A Panelized Home: Securing Permits

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The rocky Atlantic coastline as viewed from the future home site.       Wherever you intend to build a house you can anticipate opportunities to learn. When Anne and Ned Hammond decided to build their new home on the oceanfront property of their ancestors, they were aware of the protocol involved. Settled in 1629, Marblehead, Massachusetts is one of our country's oldest communities. The town is known for its seafaring heritage and its unique form of government. Marblehead practices town meetings. This annual gathering is open to all voting citizens and each participant has the opportunity to voice their opinions and feelings. This can lead to invigorating May evenings. The town is overseen by five elected officials who serve on the Board of Selectman. The appointed committee members share their time and expertise in order to preserve the unique attributes of the town and to guide the community towards the future. You may be wondering to what extent the aforementioned has to do with pouring a foundation and constructing a house. For the Hammonds the answer came when they began clearing a few trees and brush from the house site.         The Hammonds' home site before excavation.       The Conservation Factor A prime consideration in Marblehead is land and oceanfront conservation. After years of non-regulation and aesthetically questionable building developments, the citizens of Marblehead voted to increase buildable lot sizes, and to restrict and oversee all changes which occur on the coast. These concerns about the waters-edge might have promoted a guffaw from old timers who recalled that, due to inferior insulation and heat, expensive homes were built inland and only the "townies" lived year round on the harbor's edge. Peaches Point, the land encompassing the Hammonds' proposed sight, was developed in the 1800's as summer "cottages" for the Crowninshield-Hammond families. During that era trees were chopped down for wood to build and heat the "mainland's" houses during the long winters. As a point of interest there exist numerous dated photographs of several sections of Marblehead where no trees exist. The original Crowninshield-Hammond gardens and architecture reflect the families' awareness of the world's beauty which they had originally sampled on their many voyages during the height of North America's shipping trade. In the "good ol' days" a couple could simply visit their parents and obtain permission to build a new home on the family parcel. Today it's more the norm to wait, for a sometimes lengthy period, until various appointed members and boards of the city accept the prospective homeowners' request for one or more public tribunals.

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