I Suck At Crocker Park

today, i covered a lot of ground during my continuation of the walking tour of marblehead. as luck would have it, the rain did not come until after my lunch break. i guess mother nature felt bad for me yesterday.

picking up from where i left off (the abbot house), i visited the mansion of col. jeremiah lee a few blocks down. apparently, col. jeremiah lee was the wealthiest man in massachusetts in 1771. he was a merchant who owned one of the largest fleets of vessels at the time. in addition to leading such a tough life as the wealthiest man, col. jeremiah lee served on the revolutionary committee responsible for amassing men, supplies, food, provisions, and weapons for rebel militia companies in massachusetts. apparenly, he also did a lot of undercover activities like procuring weapons from france and spain and meeting with john hancock and sam adams. unfortunately, he had an early death and was thus thrown into historical obscurity (just not in marblehead of course).

from there, i visited the king hooper mansion. king hooper was not a king, although he was a wealthy shipping merchant. (i am thinking everyone in marblehead was wealthy.) robert hooper was given the title "king" by local seamen because of his reputation for being fair. king hooper mansion is currently the home of the marblehead arts assocation. so, there are tons of paintings and artwork throughout the mansion. the main attraction of king hooper mansion is the basement. (yes, i know, it sounds like a cheap ploy to lure people for some x-rated activity.) the basement is... simply old. there's an old kettle and fireplace down there... and some hanky panky action... just kidding.

along the way, there were other interesting looking houses. one of the more interesting houses was herreschoff castle, which is a residential home built to look like... a castle. it looked neat.

the most attractive site today, however, was crocker park. yes, i suck at crocker park. crocker park has some amazing views of marblehead harbor. the park was originally known as bartoll's head, but was renamed after uriel crocker who donated a large portion of the land to marblehead.

(pictured below is the view from crocker park.)


one of the things i actually like about crocker park is that there is a bench known as "bud's bench". according to the plaque on bud's bench, bud courted his wife on the bench. the bench was his favorite spot because of the happiness he found in his marriage and life. there is even a quote from bud: "do a good deed every day and find something to smile about". it's a very nice quote.

needless to say, i'd settle for a picnic at crocker park as well.