The Marblehead Mile (Article 8) - Lorrie Halblaub

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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 8^th article in the series.]

10. East of Jamestown Tavern’s parking lot is 818 West Main Street, a yellow house and the beginning of the St. Marie buildings. That house was the site of the home of Louis St. Marie, a businessman and the first president of the Marblehead Bank. The house was a private home with several owners and renters. In 2007, Jennifer Collins bought it and made it the House of Healing, a business that offered massages and other health services. She sold it in 2021, and it was remodeled and turned into a boutique rental or air B&B. Since then it has changed hands about every 2 years, and currently goes by the name “The Captain’s House.”

11. The pink building next door, called Madam Rosie’s Boutique and Gallery at 820 W. Main Street, is the first of some architecturally interesting buildings in Marblehead. Built by Louis St. Marie, it looks like it is made of limestone, but it is actually made of formed concrete blocks.

This building material was an experiment by the local quarry that had a shop on the quarry property where the blocks were made with the locally quarried limestone as one ingredient of the concrete. Every block is the same, unlike buildings built of cut limestone. Other buildings made of this material are Starcher’s Village Pro and the VFW.

Madam Rosie’s Boutique is owned by Rose Lucas Haninger. This local woman returned to Marblehead after a successful career doing costumes and make-up for famous people. She has pictures of herself with many of her interesting clients on display in her store. The store sells unique clothing, jewelry, and too many other things to name. It also displays and sells Rose’s artwork in one side of the shop, which she calls the Painted Rose Art Gallery. Rose is the person who painted the mural on the Radar Tower building, mentioned in an earlier article. She is doing a series of paintings featuring local people and events in the history of Marblehead. Some are also on display at the lighthouse and Latitudes Café.

Before Rose began her business, her building had many other lives. It was one of the sites of the office of the town newspaper, the Peninsular News, a dentist office, an ice cream parlor, the barbershop of Joe Casuzio, the beauty shop of Anna Fontana, and a gallery for another local artist, Rick Dziak. He and his wife Mary lived upstairs in the building while his gallery was downstairs.