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In the mid-2000s, when the Old Town House reopened after a round of accessibility and town-funded renovations, I walked down to Market Square with nothing but my cell phone, a pen and a reporter’s notebook. The building had just regained its place as one of the longest-serving polling stations in the United States, and I wanted to capture what it meant for Precinct 1 voters to return.
A man stepped out onto the granite steps, an “I Voted” sticker fresh on his jacket, and I stopped him. “How does it feel to be voting back at the Old Town House? When you come here to cast your ballot, do you get wrapped up in the historical significance?”
He paused. “I absolutely do,” he told me. “When I vote here, I think of all the people who did before me — for Washington, for Lincoln, for FDR, for Kennedy.”
That response cut right through me. I can still hear him saying it.
Erected in 1727, the Old Town House is not just iconic Marblehead — it is older than the country itself. It has 49 years on the Declaration of Independence and 60 years on the Constitution. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it earned the nickname “Cradle of Liberty” for hosting Revolutionary-era meetings where figures like Elbridge Gerry and Gen. John Glover debated independence. Generations have climbed those steps to vote, to gather, to listen. Even after all these years covering Marblehead, these facts still amaze me.
The Old Town House is also where ’Headers gathered to hear the town crier deliver the day’s news from those granite steps. That continuity — from shouted reports to hand-pressed broadsides to today’s digital paper — is why the building became the symbol of The Marblehead Independent.
When my friend, Nicholas Kent, and I sat down to talk about creating a nameplate and logo, we were at the tiny tables outside Mookie’s in August. Nick is a Salem native who now lives in Marblehead — a creative professional and gifted artist. As we talked about the building’s character, its texture, its history — even affection for its yellow paint — he landed on a brilliant idea: a woodblock print.
It was perfect.
Early American newspapers were printed on hand-pressed sheets using carved blocks and engraved plates. The imperfections showed. The lines had grain. The ink bled where the pressure was uneven. Those papers looked — and felt — human. They were handmade, honest and grounded.
Nick grew up tagging along with his father — a native Marbleheader — through local boatyards. For this project, he partnered with Swampscott artist Diane Jenkins to carve the actual block and refine a loose, freehand interpretation that still feels rooted in the town’s history. That lineage is visible: The Old Town House stands in bold, carved lines, its edges a little rough, its texture a little raw.
Nick also told me he wanted the logo to feel “alive,” and that’s exactly what he delivered. The result has movement — almost like the building is breathing. The colors echo weathered shingles, old clapboards, hand-painted signs and the working waterfront: the physical vocabulary of Marblehead itself.
It represents the spirit we hope to carry forward at The Marblehead Independent: craftsmanship, clarity and community; a respect for where we’ve been and an eagerness for what we can build.
We love it. And we hope you see your Marblehead in it, too.
