Issue Seven Spring 2021

8 Tudor Road by Jim Malone
When a House is More than a Home:
Weaving Connections to the Ocean Through Art
When Dotty and Jim Malone bought the house at 8 Tudor
Rd. in 1956, Nahant seemed like a lonely outpost. To recent
Regis College graduate and the World War II vet — dedicated
city dwellers from Cambridge and Chelsea respectively
— Nahant felt like an isolated New England dystopia from
a Stephen King novel.
And while our town has its share of characters, whatever
unease they felt has been replaced by a deep sense of home
and warmth at 8 Tudor, now occupied by a second generation
of Malones - Roze and Jim Jr. Today, surrounded by the
ocean, saturated by a beach and shore aesthetic, and driven
by her artistic impulses, Roze Malone has made 8 Tudor
Road the home for her jewelry studio, “SeaWeaves.” It’s also
“world headquarters” for their band, The MERJ, a favorite
on the North Shore.
Cute Cottage!
The first thing you notice about 8 Tudor are the windows.
The 6 windows on the north and east sides are classic leaded
diamond-paned beauties that shout “Cute cottage! This
is a cute cottage right here!” One can see similar windows
in the vintage photos lining the entryway for the Nahant
Country Club today.
Next is the front porch, a north-facing summer refuge. But
according to photos shared with the Malones by erstwhile
neighborhood historian Mary Dick, the porch was an addition
after the house was moved around 1915 to 8 Tudor
from the Nahant Country Club - then known as the Tudor
Estate. That was one of the first chapters of this home's story.
The story starts - we think - with the house beginning its life
as the home of the Taylor family around 1856, probably on
Ocean Street. George B Taylor was the first light keeper on
Egg Rock, “who lived at the lighthouse with his wife, Mary,
and their children, along with chickens, goats, a tame crow,
and a dog named Milo.” A newspaper article reported that
Taylor had a garden and grew beets that were "hard to beat
by any gardener on the more favored shore."
Milo became famous in 1856 when the story of his rescue
of a young child off Egg Rock went viral nineteenth-century
style – meaning an oil painting, telegrams, and newspaper
stories.
At some point, the house was moved and became the
two-story carriage house at the Tudor Estate. It's fun to
imagine the teamsters-to-be starting their days of delivering
ice within the four walls of the home.
Fast forward to 1915-ish, when the house was moved yet
again to its present location on Tudor Road. There, at some
point, a porch fireplace and chimney were added, followed
at some point by a one-story addition that grew island-style
four or six feet at a time over the years to house a kitchen
and dining room. It stood in that configuration until 2020,
when an addition added yet another porch facing northeast
as well as a deck facing south, a family room, mud room
and a much-needed half bath.
Birth of SeaWeaves
Over the years, 8 Tudor has served as the home base for
The MERJ, Roze and Jim’s “violin-powered” rock band. Fun
fact: over a five-year span pre-COVID, The MERJ played as
the house band for the Nahant Dance Jam on Friday nights
at the Country Club.
In 2015, Roze Malone began learning the art of wire weaving
in a very 21st century way: watching YouTube videos.
Her brilliant idea was to combine her intricate weaving of
gold and silver wire with the best pieces of sea glass collected
during year-round walks with the family’s dogs.
Since then, SeaWeaves has grown into a well-known name
for unique, wearable art, with customers from around the
world seeking out her one-of-akind creations.
The connection between the house, Nahant, and Sea-
Weaves is palpable. Nahant provides the sea glass raw material;
the house provides an inspirational haven for Roze’s
artistic drive; and SeaWeaves in its six years has given back
to the family and the house in terms of revenue and beauty,
but mostly fulfillment. And The MERJ has provided the
soundtrack for this long-running series. And the best is yet
to come!
You could say the destiny of the house, the town, and the
artists are woven together.
9 | Nahant Magazine
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