1
10
3
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/32209/archive/files/2b517c50374effcb0ec1da5815431654.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=JvhDOZYSvAr6Ha9hfWr3YEJREer8c%7EkOAdO0gJv2vtUz4dx8DV14OphXK-d08dZzvzxoLZfjVlpVcjeQen1DMeIYk6anTjm7ksAMyAjR%7ET4s5KxQgyOcaEAgfFqkmBxJ69eaQNi-DPnuGNcCw1SVNY9s0sHJQEL5RBbIxIS79c8DV04CuV50I8ezDKg4jGd0VB%7E6Q2xoLYSPOGU5WjBzWRjgIOvhA6SCto6ePHZ8x7ZpcVELpHbmT6GyVN-d6D6bNbEjaYWwFrjxxRalNFsc4a2wSnYnpW%7EsViy%7E8RHVXzN8XfHVo6VjfhEEMhyN2MmoKyE3-BjKpjLySmze0K5eww__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
c07fffa314cf7d5724e4cb4effca039d
PDF Text
Text
Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript
Recorded: August 19, 2021
Oral Historian: Mark Pearson
Interviewer: Troy Clarkson
Topic: College Light Opera Company (CLOC)
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
00:00
[Music]
00:44
Mark
00:45
welcome we're so glad that you're here
00:47
and Falmouth has
00:49
a thriving artistic community and
00:52
certainly a rich
00:53
artistic history in the College Light
00:55
Opera Company is and has been an
00:57
important part of that so
00:59
talk to us your postcard was of course
01:02
the facility in West Falmouth that is
01:04
the home
01:05
the heart and soul of CLOC as it's
01:07
known right so tell us about the history
01:10
of the College Light Opera Company and
01:11
also
01:12
the site there in West Falmouth where
01:14
it's it's been housed sure well first
01:17
very happy to be here thanks for
01:18
reaching out uh yeah so College Light
01:20
Opera Company was founded in 1969
#cloc
#westfalmouth
1
#1969
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
01:25
and it grew out of the
01:28
defunct Oberlin Gilbert and Sullivan
01:30
Players who had been in Falmouth for
01:32
just under a decade so that was a summer
01:35
program operated by Oberlin Conservatory
01:39
designed to provide their students with
01:42
a summer performance opportunity that
01:45
was something very typical
01:47
at that time in America especially in
01:50
resort towns like Falmouth
01:53
you'd have you know any number of
01:55
college organizations and they would
01:57
just put on a different show every week
01:59
and that would be your summer
02:01
entertainment for the summer you know
02:03
folks would have uh season tickets so
02:06
for example CLOC
02:07
and at the time orbiting G&S they did
02:10
nine shows uh in nine weeks the same
02:13
program basically that we continue this
02:15
to today so families would come down
02:17
they'd have you know Tuesday night
02:19
tickets Wednesday night tickets and that
02:21
would be their regular thing for uh for
02:23
the summer and that was known as
02:26
Summer stock theater and it was very very
02:29
typical um
#oberlin
#gilbertandsullivanplayers
2
#summerstocktheater
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:31
it's died out significantly
02:33
there are very few organizations left
02:35
that do it in that similar
02:38
fashion
02:39
CLOC is one of the one of the remaining
02:41
ones uh on the arts landscape
02:44
and I think that's just as as a starting
02:47
point that's a really important
02:50
piece of information to say about the
02:52
organization and its place in the sort
02:54
of national landscape it's sort of
02:57
holding a torch for
02:59
summer stock which was
03:01
at one time a very very important part
03:03
of American
03:05
summer entertainment and very
03:06
specifically American it doesn't really
03:08
happen in many other countries that way
03:11
so that's sort of what CLOC is as I say
03:13
grew out of Oberlin Gilbert & Sullivan
03:15
Players who themselves sort of grew out
03:18
of an older organization called the
03:20
University Players which goes back to
03:22
the 1940s I believe and again that's
03:26
just the sort of tradition of
03:28
a group of college kids getting together
03:30
for the summer to perform
3
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:33
the original intent was more
03:34
entertainment but our mission has sort
03:37
of shifted over the years as we became
03:40
a
03:41
one of the last remaining organizations
03:43
to do this to really focus on the
03:45
educational aspect of that experience
03:48
the educational side of it was sort of a
03:50
side note in the old days I was like
03:51
well yeah you're going to learn how to
03:52
do it because you've got to do it
03:55
and then
03:56
it sort of became clear that hey this is
03:58
actually
03:59
a big part of what's important about
04:01
this organization so
04:02
that's why in our mission education is
04:05
equally important as the entertainment
04:07
that we do
04:09
you mentioned our our campus in West
04:11
Falmouth
04:13
which is where we
04:14
live and work we perform at the
04:16
Highfield Theater
04:18
which is
04:19
as many folks know I think
04:23
was once the stables for Highfield Hall
#highfieldtheater
4
#highfieldhall
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:26
so if you're familiar with Highfield
04:27
Hall uh it's the building right next
04:29
door that at one time housed the horses
04:31
and now uh since the 1930s this is a a
04:34
theater structure
04:36
and that's about four and a half miles
04:38
from our campus in West Falmouth
04:40
it's about six acres uh right
04:44
uh on the banks of the West Falmouth
04:46
Harbor where the bridge to Chapoquoit
04:49
Road is uh and the oldest building there
04:52
is uh Bridgefields Hall
04:55
which was named uh you know because of a
04:58
the bridge that's basically right in
05:00
front of the building and at the time
05:02
the fields of West Falmouth that
05:04
stretched out beyond which now of course
05:06
are
05:06
lots of houses um so Bridgefields Hall
05:10
was built in 1895
#1895
05:13
uh by a Quaker family the Scull
#quaker #scull
Gunning_West_Bldg_1580
through 1585,
Gunning_West_Bldg_1649
#westfalmoutharbor
#bridgefieldshall
Hunt_West_Bldg_482
05:16
Sara Scull uh so it's had a couple of
#sarascull
05:19
names over the years the Sara Scull
05:21
House Bridgefields Hall
05:23
the Inn at West Falmouth and simply the
5
#westfalmouthinn
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
05:25
Inn
05:26
and the Scull family
05:29
built it her husband died I believe in
05:33
1884
05:34
and
05:36
left her a widow with two children and
05:39
uh she built this as a summer home so
05:42
they were based in Philadelphia and they
05:44
would come summer in Falmouth uh as I
05:47
mentioned they were a Quaker family and
05:51
according to sort of urban legend and I
05:53
can't confirm or deny this but their
05:55
original intent was to uh to buy a
05:58
property on the island Chapoquoit Island
#1884
#chapoquoitisland
Hunt_West_Bch_496
through 499
Gunning_West_Sts_1549 &
1550,
Gunning_West_Har_1606 &
1607,
Gunning_West_Isl_1637
through 1648
06:01
and uh
06:02
I as I understand it Quakers were not
06:05
particularly welcome on the island so uh
06:09
as sort of a well I’ll show you
06:11
they bought the large lot right at the
06:14
entrance to the island so everyone going
06:15
to the island would have to drive past
6
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
06:17
their estate to get to their summer
06:20
state uh it was designed by
06:23
J. Williams Beal a Boston
06:26
architect he had recently moved from New
06:28
York to Boston he had spent some time
06:30
abroad
06:32
and he was commissioned to design the
06:34
building uh it is of
06:37
somewhat architectural interest in that
06:39
it is a
06:41
Queen Anne
06:42
Tudor revival which is unusual for our
06:45
area most houses being built at the time
06:48
were what we would call the shingle
06:49
style
06:50
you know everything that standing still
06:52
is covered with shingles and this was
06:55
a style that was more popular for town
06:58
houses sort of stucco half timbered
07:00
style
07:02
and it also has
07:03
the
07:04
whispers of the emerging
07:07
early modern architectural movement in
07:10
that was inspired by a lot of Japanese
07:12
architecture and the sort of play
07:14
between exterior interior spaces so if
#jwilliamsbeal
7
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
07:17
you're going around the building you'll
07:18
be in a staircase all of a sudden the
07:20
staircase is outside that it's inside
07:22
again
07:23
and it has a lot of very dominant
07:25
horizontal lines which sort of suggests
07:29
where Frank Lloyd Wright was heading at
07:31
the time you know fitting buildings more
07:33
into the area that they're that they're
07:35
set in
07:37
so yeah the Scull family uh
07:40
lived there for about ten years
07:41
uh Sara Scull died in 1910
07:45
uh at which time it was uh sold and
07:48
converted to an inn in 1912
07:51
and it basically served as an inn
07:54
and restaurant uh until 1975
07:58
when it closed and CLOC moved in in 75.
08:02
I mentioned earlier CLOC was founded in
08:03
1969.
