Marty Larson left a strong legacy with North Andover preservation efforts
Marty and Art Larson
By Caroline Louise Cole
Thanks to Marty Larson’s love of her adopted hometown of North Andover, history buffs and professional preservationists alike will benefit for generations to come Marty, 88, died April 5, after a brief illness. A tribute to her life will be held September 13, 2025, at 12 noon at the North Parish Church in the Old Center.
Marty grew up in Wheaton, Illinois, graduating from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1951with a major in history. She earned a master’s degree in Soviet studies at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and, adept at languages, was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency to work as an intelligence officer. Later, while working in Washington DC, she was introduced to her future husband, Arthur Larson, by mutual friends. The couple was engaged three months later and were married soon after, an alliance that lasted 60 years.
The couple moved to Amherst, MA, where Art attended graduate school at UMass Amherst. They landed in North Andover when they found a house for sale and thought it a good location. That house, the Joseph Osgood House at 814 Osgood St., was Marty’s first historic preservation project. By 1972, with two young children, the couple moved their family to the Capt. Peter Osgood house, better known today as the Samuel Osgood Birthplace, at 440 Osgood St., where Marty set about researching and restoring the interior rooms to their 18th Century glory. She documented every change in preparation for the house’s nomination to the National Register of Historic Places and then donated her binder to the North Andover Historical Society. Before Art and Marty sold the Osgood House in 2015, they put in place a set of preservation restrictions held by Historic New England.
She also prepared the National Register nominations for Machine Shop Village District and the Old Center Historic District. But Marty wasn’t just interested in old houses. She wanted to make sure schoolchildren appreciated their town and what its history meant. “She volunteered in our school program teaching hundreds of North Andover school children about their town history for more than 50 years,” recalled Majahad. “She sewed the period costumes she wore.”
She contributed her talents as a textile curator at the Stevens-Coolidge Place and she volunteered for decades in the textile conservation lab at the Merrimack Valley Textile Museum, now the home of the North Andover Historical Society. Marty served as the North Andover Historical Society’s President for 12 years. “Marty’s passion for North Andover and its history was apparent in so many ways,” said Carol Majahad, former and long-time director of the North Andover Historical Society. “She took care of our collections, she volunteered in our school programs, she saved the town’s oldest house from demolition, and as president of the Society was determined to see our wonderful book on landmark buildings through to publication. And that’s the short list of her accomplishments.”
In 2016 Marty and Art were honored as the recipients of North Andover Historical Society’s Lifetime Preservation Award.
Majahad recalled that Marty was so determined to see through the publication of the Historical Society’s landmark history book, “Good Inland Town” she re-typed the entire manuscript to get past a barrier the Society faced with its original publisher. “She pushed that book over the finish line,” Majahad said, noting she served as the Society’s president for 12 years.
She was also active in the Andover Sister Town Association, a group that connected residents of Andover and North Andover with residents of its namesake town in England. She made several trips to Andover, England, and then hosted her new English friends on their reciprocal trips here. And she served as an editor of the Cochichewick Chronicles, a magazine about North Andover history.
Marty was a doer, a person who made the world a better place. She will be missed.
