Marginal Way
Dedication plaque commemorating the 1925 gift by Hon. Josiah Chase that helped secure the Marginal Way for public use.
The Marginal Way is one of Ogunquit's defining gifts: a public path laid gently along the meeting place of land and sea, where granite, salt air, beach roses, and open Atlantic light combine to form one of the most beloved walks in New England. It is open to all, free of charge, and deeply woven into the life of the town. It exists because of foresight, generosity, and a civic determination that this stretch of shoreline should belong not to a private few, but to everyone who comes here in search of beauty, solace, and perspective. In 1925, Josiah Chase, Jr. made the pivotal gift that helped secure the path for public use, and over time it was protected, paved, and gradually extended through additional easements and walking connections.
What emerged was far more than a footpath. The Marginal Way became one of Ogunquit's signature experiences: a place where people walk, think, grieve, flirt, recover, and return. Along the way are small coves and pocket beaches, some seasonally watched by lifeguards, where the path opens suddenly to the water. Children of all ages can often be seen scrambling happily over the rock outcroppings, testing the edge between caution and wonder. On March 23, 2022, the Marginal Way was formally listed on the National Register of Historic Places, recognized not only for its beauty but for its importance as a preserved public shoreline.
Today, together with its later extensions and connected walking routes, it makes it possible to move on foot from the Ogunquit Beach area toward Perkins Cove and onward along Shore Road to the Ogunquit Museum of American Art: a continuous experience of coast, village, cove, and culture.
Within that larger landscape, Serenity Point offers a more intimate place of pause and remembrance, where dedication plaques honor lives and lasting attachments to Ogunquit. Other plaques along the Way do similar work more quietly. The bench program, once another form of memorial inscription, has now been closed. And because this place is precious, it asks something in return: that visitors leave the natural landscape undisturbed, resisting the urge to build cairns or otherwise alter the shoreline, so that the beauty here remains both humanly loved and naturally whole.