Marshall, Michigan has been home to a number of prominent people since Sidney Ketchum founded the Midwestern settlement: Sam Hill surveyed the state's Great Lakes; Thomas O'Brien was an ambassador to Denmark, Japan and later Italy; Abner Pratt and Clarke Hovey were members of the state legislature as senator and representative, respectively; William D. Boyce, the founder of the Boy Scouts of America, owned a summerhouse in Marshall; Isaac Crary and John Pierce forged Michigan's public school system under an oak tree; and merchant Jeremiah Cronin Jr. built a house.

Established in 1830 and expected to become the state's capital, Marshall is located in the south central part of the state and has become one of America's largest historic districts. The historic buildings and their stories intrigued young John Bellairs, who fantasized his own adventures walking to home, to school, and to visit friends and family. Bellairs adapted his experiences - these cherished sights and sounds - into his books, describing Marshall in The House With a Clock in Its Walls as:

"...marvelous. It was the sort of place [Lewis] had always wanted to live in....It was full of tall, elaborately decorated old houses. Even the ordinary white-frame houses had things that made them seem different -- a stained-glass window or a bouquet of iron flowers on top of a cupola."

Ann LaPietra originally researched and created this walking tour of the inspirations found in Bellairs' hometown and how they were transformed into memorable locations in both the books by John Bellairs as well as the novels completed and continued by Brad Strickland.