08:05
so the question is well what was
08:06
happening at that time uh well Oberlin
08:09
before CLOC and then CLOC were
08:11
originally in residence at what was
08:13
known as Tanglewood House
#1910
#1912
#1975
#tanglewood
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0473
08:15
which if you're familiar with the
8
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:16
history of the Beebe family
#beebe
08:19
here in Falmouth they actually built two
08:22
mansions up on the hill there was
08:24
Highfield Hall which is uh
08:28
Queen Anne but again leaning a little
08:29
bit more Shingle style and then there
08:31
was an iconically Queen Anne house which
08:34
was called Tanglewood and they were
08:36
built for the brothers and they shared
08:38
the barn and the stables
08:41
and Tanglewood was the longtime
08:43
dormitory for
08:45
both Oberlin and College Light Opera
08:48
now when the property was given to the
08:51
Cape
08:52
Conservatory they were uh unable to keep
08:56
up all of the buildings that were on the
08:58
property and the first one that really
09:00
had to go was Tanglewood so it was
09:01
announced in
09:03
uh 74 that they would be razing
09:06
Tanglewood and there was not enough time
09:08
for
09:09
the sort of uh
09:10
you know grassroots movement that ended
09:12
up saving
09:13
Highfield
#capeconservatory
#capesymphony
9
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
09:14
several years later so Tanglewood fell
09:17
to the wrecking ball and CLOC was left
09:20
presumably homeless um but uh
09:23
J. K. Lilly
09:25
uh stepped forward at that time and he
09:27
had he and his wife had recently
09:29
acquired the West Falmouth Inn and he
09:31
said you know what I’m going to do is
09:33
let's have y'all move over to West
09:35
Falmouth
09:36
we'll rent the property to you for a
09:37
dollar a year until you get back on your
09:39
feet figure out
09:41
a better solution so the Company moved
09:44
sort of lock stock and barrel to west
09:46
Falmouth in 1975
09:49
B Haslun one of the original founders of
#haslun #roberthaslun
09:51
the organization and his wife Ursula uh
#ursulahaslun
09:54
got married and had their wedding
09:56
reception uh a week before the Company
09:59
arrived in 75 and then the first thing
10:01
the company the 75 Company did was they
10:03
went up to Tanglewood salvaged
10:05
everything they could and trucked it
10:07
over to West Falmouth and we've been
10:10
there ever since
10:11
um about five years after that so we're
#lilly #josiahklilly
10
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:16
into
10:17
77 78 ish
10:20
uh
10:21
the Lillys decided that
10:23
they didn't really want to be landlords
10:25
for this property and uh the best
10:28
best use of the facility would be to
10:30
demolish all the structures uh
10:33
four struc— uh five structures at the
10:35
time
10:37
to make a public park
10:39
and uh so there was a big effort to find
10:42
CLOC another home
10:44
in the uh in the area
10:46
and uh that kept coming up with no
10:50
no viable
10:52
alternatives and then finally the uh the
10:55
Board of Trustees struck a deal with the
10:58
Lillys which was to buy the property for
11:01
the cost of tearing it down and turning
11:03
into a park
11:04
so they were able to
11:06
get a mortgage raise some funds and then
11:08
I think by 79 or 80 they had paid off
11:10
the full mortgage
11:12
and the property was was CLOC’s um as I
11:16
mentioned there's the there's the inn uh
11
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
11:18
which was built in 1895 which is the
11:20
most iconic building on the property
11:23
then there are four outbuildings so
11:25
there are two twin cottages which we
11:27
call Cottage One and Two on the harbor
11:29
that were built in the 30s to uh
11:33
as the inn as the West Falmouth Inn was
11:35
expanding those were sort of uh you
11:37
could bring your family and rent a
11:39
cottage but you would dine in the inn
11:42
and then Cottages Three and Four which
11:44
were added in the sixties uh Cottage
11:46
Three which is out behind the property
11:48
was a caretaker cottage Cottage Four
11:50
which is right next to the bike path uh
11:53
was built as a staff house also in the
11:56
mid 60s
11:58
they dug a pond so we have about an acre
12:02
man-made pond right in the center of the
12:05
property
12:07
and yeah so the West Falmouth campus is
12:10
where we do obviously
12:12
we live all
12:13
those buildings are all dormitory
12:15
buildings
12:16
and we also have our dining facility it
12:17
was fortunate that it was an inn so it
12
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
12:21
came with a large industrial kitchen and
12:23
the dining rooms are perfectly appointed
12:25
for uh for the Company
12:28
as well as our costume shop is housed in
12:30
the former Pony Room which was the uh
12:33
the bar and lounge of the West Falmouth
12:35
Inn
12:37
and we recently just actually
12:40
minutes ago
12:41
completed a new facility on on the
12:44
property which is called Lucas Hall
12:48
which is a
12:50
is the first new structure since the 60s
12:53
on the property and it's a large
12:56
rehearsal and office facility and the
12:58
purpose
12:59
for that is to
13:01
take the stress off of
13:03
Bridgefields Hall which has sort of
13:05
served
13:06
as a catch-all space so it's been our
13:09
main rehearsal space our dining space
13:11
we've carved office spaces out of common
13:14
areas
13:15
uh and so this is an opportunity to
13:17
actually create
13:19
a building designed and intended for its
#lucashall
13
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:23
purpose which is to
13:25
do all of the rehearsal of the
13:27
preparation for the shows that we do up
13:29
at Highfield Theater as well as provide
13:31
office spaces for our summer staff but
13:34
also for our year-round staff
13:36
none of the other buildings on campus
13:37
are winterized or heated so as soon as
13:40
you have to shut the water off you have
13:41
to shut the water off
13:43
but this building
13:44
is insulated and will have
13:46
year-round use which is which is a big
13:49
uh
13:50
big change for us and very exciting
13:52
wonderful well thank you for that
13:54
detailed history because it
13:57
both the property and the organization
13:59
are richly woven uh through the the
14:03
really the soul of our community so
14:04
thanks for that
14:06
that virtual tour with us that gives uh
14:08
our viewers a sense of of the history
14:11
before the camera went on we were
14:13
talking about the role that uh the
14:15
College Light Opera Company plays in so
14:17
many lives not just in the performers
14
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
14:20
but in people that have enjoyed the
14:22
shows or people feel a connection uh to
14:25
the organization and so
14:27
as we record this the Woods Hole Film
14:29
Festival is about to open in Woods Hole
14:31
and as I told you I interviewed someone
14:34
this week
14:35
who is one of the filmmakers that has a
14:37
film
14:38
his connection to Falmouth began in 1990
14:41
or 91 when he was a performer with the
14:43
College Light Opera Company and
14:45
that sort of lifetime connection to the
14:47
organization has happened thousands and
14:50
thousands of times because over the
14:51
course of more than 50 years
14:54
uh
14:56
you know you've had so many lives that
14:59
have been impacted and enriched by the
15:01
organization yeah it's
15:02
the a couple of things I always try to
15:05
hit when I’m talking about CLOC you
15:07
know one of which is uh if you're in
15:10
Falmouth if you live here and you know
15:12
the CLOC is here
15:14
you may be
15:16
permitted to make the mistake to think
15
#woodsholefilmfestival
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
15:18
oh every community must have one of
15:20
these but this is a
15:22
truly unique organization and it is
15:26
something that
15:28
uh is uniquely
15:30
situated your Falmouth is uniquely
15:33
situated to support this kind of an
15:35
organization um you couldn't do this
15:37
just anywhere and this organization
15:39
couldn't have survived in just any
15:41
community you need a good base of of
15:44
folks who
15:45
appreciate the performing arts who will
15:48
not only attend but will support the
15:50
performing arts and
15:52
a certain uh continuity
15:54
which I think Falmouth provides and
15:57
in uh on the other aspect is what you
16:00
mentioned um this sort of networking you
16:03
know we do
16:04
provide the students with a sort of
16:06
educational experience but the
16:08
experience is more learning by doing
16:10
they've all been to university they've
16:12
all been studying their craft we don't
16:15
provide classes we don't provide
16:17
lectures we simply say okay you've
16
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
16:21
you've been studying this
16:24
now do it and do it
16:26
repeat it for nine nine weeks
16:29
and uh in a very intense environment and
16:32
what
16:33
one learns in that environment is a is
16:35
this what I want to do with my life
16:37
because if
16:38
if you get through that uh really 11
16:41
weeks when you count the pre-season time
16:43
get through those 11 weeks and you're
16:44
like I never want to do that again then
16:46
you probably don't want to have a career
16:47
because your career is going to be that
16:49
you know if you're actually paying the
16:50
bills with performing arts your career
16:52
is going to be that hectic so that's
16:54
thing one and then thing two you you
16:57
realize how to streamline your own work
17:00
um and be more efficient which is also
17:02
important when it's a question of
17:04
economics and trying to pay the bills
17:06
it's great if you're a wonderful
17:07
designer but you can only design one
17:09
show and it takes you six months well
17:10
that's not gonna pay your rent uh but
17:13
then thirdly and most importantly it's
17
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
17:14
the connections that they they make when
17:16
they're here because they are it's a
17:19
hyper concentration of uh
17:22
the best of the best
17:24
in these programs so it's those
17:26
who really
17:28
are
17:29
thinking this is what I cannot do
17:30
anything else with my life this is what
17:32
I want to do with my life and then they
17:34
meet
17:35
all these other people in their age
17:38
group who are feeling the same and they
17:40
end up being a very tight-knit
17:43
group within the performing arts
17:45
community as they go on you know they
17:47
all they go to New York or some of them
17:48
go to Europe but they keep connections
17:50
and they keep talking and
17:53
it also spans generations so you go you
17:55
know you go to
17:56
move to New York after summer CLOC and
17:58
you're at a cattle call audition
18:01
and it is
18:02
very
18:03
likely
18:04
if not a given that at least one person
18
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
18:06
behind that table has either been the
18:08
CLOC or has a strong connection to
18:10
CLOC because that's just how small the
18:11
community is and then of course
18:14
the sort of beneficial residual for
18:16
Falmouth is they also have that deep
18:19
emotional connection to the community
18:21
because it you know for many people it's
18:23
one of the most uh memorable
18:26
summers of their lives and they spent it
18:28
here so they do tend to come back and
18:30
tend to
18:31
keep connections with uh you know not
18:34
just their company members but locals
18:36
that they met while they were here and
18:37
then they may end up doing something
18:38
like the Falmouth um film festival or
18:41
you know some of them
18:43
have come back every year just to do the
18:45
Road Race because they did it that one
18:46
summer that they were playing trumpet in
