I have in my possession papers titled “Private Edition of the Ancient Streets and Ways in Marblehead,” dating from 1937, expanded in 1971. A kind and anonymous soul gave them to me.
In keeping with the aforementioned injunction to privacy, I will not quote from the document directly, even though a number of the author’s scurrilous observations are highly amusing. And I will not reveal the author’s identity.
Now, these papers call themselves fossilized fiction and explicitly promise no accuracy. Therefore, I read them with an eye toward amusement, not fact. That said, if they are even vaguely correct, then the streets of Marblehead have something of a ribald past!
The Private Edition informs me that many of Marblehead’s ancient streets and ways have vanished without a trace. This is my territory! After all, I came to Marblehead from a place full of mysterious backroads.
You see, the internet is agnostic as to whether Wyoming exists or not. In addition, Google Maps has little useful to say about Wyoming roads. Provided you have a cell service at all, the Maps app is notoriously unreliable in Wyoming backcountry, or as it is known out there, “country.” Long before ChatGPT started making things up, Maps was generating imaginary roads across gaping canons and up mountainsides while simultaneously denying the existence of the very road I was driving while I was on it.
So, I generally discovered new Wyoming routes the old-fashioned way: by driving the wrong way until I was either in the wrong county altogether or had taken enough wrong turns to right myself.
I did also use good old-fashioned paper maps, where available. But sometimes even analog technology is no use. For instance, a rancher once told me, “Come to my house. You’ll know you’re there when you see the blue barn.”
Those directions don’t live on any app or map. You can’t tell where you’re going until you get there.
So, taking my cues from the Private Edition, I found myself wandering the neighborhood around Abbot Hall one blustery fall day, looking for Prospect Alley. If I could navigate roads in Wyoming that don’t exist, surely I could locate one of these ancient ways.
And so it proved: Prospect Alley runs right off Lookout Court, just like the Private Edition says. A tiny little walking lane, paved in asphalt, barely wide enough for two people.
Those familiar with Old Town are likely chortling as they read this: Prospect Alley actually has its own street sign on Lee Street. (*insert head slap emoji here*)
Furthermore, a quick check of my phone revealed that this particular walkway does appear on Google Maps. It sure felt like an expedition into the unknown to me, but this walkway has been used for centuries.
According to the Private Edition, a sea captain would scan the horizon with a spyglass from Lookout Court (hence the name, I suppose). When an incoming vessel was spotted, a messenger would scamper down Prospect Alley (hence the name again?) to the shipyard to alert a pilot.
That fortunate fellow would row a dory out from Dirty Moon Dock (I have no “hence” here) to the new arrival, hoping to secure a fee for guiding the boat into Marblehead Harbor. The Private Edition also goes on to report that Prospect Alley was once known as “Liz Tibbet’s Gut.”
“Who was this Liz Tibbet?” I wondered. “How did her guts get involved? What happened to her? Did she know her name graced the passageway, and how did her name fall into disuse?”
The Private Edition stands mute on these questions. Perhaps a reader of The Current knows?
The Private Edition further tells me that Marblehead is chock full of such little-used and lesser-known passages. I will continue to scout them out, and I’d be very grateful for any pointers from readers as to others I should explore.
In a town with a history of nearly 400 years, secrets abound! Let’s just hope it won’t take the internet another 400 years to get Wyoming on the map, too.
As always, if you’ve got an idea upon which I can embark for a Marblehead First Time, drop me a line at court.merrigan@gmail.com .
