Mansion-By-The-Sea

Seahome's grounds include a greenhouse and topiary garden.

Welcome to the other cape.

Manchester-by-the-Sea is tucked at the bottom of Cape Ann, the northerly cousin of Cape Cod, which juts out into the Atlantic Ocean.

The village measures less than eight square miles and lies on rocky shores about 30 minutes north of Boston. Though today Manchester-by-the-Sea is partly a bedroom community, it retains the flavor of a New England fishing village--as well as its grand and historic coastal estates, bordered by patinaed stone walls.

King Charles I of England granted the town to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629, according to the Manchester Historical Society. Settlers began arriving that same year, bringing with them the plague that all but wiped out the native Algonquin tribe. By 1700, the Europeans had purchased or taken all the land in the area, and in the following century the area developed into what would be for a time the world's largest fishing port.

In the mid-19th century, the town grew into a summer resort for wealthy Northeasterners. To distinguish it from the many other Manchesters in New England, locals started calling it Manchester-by-the-Sea, a practice that led writer Oliver Wendell Holmes to bitingly address his letters to Manchester friends from "Boston-by-the-Charles."

A turning point came when Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, a Boston banker and great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson, arrived in Manchester in 1871. He built a summer estate on land now known as Coolidge Point and was active in promoting local development.

Coolidge's son later built an estate called the Marble Palace, where guests included Presidents William Taft, Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt.

The area did not limit itself to political notables. The scenery attracted such artists as Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam and Edward Hopper. Today, novelist John Updike makes his home in Manchester-by-the-Sea. And industry leaders listed as having homes in Manchester include Chad Gifford, chairman of Bank of America (nyse: BAC - news - people ); John Cabot, a philanthropist and former chief financial officer for Cabot (nyse: CBT - news - people ); and Steve B. Dodge, retired chief executive of American Tower (nyse: AMT - news - people ).

Buyers who are compelled by the New England coastline might consider Seahome, a historic estate on a private, eight-acre peninsula.

Seahome was built in the 1880s as a summer home for Robert C. Hooper, a Bostonian who established the dog breed known as the Boston terrier. The grand oceanfront house has been restored and updated, and comes with views of Chubb Island, Misery Island and Marblehead from its broad windows. The main house, a brick Georgian, has six-plus bedrooms, six full baths, a limestone kitchen and an oval entrance hall. With more than four acres of land, it is priced at $13 million.

This peninsular estate on the rocky shores of Massachusetts is on the market for $13 million--and up.

In 1925, Boston attorney Albert Burrage added to the property a waterfront teahouse, which can be had for an additional $4.75 million. With nearly four acres of land, the parcel comes with a deep-water dock, swimming pool and small beach. It cannot be bought without the main house. Both are listed with Lanse Robb at LandVest.