18:48
the orchestra you know so it's uh it is
18:51
a very
18:52
uh important
18:54
organization
18:56
for on the national scale but also I
18:58
think for us in Falmouth it really you
19
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
19:00
know when you are talking about
19:02
your home community and you're giving
19:05
folks some information about it it's
19:07
like okay well Falmouth what's Falmouth
19:08
oh well you know Woods Hole and the
19:10
ferries are going to the Vineyard and um
19:12
there's WHOI and all of this great
19:14
science going on and there's College
19:16
Light Opera Company which is this
19:17
incredible uh you know
19:20
unique
19:21
summer program for for young artists so
19:24
I often refer to our community as a
19:26
mosaic
19:27
and
19:28
CLOC is one of the shining tiles in
19:30
that mosaic for sure and that's what uh
19:33
in in my full-time work I work in
19:36
government and have worked in many
19:37
places
19:38
and there are no other places in my
19:41
experience that quite bring
19:44
just such
19:46
an array of tiles to the mosaic and the
19:48
arts community in the scientific
19:50
community
19:52
and people's willingness to engage
20
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
19:54
in so many different ways and it really
19:57
really
19:57
makes this place special and and CLOC
20:00
is certainly an important part of that
20:03
yeah I mean I would I would absolutely
20:04
agree I think Falmouth is so
20:07
interesting in that it is a small town
20:09
but it has
20:11
large city scale
20:13
uh
20:14
bells and whistles to it which is so
20:18
crazy you know that we get to live in
20:20
this community where there are
20:23
world-class
20:24
everything happening around us and we
20:26
can walk on the bike path and there are
20:28
little villages yeah it's it really is
20:31
that's what Falmouth is to me I I think
20:33
you said it perfectly this amazing
20:35
mosaic of of
20:37
all any
20:38
any piece of which would be incredible
20:40
for a community but we're so spoiled you
20:43
know to have it all here
20:45
you bet well one of the other phrases
20:47
that I love to use is that it takes a
20:48
name to make a town but people to make a
21
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
20:51
community so Mark we thank you for
20:52
sharing the time with us and for you
20:55
being one of the people that really
20:56
enriches that mosaic and and thank you
20:59
for your leadership at CLOC and keeping
21:00
that tradition going thank you so much
22
�
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Transcript of Mark Pearson's Oral History on CLOC
1884
1895
1910
1912
1969
1975
Beebe
Bridgefields Hall
Cape Conservatory
Cape Symphony
Chapoquoit Island
CLOC
Gilbert and Sullivan Players
Haslun
Highfield Hall
Highfield Theater
J. Williams Beal
josiah k lilly
lilly
lucas hall
mark pearson
oberlin
oral history
Postcards from Falmouth
quaker
robert haslun
sara scull
scull
summer stock theater
tanglewood
transcript
troy clarkson
ursula haslun
West Falmouth
west falmouth harbor
west falmouth inn
woods hole film festival
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/32209/archive/files/d60603bc6f241a928efce099c628ca69.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=MWyYINLEONG4GgzkwXCtS-TaaYOyyf95RyXil%7ExYYMSpkFzYlGKUFE%7EaBgxHAPLexljOZUp1C4V0T4UiRFX1KPo3mqphOdM4-YyjPLplYkANGbScjGw%7EOzvzpdi5Nr7vgbWHwInJ5JojTjjDJ2fUwKcqzVgSLIXDbheQTjB%7EPg8%7ELIPNDfr1lUDwGyTRh62yvQZIEzCUZ3W6tZryqGOhpcziPottV4d5fQM28lZl9CMIaHOVM%7EnXrmc1suq%7EtITzyOru%7EbvsL5%7EVXdBDnbuP87PR1KEhjQ0NNJD%7EOryI41so9oOTVwKX7HOYFiCaTPhexkB5MTva6yGqlJxEt6Nl2w__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
7b2502ea18b5171716e3c601162040e9
PDF Text
Text
Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript
Recorded: July 30, 2021
Oral Historian: Robert Blomberg
Interviewer: Troy Clarkson
Topic: Woods Hole Public Library, Woods Hole Historical Museum
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
00:00
[Music]
00:45
so Rob welcome thank you for
00:47
participating in
00:48
this important project and
00:50
today we will be discussing a postcard
00:53
that's been given to you and this one is
00:56
of the Woods Hole Library which has a
#woodshole
#woodsholepubliclibrary
Gunning_WoodsHole_Bldg_0587
through 0590
00:57
rich history here in Falmouth so thank
01:00
you for being willing to chat about it
01:01
and just tell us about the postcard and
01:04
your connection to it so uh the Woods
01:06
Hole Library is a
01:08
very important connection to me I think
01:10
probably the first time I was ever there
01:11
I was maybe two or two and a half years
01:13
old
01:14
I didn't grow up in Woods Hole I grew up
1
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
01:17
in Connecticut but my parents
01:18
grandparents both grew up here and
01:21
certainly the time you know every time I
01:23
would come down when the library would
01:24
be open it was a wonderful place to go
01:26
to grab books a very very comfortable
01:28
area and then in the years to come I
01:30
wouldn't didn't realize how involved I
01:32
would be in the library right now I’m
01:34
currently the the Vice President of the
01:36
uh of the Board of the library itself
01:39
and heavily involved with many of the
01:40
activities
01:42
today what I’d like to do if I could is
01:45
go through some of the history of the
01:46
library itself uh it's certainly one of
01:48
the key meeting places anywhere in Woods
01:50
Hole and certainly it's considered to be
01:52
one of the friendliest places in Woods
01:54
Hole in fact a writer from the Reader's
01:56
Digest in 1961 on the way to the
01:57
Vineyard found that he had missed the
01:59
book the boat with his family and family
02:01
he had himself his wife and three three
02:03
children and wandered around and ended
02:06
up going the library and spent over two
02:08
hours there and he
2
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:09
had the comment afterwards this is by
02:11
far and away the friendliest place in
02:12
this little town I think it's still like
02:14
that today
02:17
so what a great story indicative of the
02:19
the value I always say that the public
02:22
library or any library
02:25
is
02:26
the heart and soul of a community and so
02:29
the Woods Hole Library is part of the
02:30
heart and soul of that village which is
02:32
critical to the character of our our
02:35
community you mentioned before we went
02:36
on camera that it's been actually um
02:39
since it was founded in February of 1873
02:42
been in four different locations so talk
02:44
to us about the journey of the library
02:46
and how it it wound up where it is today
02:49
great I so yes the library started in
02:51
February of 1873 initially was called
02:54
the Woods Hole Social Library not the
02:56
Woods Hole Public Library but rather the
02:58
Woods Hole Social Library and it started up
03:01
really a gathering of the Woods Hole
03:02
residents
03:03
one of the real key founders was this of
03:06
this was a man named Asa Shiverick and he
3
#1873
#asashiverick #shiverick
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:08
was the superintendent of the Pacific
#pacificguanocompany
Gunning_WoodsHole_Bldg_0564
03:10
Guano Factory a lot of people I don't
03:12
think are aware that there's a large
03:14
guano factory in Penzance Point and he
03:16
was the founder and initially was
03:19
involved with
03:21
involving the community they ended up
03:23
issuing 89 shares for the original
03:26
Woods Hole Social Library at two dollars
apiece
03:28
and what did they do with that oh
03:31
they end up buying books with their
03:32
funds they donated a lot of their own
03:34
books as well and the first library
03:36
actually met in the base of Asa
03:38
Shiverick’s house which is right in the
03:40
corner of Water Street and School Street
#penzancepoint
#waterstreet
#schoolstreet
Gunning_WoodsHole_Sts_0801
through 811 &
Hunt_WoodsHole_Sts_598
through 603
03:43
and back then was called Main Street
03:44
hadn't been changed to Water Street at
03:46
that point uh he was Mr. Shiverick was
03:49
was very nice about it he donated some
03:51
of the oil lamps there and the heat that
03:54
lasted there and members were expected
4
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:56
to pay a dollar per year to check out
03:59
books and non-members five cents so a
04:01
little bit different than there is today
04:03
so that was the first location um they
04:05
were there for about five years and they
04:07
moved down to what was then called
04:09
Liberty Hall which is now known as
04:10
Community Hall right beyond the
04:12
drawbridge itself it was built because
04:15
things were really getting you know the
04:16
library was starting to grow
04:18
and they were there for about 17 years
04:20
they shared the basement with other
04:22
things such as a barber shop and a
04:23
tailor
04:24
they weren't open every every day though
04:26
primarily they were open Wednesdays and
04:28
Saturdays and became so popular that
04:31
people would wait in line outside just
04:32
to come in they're open for really two
04:34
to three hours every day at that point
04:36
um
04:37
third location actually moved again
04:40
right across the drawbridge uh this
04:42
would have been diagonally across from
04:44
where the bridge tenders are right now
04:46
it was a
#woodsholecommunityhall
5
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:47
house called the Swift House and what
#swifthouse
#swift
04:49
they did there they were there sort of a
04:51
short period of time
04:52
because the rent was a hundred dollars a
04:54
year which they felt was too expensive
04:56
for those you're not familiar this would
04:58
be right next to where the Redfield
04:59
Building is now and
05:00
later on this building became a
05:02
drugstore called Daley’s Drugstore which
05:04
I remember as a young boy the old soda
05:06
fountain that was there was absolutely
05:08
great you could have a milkshake or an
05:10
ice cream and you could watch the boats
05:11
go right through the open channel
05:14
so after a very short time there they
05:16
then moved up to what's now Little
05:18
Harbor Road but back then was called
05:20
Government Street
Hunt_WoodsHole_Har_583 &
Gunning_WoodsHole_Har_0866
through 872
05:22
it was Fish's Grocery Store and they
#fishsgrocerystore
05:24
lived they were there rent-free had
05:26
about 2000 books at that point and they
05:29
stayed there until 1910. by the time
05:31
1910 came around the Fish building was
05:34
sold and the decision was made that you
#daleysdrugstore
#littleharborroad
#1910
6
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
05:36
know there's enough people in Woods Hole
05:38
between the year-round residents and the
05:40
summer residents
05:42
let's buy a lot and the lot where the
05:44
library is currently located was bought
05:46
at that point but the problem was all
05:48
the money they supplied for the lot they
05:50
really couldn't put anything other than
05:52
buying the land itself so they waited
05:55
about three years
05:56
they were able to raise money
05:58
they ended up having the books and a
06:00
room that was vacant in what was then
06:02
the Woods Hole School on School Street
#woodsholeschool
06:04
and by 1913 they'd raised enough money
#1913
06:07
pop year-round population was about 500
06:11
summer population’s about 1500 and enough
06:13
people agreed to donate money and funds
06:17
to build the library itself so by then
06:20
five thousand dollars was raised they
06:22
built the building uh opened in 1913
06:26
and the fieldstone that's on the outer
06:28
part of the library itself is fieldstone
06:30
that came from Woods Hole and Quisset
06:32
so the library itself as we know it
06:34
today really goes back to 1913 but we
06:37
had the land as of 1910.
