Scituate or Marshfield? (Boston, Newton, Bridgewater: sale, houses, neighborhoods)

[girbey]

For now we are narrowing our home search to Scituate and Marshfiled. Looking for opinions on both... schools, neighborhoods, shopping etc

[clevedark]

Scituate's a notch more upscale than Marshfield with the exception of North Marshfield and Marshfield Hills. Scituate's harbor downtown is charming while Marshfield's is kinda depressing and ramshackle. Lots of big plazas in Marshfield, but none of that in Scituate.

I can't speak to the schools from personal experience, but the conventional wisdom says Scituate is better than Marshfield. I don't know how that's measured. I know that a couple of years ago Marshfield got the highest MCAS scores in the area.

Marshfield has lots of pine trees, too, which is not my ideal tree. Scituate doesn't have as heavy and tall a tree cover, which I think is much more pleasant.

I live in Marshfield, but only in the summer. There are lovely beaches and we enjoy it here. There are seasonal areas in both Marshfield and Scituate, but I think Marshfield has more.

[SouthShoreDad]

Hi...2 pretty different areas as far as prices of homes. Scituate being the more costly.

Average sale price the last 30 days:

Last 30 days Scituate $500,000...last 30 days for Marshfield $344,000.

Last 3 months Scituate $490,000...last 3 months Marshfield $370,000.

Last 6 months Scituate $505,000...Last 6 months Marshfield $350,000

Tax rates are just about the same. 30 cents per thousand higher in Marshfield. Marshfield has a larger commercial tax base. Scituate like many towns is more(certainly not completely)reliant on residential taxes for funding.

I have heard great things about scituate schools(high in particular)...but have no direct knowledge. I have family that have their children in the Marshfield school system and are more than pleased. Middle school always seem to be a wash to me. You don't often here of towns having outstanding middle schools.

Shopping would probably go to Marshfield based on Rte 139 alone. I don't think Scituate will ever be a shoppers destination(not setup to be)...there are some nice small shoppes in Scituate.. but you will probably go elsewhere for clothing, furniture, big box stores, etc...also if not mistaken there is only 1 supermarket in Scituate...good? or bad? I don't know.

If I had to choose I would select Scituate...not putting down anything about Marshfield as I really like the town. They are just very different. The seashore/coast of Scituate is in my opinion much nicer.

[maggiekate]

Have you thought of Hingham, schools are good, the ocean, and near Boston?

[clevedark]

Marshfield has some very nice large properties of 2-15 acres, horse farms, riverfront estates, etc., that don't exist in such large quantity in other South Shore coastal towns, where land is developed much more densely and is much more expensive.

Our local celebrities are Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) and Steve Carrell (The Office) who just bought the Marshfield Hills General Store. I saw him (Carrell) there a couple of weeks ago choosing a muffin and I was too shy to tell him what a great job he was doing on the renovation.

[baystater]

Originally Posted by girbey

For now we are narrowing our home search to Scituate and Marshfiled. Looking for opinions on both... schools, neighborhoods, shopping etc

Marshfield (Marshvegas) schools have improved since I was going through there system. Not that it was bad before be it wasn't the Newton school system or anything. I'll put it this way. The school system of Marshfield was good enough to get my sister into Brandeis University and get my brother into Bentley College. I don't think that too bad. (I was a little lazier with academia and just want to Bridgewater state college.) Also the athletics are pretty good. The system offer pretty much every sport there is. So your children should have a good variation is they choose to participate in sports. To be honest. I'm not sure how good the music or art programs in the school are (I was not part of that scene) but I have not heard anything negative about it.

As for neighborhoods. Ok first off Marshfield is a big town so there are definitely different neighborhoods with slightly different feels to them.

Brant rock: I'd say Brant Rock has vastly improved since I grew up back in the day Brant rock was where a lot of the troubles of the town were. But now it is very nice. A much more family feel to it today. It has a nice little strip of mom and pop businesses (brant rock supermarket, haddad's II, brant rock fish market, etc.) Plus has a nice smaller beach (granted all the beaches run together in Marshfield) and a good sized yacht club nearby.
Let me just say though if you’re looking for space (acreage) between homes this is not the place for you. The homes on/by the water are basically stacked on top of each other.

Rexhame: pretty much similar to brant rock without the strip of stores. But has wider more open beaches than brant rock. Also I would say that you would get slight more land for your home in this area. But not much more.


Green harbor: Has scattered mom and pop stores and restaurants. Pretty quiet part of town most of the year until summer. I will say it definitely has the nicest sandy beach in the town. (Other parts of the town have a mix of rocky and sandy beaches.) It's basically just a very nice part of town.

