On Saturday morning, despite the cold temperature and pouring rain, over 50 Marbleheaders congregated at Chandler Hovey Park to begin the first post-COVID annual perambulation event.
The perambulation, when Marbleheaders walk the town’s historic public ways in order to keep them open, has been going on for nearly 100 years. It was interrupted by the COVID pandemic, but the tradition is getting started again with the efforts of Town Historian Don Doliber and Marblehead Grant Coordinator Donna Cotterell.
“These walkways are public property owned by the town of Marblehead,” said Doliber. “It’s required that someone from the town of Marblehead walks these lanes in order to maintain legal ownership.”
The walkways, numbering at about 18 across town (nine in Old Town and nine on the Neck) have been around for centuries and include Castle Rock Lane, Lighthouse Lane, Harvard Street and Cove Lane as well as many others.
The group walked through nine of these public ways on the neck on Saturday.
Many of these public ways are almost as old as the town, and were created as shortcuts before the widespread use of cars. Others are used as access points to public beaches on Marblehead Neck.
After arriving at Chandler Hovey Park, the group listened to some brief remarks about the history and purpose of the public ways from Don Doliber and Donna Cotterell, and then they split into two groups to cover the three-mile distance across the Neck.
“It’s a day to preamble through the public walkways so the people abbutting these walkways know that they’re public ways,” remarked Cotterell. “And so the residents of Marblehead know that they’re public ways.” Next year, the perambulation will take place in Old town.
Rose McCarthy, a long time Marbleheader and public ways advocate, also attended the perambulation and spoke to the group about the importance of public ways. She uncovered many of Marblead’s previously forgotten public ways more than 50 years ago, and petitioned the town to have them officially recognized.
“I spent the whole summer of 1973 at the registry of deeds in Salem, and there was no air conditioning. It was hot!” said McCarthy.
One public way, called Cove Lane which accesses Cove Beach near the Marblehead Lighthouse, was removed from the event’s perambulation list due to a legal dispute with the adjacent property owners. However one perambulation group, led by the Marblehead Wolf Pack, a cold-water immersion group that uses Cove Beach several times a week, walked through Cove Lane in protest.
“I have always enjoyed walking on the public access path and down the stairs to find that lovely beach with its beautiful harbor views,” said Betsy Powers, a Wolf Pack member. “What a terrible shame for the townsfolk of Marblehead that the public access may be removed.”
McCarthy fought hard to have Cove Lane officially recognized by the town, and is frustrated by the recent attempts to remove public access.
“They can’t take Cove Lane without a vote at Town Meeting,” said McCarthy. “Anything that belongs to the town, they can’t take from us. We can’t let them do this.”
