Welcome to the History Page. Here you'll find images and narratives of a long
ago time in Green Harbor, Ocean Bluff and Brant Rock in beautiful South Coastal Marshfield. One of the most thorough historical
recountings of the goings-on in Marshfield has been compiled by Bob Cheeseman. Please follow the link below to see his complete
history. Events that occurred in South Coastal Marshfield have been excerpted below. Bob Cheeseman can be contacted by following
the link at the bottom of the page.

click the link below for Bob Cheesemans' History
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Hotels were built in the south part of town; Churchill Hotel 1866 – 1909,
Brant Rock House 1874 – 1938, Ocean House 1875 – 1973, Fairview Hotel 1874 – 1998, Atlantic House 1789 -
?, Peace Haven Hotel & Annex 1903 - 1940
1867-1939 Railroad serves town of Marshfield - Stations at Green Harbor,
Marshfield Center and Duxbury. 1871 Railroad Duxbury & Cohasset extended service to; Littltown (Sea View)- 53-Station
St. So. Marshfield Center- town parking lot. Webster’s Place- North side of Careswell St. Near the Duxbury line.
Green
Harbor Village & Green Harbor Beach started being developed, Green Harbor Park started in 1947.
1872 Dyke Road
Built - improved in 1879)...connecting Green Harbor to Brant Rock.
6-4-1878 Post Office (Brant Rock) established.
1879 Hotel- Atlantic house
1880 Sea Wall- in pictures show as wooden sea walls at Brant Rock and Ocean Bluff.
5-24-1886 Post Office (Green Harbor) established.
1892 Bridge, there was no bridge before this date, joining
Humarock. 1893 US Life Station built on Ocean St. 1894 Brant Rock Fish Market, Charlie Phillips 1894 – 1960,
Hank Dunbar 1960 - present
1895 Union Chapel- Brant Rock was built
1899 Sea Walls " Jetties " were built in
Green Harbor
Marshfield 1800 Town History "IN OUR PARENTS TIME" By: Robert F Cheeseman (781) 837-3709 June
23, 1999 Revised: December 31, 2000
1900 Ways Abington Village was Built by Bradley Brant (Shawmut Ave
to St. Ann’s Church).
1900 Green Harbor Village - (86) Houses, (3) Hotels, Webster Hotel (Carsewell St.),
Hotel Johnston (north side of Beach St near Careswell St.), Riverside Inn (old Sears building end of Landing Rd.) Also Green
Harbor Beach - (73) houses (1) Hotel, Winslow House near (Beach St. & Careswell St) Burned 1940
1900 Wooden
Water Tank (50,000 gals.) Hancock St, part of the Bradley Brant mineral spring and pumping station. 1900 Street Lights
were installed in Brant Rock. 1900-1971 Estes Candy Kitchen (Ocean St.) opened., burned down on? 1900-1907 S. G. Capen
Store - Ocean St at Ocean Bluff.
1903 Hotel - Peace Haven Hotel & Annex 1903 – 1940, Building taken
down to build houses in that area. 1903 South River Street Cranberry Bogs where built.
1905 - 1915 Professor
Reginald Fessenden makes the World First Radio Voice Broadcast (1906) at Brant Rock-Part of Marshfield,Ma.
1907 Ways
Webster Park (Number Roads area) builders Bradley Brant (Marshfield), John Foster (Hanson), Hoarse Maglathlin (Kingston) and
in 1918 H.S. Kelsey. Webster Park House Lots, Water front $ 250.00, Row back from the ocean 175.00, $150.00, $100.00 Rest
of the lots were #1.00, Houses cost $ 1,600.00. In 1929 H.S. Kelsey set aside 10 water front lots for the use of the neighborhood
between 3rd and 5 th. Rd.
1913 Post Office - (Ocean Bluff) established 7-14
1915 - US Coast Guard took over
the US Life Saving Station, on Ocean St. (built in 1893), Station closed in 1947, and was taken down by the Town in 1967.
1919 - Fire/ Water Districts, Article 38 Sewer Wagon for the restricted areas of zoning - for Green Harbor, Brant
Rock, Ocean Bluff. The rest of the Town was Zoned Un-Restricted areas.
1920 Green Harbor Park - 10,000 square foot
lots selling for $ 25.00 per lot.
1922 5-28 Marshfield County Club started in 1919 on the Thomas Farm in Ocean Bluff.
The land was purchased in 1921,1929, and more land was purchased in 1930. The 2nd. nine holes were completed in 1976. The
Club House burned down, and a new club house was built in 1978.
