MARSHFIELD /Fieldston
Summer hot spot has year-round appeal

By TERI BORSETI
For The Patriot Ledger

Area: 28.52 square miles

POPULATION
2000: 24,324
2007: 26,268

Density: 927 res./square mile
Median age: 40
Median household income: 76,376

FINANCES
Tax rate (2007): $8.14
Town budget: $70.2 million
Avg. water/sewer bill: $690/year

HOUSING
Median home price (# sales)
2007: $390,000 (253)
2008: $380,000 (59 through April)
Median condo price
2007: $217,500 (47)
2008: $215,000 (17 through April)

SCHOOLS
Number of students: 4,692
Number of teachers: 347
H.S. grads to 4-yr. college: 75%
H.S. grads to 2-yr. college: 10%
Median SAT score (2006): 1559

The section of Marshfield known as Fieldston has a row of streets named by numbers, all of which lead to a beach of the same name. Many residents live in houses that were owned by their parents and grandparents.

Fieldston has been a popular summer destination as far back as the mid-1800s.

During the 1920s and 1930s, an influx of Irish-American vacationers from Boston dubbed the seaside area "The Irish Riviera."

Rows of bungalows, all within a few steps from Fieldston Beach, were built as summer homes. Barbara Humphrys and her sister, Ellen Howard, started vacationing in the house their parents rented on 9th Road when they were children. The Somerville family looked forward to spending a couple of months by the shore and quite a few rental cottages were available at the time.

"It was years later, in 1983, that my sister called and told me the house our parents used to rent was for sale," Humphrys said.

The sisters and their husbands bought the house, and the family continues to come together during the summer in Fieldston.

Peter Howard met Ellen while she was vacationing with her family, and the couple never expected to own the house on the beach where Ellen spent her childhood summers.

"At one point all my relatives were here. My mother still owns a house on this street and my aunt owns one on 10th Road. It's very common here for people to pass these summer homes on to a family member," Ellen Howard said.

The Blizzard of 1978, and the no-name storm of 1991 changed things along the short, numbered streets.

"Most of these houses were really summer cottages and many of them were damaged in that storm - so many have been completely renovated and winterized since then," Toni Reddy of Seaside Realty said. "Even though it's still a popular summer destination, there are quite a few that live there year-round now."

Marshfield has been a summer hot spot since before the turn of the 19th century and developed a reputation for its ballrooms with venues that included many of the Big Bands.

In 1912, the Ocean Bluff Casino was the place to be and offered everything from bowling to ice cream to an ocean breeze. The Fieldston, a restaurant and ballroom, helped give the town its nick-name of Marshvegas.

Even after the Fieldston changed hands and became The Rexicana Ballroom, it lured bands including The Beach Boys and The Kingsmen, and in later years, early punk rock bands like The Modern Lovers and The Real Kids. The Rexicana was destroyed by fire in 1976.

Marlene Howard said she married into a family that had property in the neighborhood. Originally from Belmont, Howard bought a bungalow after World War II when prices were cheap.

"I don't know what my husband paid for it, but I can just imagine what these houses went for in the '40s," she said.

Marlene Howard moved into a cottage on 10th Road, the street behind her sister's summer place, and said the whole family used to come to the beach for the summer.

"It was a wonderful experience. Mothers didn't work then, so we took the kids and headed here. They always had someone to play with and even now, there's always somebody around to talk to," Howard said.

The neighborhood tends to get busy on weekends, but weekdays remain relatively quiet, Reddy said.

"With the beach there's always something to do here. Even after summer is over, it's a great place to take a walk," she said.