Locals came together earlier this month to learn about some of the most architecturally significant locations Marblehead has to offer. Histoury’s Seaside North Shore: A Bus Tour of Shingle Style Homes gave attendees a firsthand interactive opportunity to learn about the history of these structures.
Histoury was founded by Georgette Blau, who used the nearly two decades of experience she gained as the founder of New York’s On Location Tours, one of the largest television- and movie-location tour companies.
The nonprofit’s inaugural tour was slated to launch in spring 2020, until the COVID-19 pandemic caused a delay. It got back on its feet in 2022 and has not looked back, with numerous unique tours in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts that span from the Colonial era up to mid-century modern.
The four-hour bus tour through Marblehead and Swampscott was guided by Histoury Tour Production Manager Allison Casazza, who described why her tour guests are interested in the subject.
“It’s primarily people that are just enthusiastic about history and being able to have this tangible experience with history is great,” Casazza said. “It’s not necessarily anybody that’s an architectural historian per se.”
One example of a stop on the tour was a house located at the western point of Marblehead Neck’s Ocean Avenue. Casazza recalled one participant who called it the most beautiful home they had ever seen. She listed notable figures who have owned the property since it was built in 1924, starting with Henry Lapham, who was the founding president of the Boston Garden-Arena Corporation. It was later owned by Gilbert H. Hood Jr., the grandson of HP Hood Dairy Company founder Harvey Hood.
The tour later explored more “modest” homes when it stopped at Clifton Heights, which was once the site of two large hotels in the 19th century. Casazza was thankful to Corinthian Yacht Club Director of Facilities Dave Beatty for providing an experience unique from any other part of the tour.
“Our group got to go into an otherwise private area,” Casazza said. “You go into the Corinthian Yacht Club and it’s not necessarily very historically interesting, but then you open up these doors and I was like ‘wow,’ so that was very special.”
She emphasized that the club’s private section has a great amount of historical detail in comparison to its public areas.
While every Histoury tour is unique, Casazza was emphatic that the company has only scratched the surface of what Marblehead has to offer.
“I know we’ll definitely love to do future tours here,” Casazza said. “The whole entire area of Marblehead is so rich in history.”