7
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
06:40
and and so over a hundred years
06:42
the Woods Hole Library in that current
06:44
location has been
06:46
as people enter the village one of the
06:49
uh architectural features and uh
06:52
really one of the highlights of the
06:54
entry into the village but it's so much
06:56
more than that more than an
06:58
architectural feature of the village as
07:00
I mentioned a few minutes ago it's
07:01
really part of the heart and soul of the
07:03
village and to this day welcomes
07:06
residents and visitors
07:07
community groups
07:09
and despite how technology has changed
07:12
our lives
07:13
libraries are still a very important
07:15
part of the community so talk to us a
07:17
little bit about what
07:19
the Woods Hole Library means to the
07:20
village and the town today
07:22
so you know I think as you look at the
07:24
village it's a very good point I think
07:26
as you look at the library itself
07:29
we have a wonderful staff there who
07:30
obviously is coordinating the you know
07:33
the magazines the books the circular but
8
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
07:36
it's a lot of the events that take place
07:38
as well
07:39
we have many annual events that occur
07:41
the the plant sale is very popular we
07:44
have the accessories sale which is
07:45
actually is coming up in early August
07:49
one of the interesting things is Super
07:51
Bowl Sunday for a lot of people means
07:52
football and recently the Patriots well
07:55
if you're in Woods Hole
07:57
it means the fabric sale the fabric sale
07:59
is a very popular event that's occurred
08:02
so those are things that are sort of
08:03
recurring events but in addition
08:05
we have lectures
08:07
we have a lot of musical performances
08:09
that take place there there are book
08:11
groups that have met there
08:13
many children's groups come in there's
08:16
currently a camp the Children's School
08:18
of Science is in they they tend to stop
08:20
by
08:22
MBL has a camp that comes in
#childrensschoolofscience
Marine Biological Laboratories
#mbl
Gunning_WoodsHole_Bldg_0644
through 0695&
Hunt_WoodsHole_Bldg_550
through 555
9
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:24
children have been a huge part of of the
08:26
Woods Hole Library as I mentioned you
08:28
know my first time was probably when I
08:30
was two two and a half
08:32
and one of the later additions that they
08:35
made back in the 1950s uh had a whole
08:38
children's wing put in there as well and
08:41
I think it's because of the welcoming
08:42
nature of the staff
08:44
the great volunteers
08:46
last year was was a very difficult year
08:48
with a pandemic and yet the library
08:51
itself was only closed for about two
08:53
months the decision was made to have
08:55
people place orders
08:56
they opened up the courtyard itself so
08:59
anyone that wanted a book or magazine or
09:01
periodical could go in and they could
09:03
check things out at that point
09:06
gradually as things improved a little
09:08
bit we allowed limited access in
09:10
and people needed books they needed the
09:13
magazines and the staff worked extremely
09:16
hard last year Margaret McCormick was
09:17
the director and her staff were
09:19
wonderful very creative in allowing this
09:22
and I think
#pandemic
10
#margaretmccormick
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
09:23
with so many things being closed in the
09:24
town of Falmouth in the village Woods
09:26
Hole last year
09:27
other than about a two-month period the
09:29
library remained open and was a very
09:31
very important part of the community and
09:34
provided a lot of necessary things that
09:36
needed to take place
09:38
excellent so
09:40
it continued as it has
09:43
since 1873 to be an important part of of
09:46
the community right what else would you
09:48
like to share about either the history
09:50
or the
09:51
the uh the ongoing presence of the Woods
09:54
Hole Library in the community so I
09:55
what's what's interesting of course too
09:57
is you know we have the library and the
09:59
next door neighbor is the Woods Hole
10:01
historic collection which goes back to
10:02
1974.
#1974
10:04
in the Bradley House itself and there is
#bradleyhouse
10:07
a very strong partnership the Woods
10:08
Hole Library is actually the in
10:11
effect the parent corporation of the
10:13
Woods Hole historic collection of the
10:14
Woods Hole Museum and I think that the
11
#woodsholehistoricalmuseum
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:16
two groups together work very well um
10:20
Franklin Gifford one of the great
10:22
painters one of the great artists of
10:23
Woods Hole
10:24
tremendous collection that he has in the
10:26
Ratcliffe Room which is the most recent
10:28
edition in the downstairs portion of the
10:30
library itself and many of the original
10:32
paintings are also in the Woods Hole
10:35
museum the Woods Hole Historic Museum
10:37
you know right next door
10:39
these the historic Swift boat barn Dr.
10:42
Yale's workshop is there
10:44
and for those people that really haven't
10:46
gotten Woods Hole too much uh every
10:48
year we we change the second exhibit we
10:51
have one primary exhibit which talks
10:53
about the history of Woods Hole
10:55
I’ve been very fortunate I’ve been doing
10:56
the historic walking tours of Woods Hole
10:58
for four years and we get 100 150 or
11:01
more people every year coming to Woods
11:02
Hole
11:03
they see the library they enjoy the
11:05
library aspect they go in they're very
11:06
comfortable there
11:08
they participate in the book sale which
#franklingifford
#leroymiltonyale
12
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
11:09
is both an outdoor and indoor book sale
11:11
but they also enjoy the museum itself
11:13
and you know gallery 2 this year we just
11:16
have a new exhibit for the indigenous
11:17
people of Woods Hole and and Cape Cod
11:20
for that matter a lot in the Wampanoag
11:22
but a lot of the glacial formations etc
11:25
and similar to what the library does
11:28
the Woods Hole museum produces the Woods
#woodsholeweeklydispatch
11:31
Hole Weekly Dispatch Debbie Scanlon
#deborahscanlon
11:33
Colleen Hurter do a wonderful job with
#colleenhurter
11:35
that mainsheet is distributed as well so
11:38
between both organizations are their
11:40
next door neighbors to each other they
11:42
share the same land
11:44
it's it's a great opportunity for people
11:46
to come to Woods Hole they get their
11:47
books their periodicals from the library
11:50
they get to participate in a lot of the
11:51
events there and then they go next door
11:53
to the museum the museum you know has a
11:55
semi-annual auction that takes place
11:57
there and they also have a lot of events
12:00
as well including the Woods Hole
12:02
Conversations and lectures that take
12:03
place and much of the
12:06
many of the lectures and other meetings
13
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
12:08
that take place there's a few larger
12:10
facilities within the library itself and
12:11
the lower level so they're able to do
12:13
that so um you know Woods Hole again
12:15
village of less than 800 people there's
12:16
a lot of things going on there and we
12:18
draw so many people not just from the
12:20
town of Falmouth but from the Cape as
12:22
well as you know domestically and
12:24
internationally as well
12:26
so you raise a good point about uh
12:29
Woods Hole's identity as a village like
12:31
many of the villages in Falmouth
12:33
although it's part of the larger
12:35
Falmouth community it has
12:37
a very strong identity and its own
12:40
history and so you said you you lead
12:42
walking tours uh so take us from the
12:44
library uh briefly on just some of the
12:47
highlights of some of those other
12:49
historic sites in the village so it is
12:52
interesting is I start the tours inside
12:54
in Gallery One and there's a timeline
12:56
there and we have photos of the historic
12:59
you know the famous people of Woods Hole
13:00
but then as you work your way around I
13:02
mean Little Harbor had the original
#littleharbor
14
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:03
settlements going back to 1679 there
#1679
13:06
were
13:06
12 families half from Sandwich half from
13:09
Falmouth several of them were Quakers
13:11
that started so Little Harbor was the
13:13
initial part of Woods Hole so we start
13:16
there we make our way down Water Street
13:18
you know I’ll talk about uh you know not
13:20
so much what's now the Steamship area
#ferry
13:22
but rather what was the railroad area it
#railroad
Gunning_WoodsHole_Har_0855
through 0903 &
Hunt_WoodsHole_Har_582
through 590
Hunt_WoodsHole_Tran_607
13:24
was a very important part my grandfather
13:26
was the general agent uh for New Haven
13:28
Railroad back then and at one point
13:30
there were nine railroad tracks that
13:32
came into Woods Hole the two tracks that
13:33
came in and nine that that uh were there
13:36
you know obviously the the boats not
13:38
just to the Martha’s Vineyard as we
13:39
currently have but also to Nantucket New
13:42
Bedford and Fall River it's a very very
13:44
popular line and that brought a lot of
13:46
the people in so as we go down as we
13:48
make our way down Water Street out if I
13:50
don't lose anyone at Pie In the Sky
15
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:51
which does happen occasionally though
13:53
sneak in to get something to eat you
13:54
know I’ll talk about the post office
13:57
uh what is now Under the Sun was the
13:58
former Congregational church
