The Marblehead Mile (Article 13) - Lorrie Halbalub

In this series we are taking an historical look at an area that covers approximately a mile of Main Street in downtown Marblehead. Heading east from the Village limits, we will discover the facts and the stories of how Marblehead became what it is today. [This is the 13^th article in the series.]

After one passes under the quarry’s conveyor belt over Main Street, the next property on the left is #17 the Kelleys Island Ferry Boat Line building, parking lot, and dock. Ferry service from this spot began in 1991. Of all the places in Marblehead that have changed over the years, this property has changed the most.

 In the past, right on Main Street, was once the Lakeside & Marblehead Railroad Train Station and after the Interurban train station was ruined in an accident, that train used the same station. Eventually the station was torn down. Gone were the sounds of the trains and passengers.

Behind the station toward the lake, was once a neighborhood, full of houses that were owned by the quarry and rented to the quarry workers and their families.  Most of the homes were the first place that immigrants from Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, and other easter European countries lived. There were two streets. Popular Street was nicknamed “Mud Row” and the little houses had a shed on the side for pigs, chickens and maybe a cow, much like the homes they left behind in the “Old Country.”  The other street was Maple Street, nicknamed “Millionaire Row.” These homes had indoor plumbing and steam heat from the quarry’s power source. This was luxury to the workers who could afford to rent them. Here, children played, dogs barked, neighbors gathered and talked.  Now, it too is silent.

At age 8, Joe Malfara came to this neighborhood from Italy with his mother and two siblings.   His father had come to work in the quarry years before and earned enough money to send for his family. He, like all the quarry workers, wanted a better life for his children in America.  Six days after the family was reunited in Marblehead,  Joe’s father died.  His mother was suddenly a widow with three children, no job, no money to return to Italy, and spoke no English. Joe said that the other quarry worker families, convinced her to stay.  Times were tough.  There was no Welfare System then. The quarry let her continue to live in the house and the Italians, Slovaks, Germans and others helped the Malfara family survive.  Joe said he remembered picking dandelion leaves in James Park and was amazed that there was food on the ground to pick for free in this new country.

Though the men worked together and the families lived together as neighbors who helped each other, at first, the immigrants wanted to cling to people of their own ethnicity.  Over the years, the lines of ethnicity blurred and Marblehead became a melting pot. It took years, but those first quarry workers reached their goal…..their children and their children’s children DID have a better life. In fact, Joe Malfara grew up and became one of the Mayors of Marblehead.