Sep 30, 2024 | Arts, Businesses, Shopping
Photo credit should go to Fil Nenna.
Tell us about The Abbey Studio and why you started the business. The Abbey Studio is a calligraphy studio that I started many years ago. I create hand-lettered corporate recognition awards and personal gifts. Originally it was just a studio, but since opening my storefront on Washington Street in Marblehead in 2016, I’ve expanded and now carry personal stationery items, greeting cards (my own designs and other local artists), and of course, calligraphy supplies. Recently I opened an Etsy shop that contains some fun items like hoodies and baby onesies with my hand-lettered artwork and quotations. During the past year, I’ve created a hand-lettered manuscript of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and we’ve just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a limited edition of 20 facsimiles of “The Raven” along with greeting cards and broadsides with quotes from the poem.
What is the best business advice you’ve ever received? The business advice I like best (although it isn’t specific to business) is a quote I came upon a few years ago: “Growth and comfort do not co-exist” and I think that is SO true.
What is your favorite spot in Marblehead? Marblehead is such a beautiful place. We all know that. It’s hard to pick a favorite spot, but if I had to name one it would likely be Crocker Park.
What is something people would be surprised to learn about you? People might be surprised to learn that I am a kitchen and bath designer. I’m a graduate of the Boston Architectural College’s Kitchen and Bath Design program and worked in that field for many years. I’m a hand-drafter (although I also work with CAD programs) and was surprised to learn along the way how similar calligraphy and drafting are.
The Abbey Studio
Owner: Maryanne Grebenstein
84 Washington Street, Marblehead
TheAbbeyStudioBlog.com
Sep 16, 2024 | Community, Historic, Non-Profit
An interview with Executive Director, Lauren McCormack
Tell us about the Marblehead Museum and the programs you offer the community. Marblehead Museum & Historical Society, Inc. is a private non-profitmuseum founded in 1898 to preserve, protect, and promote Marblehead’s past as a means of enriching the present. We have four sites in town: The 1768 Jeremiah Lee Mansion, JOJ Frost Gallery & Carolyn Lynch Education Center, and the Civil War/Grand Army of the Republic exhibit in the Old Town House, as well as our newest acquisition, the Jeremiah Lee Brick Kitchen & Slave Quarters next to the Lee Mansion. We have an object and archival collection of over 60,000 items from Marblehead’s past and invite researchers and genealogists to take advantage of our resources. We offer lectures, walking tours, programs, and events year-round, both hybrid and in-person.
What exciting projects are you working on currently? The Museum is currently working to preserve, rehabilitate, and interpret the 1768 Jeremiah Lee Brick Kitchen & Slave Quarters at 157 Washington Street. Thanks to a generous donation by Standley Goodwin in 2021, we were able to purchase the building, which was built by the Lee family to serve as a detached kitchen, coach house, and living quarters for their enslaved individuals. The building is fascinating, and we spent over 2 years working with architectural historians, archaeologists, and other scholars to study how it has changed over time. Now, we’re working to secure it for the next 250 years. At the same time, we’re working closely with scholars and public historians to develop an exhibit on the first floor about the enslaved experience in Marblehead. The second floor will be a new state-of-the-art archive and research center so we can better preserve and share our amazing historical documents and photos. The entire project budget is just over $1.4 million, and we’re actively seeking donations and grants to meet our goal.
What is your favorite spot in Marblehead, and why? I love walking around Old Burial Hill. It’s quiet and peaceful, but it’s also an opportunity to see so much of Marblehead’s past in one place – its heroes and heroines, as well as the everyday people who, over the years, made Marblehead the amazing town it was and is.
What is something people would be surprised to learn about you? Before I came to the Marblehead Museum, I worked at the USS Constitution Museum and was privileged to be on board USS Constitution when she sailed in 2012, in honor of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, for only the second time since the 19th century.
Marblehead Museum
Executive Director: Lauren McCormack
[email protected]; 781-631-1768
MarbleheadMuseum.org
Sep 10, 2024 | Businesses, Law/Legal
Andrew Christensen is a Massachusetts Attorney committed to zealous advocacy in the areas of real estate, estate planning (wills and trusts), probate/trust administration, asset protection, and elder law. He helps navigate his clients through major life planning events, such as buying/selling a home, making out your will, or assisting elderly clients and long-term care planning.
Andy grew up in Marblehead in a family full of lawyers and police officers, so it was likely his destiny that he would practice law. He got serious about becoming an attorney after he took an undergraduate business law class, which sparked his interest in the law, as well as helping people and businesses.
Marblehead means a lot to Andy. He is passionate about supporting local businesses and is very involved in our community. Andy serves on the Planning Board, is a member of the Marblehead Rotary Club and is Past President of the Marblehead Chamber of Commerce board. When asked what he loves most about Marblehead, he replied, “I love how this community rallies behind each other in good and bad times, and the beauty of the ocean”.
When Andy isn’t practicing law or supporting our community, you will find him on the golf course, boating and spending time with his wife and two adorable dogs.
The Law Offices of Harry C. Christensen, Attorney Andrew G. Christensen, Esquire
[email protected]
40 South Street, Suite 105, Marblehead
TheChristensenLawFirm.com
Sep 3, 2024 | Arts, Community, Events, Music
Tell us about Me&Thee Music, why you started it and how it’s evolved over the years. Me&Thee Music began as a community gathering place at a time when many other music clubs and coffeehouses were closing. At the time, I had a folk music radio show and was meeting many local musicians looking for places to play that were not bars or loud restaurants. Because we’ve been a “listening room” since the beginning, we attracted a group of students and adults who volunteered their time to keep it running.
The Me&Thee has become the longest running, all-volunteer acoustic music venue in the US where artists from all over the country perform in an acoustically and historically significant setting at the UU Church, 28 Mugford St., Marblehead. The Me&Thee has grown over the decades to a professional quality concert series featuring nationally known and regional performers including Suzanne Vega, Tracy Chapman, John Hartford, Tommy Makem, Anais Mitchell, Pete Seeger, and many more. The Me&Thee is beginning its 55th season this September and we have another great concert schedule lined up.
What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve ever received? Our realization that our volunteers are the most important part of what makes the Me&Thee successful. Our staff is here because they believe in our mission and without them, we wouldn’t succeed. They create the atmosphere and environment for our talent to thrive and for our audience to feel welcome as part of our community. Our volunteers go way beyond what is expected. Every night we open with professional sound, media outreach, audience coordination, ticket sales, performer travel and hospitality, refreshment prep and sales, and more. This is a well-coordinated, yet complicated operation, that has run smoothly for years.
What is your favorite spot in Marblehead, and why? There are so many places in Marblehead where you realize the historic significance and beauty of where we live. Fort Sewall is one of those special places where you can look over our town or out to sea and imagine how many generations began their travels from this spot and how life unfolded in simpler times. Our abundant historical buildings and homes speak that history to us. I’ve traveled all over the world, yet our town remains one of the most beautiful and unique places I know.
What is something people would be surprised to learn about you? Beginning when I was very young, I pursued tap dancing for 14 years performing in concert halls, orphanages, senior centers and community halls throughout Eastern Massachusetts. I also appeared in two productions at North Shore Music Theater, ‘Gypsy’ and ‘Music Man.’
Me&Thee Music
Founder: Anthony Silva
MeAndThee.org
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