviation. Descripti ...

, Waldron Court, Essex, Elm, Pond, and Norman Streets in

Marblehead, Massachusetts Marblehead is a coastal New England town in Essex County, Massachusetts, along the North Shore (Massachusetts), North Shore. Its population was 20,441 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The town lies on a small peninsula that extends ...

. Among its notable features are

Fort Sewall Fort Sewall is a historic coastal fortification in Marblehead, Massachusetts. It is located at Gale's Head, the northeastern point of the main Marblehead peninsula, on a promontory that overlooks the entrance to Marblehead Harbor. Until 1814 it ...

, a coastal fortification with origins dating to 1644, and two

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

s, the General John Glover House, the Jeremiah Lee Mansion, and the Simon Bradstreet House. The district includes 988

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

and features

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

Federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

, Queen Anne, and other styles of architecture. The area was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1984. It includes some buildings from the 1600s and about 200 houses in total that were built before the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

. The National Register nomination notes that "the extraordinarily well preserved historic character of the Marblehead Historic District can be attributed to a number of factors: a deep sense of history and pride in the community; hilly terrain and historical building patterns which discourage a major thoroughfare; vigilant fire protection; and increasing preservation awareness and efforts." Some of the district was protected by creation of two local historic districts in 1968 by the town of Marblehead under the Massachusetts General Court Historic District Act, the Gingerbread Hill and the Old Town historic districts. These districts, if not the entire Marblehead Historic District, are administered by the Old and Historic Districts Commission, which governs on proposed changes to within-district structures.

References

Historic districts in Essex County, Massachusetts Marblehead, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Essex County, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts {{EssexCountyMA-NRHP-stub

See also

References