Brant Rock (wooden 50,000 gal. tank) Bradley Bryant
- Brant Rock Water Co., fed from a Mineral spring on Dyke Road serviced 1,000 homes. Water Tank- Tower Avenue 1923 - 1941
Church- Saint Ann’s, Ocean Bluff Burned down fire of 1941. Mass was held in the Fieldston Ball room in the summer
months, and was held in the Fire station in the winter months. In 1946 - there was a temporary Church moved there from Framingham
it was an old Army Chapel, and in 1957 a New church was built.
1925-1941 Fieldston on the Atlantic ballroom was opened
1927 - Ocean St widening of Ocean St, acts of 1927, Chapter 249, buildings on the Green Harbor side of Ocean St had
to be moved back into the marshlands.
1927 4-8 Towns first public Water System, Article 29., Companies as follows;
1.) Brant Rock Water Co, (Bradley Bryant serviced the Brant Rock area. 2. George H. Thomas water system (serviced the
Brant Rock area) 3.) Fieldston Water Co. (Joseph Spang serviced the Fieldston area. ) 4.) Cedar Hill System (Howard
Baker serviced the Green Harbor area) 5.) Humarock Beach Water Co. (also known as Crosby Water Co serviced the Seaview
and Humarock beach areas for the Town of Scituate) All the above companies were used until 1946.
1927 - Ocean Breeze
Bar & Grill (Arthur Tradd) esplanade, Venus two, 1975 Nick Drosopoulos 1928 Sandy’s Restaurant- Dyke Rd. 1928
3-23Bounds between Marshfield and Scituate established. 1928 Haddad’s Ocean Street Cafe started on the splanade.
1929 Sunrise Beach Association was established for forty years until 1967.
1929 - Population of Brant Rock,
Ocean Bluff and Green Harbor were 329 houses, 4 hotels, and there were 61 fishermen / lobstermen year round. 1929 Comfort
Station was built in Brant Rock.
1930 - Fife’s Grocery & Meat Market (Ocean St.) next to the Ocean Cafe.
- also known as Whitman Market.1930 First National Store - middle of the esplanade 1930-1950 Eli’s Linen Store,
Brant Rock, burned down in 1960
1930 - 1958 Police Station was the old Brant Rock School House on Dyke Rd
1931
Sea Walls "Jetties " were re-built in Green Harbor (first built in 1899) 1932 Sea Walls built (Brant Rock to Fieldston)
$200,000.00 1/6th. Paid by abutters (15.00) per foot of and 1/6th. Paid by town 1/6th. Paid by county And balance paid by
the state Built by the (WPA) workers progress administration Hourly wages were .35 cents per hour. Waterfront owners built
their own stairs to the beach with all other homes paying $10.00 each toward the expense.
1938 - 1952 - Bus Service
of Marshfield Green Harbor, Brant Rock, Marshfield to the railroad station at Greenbush (Scituate)
1939 - Last train
over the North River from Boston.
1940 Band Concerts were held on the Esplanade 1940 - 1970 Charlie’s Clam
Snack Bar - Brant Rock. 1940 Beacon Novelty Shop (Mrs. Cassett) Esplanade and Low Rd. by Tingley’s Restaurant.
1940 Horton’s Bakery open in Brant Rock.
April 21,1941- The Great Fire of the Ocean Bluff section of Marshfield,
which destroyed in three hours claiming (456) houses, (96) garages, (12) stores, (2) hotels, (1) casino, (1) post office,
and (1) church, (30) families were left homeless and in most cases escaping, only with the clothes on their backs. This brought
forward for the first time better sub-division of plates of land. Because of the war, rebuilding did not really get started
until 1946.
1941 Sea Walls - " Jetties " were built of Hewitt’s Point
1942 - Tower 70 feet Brant Rock
built for WW- II, it was 8 stories high, 14 feet square, with 12 " reinforced walls. 1999 town is given the property, except
the Tower (only) and is still going to be operated by the Coast Guard in Boston.
1945-1953 Bud’s Place opens
1945 - Lobster Claw Restaurant owned by Phillips esplanade Breakers 1986 owned by Kang Yu ? Lobster Tail ? sold to?
1945 - 1972 Mommy's Restaurant ( Harry & Helen Tigley ),1972 - 1975 Rita Jenkins owned Mommy's, 1975 - 1978
Arthur & Pats owned and ran Mummies in 1978 they changed the name to Arthur & Pat’s estaurant.
1946
- Brant Rock acres was built.
