Marion offers cape cod's flavor but without the traffic

Author: By Kathleen Howley, Globe Correspondent

Date: SATURDAY, July 18, 1998

Page: E1

Section: Real Estate

``I grew up with sailing. When I was one or two years old I started going out with my mother and father in a 15-foot sail boat. It's in my blood,'' said Saltonstall.

His family has been summering in Marion for three generations, making a seasonal trek from the Boston area, he said. About three decades ago he moved his family from Lincoln and became a year-round resident, he said.

Saltonstall said he liked the old-fashioned feeling of Marion, a town with about 5,000 residents. But, more than that, he liked the sailing.

``It's probably the best wind for sailing on the entire east coast,'' said Saltonstall, past commodore of the town's Beverly Yacht Club. He has sailed much of the eastern seaboard and twice crossed the Atlantic in a sailing boat, he said.

In large part, the sailing conditions are related to geography, said Saltonstall. The location of the harbor, on Massachusetts most southerly shore, combined with a prevailing southwestern wind, make it a prime location for sailing, he said.

``Perhaps other places are better for power boating, but Marion is a sailing center. We have a very steady southwest wind -- a very reliable wind. It's a great sailing breeze, and, when we're onshore, it keeps us cool,'' said Saltonstall, an architect who has an office in the center of town. In fact, it's so reliable that Trudy Kingery, also a member of the town's Beverly Yacht Club, said you could set a watch by it.

She was one of the people who two decades ago started the town's every-other-year race to Bermuda, fashioned after the Cruising Club of America's race from Newport to Bermuda. The Newport race is held every even-numbered year, and the Marion race is every odd-numbered year, she said. About 120 boats from around the country come to Marion for the race, said Kingery. Usually, it takes four or more days to reach Bermuda, depending on the weather conditions.

``The Marion race is more family-oriented. The Newport race is for racing machines, big boats, the serious racing people. Our race is for fun,'' she said.

Also for fun, Kingery recently had a small role in a play that marked the re-opening of the town's newly restored music hall. ``I played a very small part -- someone who asked questions from the audience,'' said Kingery.

The two-story brick hall was built in 1891 as a gift to the town by Elizabeth Tabor, a wealthy resident. Until the 1930s it was used for recitals and plays, but during the Depression years it fell into decay.

By the time the town voted in 1992 to raise money to restore the building -- selling another town-owned building to pay for part of the costs -- it was near-ruin, residents said.

In May, after a half-million dollars of restoration, the theater reopened with a community production of ``Our Town,'' the Thornton Wilder classic about life in a New England small town.

``It's going to be a wonderful place for community theater,'' said Kingery, president of the Marion Arts Center.

Mary Ann Hayes, owner of Coldwell Banker Hayes Associates in Marion, said the recent staging of ``Our Town'' illustrates the quality that draws people to the community.

``I hate to use the word, but `quaint' is the only way to describe Marion. It is a town that has tried to maintain the feeling of an old-fashioned village,'' she said.

She said the town's real estate ranges from starter homes that sell for under $200,000, all the way up to waterfront homes that sell for more than $2 million.

On the lower end, her office lists a three-bedroom Colonial on a quarter-acre lot for $143,000, a three-bedroom Cape on a quarter-acre lot for $164,000, and a three-bedroom Cape on 2.5 acres of land for $229,000.

In the mid-range, her office lists a three-bedroom Colonial on a one-acre lot for $300,000, a three-bedroom Colonial on a one-acre lot for $339,000, and a four-bedroom Colonial on a three-quarter-acre lot for $450,000.

Right now, it's the upper end properties -- waterfront homes that sell for more than $1 million -- that are in short supply, she said.

``Four years ago, the million-dollar houses sat on the market for a year or more. Today, they are snapped up very quickly,'' she said.

Hayes said that high-end buyers tend to be successful stock brokers or business owners who sail and golf. Often, they have looked at properties on Cape Cod and in Rhode Island before settling on Marion, said Hayes.

``They have decided that this is the view they want, close to the sailing and the golf course, without all the Cape traffic to deal with on the way here,'' she said.

Area: 14 square miles.

Distance from Boston: 60 miles.

Population: 5,600.

Tax rate: $12.39.

Median house price: $260,000 (first quarter 1998).

Government: open town meeting.

Services: Commonwealth Electric, Commonwealth Gas, partial town water and sewer.

Schools: one elementary, a regional junior and senior high, Tabor Academy (private).

Cultural/recreational: town beaches, town tennis courts, town sailing lessons, Marion Arts Center, Marion Music Hall, Buzzards Bay Musicfest, Sippican Historical Society, Sippican Choral Society, Sippican Tennis Club, Beverly Yacht Club, Kittansett Golf Club, Marion Golf Club.

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