Hingham - PENCELAND.com

Hingham

Hingham location
in US

Hingham is a
Boston suburb

Hingham map

Hingham Harbor

Our current house

Views from house

Previous house

Our Hingham houses

"The most beautiful Main Street in America"
- Eleanor Roosevelt, on Hingham's Main Street
(The Perfect New England Village)

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Commuter boat	Entering Hingham	Otis Hill rocks!	Google photos

"Hingham is a peaceful, beautifully preserved town that has invested the time and capital necessary to protect its heritage, its natural resources and, ultimately, the investments of its homeowners." – Courtney Ronan, Realty Times

Eric & Patti

Current house
when bought

Hingham & Boston

Hingham, Massachusetts, is a Boston suburb where we have lived since 1982 (when we bought our first Hingham house (our 2nd house) that we remodeled, raised 2 boys in, and lived in for 34 years). Then in 2016, after the boys were gone, we downsized and moved to our second Hingham house on Otis Hill (this is our third house). The image on the left shows Hingham in relation to Boston. Many Hingham residents commute to jobs in Boston (before I retired in 2018 I commuted to Boston by boat for 35 years). Hingham (pronounced like "gingham", the fabric) was founded in 1633 by settlers from Hingham, England, and it was the 12th town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, so it is one of the oldest towns in the U.S. I didn't move here for historical reasons, it is just a nice upper-middle-class suburb, and our previous house in Weymouth that we lost to a fire was just a few miles away. The area was originally called "Bare Cove" because of the "exposure of almost its entire harbor at low tide," 1 and "Bare Cove" is still a frequently used name in town. Our current house is on Otis Hill, and is the 2nd-to-last house on a dead-end street. Our previous house in Hingham, where we lived or 34 years (1982-2016) and raised 2 boys in was in Hingham Square. I am retired now and go for twice daily dog walks in our new neighborhood and Patti still works in Boston as a Nurse Practitioner.

The boys have graduated from colleges in New York City (Alex) and Washington, DC (Ben) and live far away (Alex in Brooklyn, NY, and Ben in Taiwan) but Hingham will always be their hometown.

We've owned 2 houses in Hingham. Our current house we bought in 2015 (here's what it looked like when we bought it), remodeled it for a year, and moved to it in 2016—here's an aerial view of that house location.

Hingham Square

Our Hingham
houses

Hingham is mostly residential, with many of the houses built in the 1800s and some even dating back to the 1600s (our first Hingham house was built in 1905). There are several National Historic districts here, and development is well regulated. Many houses in these districts have a plaque on the front stating their year of origin. The houses in town are in interesting architectural styles including Georgian, Federal, Victorian, Greek Revival, Italianate, Colonial Revival, and Capes, all the way up to contemporary-style residences. There is a beautiful park and bathing beach at the harbor, and the town also has several large wooded areas, including Wompatuck State Park, which has bike paths and hiking trails, camping areas, and flowing spring water (you can fill up bottles at Mount Blue Spring). In 1945, World's End (see photos), which is located on a peninsula jutting into the harbor, was considered as a possible location for the United Nations.

Hingham has a population of approximately 20,000 and covers an area of 22.5 square miles. The town has one high school, one middle school, and four elementary schools. The town government is administered by a board of selectmen and we have open town meetings where residents can speak publicly on issues before they are voted on.

A recent claim-to-fame is Hingham is the home of the original Wahlburgers, a hamburger restaurant in the Hingham Shipyard (featured in the TV show of that name) owned by brothers Mark Wahlberg (the actor), Donnie Wahlberg (New Kids on the Block), and Paul Wahlberg (chef and owner of the Alma Nove restaurant, across the street from Wahlburgers). The Wahlbergs grew up in Dorchester, a section of Boston. One of their burgers is named O.F.D which stands for "Originally From Dorchestah".

Samuel and Benjamin Lincoln

Samuel Lincoln
cottage

Benjamin Lincoln house

Both Lincoln houses

An early member of the community was Samuel Lincoln, an ancestor of Abraham Lincoln. Another famous Lincoln from Hingham was Benjamin Lincoln (no relation), who, as George Washington's second in command, formally accepted the British surrender at Yorktown to end the Revolutionary War They both owned houses in downtown Hingham Square. The Samuel Lincoln cottage, at 182 North Street, has a plaque that says it was built in 1650. This is where he lived and raised a family. The Samuel Lincoln website mentions a house designated as the Samuel Lincoln House (and located at 170 North Street) and says it was built in 1721, but he died in 1690 and this house was built by his grandson, who was also named Samuel (and located just 3 houses away from the Samuel Lincoln Cottage). The Benjamin Lincoln house is located across the street from Samuel's cottage (this view shows both). Samuel and Benjamin were not contempories and not related, and Benjamin was born 40 years after Samuel died.