1947 Green Harbor Park started being developed
1947 - Sea Walls " Jetties "
built between Webster Ave and the old Life Station. 1952 - Rexham Town Beach opened, purchased from the Sea River Association
- see 1950 1952 Brant Rock Supermarket- Dyke Rd. 1952 Blackman’s Trailer Park opened on Green Harbor Point
1956
Life Guards- established at Town Beaches. 1956 Town Pier & Bulkhead was started 1956 Green Harbor Tidal Basin
started. 1957 Green Harbor Marina- opened Dyke Rd. 1962 sold to Lovell & White 1986 sold to Connolly
1959
- School- New High School built (Furnace Brook) replaces the old school at Main St. this school was planed in 1957 $ 1,685,000
1960 Brant Rock Fish Market (Hank Dunbar)- Ocean St. 1960 Green Harbor Yacht Club opened
1962 - Coast
Guard Station purchased article # 48 $ 2,000.00 (Brant Rock) 1893 - 1915 was used as a Life Boat Station 1915 - 1947 was used
as a Coast Guard Station. The town tore down the building in (1976).
1963 - Route 3-Southeast Expressway opened joining
the Expressway in Hanover to Kingston
1965 - Green Harbor Golf Club open -Manual Francis bought the land in 1965 (165)
acres, front nine was opened, and in 1977 the back nine holes were opened.
1989 Harbor Park and Parking Lot built.
(Brant Rock) Way Town Pier Rd 1989 Park built on the old Brant Rock Dump
1994 Humarock built sand dunes to help
the area dunes cost $ 650,000.
1998 Fire- Fairview Inn burns down, hopes to rebuild in the year of 2000. 11/2000
The Fairview Inn 133 Ocean Street has started to be re-building with the foundation already has been completed and hopes
to open in the summer of 2001. 12-23-01 This is the 101st anniversary of the very first time that voice was conveyed
by radio wave. It was the prelude to the world's first radio broadcast, which took place on Christmas Eve from Brant Rock
in 1906... |
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Contact Bob Cheeseman
ADDITIONAL FACTOIDS
The old mouth of the Green Harbor River , further south than at present, was closed by
a storm circa. 1806. For several years there was no outlet to the sea except through the marshes toward Duxbury making
the river stagnant. The present entrance was opened by another storm in 1810 and further widened by local fishermen.
Bluefish Cove, then, was formerly not located near the entrance to Green Harbor.
Careswell Street was named after the Winslow family's estate in England known as Kerswell.
Estes Candy Kitchen was destroyed in a fire on
Sunday August 8, 1971

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| from the Patriot Ledger |

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| The Ocean House and the Bowling Alley/Movie theater burned on Sept. 5, 1973 |
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Building Fire in Brant Rock Square September 5, 1973
Our old Peter Pirsch 65' Ladder truck working at the Brant Rock Bowling
Alley fire. The ladder pipe from our ladder truck is credited with saving the Henderson Plumbing Supply building which
is next door to the bowling alley. Photo courtesy of Bob Reardon - Duxbury Fire Department
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St. Anne's in Ocean Bluff was built in 1923 as there were nearly 100 houses and most of the residents were
Catholic. In the 1920s there was an influx of Irish Catholics from Boston and the South Shore prompting many to call this
area the "Irish Riviera"
The Brant Rock Esplanade was created in 1927 when the road was widened by moving the buildings on the marsh
side of the road further back.
Brant Rock Union Chapel - Ocean Street and Dyke Road Built C. 1895 by Luther White, Stonework
by Foster Ewell Sheltered victims 1898 StormEarly Mass Humane Society Shelters or Charity House, stood along the beach 1893
Life Saving Station built easterly of this site. 1915 Became U.S. Coast Guard Station, Closed 1947, Razed 1967
References, Resources and Further Reading
Descendents of William, of Plymouth and Marshfield, MA - Benjamin
Shurtleff - 1912
History of Marshfield - Lysander Salmon Richards - Memorial Press - Plymouth,
MA 1901-1905
Finding the Old Coast Road; Getting Around in Plymouth County - Edwin
S. Dethlefson - Project Lighthouse - Marshfield, MA - 1969
Marshfield - The Autobiography of a Pilgrim Town - Joseph C. Hagar - Marshfiled
Tercentenary Committee - 1956 (original printing 1940)
"Warnings Ignored! The Story of the Portland Gale - November, 1898"
- By Fred Freitas and Dave Ball - November 1995 - No Publisher - pp. 83-85.
"MARSHFIELD - A Town of Villages 1640-1990"
Cynthia Hagar-Krusell and Betty Magoum-Bates - Historical Research Associates Marshfield Hills, MA - 1990 - page 62.
Marshfield 70 degrees – 40’W:
42 degrees –5’N The Autobiography of a Pilgrim Town –
Marshfield Tercentenary Committee, 1940 reprinted 1977, Rapid Service Press, Inc.
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