Happy Trails and Sails Event This Weekend

This article was submitted by Sylvia Belkin of the Historical District Commission.

Trails and Sails, sponsored by The Essex National Heritage Commission, is hosting two weekends of open houses in Swampscott free to the public this month.

On Sept. 16, 17 and 18 the Historic House will be open from 1 to 4 pm.

Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer, founder and leader of Christian Science, stayed in this home at 23 Paradise Road from 1865-1866. 

On Saturday, Sept. 17, the Swampscott Historical Society will sponsor an open house at the from 11 am to 2 pm at 99 Paradise Road.

Built in 1637 for Humphrey the deputy governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, the house is now a museum that features original floorboards, a secret passageway, and a birthing room.

Not just a historic house, the Humphrey House, under the auspices of the Historical Society members, archives memorabilia and historic photos, documents and artifacts from many different periods of Swampscott’s history.

On Saturday, Sept. 24,, located at 35 Little’s Point Road, will be open to visitors. Marian Court was the summer white house of President Calvin Coolidge and his wife, Grace. It is a 32-room mansion, perched on rolling lawns at the ocean’s edge, built in the late 1890s by Frederick E. Smith.

Sold to Timothy Falvey in 1928, the home is spectacularly decorated, and most of the original detailing in woodwork, walls, floors and lighting have been preserved by the current owners, Marian Court College.

Guides will conduct a comprehensive tour of the dining, living, kitchen and upper floor bedrooms, almost all of which reveal views of the ocean, from 1-4 pm on Satuday, Sept. 24.

Also on Sept. 24, from 1-4 pm, the Swampscott Historical Commission will lead guided tours through the Town Hall, former home of Elihu Thomson, a founder of General Eectric Company and third most prolific inventor in American hidtory.

Tour guides will show visitors the dining room, kitchen, parlours and upstairs bedrooms, as well as the secret panel in Elihu’s study used for saving the precious metals used in light bulbs of early manufacture.

Each party of visitors will receive a complimentary copy of the book documenting Swampscott’s 150th Anniversary.

To find out more about Trails and Sails; two September weekends of Walks on Water and to create your own personalized itinerary encompassing 33 cities and towns of Essex County, go to www.essexheritage.org