All the
Lincoln houses

Hingham Cemetery

When we lived in Hingham Square I would frequently walk the dog (and the neighbors' dog Lucy, then Chance) through the Hingham Cemetery, location of the burials of many of the town's early settlers. Here are some photos I have taken on these walks, where I see some of these noteworthy tombstones:

Angel of Grief – this marble monument, the Maria Hooper gravestone, was made in Italy
Governor John A. Andrew – a former governor of Massachusetts (1861-1866)
Mary Revere Lincoln – Paul Revere's daughter
Benjamin Lincoln – a Revolutionary War hero who accepted the British surrender
Sea Lion – BELOVED ADVENTURERS, a sailing couple who perished in a small plane crash
Thomas Barnes – the oldest, original gravestone (1602-1672)

¹ EARLY SETTLERS of Hingham, Massachusetts

Hingham life

Current house

Neighborhood aerial
showing current house

Previous house

Our Hingham houses
since 1982

I met Patti in 1977 and we got married in 1979. We have lived in Hingham since 1982 (prior to that we lived for 5 years in a house we owned in Weymouth that we lost to a fire), and we lived for 34 years and raised two boys in a large, shingle-style house in Hingham Square. After being "empty-nesters" for 8 years after the boys were grown and gone we relocated to a smaller home we purchased and completely rebuilt (see Our house). The new house is on Otis Hill with great views—Boston skyline, Hingham Harbor, Boston Light (the first lighthouse in the U.S.), and we can even see structures in Swampscott and Marblehead on the North Shore and some Atlantic Ocean.

Before we came to Hingham Patti and I lived in a 3-bedroom Cape in Weymouth (1977-1982). We had accumulated enough stuff that we had outgrown the house and decided to buy a larger house. We looked in Newton for awhile but didn't find anything we liked (most houses were bigger but they had smaller yards than we currently had) so we stopped looking. Then in 1982 we had a fire that burned out the inside of our house. The insurance company offered to put us up in a hotel, rent an apartment, or locate a trailer in our driveway while we decided what to do. It was summer and we had a pool in the backyard and a dog (we lost 2 cats in the fire) so we took the trailer. I remember coming home from work and expecting to see some kind of camper trailer in the driveway but what was there was a 60-foot, 2-bedroom trailer! We lived in the trailer and talked to a builder about rebuilding the house but we soon realized that with the changes we wanted to make we were out-pricing the neighborhood. We decided to move and we were familiar with house-shopping and familiar with Hingham (a neighboring town) so we got a Hingham realtor and started looking. We chose the 2nd house we saw, a large Victorian on a two-thirds acre corner lot.

After we moved here in 1982, we had two children, Alex, born in 1985, and Ben, born in 1988. At first we adapted to living in the house we bought but in 1991 we added a 2-story addition, with a huge family-room on the first floor and our master-bedroom suite above it. My career was taking off and after a few years of commuting by car I started commuting by boat into my jobs in Boston. Patti, who had graduated in Nursing from B.U. in 1979, went back to school and got her Master's and became a Nurse Practitioner in 2001. Alex and Ben both graduated from high school and got college degrees (Alex at The New School in Greenwich Village, NYC, where he also got a Master's, and Ben from George Washington U. in Washington, DC). Alex lives in New York City and is a college teacher. Ben lives in Taiwan (previously he lived in San Francisco for 4 years where he was a programmer for Twitter, then in Manhattan). Both boys have traveled all over the world and lived in foreign countries (Alex in Turkey and Vietnam, Ben in Amsterdam and currently Taiwan). You can read more about them and see photos here.

We've had some wicked snowy winters since we've lived in Hingham (2005, 2011, and 2015) but we coped. I was into sailing before I met Patti in 1977 (I took sailing lessons on the Charles River at the Community Boating Club) and we bought a couple of sailboats. The 1st one was a car-top boat that you attached the mast every time you went sailing. The 2nd one, a 17½ foot sailboat, had a small outboard motor. We moored it a few years but usually towed it to the harbor to launch. It was on a trailer in the back yard when in 2011 Hurricane Irene came and part of a tree fell on the boat and destroyed the mast. We kept that boat for a few years and eventually I was able to get someone to haul it away. Since we moved to our current house winters have been pretty mild, but with all new construction it is basically a new house and I am not concerned about bad weather. We also have a generator so we are not worried about losing electricity. I'm still waiting for our next big snowstorm!