14:00
what's what's now the Woods Hole Inn has
14:02
always been a hotel back 150 years or so
14:05
Hotel Avery Hotel Nobska was there
14:07
continue down past Dyer's Dock
14:10
stopping at the Eel Pond Bridge
Gunning_WoodsHole_Bldg_0584
through 586
#eelpond
#eelpondbridge
Gunning_WoodsHole_Pnd_0904
14:12
we've had a bridge there for about 200
14:14
years at this point which sort of ends
14:17
you know the early the upper part of the
14:19
business district itself but then making
14:22
our way down to Smith and Bigelow and
14:24
the WHOI
Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institute
#whoi
Gunning_WoodsHole_Bldg_0735
through 744
14:25
buildings that are there that go back to
14:26
1930 across the street from that you
14:29
know a lot of those buildings 150 160
14:31
years old uh back to when uh Woods Hole
14:34
was a whaling port four whaling ships
16
#whaling
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
14:36
were built in Woods Hole 14 other ships
14:38
uh we refurbished to the point that
14:40
Woods Hole was deforested at one point
14:42
as there was so much work that was done
14:44
so everything from the Woods Hole wharf
14:46
down past Captain Kidd and Woods Hole
14:47
Market those were buildings that had to
14:50
do with cooper with barrel making with
14:52
sail making provisions um continuing the
14:55
walk down to what really is MBL the old
14:58
Candle House which was uh uh served as a
#candlehouse
Hunt_WoodsHole_Bldg_535
15:00
place for spermaceti uh candles being
15:03
made there down to waterfront park the
15:06
beautiful view of of the Woods Hole
15:08
passage at that point I mean people ask
15:10
you know how did Woods Hole get its name
15:12
well the reality was we don't know who
15:13
Woods was but hole of course is a
15:15
nautical term smaller body of water
15:17
between two larger bodies of water and
15:19
in this case we've got Vineyard Sound on
15:20
one side and Buzzards Bay on the other
15:22
so the Woods Hole passage is that hole
15:24
but as you make your way down through
15:26
the Elizabeth Islands you've got
15:27
Quick’s Hole and Robinson’s Hole going out
#elizabethislands
17
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
15:29
all the way to Cuttyhunk so we usually
15:31
make a turn there you know I talked I I
15:34
walk behind Lillie and Crane
15:37
beautiful view of Eel Pond you know
15:38
looking
15:40
east at that point toward you know the
15:42
Woods Hole School make our way up by the
15:44
Marine Resource Center and then cut up
15:47
the other side of Water Street
15:49
going uh really across you know into the
15:51
WHOI area as well the WHOI campus uh the
15:54
past the old Methodist church it's now
15:56
the WHOI exhibit center uh the choirs
15:58
across the Michael Walsh Garden uh with
16:01
all the rambler roses and all the other
16:02
garden and you know beautiful pollinated
16:04
garden that WHOI has done for that then
16:06
past Challenger House which Mrs. Swift
16:09
was attacked in 1777 by the British she
16:12
drove them off with a broom after they
16:13
stole most of her livestock and we wrap
16:15
up back at the museum itself so it's a
16:17
it's a fun walking tour and what's nice
16:20
is for the people that come we have some
16:21
people that are Falmouth residents that
16:23
know a lot about Woods Hole but a lot
16:25
come in they're either there they're
Gunning_WoodsHole_Bldg_0679
through 0686
18
#michaelwalsh
Gunning_WoodsHole_Bldg_0625
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
16:27
visitors heading to the Vineyard they're
16:28
there because the scientific community
16:30
whether it's WHOI MBL NOAA
16:34
you know
16:35
Woodwell Climate Institute whatever it
16:36
might be um others are artisans you know
16:39
I talk a lot about the artistic
16:41
community we have the currently the
16:43
Community Hall which has been in
16:44
existence
16:45
for well over 100 years at this point
16:47
has an art show there
16:49
we've got parts of the Woods Hole Film
16:51
Festival the box office will be using
16:53
the old fire station so Woods Hole has a
16:55
lot of things to a lot of different
16:57
people and
16:58
it's a very fascinating place to come
17:00
and certainly the library and the museum
17:02
are major parts of it wonderful so one
17:05
of the highlights on the tour and and I
17:07
just learned
17:09
several things
17:11
during your virtual tour just now of the
17:14
village starting at the library but one
17:15
of the sites you mentioned was the Woods
17:17
Hole School when I was a kid
National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
19
#woodsholefilmfestival
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
17:20
it was still
17:21
a public elementary school
17:23
and so people my age went
17:26
some went to elementary school there so
17:29
and the linkage between
17:31
learning
17:32
at the library and
17:34
learning in general is is significant so
17:37
yeah
17:38
is there any sort of history between the
17:41
Woods Hole School and the Woods Hole
17:42
Library that you’re aware of absolutely so you
17:44
mentioned that yeah both my parents were
17:46
proud graduates of the Woods Hole School
17:48
um it is interesting also that the Woods
17:50
Hole School is the only building in Woods
17:52
Hole that's on the National Register of
17:53
Historic Places even the Candle House
17:55
part of MBL is not
17:57
there's been this very strong connection
17:59
between the Children's School of Science
18:02
and the library itself and when the
18:04
Woods Hole Library did have students
18:06
before they they went to Mullen-Hall
18:08
there were extensive programs that took
18:10
place many of the teachers brought their
18:12
classes over to the library itself again
20
#nationalregisterofhistoricplaces
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
18:13
you had a perfect set up with you know
18:15
tremendous like you know there were
18:17
books obviously a smaller library at the
18:19
Woods Hole School but they they brought
18:21
their classes over during class after
18:23
class and you know many students would
18:25
come over and do their homework
18:27
at the library itself with with some of
18:28
the desks and areas that were set up
18:30
it's it's always been very very children
18:32
friendly uh place
18:34
wonderful
18:35
so
18:37
anything else you want to share with us
18:39
well no thank you very much Troy I
18:40
appreciate uh given the opportunity to
18:43
tell the Falmouth community about
18:46
all the wonderful things about the Woods
18:47
Hole Library and the Woods Hole Historic
18:48
Museum and please come down and visit
18:51
they would be happy to have you and a
18:53
lot to see in Woods Hole and happen to
18:55
stop by the museum we do have some of
18:56
the brochures from the tours themselves
18:58
who you can do your own walking tour if
19:00
it's a day that that I’m not giving
19:02
tours wonderful well Rob Blomberg thank
21
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
19:05
you so much I always say it takes a name
19:07
to make a town but people to make a
19:09
community so thank you for being one of
19:11
the people that keeps the spirit in the
19:13
history of Woods Hole and the Woods Hole
19:15
Library alive thank you very much Troy
19:16
appreciate it
22
�
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Transcript of Robert Blomberg's Oral History on Woods Hole Public Library and the Woods Hole Historical Museum
1679
1873
1910
1913
1974
Asa Shiverick
Bradley House
Candle House
Children's School of Science
Colleen Hurter
COVID-19
Daley's Drugstore
Deborah Scanlon
Eel Pond
Eel Pond Bridge
Elizabeth Islands
ferry
Fish's Grocery Store
Franklin Gifford
leroy milton yale
little harbor
little harbor road
margaret mccormick
mbl
michael walsh
national register of historic places
oral history
pacific guano company
pandemic
penzance point
Postcards from Falmouth
railroad
robert blomberg
school street
shiverick
Swift
swift house
transcript
troy clarkson
water street
whaling
WHOI
Woods Hole
woods hole community hall
woods hole film festival
woods hole historical museum
woods hole public library
woods hole school
woods hole weekly dispatch
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/32209/archive/files/8944c1bf8faf3f0d4ed1e7a25fa27c1f.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=Y6qUdSlb1qOJDsBew8NgdnGhI11hjrIJJsouo3710mGC0cUpH%7EYGCVO-td5aMt8vTC%7EZKu9Cz2Iuxd0K%7EPMZulUQpennYjnDmaVvGPb8cAMhlJqSvWqdQmDr2u4XtwOxnh%7E5MTDC4nOjsRH18wEGdS1dJs21UYWJ8tQsUV74HuTNbbIGUpPCZZMmIjTte4CJVjkR1XvYimeKTCZ6TRZ63LIDPy8cOu06oCPFhtuRW86VqU2bmupeo1eHU6OJqIwAQydc32m8K9JFljBS3kZmSo13j0x15Frd36hZmHdwiLYnDUs%7EjafZCGIOdle6qS0SD5ycaPy3P9hAK2njMzUO6A__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
3b1683b8476951ea82da99099520c768
PDF Text
Text
Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Zoom Program Transcript
Recorded: September 23, 2020
Presenter: Gus Widmayer
Host: Jill Erickson
Topic: A Gentleman’s Guide to the Belvidere Plain in Falmouth, Massachusetts & The Belvidere
Plain Revisited, by Gus Widmayer
Available in the Falmouth Public Library Reference Department REF LocHist 974.492
WID
Also mentioned: How to Read a Book, by Mortimer J. Adler, available from CLAMS
under 801.9 ADL
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
00:30
[Music]
00:45
good morning I think it's appropriate
00:49
on the sesquicentennial 150th
00:53
anniversary of the postcard
00:55
that we also acknowledge that it's the
00:59
sesquicentennial of Belvidere Plain
#belvidereplain
Hunt_Village_Har_114
01:03
a real estate development from 1870
#1870
01:08
I believe it was completed around 1872.
