The Old North Meeting House (Old Ship Church) is depicted as it was in 1845 with yellow ochre paint, white trim, and green doors and shutters. The monument to the far left of the painting marks the location of the original fort used by the first settlers. Their graves surround the monument. The building on the left side is Willard Hall, which burned in 1847. Drawing imaginary lines from the opposite corners of the painting, one can locate the tomb of General Benjamin Lincoln.

On this particular Sunday it seems the church sexton did not show up; Parson Richardson is shoveling out. The path to the Baptist Church has already been cleared, and a saintly parishoner has left food for the birds in a Hingham bucket. Hosea Sprague, who engraved several views of the Old Ship Church, was quoted prior to his death in 1843 as saying "Hingham was a quiet place 50 years ago but for 20 years past my comfort has been very much injured by the ringing of the Baptist and Universalist bells every Sunday night and every other night of the week. We have six meeting houses, five bells and 3,500 inhabitants - 700 to hear each bell."

I print for the old fashioned religion such as I saw Dr. Gay preach 57 years ago in the Old Meeting House when he was 90 years old and wore a great white wig. - Quotation from the Hingham Journal, October 19, 1888, Recollections of an Eccentric Man by an Octogenarian by Luther Stevenson

Also available as a Limited Edition Giclée Print on stretched canvas
12" x 20" $275 unframed and $375 with our standard silver leaf frame
Exclusive custom framing available

"Old Derby Academy"
"Summertime at Hingham Square, Hingham, MA
Oil on Canvas 18" x 30"
Private Collection

Dr. Spalding is making his rounds in his carriage with his horse Paracelsus. Henry Hersey is out for a spin on his new bicycle, a type which came to be known as a 'bone shaker'. and Mrs. Corthell is taking her son across the street for ice cream.

The white house to the left of center, known as the Acadian House, is similar to a handful of survivors about the town, which were built in the late 17th century. The house was taken down about the time of the First World War for a new town office building. According to tradition, it once sheltered French Canadian farmers from Acadia who had been tragically forced from their lands by political events of the early 18th century. The yellow school building on the right, now maintained by the Hingham Historical Society, was formerly Derby Academy, the legacy of Madam Sarah Derby, a remarkable 18th century woman, who wished to provide equal educational opportunities for girls as well as boys. When the school outgrew the building in the 1960’s Derby trustees including George Upton and Sam Wakeman thankfully conveyed the building to the historical society so that it would not have to be torn down or sold. The Loring house, the vantage point for the painting was taken down in the 1920's and reassembled in Falmouth, MA.

My first out-of-doors sketching experience occurred as a first grade Derby student while sitting on the grass just to the left of the front door of the schoolhouse. I got into trouble for using a pencil rather than a crayon to do the drawing. The pencils were reserved for the second grade artists.

Limited Edition Giclée Print on stretched canvas
18" x 30" $575 unframed, plus sales tax and shipping
12" x 20" $275 unframed and $375 with our standard silver leaf frame, includes shipping
Exclusive custom framing available

"Shirley Eustice House, Roxbury, MA"
14" X 18"

"Derby Summer House, Danvers, MA"
16" X 24"