A Picture Postcard History of Marion Massachusetts

By Sippican Historical Society
Edited by Pete Smith

 The humble postcard is the stuff of this visual tour of Marion, Massachusetts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This period coincided with the Golden Age of postcards (roughly 1898-1920), when millions upon millions of these penny souvenirs were mailed near and far all over the globe. Thankfully, many were stuffed into cigar and shoeboxes for later generations to rediscover, collect, and share. Selected from the collections of longtime Marion residents and summer visitors, A Picture Postcard History of Marion, Massachusetts is a capsule portrait of a New England coastal town that despite dramatic changes all around it, has managed to preserve the charms for which it continues to be loved for the better part of two centuries.

Nature, in a generous mood, casting about for a region upon which to shower her choicest gifts, seashore and country, discovered Marion and its environs, the most charming spot on the South Shore. Man completed the work, and the quaint old village with its provincial cottages, the magnificent homes of a vast Summer colony on both shores of Sippican Harbor, and the hotel in the midst of it all, is the satisfactory result. The scenery—harbor, bay, and landscape—is unrivaled on the Cape.

From a promotional brochure for The Sippican Hotel,

Published by Charles W. Kokerda, general manager, 1920-29