Daniel Webster Estate - North and South Rivers Watershed Association

238 Webster St, Marshfield, MA 02050, USA

Owned By: Daniel Webster Preservation Trust

Directions

Renowned orator and statesman Daniel Webster named this estate “Green Harbor,” and kept it as his country home from 1832 until his death in 1852. Short trails connects the property to Webster’s Wilderness. and the Wheeler Recreation Campus at the Marshfield Senior Center. Guided tours of the estate are offered monthly. Also nearby, Mass Audubon’s Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary.

Features

The complete history of this estate is fascinating. You can read about it, in detail, on the Daniel Webster Estate’s website.

In 1832, Captain John Thomas sold the estate to Daniel Webster, who was a renowned orator, lawyer, and Massachusetts Senator. Webster gained early fame by defending several noteworthy cases before the United States Supreme Court (and more than 150 in total). He kept a small law office and horticultural library on the property. One of his visitors was John James Audubon, who painted many of his wildlife pictures in Marshfield! Webster was known as “the Farmer of Marshfield.” He bred cattle, raised a variety of vegetable crops, and planted species of trees from all over the world, some of which still stand.

In 1840, President William Henry Harrison appointed Webster as his Secretary of State. Webster worked with Lord Alexander Ashburton of Great Britain to write the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which in 1842 set the boundary between Maine and Canada. Webster also served as Secretary of State under John Tyler and Millard Fillmore. He was the only person to serve in that office under three presidents.

During the twenty years that Daniel Webster lived here, he expanded his land holdings to nearly 1,800 acres. This included nearby properties such as Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary and Webster’s Wilderness. Webster is buried nearby in the historic Old Winslow Burying Ground, not far from the entrance to the Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary.

A fire destroyed the original home in 1878. The current Queen Anne-style home was designed by William Gibbons Preston, a prominent Boston architect, and built in 1880. Daniel Webster’s daughter-in-law, Caroline White Webster, oversaw the project. The estate passed through several owners over the ensuing years, including the Walton Hall family, who grew cranberries here and elsewhere in town, and Vincent Cohee, who established Camp Daniel Webster, a summer day camp for children in 1950. The camp lived on, through subsequent owners, into the late 1980s.

For details about estate tours, visit the Daniel Webster Estate website.

This land is within the region of the Wampanoag tribe. To learn more about our local tribes, we encourage you to interact with their members. The Mashpee Wampanoag and the Herring Pond Wampanoag share information on their websites.

Trail Description

A short trail extends through woodlands and wetlands, and around the perimeter of one of the property’s two ponds. It connects with the much-larger trail network of Webster’s Wilderness, an adjacent town-owned conservation property. A small portion of this trail is part of the historic Old Pilgrim Trail, the first court-ordered road in Plymouth Colony. Look for yellow and black markers with a pilgrim motif.

An additional trail, partway up the estate’s driveway, connects to the Marshfield Senior Center and Wheeler Recreation Campus.

Habitats and Wildlife

The property features two ponds, woodlands, and open lawn areas. Look for cedar, birch, maple and black walnut trees.

Webster’s Pond was created during Daniel Webster’s time on the property, after he erected a stone and earthen dam to block the outflow of a tributary to Wharf Creek.

The streams and ponds within the Daniel Webster Estate flow into Wharf Creek, a tributary to the Green Harbor River. The Green Harbor River finds its source in springs and ponds in Duxbury. It twists and turns through Marshfield via large cranberry bog complex, the Green Harbor Golf Club, the Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary, property owned by the Marshfield Municipal Airport, and Peter Igo Park, and empties into the Atlantic downstream in Green Harbor.