The lights at 153 Humphrey St. came back on Sept. 5. More than 300 people turned out for the first show at the Swampscott Center for the Performing Arts, which now fills the town-owned building where Hawthorne by the Sea used to be. That count comes from Marblehead Weekly News. The town leased the building as a bridge with an end date, and that deadline was set before the first ticket sold.
Under the lease, the center has the building through the end of June 2028. The Select Board spent this summer and fall deciding what replaces it. Those decisions will settle whether the next tenant on that piece of oceanfront is something the whole town can walk into. Until then, every show at The Dory is the building doing the job the town leased it for, staying open and in use.
What's inside 153 Humphrey Street now
Johnny Ray runs the center. He owns The Beacon in Marblehead and co-owns Johnny Ray's Music Emporium with his partner on this project, Richard Messinger, according to the Marblehead Current. The old dining rooms were renovated and split into named spaces, as Itemlive reported before opening night.
| Space or vendor | What it is | Hours listed by the venue |
|---|---|---|
| The Dory Showroom | Main stage for ticketed shows | Show nights vary |
| Flamingo Lounge | Cocktails and live piano | Tuesday through Sunday |
| Looking Glass Lounge | Second lounge | Tuesday through Sunday |
| Maria's Gourmet Cafe | Marblehead-based cafe founded by Maria Torres | Opens daily at 6 a.m. |
| Renzo Pizza | Served at The Dory and Flamingo Lounge | Tuesday through Sunday |
There is also a VIP gaming room. Reservations go through 781-595-0001. Itemlive reported that advance dinner reservations come with guaranteed table seating, and the remaining seats are first come, first served. The cafe's 6 a.m. opening matters more than it might seem. With it, the building has a reason for people to come in on a weekday morning, which a show-night-only venue wouldn't.
The calendar so far, and what it costs to get in
So far, ticket prices have stayed in a narrow band. Opening night cost $20, and Itemlive reported a $40 add-on for the all-you-can-eat buffet. Later in September, according to Marblehead Weekly News, hypnotist Frank Santos Jr. was $25 general admission. Guitarist Peter Calo, known for his work with Carly Simon, was $40 with a complimentary appetizer for each table. Mery Em and Her Amazing Latin Band ran $30 general admission or $40 for a guaranteed table.
On Oct. 1, Swamp-Stock filled the room for the Marblehead Counseling Center. The Swampscott Tides reported a full house, five bands and an appetizer buffet included with the ticket, and said Ray hopes to make it an annual event.
Here is what the venue's entertainment page is posting for the weeks ahead:
- Halloween: a "Thriller" Halloween party poster and a separate Halloween promotion. The date is on the venue's calendar.
- Nov. 6: Fats Arnold and His Midnight Hot Dogs return, the band that opened the building in September.
- Nov. 7: Lisa Love.
- Recurring and upcoming: a New York comedy special, a "Sinatra Comes Alive" show, a football Sunday promotion and a Peter Calo October poster.
Most of those posters are images, and some don't list dates or prices in text, so call ahead or check the site before you plan a night around one. The Nov. 6 band is a nine-piece led by Holly Cameron and Matthew Arnold. They play dance music from the 1950s through the 1970s, with Motown, soul and Louis Prima in the mix. "It's just fun music that everyone knows and that's fun to dance to," Arnold told Marblehead Weekly News.
Shows aren't the venue's whole business. "Our phone is ringing off the hook for private parties, banquets, and weddings," Ray told Itemlive in September. If you're planning a 2027 event and the old Hawthorne's view is the draw, the space can be booked now. It can't be booked past June 2028.
Why the lease has an end date
The deadline is written into the original deal. Town Meeting voted in 2022 to acquire the Hawthorne property. The Athanas family announced last November that the restaurant would close. Here is how it went from there:
- December 2025: Town Meeting let the Select Board lease the building for up to 30 months "to limit carrying costs and protect a key community asset while long-term planning continues."