#1872
01:12
so I want to draw your attention to uh
01:15
where it is located
01:17
on the shores of Vineyard Sound
01:20
nestled in between the beach
01:24
and what's known as what was known then
01:27
as Deacon's Pond
#vineyardsound
#deaconspond
Gunning_Village_Har_0190
1
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
01:28
we now know it today as Falmouth Harbor
#falmouthharbor
Hunt_Village_Har_103 through 120
Gunning_Heights_Har_1320
through 1334
01:32
and you can see a lot of little postage
01:35
stamp sized
01:36
lots that were
01:40
planned out and really most of them
01:42
never
01:43
um wound up that way because
01:47
when people came in to buy properties
01:49
they bought several
01:51
at a clip so
01:54
my focus today is on the postcards
01:58
that depict uh various scenes from
02:00
around Belvidere Plain
02:03
and there are about 20 and
02:06
I’ve added a few photographs and I’ll
02:10
even
02:11
finish off with a plug for my book
02:15
which hopefully
02:18
Jill Erickson and Kim DeWall can make
02:21
available
02:22
to you from the Falmouth Public Library
02:26
so let's go to the first slide
02:31
most people recognize this house
2
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:35
it was owned by
02:39
a family named Butler around the turn of
02:42
the century
02:46
fairly prominent on the point it sits
02:49
today just behind the Falmouth Yacht
#butler
#falmouthyachtclub
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0385
02:51
Club
02:53
uh had a beautiful expansive lawn
02:56
right on the harbor overlooking the
02:58
ocean
02:59
a nice tennis court and I
03:02
found this picture in an old antiques
03:06
uh market in the Fenway section of
03:08
Boston
03:10
probably in the 1990s
03:13
and it hit my eye I recognized it right
03:15
away
03:17
but most importantly for me uh right
03:20
over here
03:21
on the right hand side um was an early
03:25
photograph
03:26
of Belvidere Plain which is on the west
03:30
side of the harbor
03:32
so I grabbed the picture and I expanded
03:35
this section
03:39
to what you see here and for those of
3
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:42
you familiar with the harbor
03:44
you'll recognize the home here that
03:48
once belonged to Bill Wyman
03:51
and his family for
03:54
probably 75 years
03:59
and you'll be able to see by the time
04:02
we're done
04:05
various homes that are no longer
04:08
no longer there
04:12
particularly these two what we call
04:15
beetle houses
04:17
which I’ll point out a little later
04:21
um this photograph
04:24
is about circa 19
04:29
20 I I would say
04:36
this photograph uh which I acquired
04:40
on eBay from an auction
04:44
in my mind is the oldest
04:48
known photograph of the Belvidere Plain
04:52
I don't want to say absolutely
04:55
positively
04:56
because
05:01
I don't have proof so I’ll leave that to
05:06
a younger generation to figure out for
05:08
me but
05:10
the back side of this stereo card does
#wyman
4
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
05:13
say Falmouth Harbor and
05:17
these this is a
05:20
windmill that drew water from the ocean
05:27
onto flats where it dried
05:31
in the 19th century
05:34
for salt and uh
05:38
this hill here um
05:42
I believe to be Falmouth Heights it
05:44
doesn't look that tall
05:46
but you know perspective is very
05:49
um a very tricky thing in the 1870s
05:53
1880s um
05:56
I believe we can also date it from this
06:00
man's hat
06:01
this man's hat so uh in time
06:06
one of you might be able to
06:10
research this to nail down
06:14
a date and these
06:18
two structures here might also
06:22
help us but um
06:25
I’m keeping my fingers crossed the
06:28
oldest
06:29
beach photo Belvidere Plain
06:35
now I’d like to tell you about a book
06:37
that I acquired from
06:39
my father's second cousin Rita Keckeisen
#falmouthheights
5
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
06:44
she was a librarian
06:47
in the Butler Library at Columbia
06:50
College
06:51
in New York City and when she passed
06:54
away
06:55
in 2003
06:58
her family distributed her possessions
07:01
and then asked me if I’d like to go in
07:05
to see if there was anything that I
07:07
wanted
07:08
because Rita and I had been
07:11
a 30-year correspondent uh
07:16
had been correspondents for 30 years she
07:18
more or less was my mentor
07:20
she taught me everything uh I needed to
07:23
know to be a good
07:25
uh thorough genealogist my hobby has
07:28
been
07:29
uh family tree research uh practically
07:32
all of my life
07:34
and uh it really inspired my
07:37
um interest in the history of Belvidere
07:40
Plain
07:42
so Mortimer J. Adler he
07:46
is um a well-known editor
07:49
in New York circles back in the day
#mortimeradler
6
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
07:52
and it struck me as very odd that he
07:56
wrote a book
07:58
entitled How to Read a Book
08:01
and uh I’d never seen anything like that
08:04
before so I read it
08:06
cover to cover and I’ll give you the uh
08:09
I’ll give you the cliff notes he
08:11
essentially
08:13
is um asking
08:16
us as as the readers to
08:20
imbibe every aspect
08:24
of every book that we read don't just
08:26
open it and start reading page one
08:29
start at the fly leaf on the cover
08:32
start uh with the um
08:36
publisher page publishing page
08:39
read every line in the table of contents
08:44
he really wants us to treat every book
08:46
like a fine bottle of wine
08:49
savor every sip and so
08:54
I thought that was appropriate for this
08:56
morning's talk because
08:58
the same uh rules can apply to postcards
09:03
we need to not just see them for
09:06
a picture or a quick note but
09:10
there's a lot more there's a lot more
7
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
09:12
behind it
09:14
and we can start with
09:18
postage stamps now
09:21
if a postcard is 150 years
09:25
old then
09:28
the first stamp that was designed for a
09:31
postcard
09:32
the one penny stamp in 1926
09:37
means that an awful lot of postcards got
09:40
shipped um before and after
09:45
for a penny and in fact it wasn't until
09:47
1952
09:49
that the rate went up so
09:53
if you see a postcard with a one penny
09:55
stamp on it
09:57
it's not going to be too too helpful
10:00
because
10:00
there's um there's a 75
10:05
year period there where where they
10:09
posted for one cents you get
10:12
luckier from 1952 on because
10:16
postal rates seemed to outpace inflation
10:21
and they kept going up and
10:24
in fact if you see for example
10:27
a postcard with seven
10:30
cents on the stamp you can actually
#1926
#1952
8
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:36
tell yourself you can actually date that
10:39
postcard to
10:40
three months in 1975.
10:44
so as you see the dating methodology
10:48
becomes much clearer
10:51
the later you get now at some point and
10:54
I don't know when this was
10:56
but probably in the 2000s
11:00
um these became these stamps became
11:04
forever stamps
11:05
so I don't know if 2006
11:09
is um applies but if you see a postcard
11:13
with a forever stamp
11:14
that's 24 cents it could have been
11:17
posted last week
11:19
I mean they last forever
11:22
um here's an example of
11:26
an early I think 1902
11:30
one cent Franklin stamp so you'll see a
11:33
lot of these
11:34
on postcards I think Lady Liberty is on
11:38
one
11:40
in 1952 it went to two cents
11:44
but uh this is an early two cent stamp
11:47
from 1902
11:49
which you would not have seen on a
9
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
11:51
postcard
11:55
so going by Mortimer J. Adler’s
11:59
methodology what are all the ways that
12:02
we can
12:03
um partake of postcards
12:07
we know there's a picture on the front
12:09
side
12:11
if we're lucky we see a really beautiful
12:17
post mark on the back here's Falmouth
12:20
Mass
12:20
July 28th 1pm
12:24
1943. uh
12:27
you can't get any better than that um
12:31
another thing you can determine from a
12:33
postcard oh and by the way
12:34
see the one Lady Liberty stamp here
12:38
um obviously we've got until 1952 before
12:42
that goes up
12:43
to two cents published by E.D. West
12:46
Company
12:47
South Yarmouth Mass you can actually go
12:51
on eBay or you know your favorite flea
12:54
market
12:55
and collect postcards
12:58
that were published by E.D. West
13:01
there are a number of different
10
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:03
companies you can collect all of them
13:05
and they oftentimes will
13:08
number them so you can
13:11
collect them in sequence once in a while
13:15
you can also
13:16
identify the photographer
13:19
that's a little bit tricky you sort of
13:21
have to
13:22
find his body of work first and then
13:26
tie it in to a postcard
13:30
the other things that postcards tell you
13:33
are
13:34
the sender and
13:37
the recipient those are sometimes
13:42
fascinating and this particular one
13:46
tells you that is that the vacationer
13:50
stayed at the Catalpa Cottage on Shore
#shorestreet
Gunning_Village_Sts_0080 through
0084
Hunt_Village_Sts_171 & 172
13:52
Street
13:53
in Falmouth um in July of 1943
13:59
so uh if you happen to
14:02
live at that address you might
14:05
know Cokie and
14:08
Mrs. Carl Gulchmark
11
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
14:12
Riverside Drive New York City
14:16
so as you can
14:20
see there are many many interesting
14:22
aspects
14:23
to a postcard
14:28
this is the earliest postcard
14:31
in my collection um
14:36
I date it to 1905.
