Marblehead offered loving cup as gift

MARBLEHEAD – Selectmen had the chance to feel a little love last week when Community Counseling Center Director Paul Crosby paid them a visit.Crosby brought a gift, an 18-inch 1932 silver loving cup, which the board accepted as a gift to the town Historical Commission.He said the cup turned up during renovations at the Counseling Center building this year. “I took it home and shined it up,” he said.The cup was presented to the Samuel Hobbs Memorial by former employee Frank A. Magee, in memory of the late Mr. Hobbs, a successful Boston stationery store owner for 50 years. It was purchased by his former employees, who were beneficiaries in his will.Hobbs summered in Marblehead each year at a house in the Clifton area, located on the site of a farmhouse used by the Underground Railroad. The site was also used by the Crowninshield Hotel, which burned down in 1913.After Hobbs died, his widow, Lina Hobbs, gave the property to the town in his memory, to be used for “literary, recreational, educational or hospital purposes.” The house became known as the Hobbs Memorial Association and later as the Hobbs Community Club, used by the Boy Scouts and dancing instructors and even as the Clifton Branch of Abbot Public Library. Club members awarded a scholarship to high school seniors. Today the building houses the Community Counseling Center.Selectmen seemed impressed with the gift and the historic material accompanying it.Magee said in his remarks that he hoped the cup would inspire people who saw it: “Sooner or later in one way or another, loyal, faithful service always receives its reward,” he wrote.