- June 2026: The board approved the center's last license, with a July 3 opening in mind. It also agreed to aim for a fall 2026 request for proposals so a long-term lease could start when the center's lease runs out.
- Sept. 5, 2026: The center opened, about two months after that July target.
- End of June 2028: The center's lease ends.
At the June meeting, Town Administrator Nick Connors pointed to the Hadley Hotel. That RFP took six months from posting to award. Select Board Chair Katie Phelan described the goal, as reported by the Swampscott Tides:
"I feel strongly that we can complete this before we lose a tenant so we have no period of just an open building and then we would not have to go back to Town Meeting for extensions."
The center exists to keep the building from going dark between the old tenant and the next one. That is why the shows count beyond a night out. Every month the building stays busy is a month it isn't sitting vacant while the town works out the next step.
The summer and fall votes that shape the next tenant
The first came in August. The Select Board voted 3-2 to oppose residential development at the Hawthorne site, which could keep housing out of the long-term RFP. Vice Chair Danielle Leonard, Mary Ellen Fletcher and Wayne Spritz voted in favor. Chair Katie Phelan and Ted Dooley voted against. The Swampscott Tides reported that town staff would draft the RFP and the board expected to review it over at least two meetings.
The town's Re-Use Advisory Committee had already drawn up a preferred layout, Plan G1. Its two rows of buildings would total about 25,000 square feet at two stories, with a view corridor of roughly 40 feet and about 28 parking spaces. The committee's criteria for the site were park space, public coastal access, revenue, buildings and parking. That plan is a recommendation. The board hasn't adopted it as a final design.
The second vote came Oct. 7. By 3-2, the board conditionally backed a Community Preservation funding application to buy the St. John's parking lot at 187 Humphrey St., which sits next to the Hawthorne property. According to the Swampscott Tides, whether that application goes forward depends on whether the board decides to pursue the purchase, which it has discussed in executive session.
The case for the second lot comes down to park size. Re-Use committee chair Brian Watson told the board that a two-lot plan yields a park "almost double what you'd get at a single lot site." Leonard sees it differently and told the Swampscott Tides she would rather the town focus "on doing something with the actual Hawthorne site, including a park as part of that site." Both views put a public park on the waterfront. They differ on how big it should be and what it should cost.
Nothing published as of mid-October shows the long-term RFP has been posted. The fall target is still open. If the Hadley's six months is any guide, posting this winter would leave the town plenty of room before mid-2028.
A waterfront argument from the 1890s
People in Swampscott have argued about who gets to use this shoreline for a long time. In October, Itemlive reported that the Harbor and Waterfront Advisory Committee had sent the Select Board and Connors a document on commercial fishing rights at Fisherman's Beach. It draws on town records going back to the 1890s. The document quotes Park Commissioners who wrote that fishermen should no longer carry the "haunting fear" that private ownership would "cut them off from their privileges and their livelihood." It also notes that the Fish House, authorized by state legislation in 1896, was to be rented to fishermen at reasonable rates and "forever to be maintained by the public."
The fleet is small now. "We're very, very close to having no fishing fleet in Swampscott at all," commercial fisherman Mike Gambale said at a committee meeting, according to Itemlive. Harbormaster Bill Waters told the committee that the shallow harbor is costing the town usable moorings and pushing boats into less-protected water. The harbor was last dredged in the 1990s, and that job was never finished. The committee held off on voting to support new dredging and plans to come back with more information before it makes a recommendation to the Select Board.
The Fish House and the Hawthorne are separate questions with separate committees. The town is answering both with the same 130-year-old principle. Officials are deciding how much of Humphrey Street's shoreline stays in public hands and who gets to use it. For the Hawthorne lot, the answer will be in the RFP that town staff are drafting for the Select Board to review.
If you want to talk through how waterfront projects like this have played out elsewhere on the North Shore, Tyson Lynch is glad to share what he's seen. You can also get your instant home valuation or schedule a consultation.