Dog Walks

When we lived in Hingham Square I would walk our and the neighbors' dog regularly in different locations around Hingham.
Walking locations

Otis Hill Walks

We have 2 Labradoodle dogs and I walk them twice a day in the neighborhood.

Otis Hill Walks

House locations

Since 1982 we've owned 2 houses in Hingham and here are aerial views of their locations:

Current house
(2016-present)
Previous house
(1982-2016)

I retired in 2018 and spend a lot of time at home and walk our dogs twice a day, and Patti is a Nurse Practitioner at Neponsit Health Center.

Hingham photos

I found some really beautiful Hingham photos by Googling "main street hingham" and clicking on Images.


... Some scenic postcards ...			An old cape	Main Street	Hingham Square


July 4th parade	July 4th photos	World's End	Our Santa	Bob Beal & James Earl Jones	Liberty Grille

Hingham rotary

This is an arial view of the Hingham rotary.

Hingham Real Estate Center – take the tour on this site for some great photos

July 4th, 2002, parade movie

Webshots Community - Hingham – many winter shots

Hingham shipyard

The shipyard was originally developed in the 1940s as a place where Bethlehem Steel built ships that were used during WWII. Since then, for decades it has had several industrial uses and still had some enormous buildings that were rented out for various things. There were several marinas there and we moored a sailboat there one year. The buildings were removed for some modern recent development that includes a commercial area, condos, apartments, and huge parking lots for the commuter boat to Boston. The boat was my commute to Boston starting in 1983 until I retired in 2018. I drove there and parked in a lot where I paid for parking by the month and using my monthly MBTA pass took the boat every day.

Boat parking

Shipyard accessibility

During World War II

Building
Destroyer Escorts

Bethlehem Steel
photo

Before re-development

Hewitt's Cove

Aerial view

Slideshow

After re-development

Businesses identified

Showing Hewitt's Cove
and new commercial area

Aerial photo
of commercial area

Aerial photo
of shipyard

Commercial area

The Launch at Hingham Shipyard – this is the new development at the shipyard

Avalon at the Hingham Shipyard – they built apartments there
< target="_blank"a href="http://www.hinghamshipyardmarinas.com/">

Hingham Shipyard Marinas – they manage the commuter boat parking lot I use

History of Hingham Shipyard

Google Maps

Hingham Shipyard before – here are some photos of the shipyard pre-development

Boston commute by boat from Hingham

Commuter boat

Hingham is a
Boston suburb

Photos of trip

Pulling into
Rowes Wharf

Short walk in Boston

Walk over Greenway

Boat parking

Boat terminal

Terminal photos

Shipyard location

Boat schedule

Hingham to Boston boat route

One of the things that makes Hingham an especially appealing suburban-Boston location to live in is the commuter boat service to Boston, which has been running since 1975. For the last 35 years of my working life (I retired in 2018) I've lived in Hingham (we moved here in 1982) and commuted to Boston by boat (the best Boston commute!), so I only had to go to the boat terminal in the Hingham Shipyard every day to catch the boat to Boston to get to work. I had a real easy commute—a 15-minute drive from home to the Shipyard and a half-hour boat ride. I had a monthly MBTA pass for the boat and a monthly pass for the parking lot at the shipyard. Each day I rode on the commuter boat, and when the boat docked at Rowes Wharf in Boston I walked a few blocks to the building I worked in. Then at the end of the day I walked back to the boat dock at Rowes Wharf and took the boat back to Hingham. When I arrived at work in the morning or at home in the evening I was rested and relaxed, a very different state than that of many suburban commuters, who drive their cars in the intense, bumper-to-bumper, stop-and-go, rush-hour traffic. In my opinion, I had the best of both worlds—a nice, peaceful, safe environment for my home, and the daily adventure of being in a great city. Before the Big Dig put the Central Artery underground in 2005 when I got off the boat I had to walk under the old elevated Central Artery to get to my office building, but after the Big Dig I walked across the Rose Kennedy Greenway to get to where I worked.

