“Fair Oaks” // 1903

One of the many grand Summer estates on the coast of Sippican Harbor in Marion, Massachusetts, is this mansion known as “Fair Oaks”. The residence was built in 1903 in the Tudor Revival style for Otis A. Shepard a wealthy lumber dealer in Boston. Given Shepard’s line of work he not surprisingly called his summer estate “Fair Oaks”, and his house’s building materials were undoubtedly supplied by his company. For his summer estate, Shepard hired Boston architect, Charles Allerton Coolidge, who spent summers at his own cottage nearby and designed many historic homes in Marion for other summer residents. A number of years later, the property was purchased by Elizabeth F. Clark and her husband Edward A. Clark (1868-1922), a stock broker in Boston. Exterior and interior images of the house during Clark’s ownership appeared in architectural publications in 1919, highlighting the architecture and interior design.