14:39
it shows Belvidere Plain in the
14:41
foreground
14:42
these um these
14:46
beetle shaped roof lines
14:50
they were probably practical to
14:54
have wind off the beach go right over
14:57
the house
15:00
though not very successful because
15:03
in 1938 these two
15:06
were knocked off their foundation by the
15:10
hurricane
15:10
this one still stands at the tail end of
15:13
Spinnaker Lane
15:16
one thing you'll notice about early
15:17
postcards 1900 maybe to 1910
15:22
is that the um the pictures
15:26
do not extend to the boundary of the
Variant from the Hunt collection:
Hunt_Village_Har_113
#1938
#hurricane
#spinnakerlane
12
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
15:29
paper
15:30
that's a function of the technology they
15:33
once they got very popular they quickly
15:36
learned how to print these
15:40
by bleeding the photograph off the edge
15:43
of the of the
15:44
card
15:48
and this is another trick that you can
15:51
try
15:52
with I use a photo editing software
15:56
called Adobe
15:57
Photoshop and I can take that same
16:00
postcard
16:02
get rid of the arrow where the sender
16:05
was staying
16:06
get rid of an ink mark
16:10
clean it up brighten it up and
16:15
make it presentable for and in my case
16:18
for the book that I was
16:20
publishing
16:23
you need a good scanner and you need a
16:24
good software program
16:26
I highly recommend Adobe products
16:31
here is a postcard taken from the Old
#oldstonedock
Variant from the Gunning collection:
Gunning_Village_Har_0180
13
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Other postcards of this site:
Gunning_Village_Har_0173 through
0188
Hunt_Village_Bch_0089 through
0095
16:34
Stone Dock
16:35
in Falmouth which used to be Falmouth’s
16:37
harbor
16:38
at the end of Shore Street and you see
16:41
the same view
16:42
the um the
16:47
houses here along the beach in Belvidere
16:49
Plain you can see
16:50
Falmouth Heights in the distance
16:54
a couple of young boys running down the
16:57
jetty
16:58
and some sailboats again this would need
17:01
to be heavily cleaned up
17:03
I don't think I used this one in the
17:05
book I used another
17:06
copy that I found that was much cleaner
17:11
oh this must be it
17:14
and what I would do is just brighten it
17:16
up so that when it's printed in the book
17:18
it's um it's uh
17:22
it becomes clearer and
14
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
17:26
black and white versus this is scanned
17:29
in color
17:37
this is a picture of the old harbor
17:41
from the other side and oops and
17:46
there's a nice little um
17:50
note here please send as usual to last
17:53
address
17:53
by Tuesday if possible E.B.
17:58
Salandin he was probably looking for a
18:01
rent
18:02
of his on his summer cottage
18:08
I include this photograph of the
18:11
Heights from around the same time period
18:14
19
18:15
1905 because uh you can see
18:19
from uh perspective from a different
18:23
perspective
18:24
at the end of this long wooden wharf
18:27
the Butler house that was in the first
18:30
photograph that I shared with you
18:33
this is the Tower House Hotel
#towerhousehotel
Gunning_Heights_Bldg_1207
through 1210, 1217 through 1223
Hunt_Heights_Bldg_244 through
251
18:37
which I think came down in about 19
18:41
50 Jill Jill’ll know better
15
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
18:44
on that excuse me
18:49
excuse me for a minute I had to get a
18:52
drink of water
18:53
so in this photograph you can see
18:56
the windmill
19:00
that was on the old Waterside estate
19:04
and you can also see
19:07
the Weinberg house here so
19:10
that was built in I think 1914
19:14
and it looks pretty new the wood looks
19:16
clean
19:17
so I would date this postcard to
19:22
1914.
19:26
let's take a look at the next one
19:29
it is the mouth of the harbor being
#waterside
#weinberg
Variants from the Hunt & Gunning
collections:
Hunt_Village_Bch_084,
Gunning_Village_Har_0190 & 191
Similar cards:
Gunning_Heights_Pnd_1311 &
1312
19:33
dredged by the
19:35
barge Wollaston and
19:38
it was colorized obviously and
19:41
we can also see that by 1910
19:45
the pictures are bleeding
19:48
off the edge of the postcard there's
#1910
16
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
19:52
our focal point that always tells us
19:55
where we are
19:56
the Butler house on the uh
20:00
on the end of Falmouth Heights
20:03
this by the way was Clinton Road
20:07
Clinton Avenue used to uh run right
20:10
across
20:11
here and that's essentially what they're
20:13
digging away
20:14
is the spit of land
20:18
across which was Clinton
20:23
this is a really great photograph that
20:26
shows
20:27
in perfect detail
20:30
that activity in 1919 you can see the
20:34
name on the
20:35
barge here the Wollaston and these two
20:39
were dredging the harbor there are a
20:42
number of
20:44
aspects to this photograph that
20:47
helped to date it this is the William
20:50
Wyman
20:51
house on the edge of the harbor
20:54
this is the tower on
20:58
11 Wheeling Avenue which
21:01
came down in
#clintonavenue
#1919
#wheelingavenue
17
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
21:09
I believe around 1913
21:12
so we know that
21:15
this was taller this used to be taller
21:20
in its day um this house number four
21:24
Wheeling Avenue
21:25
burned to the ground I’d have to look up
21:28
the actual
21:29
year that that happened number one
21:31
Wheeling Avenue
21:34
this is 20 Tim Nye's Cartway
21:38
16 Tim Nye's Cartway those
21:41
are the houses in which I grew up as a
21:43
boy
21:46
and this is the
21:50
back end of 151 Clinton Avenue which
21:54
sits on the
21:54
edge of Tim Nye’s Cartway and this
21:58
is the house on the at the foot of
22:00
Sheridan Avenue
22:01
on Clinton Avenue on the corner of
22:04
Clinton
22:05
and Sheridan and you can see how all of
22:08
this
22:08
land was vacant at that
22:12
time so when the family who lived
22:15
in our family homes
#timnyecartway
#sheridanavenue
18
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
22:18
was here in 19
22:22
up until 1925 they had
22:26
a beautiful uninterrupted view of the
22:29
harbor this
22:32
house here
22:39
is
22:45
um I can't think of the family's name
22:48
but this is also gone
22:50
and has been replaced by
22:53
a new house if I think of it I’ll
22:56
mention it
22:57
later postcards were
23:00
also made from
23:03
pictures from photographs that you could
23:06
mail into a company and they'll return
23:10
back to you
23:11
a set of 10 or 20.
23:15
this happens to have been a photograph
23:19
taken by a member of the Lowry family
23:22
Mrs. Lowry was Bill Wyman's mother
23:25
and this house front and center is
23:29
43 Harrisburg it's now been moved right
23:32
up to the water
23:34
this is the Tim Nye Cartway house that
23:38
my family moved to in 1967.
23:46
this is number one Wheeling Avenue on
19
#lowry
#harrisburgavenue
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
23:50
the corner of Girard
#girardavenue
23:52
this is the old Lowry house with the
23:55
tower
23:56
this uh house is number four Wheeling
23:59
Avenue that burned
24:00
to the ground and it's gone you can
24:03
still see some
24:05
you can still see some concrete
24:07
foundation
24:08
markers there unless they've been
24:11
removed recently
24:13
and this is one of the
24:17
uh beetle shaped homes that
24:20
was knocked off its foundation by the
24:24
hurricane in 1938 so that
24:27
is now gone and it's a private private
24:29
community beach
24:32
here are the two homes that were knocked
24:34
off their foundation
24:36
they're both uh they're both gone they
24:39
must have been beautiful
24:41
beautiful homes right on the beach again
24:46
this is a photograph that was turned
24:47
into a postcard
24:49
there are notes and stamps on the back
24:56
this is a similar view probably
20
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
25:00
around 1914 you can see
25:04
some familiar structures these are the
25:06
two
25:08
Wheeling Avenue homes that were
25:11
destroyed
25:12
and this is the Weinberg
25:16
house on Girard Avenue
25:19
um brand spanking new I would say
25:23
the uh the wood looks still looks bright
25:25
and clean
25:27
it hasn't aged so this postcard is very
25:31
likely
25:32
1915 1914
25:36
and uh there's a nice wooden pier here
25:39
that
25:41
that is no longer there
25:45
same view um showing a better
25:49
perspective
25:50
on the houses on the at the end of
25:54
Harrisburg um this is the Drummond house
25:58
now
26:01
this is the Burns house again the homes
26:05
on Wheeling Avenue the two
26:07
I don't know why I want to call them
26:08
eyebrow houses but the two
26:11
beetle beetle houses on Wheeling Avenue
21
#drummond
#burns
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
26:15
and the Weinberg home
26:20
it's a beautiful beach my father loved
26:22
this beach
26:24
he used to this is the uh now
26:27
this is now the the neighborhood
26:32
beach where this house used to be and my
26:34
father would sit there and
26:36
say to me where he said to me one day
26:40
how could you believe that God doesn't
26:42
exist when
26:43
he created such beauty as this beach
26:48
he was he was enraptured
26:53
this is a fascinating shot it took me a
26:56
while
26:57
to stare at this photograph
27:00
to understand what exactly I was looking
27:03
at
27:05
but it clearly says Deacon's Pond Harbor
27:08
the fleet at anchor Falmouth Heights
27:11
Mass so here's the harbor um
27:14
it has access to the ocean but
27:17
it doesn't really look like this is
27:20
where
27:20
Falmouth Heights should be and it took
27:24
me
Variant from the Hunt collection:
Hunt_Heights_Har_314
22
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
27:25
a little while to determine that the
27:27
publisher had reversed the shot
27:30
so when we turn this around
27:34
you will see this makes sense
27:37
here are the two beetle houses on the
27:41
end of Wheeling Avenue
27:42
here is the Wyman house the jetty at the
27:46
end of the harbor
27:47
here's the where the Clam Shack is
27:51
at the tail end of Clinton Avenue
27:55
and um this is the