In 2017 they built a new ferry terminal in the shipyard (the boat ticket office used to be a room in the building next door). I am retired now but like many South Shore residents, I worked in the city and I had a pleasant (and sometimes thrilling!) half-hour boat ride to work every day for 35 years. As methods of commuting go, this is one of the best, especially in the summer, when you can sit outside. The Boston Globe did a comparison of commuting from the South Shore by car, boat, commuter rail (train), and Red Line (subway), and not surpisingly, the boat came out on top. Whenever I am asked what it is like taking the boat in the winter, I reply that the boats are heated in winter and air-conditioned in summer, and of course, if you prefer you can ride outside year-round. There was a nice article about riding the commuter boat in the Boston Globe, "Commuters flock down to the sea" 2. There is also boat access to the Boston Harbor Islands from the Hingham shipyard on Route 3A. (I parked at the shipyard every day to take the boat into Boston and Google Maps Street View photographed my parked car.) I had a monthly MBTA pass for the boat and I paid by the month for parking, so it was very easy.

In April, 2018, I saw a photo in the Boston Sunday Globe of the Hingham ferry that ran from the airport in 1948, so the boat has been running for a long time! When I first started taking the boat in 1983 they had just gotten the first high-speed boat, the Gracious Lady, which is now the Winthrop Ferry and named the Anna. The boats have improved over the years and now they are all high-speed, taking 30 minutes from Hingham to Boston.

here are a several photos of the inside of the Salacia catamaran, my favorite commuter ferry

Hingham/Hull Ferry schedule

MBTA ferry terminal – this is located on Shipyard Drive

My commuter boat photos

Salacia ferry photos

Boston Harbor Cruises – commuter boat service, harbor cruises, whale watches

The commuter boat schedule

This trip's a breeze 2

Passing under the Long Island Bridge – a cool video someone took

² Some newspaper articles have links that expire too quickly so I save them offline.

Hingham distinctions

These are some of the town's claims to fame. See the History page on the town website for more.

Hingham was incorporated in 1635 as the 12th town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The Old Ship Church (more photos), built in 1681, is the oldest meetinghouse in the country in continuous use as a place of worship.
- the Old Ship Parish House was used in the 1987 movie "The Witches of Eastwick"
In 1781 General Benjamin Lincoln of Hingham accepted the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, the last battle of the American Revolution.
Derby Academy was established in 1784 as the first coeducational school in the nation.
John D. Long of Hingham became governor of Massachusetts in 1880 and Secretary of the Navy in 1897.
Boy Scouts of America Troup One, formed in Hingham in 1911, is the oldest scout troup in the country.
In 1945 World's End was proposed as the site of the United Nations Headquarters (fortunately it was not selected!).
In 2007 a national magazine (unfortunately I forget which one) rated Hingham as having the best commute in the entire U.S.!
The original Wahlburgers restaurant, a hamburger restaurant in the Hingham Shipyard (see above)

Videos

Many of these are videos I captured from YouTube that feature Hingham. Some are real estate videos showing houses for sale, but they generally have nice views from around town so I included them.

July 4, 2002
parade movie

Hingham Bay Drone Footage

Getting to Know Hingham Cemetery

Hingham Through Time

Hingham, MA Our Town – from Coldwell-Banker

Driving in Hingham

Hingham Drive 2

Fire!

Click to play
Before fire
New garage The neighbors' garage burned down one night destroying 4 cars. Jim the owner made this video ("...in your own backyard! Holy smokes!") with appropriate music and I uploaded it to YouTube.
A new 3-bay garage has now been built.

Footloose in America

Bud and Patricia Kenny and their mule Della are touring America on foot. They spent a year in Hingham, camped out on Peter Hersey's farm on Hersey Street. If you are from around here you may have seen Bud walking Della on the streets. They have moved on, including a visit to Manhattan. Bud has written a book about their travels and is looking for a publisher.

Hingham Journal article
USonFoot.com – their website
Whistlewood Farm – they wintered there in 2007-2008

Street names

Frequently in New England a street name will change along its route. This happens in several places in Hingham. At this intersection on Hobart Street the street you intersect with changes from Cross Street in one direction to New Bridge Street in the other. The town put up this sign to lessen the confusion.

Greenbush

The Greenbush branch of the Old Colony Railroad has been restored to the South Shore and goes right through Hingham. For several years I had a big anti-train section on this page, based mostly on safety, health, and environmental concerns, but rather than come across with sour grapes after the battle to keep the train from being built was lost, I decided to remove that from the page when the line was restored in 2007. A tunnel was constructed to take the train under Hingham Square, but where there is not a tunnel they have grade-level crossings at intersections with lights and gates. The Patriot Ledger provided a video tour of the train route prior to the actual start of train service. Since I drive on a street that goes over the tunnel on my way to the boat each day I don't have to deal with the crossing-gates regularly, but on weekends and evenings I frequently cross these tracks, and I will admit I find waiting at the crossings that didn't exist my first 25 years of living in Hingham annoying. The boat will continue to be my method of commuting but I have taken the train a few times so I know how it works and admit it is definitely a better way to get into Boston than driving in rush hour. In February, 2015, when we got several feet of snow and the boats were not running due to ice in the harbor, the train was a lucky alternate method of commute. Unfortunately, even though the train station is walking distance from my house (a half-mile), there were no unplowed sidewalks for walking and I had to drive and pay-to-park at the station.