Hummerrock: (where I basically grew up) basically it off the beaten path of most of the rest of Marshfield. Granted I would say that there are to different parts of hummerrock. There is the floodplain (by the beach) and the area outside the floodplain. The floodplain area actually has a small store, doughnut shop, a small yacht club, and a restaurant (bridgeway inn.) The houses in this area are basically stacked on top of one another and there just not much room. I would warn against buying it this area because of the risk of flooding. The last bad nor'easter in 91 did major damage to alot of homes in the area. (Trust me I was in the middle of it.) As for the non-floodplain areas you'll get a little more room (not much more) for you home. But I would say that getting to a store, restaurants, or just getting to the beach would require you to drive there. Oh. Almost forgot coast guard hill is there. It's great for sledding in the winter. I had a lot of fun there as a kid.


Marshfield Hills (the hills): This is what many believe to be the nicest part of town (personally I like being very close to the ocean, so it not the best part of town to me. but many other do consider it the best part of town.) This is the place where you will get acreage for your home. But you’re going to pay a bit more for your property there. The hills do have a small general store but not much else. It is very quiet up there and doesn't seem to me to have much going on. I will say that the hills have the easiest access to 3A (main road).


Other: Although I think I have stated most the major areas of Marshfield. There are still some other smaller areas that people of the town will say they are from. Like fieldston, ocean bluff, the number roads, kent park, etc.


As for shopping. Ok in Marshfield center you have CVS (24 hours), a new wallgreens, marshalls, shaws supermarket, family dollar store, dunkin doughnuts and some other smaller mom and pop stores, restaurants, coffee shops run by locals. Also the library is in this area.
Let me just say they have just built a new strip of stores in the center of Marshfield. They at this point have not fill most of the strip with stores yet. (Probably mostly because the economic downturn). But I'm hopeful that sooner or later there will be new businesses moving in there.
Outside the center. There is Roche brother’s supermarket, tedeschi food mart, starbuck coffee, and numerous other mom and pop operations spread throughout the town.

As for famous people in Marshfield. Honestly I'm a little baffled why some famous move to Marshfield. But maybe it because for the most part we just leave these people alone and don't bother them much unless we have direct contact (see them on the street) with them. I don't know.


Anyways I hope this post helps. And good luck with your search.

[ScituateAl]

Excellent and fair postings by the folks before me.

Overall Scituate is more exclusive but a bit more remote from shopping. However, it all depends on where in town you live, where you work, and how old the kids are.

I live in North Scituate and commute along Rt3 north up to Hingham. I pass two large chain grocery stores, several gas stations, CVS, Walgreens, pizza joints, plenty of banks, dry cleaners, etc. The vast majority of my shopping can be done on my commute. If it's the weekend, however, and I am doing a home renovation project or want to take the boys (ages 3&6) out to dinner, I'll have to drive the extra 15min just to get down to Rt139 in Marshfield before we go to Lowes in Pembroke (right where Rt139&Rt3 cross) or hit a fast-food joint. If my kiddo has a fever still at 2am and we're out of medicine, I'll have to drive the 15min to get to the 24hr CVS.

We like the small town feel of Scituate but would agree that Marshfield Hills is loveley - nice topography, homes, and winding roads.

Scituate elementary schools are very good. Total of 4 elemantary schools. Our son in Kindergarten had about 15 students in his class and will have about 15-20 for 1st grade. While Jenkins is the new school, the district has great results getting all the mileage it can out of existing buildings. Town folk value education, but don't go crazy passing overrides for expensive buildings. State cuts have led to cut backs and some of the basics we had such as music and art sound like they may be cut back a bit more. The pay-as-you-go model is alive and well with parents having to pay for bus transportation. I assume sports is similar at the HS level as well.

[laf28]

Baystater: Thank you for that excellent view of Marshfield's neighborhoods! Can you elaborate on the Kent Park neighborhood? Is it good, bad, or in-between? I heard it used to be "rough", whatever that means, but would like to know more. Is there a lot of crime, drugs, what's personal safety like? Sorry for butting in, but you seem to be the Marshfield expert around here!

[Beachcomber4]

Scituate. Lovely seaside town with great hometown pride and history. The only negative is the commute to route 3 from certain areas but the same can be said of Marshfield.

[kaioak36]

Marshfield and Scituate are both good choices. Scituate is nicer but Marshfield is a fine town as well. Hingham (noveau riche want-a-be's).