27:58
house that I’m trying to remember the
28:00
name of
28:02
and it will come to me
28:06
this house I don't recognize but
28:09
uh one of you may or Jill might be able
28:12
to help us out
28:13
a house with two little outbuildings
28:17
a little further down on Scranton
28:21
so I wouldn't be as familiar with it but
28:24
I’m sure
28:26
I’m sure we'll get it identified and in
28:29
in the uh
28:31
in this shot you can see the same house
28:34
with the two out buildings
28:36
somewhere down along Scranton Avenue
#scrantonavenue
23
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
28:40
um if you find out
28:44
let me know I’d like to know who that is
28:47
I skipped past this one but I do want to
28:51
point out that this is Waterside
28:54
at the end of Shore Street at the beach
28:58
where you turn that 90 degree turn
29:03
along the public beach there I don't
29:06
quite
29:07
recognize these homes but
29:10
with a little further analysis I’m sure
29:12
we could figure them out
29:15
and this home here is across
Hunt_Village_Bldg_068 & 69
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0417
29:19
Shore Street on the other side and it
29:21
belonged at the time
29:23
to an old Navy man named Richard Olney
29:27
there's probably quite a bit written
29:29
about him
29:31
that you can look up at the library
29:35
it's a nice shot colorized obviously
29:43
I love this shot it must have been taken
29:46
right after the harbor was dredged
29:47
because these two jetties look brand new
29:50
they still look like piles of rock
29:52
and uh the beach is still kind of taking
24
#richardolney
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
29:56
the contour
29:57
of where the old spit of land used to be
30:02
this is all fill very clearly all
30:05
fill um
30:08
this house someone
30:12
can identify for us on Falmouth Heights
30:16
I don't recognize it but I’m sure it's
30:18
been gone for a very long time
30:20
and just out of frame here would be the
30:25
Butler house our our point of reference
30:29
on on Falmouth Heights
30:32
oh and it even says new harbor so that's
30:35
a brand spanking new
30:37
photograph 1919 in 1919
30:44
um this
30:47
is a photograph not a postcard but a
30:51
photograph
30:52
that a neighbor sent to me taken from an
30:56
airplane
30:57
you can see Falmouth Harbor
31:02
Clinton Ave Clinton Avenue has been cut
31:05
so this is uh post 19
31:09
19 1920 maybe and you can see Clinton
31:13
Avenue here
31:15
uh this house on what is now Settlers
31:18
Path
#settlerspath
25
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
31:20
is brand new so I’m guessing 1920s for
31:25
sure
31:27
and this is the little inlet
31:30
at the mouth of Falmouth Harbor I
31:35
blew it up a little to get a better view
31:38
but obviously the plane was shaking so
31:41
whoever took the photograph
31:42
had to contend with a little vibration
31:48
you can see the columnated building here
31:52
which I forget what that
31:55
was but we'll be able to identify that
32:06
this is Harrisburg this
32:09
is Timothy Nye’s Cartway
32:12
Clinton Avenue this house
32:16
um uh Vivian Center lived in for years
32:20
and years and years and I interviewed
32:22
her
32:22
for my book as I did
32:26
um many of these residents
32:30
and you can see the Butler house right
32:33
here
32:35
and the Tower Hotel
32:39
it's too bad it's really too bad that
32:41
this wasn't clear
32:42
because it's just an amazing old shot
32:44
that you just wouldn't see
26
#viviancenter
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
32:46
otherwise
32:51
this photograph um was taken about 1920
32:55
by Theodore
32:57
Gerloff the father of Miss Anna Gerloff
32:59
who was quite
33:00
elderly when I uh knew her
33:04
in the late 1900s
33:09
but it was probably taken um right after
33:12
this house was built
33:14
on Harrisburg Lane
33:17
you can see the roof line of the
33:21
two beetle-shaped houses that were blown
33:24
down in 1938
33:27
you can see the tower here on the Lowry
33:30
house has been
33:31
brought down in height
33:38
this is one of my favorites again um
33:42
1920 these two big sloops here you can
33:45
see a couple of old
33:48
Model T's that were still hanging around
33:51
and this house which is the big
33:55
yellow mansion that belonged to
33:58
to [Dr. K Leland] for many years
34:03
I believe that went up in 1920
34:09
so
#gerloff
Variant from the Hunt collection:
Hunt_Village_Har_111
Sp. unknown. May be “Kay” for Dr.
Katherine Leland.
27
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
34:12
let's see I’ve got my I believe that one
34:16
up in 1920 so we can date
34:20
we can date the postcard
34:23
if it didn't have a postmark on the back
34:26
to about that period
34:36
and this is a similar shot this was one
34:38
where
34:39
um you know I mentioned that all aspects
34:43
of the postcard are
34:44
are fascinating and this one was
34:48
kind of fun because it was from
34:51
one young sailor to a friend back home
34:56
and uh he's he
34:59
says he wrote dear Newbold
35:02
we're having a fine time up here and
35:05
wish you were near us
35:07
will you come to lunch when we get home
35:10
Bayard Kane Fox posted 1935
35:16
and addressed to Master
35:20
Newbold Black
35:23
two school school chums keeping in touch
35:26
with one another
35:32
and um I wanted to show this
35:36
circa 1952 aerial shot
35:39
of Falmouth Harbor
35:43
this is the Butler house this is the
28
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
35:47
Yacht Club the Tides Motel
#tidesmotel
35:50
Belvidere Plain pretty much encompasses
35:54
this entire
35:55
flat land uh
35:58
and you can see even even by 1952
36:02
standards
36:03
quite a lot was not yet developed
36:05
there's a lot
36:06
of open land and in
36:10
in the early days in the 1800s
36:14
people would buy lots along
36:17
Clinton Avenue that stretched in long
36:20
rectangles
36:21
all the way back to Main Street so a lot
36:24
of these lots if you follow their
36:26
history they go back
36:29
from Clinton Avenue to
36:33
Main Street and the Belvidere Plain
36:38
as we saw from the early development map
36:41
probably stopped at King at
#kingstreet
36:45
Queen Street and everything
#queenstreet
36:48
beyond would fall under the
36:52
classification of Falmouth Center
36:58
this is a closer view you can start to
37:00
see some of the houses
37:02
that are familiar in
29
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
37:06
on Belvidere Plain this is the Robertson
37:08
house
37:11
this is the um
37:14
Regatta the Regatta
37:17
Hotel this is the Regatta restaurant
37:24
it's a nice clear shot I’m not sure
37:26
where I got it I probably bought it on
37:27
eBay
37:30
and then that this is a close-up Clinton
37:33
Avenue
37:34
this is Sheridan Avenue
37:38
this is the Wyman house
37:49
and then I wanted to uh just add in this
37:52
um
37:53
later view probably 1950ish 1945
37:57
maybe shows the Butler house um
38:01
the the uh
38:05
oh the old sailor what is this name
38:07
begins with the letter g
38:10
Gallagher Gallagher used to live in this
38:12
house next to the Yacht Club
38:14
and the um
38:18
Tower House Hotel
38:24
so in 2003
38:28
I believe I published
38:32
the stories of the various families
#robertson
#regatta
30
#gallagher
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
38:35
who lived on Belvidere Plain
38:38
and I included photographs and chapters
38:41
on each of their houses
38:43
and I did research on a lot of the
38:48
titles land titles the deeds that passed
38:53
and put it all together into uh
38:56
into book form published it
39:02
I was very uh very happy to get it
39:05
in print because I had talked to a good
39:09
many neighbors and had scraps of paper
39:13
you know from my various interviews
39:17
with them it really was a fascinating
39:19
hobby I started when I was
39:22
probably 13 or 14
39:26
and I loved just loved hearing
39:29
stories of the history of the
39:32
neighborhood
39:36
oh and I want to show you this postcard
39:38
because the cover of my book
39:40
see these green shutters and red roof
39:43
uh comes from this postcard
Variants from the Hunt & Gunning
collections:
Gunning_Village_Har_0172
Hunt_Village_Bch_079
39:47
so obviously I oh and you know I think
39:51
the back cover
39:52
this extends to the back cover this
31
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
39:54
would be the spine
39:56
and this is the front cover of the book
39:59
this is a
39:59
this is another one of my favorite
40:02
postcards
40:05
um this book is
40:08
out of print there are no there are no
40:11
more copies although you can
40:16
read it at the Falmouth Public Library
40:18
they have they have a copy
40:21
but I I expanded it
40:25
and re-published it
40:29
in 2018
40:33
with this cover
40:36
um no slip cover
40:39
just a hard cover book and called it The
40:43
Belvidere Plain
40:44
Revisited it's approximately
40:48
twice the number of pages
40:51
quite a few more photographs and a
40:53
number of new stories
40:55
from people who um
40:58
who let me know that I forgot about them
41:02
in the first
41:04
in the first printing so we got him in
41:08
to this one and I think that's
32
#thebelvidereplainrevisited
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
41:11
it ah here's the
41:14
author as a young man 1967.
41:20
um when we first when my family first
41:24
arrived
41:26
in Falmouth
41:35
[Music]
#1967
33
�
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Transcript of Gus Widmayer's Zoom Presentation on the Belvidere Plain
1870
1872
1910
1919
1926
1938
1952
1967
author talk
Belvidere Plain
Burns
Butler
Clinton Avenue
Deacon's Pond
Drummond
Falmouth Harbor
Falmouth Heights
Falmouth Yacht Club
Gallagher
Gerloff
Girard Avenue
Gus Widmayer
Harrisburg Avenue
hurricane
king street
lowry
mortimer adler
Old Stone Dock
Postcards from Falmouth
queen street
regatta
richard olney
robertson
scranton avenue
settlers path
sheridan avenue
Shore Street
spinnaker lane
the belvidere plain revisited
tides motel
tim nye cartway
tower house hotel
transcript
vineyard sound
vivian center
waterside
weinberg
wheeling avenue
wyman