Fore River Bridge - connecting Quincy to Weymouth on Route 3A

Old bridge
New bridge I came across this photo of the old Fore River Bridge that I had to share on here somewhere. The old bridge has been replaced with a new bridge with a more modern design that opened to traffic in August, 2017. This is not a Hingham memory but it is definitely a South Shore memory. I had driven across this one many times before it was ultimately condemned and torn down. When the bridge opened to let large boats pass it is quite different—old bridge, new bridge.

The dump (Transfer station)

Hingham does not have town pickup for trash and you are required to either take it to the dump (our "dump" became a transfer station in 2000 with compactors) or pay a company to do that (I see the Graham barrels wheeled out to the street waiting for pickup). I have always taken our trash to the dump myself, which was a Saturday task for most of my life until I retired and can do it on other days (the dump is open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). What we longtime Hinghamites call "the dump" is really a "transfer station". When I came to Hingham in 1982 it actually was a dump (landfill) and I used to haul my trash there (I actually had a utility trailer that I towed behind my BMW sedan) and unload it where it got buried. Sometimes on a dog walk in the Moore-Brewer Reservation next to the dump I noticed some of the paper trash had blown over into the woods. Over the years the landfill filled up and the town made it a transfer station, where you put your trash in these big compressor machines and it is loaded onto trucks and hauled to another landfill. (Since 1993 I have driven SUVs, which are much better for hauling trash, and I got rid of my trailer.)

Recycling

There is a huge recycling area with bins for plastic, glass containers, metal containers, cardboard, paper, and electronic equipment. I think there is a law that something like 25% (maybe higher) of your household rubbish has to be recycled. (Because we are properly set up at home at least half my trash gets recycled.)

Swap area (called the Swap Shop)

There is a free "swap area" where you can leave things you don't want anymore that others might want, or you can look for things that others have discarded. (This is temporarily closed due to Covid-19.)

Hingham & South Shore links

Civic

Hingham, MA | Official Website

Civic Alerts

Voting Precincts map

Street Listing – owner names and house data

Historical Timeline

Hingham Police Department

Hingham Municipal Lighting Plant (HMLP)

Hingham Symphony Orchestra

Bare Cove Fire Museum

Hingham Community Center

Hingham Downtown Association

Walking Guide of Downtown Hingham – shows business locations

Hingham 4th of July picture – we always have a nice parade

Mass.Gov - Hingham

MapsOnline – map with Hingham addresses

South Shore map – we have lived in several suburbs

History

Historical Highlights of Hingham – from the town website

History of Hingham Harbor – from the town website

History of Hingham

EARLY SETTLERS

Hingham Historical Society

Old Ordinary

Evolution of Hingham Harborfront – great slideshow

Old Ship Church

Hingham Cemetery – behind the Old Ship

Hingham Norfolk (UK) - a Beautiful Georgian Market Town – our founders were from Hingham, England

Hingham Postcard History Series by James Pierotti

Education & learning

Hingham Public Schools

South Shore Educational Collaborative – educational programs and services

Hingham Public Library

Old Colony Library Network

Derby Academy

South Shore Conservatory

Children's Creativity Workshops – Lynn Titleman Rizzotto, a Hingham illustrator/artist

Authors 4 Kids – Connecting Students with Book People

Nautical

Hingham to Boston commuter boat – the best way to commute!

Boston Harbor Cruises – commuter boat service, harbor cruises, whale watches

The commuter boat schedule

A virtual tour of one of the commuter boats

Commuter boats collide! – on July 10, 2007, as a passenger I witnessed a head-on collision in heavy fog between 2 commuter boats

Massachusetts Bay Lines – commuter boats, harbor cruises, whale watches

Hingham Shipyard Marinas – at Hewitt's Cove

Hingham Maritime Center

Hingham Yacht Club

Massachusetts Tide Charts

Boston Harbor Islands – accessible by ferry from the Hingham Shipyard

Restaurants & dining

Alma Nove (photo) – Paul Wahlberg's restaurant in the Hingham Shipyard

Wahlburgers (photo) – in the Hingham Shipyard, owned by brothers Mark Wahlberg (the actor), Donnie Wahlberg (New Kids on the Block), and Paul Wahlberg (Alma Nove)