Our First and Only Home

by Lauraine Alberetti Lombara

My husband and I bought our first home three months prior to our wedding in September of 1964, while we were still living with our parents. The sweet garrison colonial sat on an acre plot in Beverly Farms, abutting a salt marsh, the Boston and Maine commuter rail line to Gloucester and a small stretch of unoccupied land beyond the railroad tracks fronting the Atlantic Ocean. Route 127 ran by the front of the house, but we had a big lawn edged with trees which muffled l the traffic noise and sheltered us from the road view.

A small kitchen with a tiny porch entrance on one side, a full bathroom and a small den ran across the back of the house. A small dining room and medium living room bracketed the front entrance; all of this over a full cellar. The stairway upstairs was directly in front of the door.The second floor had two bedrooms and a half bath. Off the top landing, a cut-out deck looked over the marsh and ocean.

My mother-in law’s eagle eye spotted the real estate notice advertising,“close to West Beach” and alerted us to this treasure house. My only desire when my husband asked where I thought we might live was,“Close to a beach, if possible.” One look and we were sold. A lovely couple left the spec house in great condition. Granted, there was no attic space nor garage but we were enamored by the fantastic view over the salt water tidal marsh. We were warned by well-meaning family about possible or probable flooding from the marsh. Although we had yet to have a problem with this, after two daughters arrived quickly, space constraints began to arise.

Looking for larger quarters in the surrounding areas (no way were we leaving the ocean, beach and marsh), we decided to stay put and renovate; multiple enlargements, walls removed to make open space, the deck upstairs remodeled to make two bedrooms as the number three child, our son, had arrived. No loss since the deck turned out to be a sun-baked sauna! Instead, we added a deck to the back of the house off the lower level which gave us more room outdoors and clearer, glorious views from inside and out.

My husband built a foyer onto the front door entrance and reworked the brick pathway to a beautiful bluestone walk. He also built a treehouse on the lower branches of a huge maple tree on the side of the house for the children - a treat for them with its hanging ladder of which I was quite fearful. Boston Globe and North Shore photographer Ulrike Welsch captured the treehouse and our children in an iconic photo!

Two stately weeping willow trees at the top of the driveway, causing problems, are gone, replaced with pretty pear trees. Two apple trees in the backyard on either side of the house have died, but a crab apple tree has survived the fifty-five years here, as we have. Three grown children moved on after college, marriage and work relocations, but now we have our daughters and their families living in Beverly, so they and our four grandchildren are a joy close by. We remain and have become an “uncommon breed” of First and One-and-Only  Home Owners.