The fourth installment of my Essex, Mass. travelogue video series takes me to the White Elephant Shop, a lively destination with a wide range of wares. I start out at the main shop, then head to their outlet, and finally arrive at my parents' garden to situate a White Elephant ... more »
The third installment of my Essex, Mass. travelogue video series features Americana Antiques and includes some bonus scenic highlights. Americana americanaantiques.com has been a purveyor of antiques and collectibles for forty-one years. Tune in for a taste of Essex - its clam shacks and ... more »
The second installment of my travelogue video series about antique shops in Essex, Mass. features Howard's Flying Dragon Antiques. A family owned business for 36 years, Howard's is chock-full of finds, small and large. Find Katie Hutchison Studio on Facebook, at ... more »
Upon entering the lush garden surroundings of the Mulcaheys' Centerville home in Beverly, I wonder at the sunny warmth of the Spring afternoon. Scott's wife, Robin, has been planting flowers near a large new planter he built for her raised beds. Beyond the gate, Scott greets me wearing a ... more »
The first in my series of travelogue videos about antique shops in Essex, Mass. features Andrew Spindler Antiques. Founded in 1998, Andrew's shop displays an eclectic, highly edited range of objects, dating from the 17th through the 20th centuries. It's an impressive, high-end collection ... more »
I arrived for the open house a little late. This wasn't your typical open house; this was the big house, the Old Salem Jail. I found a line two- to three-people thick starting at the c. 1813 jail entrance, trailing past the c. 1813 jail-keeper's house, and turning at the new carriage ... more »
If you've got $125 to put toward things like literacy, legacy and perhaps have some old lace, you'll not want to miss the Salem Athenaeum's bicentennial celebration on the evening of March 6 at Hamilton Hall. This is an all out party, 1810 style, touted as an evening of period food, drink, ... more »
I make a living poking around people's homes. As a residential architect in New England, I often find myself exploring antique attics, basements, and living spaces with a tape measure in tow. I carry the same curiosity about houses into my personal life. When I visit friends' old ... more »
In a distant past, when the gods of genetic distribution mapped out the guts of local filmmaker Joe Cultrera, an error was made. Within a soft spoken unassuming shell they dropped in the engine of a prize fighter. This has compounded with another error: in Vonnegut fashion, Joe seems to be ... more »
The folks at PEM have revamped their website, taking better advantage of social media and making their web presence more user-friendly. "It's more open. It's quicker," Jim Forrest, PEM's web creative director, recently explained. "Anyone who has been to our museum knows it's a place filled ... more »
Shep Abbott is a writer, filmmaker and all-around interesting guy who began work 15 years ago on something he calls String Castle Theory, located in Gloucester's Dogtown, a dense, wooded former settlement full of lore and lurking stories. Abbott did a major renovation this year of the part ... more »
Just as we at Art Throb have recently gathered to unite cultural organizations and artists under one roof, so, literally, has a huge cross-section of the arts community of Salem. Call it serendipity or great minds thinking collectively or timing, but Joe Cultrera's championing of St. ... more »
One of the most interesting things to come out of the run for their money that the National Trust for Historic Preservation has recently put Salem (and other communities) up to has been the renewed interest in Old Town Hall. As the clock ticks down to Sunday, May 17, the last day to ... more »
I have driven past this house hundreds of times since I moved to Elm Street last July. It is the blue house on the corner and is nearly 300 years old, as is my house and many others in Old Town Marblehead, Massachusetts. I take notice of this house as passing scenery on my drives home, ... more »