After five years scouring New England’s premier locales looking for the perfect
weekend spot, a Boston couple found their idyll in the backyard of their favorite
haunt, a picturesque coastal town 30 miles north of Boston.
“We got married on the North Shore, and we got the
bug from our experience with the wedding,” says the hus-
band. “We went up to Manchester-by-the-Sea all the time
on the weekends. We’d overlooked this place that was so
special, but was so close, we didn’t think of it.”
Once the location was decided, the rest quickly fell into
place. On the first day of house hunting, the couple found
an 1883 summer cottage built by the family of author Henry
James for his sister, Alice. But beyond its storied provenance,