Marblehead

One of the places I visited last week was Marblehead, Massachusetts. A small town today, this seaport was once bustling with business from the cargo ships that sailed in and out of its harbor bringing goods from Europe, South America, and the rest of the world to the American colonies. In the mid 18th century it was the second largest city in Massachusetts, and the home of the state's richest families. It remains a charming quaint town by the sea, full of darling old houses packed tightly together amid winding lanes that all lead to the harbor.

In 1766 Jeremiah Lee built an impressive home in Marblehead for his family. The owner of an impressive 21 ships used for both fishing and commerce, Jeremiah Lee would soon be known as the richest man in Massachusetts. His new home reflected his wealth, and still stands today, furnished to evoke what it may have looked like when the Lees lived there.

Built in the Georgian style, the Lee mansion is both symmetrical and graceful, on the cutting edge of the emerging neoclassical craze in art and architecture. The exterior looks like it is made of large stone bricks, but in fact is wood, coated in sand and painted to appear as if it were limestone.

The interior is spacious and furnished as the Lees may have kept it. Because the house passed to a bank after the Lees owned it, and thereafter became a historic site, almost no changes to the structure of the building have occurred. Floorboards have changed over the years, and original wallpaper painted over, but much has been restored to appear as it would have in the 1760s and 1770s. One of the more remarkable changes occurred in 1852 when the walls in one of the front parlors were painted to look like paneled wood. The grain is painted so well, its hard to see that they are not real wood.

In the 18th century houses were set up differently than they are nowadays. There was a specific delineation between public and private rooms, often an entire half of the house was the public half, and the other the private. For example, in the Lee mansion, as you enter the home, the front room to the right was used as a public entertaining room, for parties, dinners, etc. The left-hand room was reserved for more private family teas and other intimate gatherings. Upstairs, the bedrooms to the right were used for guests, or for Mrs. Lee to entertain female friends. The left-hand rooms were strictly for family use.

In those days, furniture would be kept up against the walls when a room was not in use. The rooms had multiple purposes, so all the tables folded up and went against the walls, as did the chairs and sofas, and only brought out when it was time for a dinner, tea, or game of cards. With no central heating, the Lees no doubt spent a lot of time during the winter sitting in front of their beautiful fireplaces, which still have the original painted ceramic tiles from Europe that Mrs. Lee must have chosen. In all the rooms, household items are on display along with the textiles and furniture from the period. 18th century people would probably laugh at us today, because most of us probably could not identify some of their everyday tools such as candlewick trimmers or chamber pots.

Jeremiah Lee was one of the unsung heroes of the Revolutionary War. With all his wealth and connections, he risked it all by engaging in covert operations involving purchasing and smuggling in weapons, gunpowder, and supplies for the rebelling colonies to use in the impending war. Without his help, the outcome of the war may have been totally different. However, as a direct result of this clandestine and now patriotic activities, Lee died in 1775 and has remained obscure to history. Without him, his family descended into poverty and all that remains is their remarkable house.