1 10 3 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/32209/archive/files/94d2d9600a0b647cc1e1f6079ffc8c56.pdf?Expires=1777507200&Signature=dWkq8rtcy%7E8zy8KgHb8htgsyYRQuaeTeBc6jE2-XjJL8Jj%7EZoO4TCv4fRDHw%7EIiAUNHmw5OcvIUGOY-VOKkGQRaAdOEX460mLb0BT%7Ezy9Tt9xU8PPQjApfz710gGVf9XfeS5-NzEFhZB-Kab11ZzZ0zFumjn%7EXIWQJIq%7EvVyuAnUlR-hF1hLH5ElE0qq00gKYEei4mKcLtg6UXyykFtcdSyHhmJ7M27Dcrz-uXBjWI9cA%7EjbXr8LIMRYLsfwCAW1JUTbax3XAfigA2TqsgDqznsrX0%7ErguzUT15okrHt5cylNedCNZAJU8t2kP6n4oohd9KaBslc0VFPcwLxF2RhyA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 05f6315fa01e23069ba3e6aaca7e150b PDF Text Text Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript Recorded: August 19, 2021 Oral Historian: Mark Schmidt Interviewer: Troy Clarkson Topic: Falmouth Historical Society Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital Commonwealth online collection. 00:00 [Music] 00:45 Mark welcome thank you for having me so 00:47 we have the opportunity the honor really 00:50 today of discussing uh what has become 00:52 an entire campus of the Falmouth Museums #falmouthhistoricalsociety #falmouthmuseumsonthegreen 00:55 On the Green but your postcard is of um 00:59 an an old 01:00 historic home 01:02 that has had many names uh and the 01:05 beautiful gardens which have a rich 01:08 history so just tell us a little bit 01:10 about uh those postcards but also the 01:13 history of the Falmouth Museums On the 01:16 Green sure absolutely it's a pleasure to 01:17 be here today and thank you for having 01:19 me um the Falmouth Historical Society 01:23 and later the Museums On the Green 01:25 they're kind of one in the same 01:27 um 1 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 01:28 was founded in 1900 and there's two kind 01:30 of rather colorful individuals one named 01:33 Henry Herbert Smythe who was the rector #henryherbertsmythe 01:35 of Saint Barnabas uh church #saintbarnabaschurch Gunning_Village_Bldg_0316 through 0343 01:38 in Falmouth and he had 01:40 a friend named Robinson Crocker Bodfish 01:44 and 01:44 these two started up what they called 01:46 the Falmouth Historical Society in 1900 #1900 01:49 and later incorporated it in 1904. #1904 01:52 they started it because they wanted to 01:54 capture the stories of whaling families 01:57 while they were still relevant you know 01:59 and still around to um to to capture 02:02 them 02:03 so 02:04 um Smythe became the first president 02:06 Bodfish became the treasurer 02:08 they had their meetings 02:10 at the old town hall as well as the 02:13 library 02:16 they incorporated in 1904 02:20 later in 1932 one of the postcards that 02:23 you've got there is a house that was 02:25 owned by a woman named Julia Wood and it #robinsonbodfish Gunning_Village_Bldg_0451 through 454 2 #juliawood �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 02:27 was originally built in 1790 by a #1790 02:30 gentleman named Dr. Francis Wicks #franciswicks 02:34 Wicks was a leader in smallpox 02:37 research he was also 02:39 a privateer during the Revolutionary War 02:42 um the house was essentially the 02:46 most stately mansion on the town green #americanrevolution #falmouthvillagegreen Gunning_Village_Sts_0053 through 0078 02:48 at the time and it was bequeathed to the 02:52 Historical Society in 1932 by a woman 02:54 named Julia Wood now interestingly with 02:57 the house it also came with a ten 02:58 thousand dollar mortgage which if you 03:00 think about it we're at the height of 03:02 the Depression so they you know it was 03:04 great to get the building but they it 03:05 took them a while to get out of debt 03:07 until 1942 but that's where they then 03:10 had their meetings and um 03:13 so for a 03:16 good deal of time it was referred to as 03:18 the Julia Wood house or the Wood House 03:20 but 03:21 people got a little confused well of 03:22 course there's a Wood House what else is 03:24 it going to be made of 03:26 so it 3 #1932 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 03:27 then 03:28 in about 2005 the Historical Society 03:31 said let's start calling it the Dr. 03:33 Francis Wicks house 03:34 to kind of delineate where it is 03:38 also in that not included in the 03:39 postcards but next to it was a house 03:42 that Julia Wood had also owned at one 03:44 time called the 03:45 the Conant House which was built in 1730 03:48 and then the campus now entails the two 03:51 houses 03:52 a rebuilt barn 03:54 called the Hallett Barn that was 03:56 on the grounds that had had been 03:59 infested with powder post beetles the uh 04:02 the Historical Society decided to tear 04:04 it down rebuild it 04:06 and 04:08 that's what's now used as the visitor 04:09 center on the campus and in 2012 the 04:12 Historical Society build a cultural 04:14 center so if you come to the grounds now 04:16 at 55 and 65 Palmer Avenue 04:18 that's entails the Museums On the Green 04:21 the name Museums On the Green 04:23 came into the lexicon right around 2000 #wickshouse #conanthouse #1730 #hallettbarn #2012 #palmeravenue 4 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 04:27 because basically when you heard the 04:28 words Historical Society it gave the 04:30 inference that it was a bunch of 04:32 blue-haired old ladies dust-covered 04:34 stuff it sounded rather non-dynamic 04:37 the Museums On the Green 04:39 said 04:40 what we do where we are and 04:43 kind of gives a better location for that 04:45 so that's a little backdrop to the 04:47 Historical Society 04:49 and the building which they've they've 04:51 had since 1932 and that's really the the 04:54 Wicks House the Julia Wood House 04:57 has really been the center of what has 05:00 happened um with the Historical Society 05:03 since the 30s um the first tours were 05:06 given I believe in 1938 it cost 15 cents 05:10 um the first 05:12 school tours were given to fourth 05:14 graders starting in 1950 05:16 um and another postcard that you've got 05:18 in there as well and jumping a little 05:20 bit ahead is also the gardens the the 05:22 the Historical Society started working 05:25 with the um 05:27 Falmouth Garden Club #1938 #falmouthgardenclub 5 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 05:28 in the late 30s early 40s 05:31 and the there are two separate gardens 05:34 that's next to 05:36 the Wicks House in between the Wicks 05:38 House and the Conant House 05:40 one is called um 05:42 uh 05:43 Memorial Park which is closer to #memorialpark 05:46 Katharine Lee Bates Road #katharineleebatesroad 05:48 and the other one is called the Colonial #colonialgardens 05:49 Gardens which has some original cuttings 05:51 from way back when and and from the 05:53 ground so it's a 05:55 it's really been 05:57 a snapshot of Falmouth's past being on 06:00 his on the grounds of 55 and 65 Palmer 06:03 Avenue where the Museums On the Green 06:04 line is now located 06:06 as to 06:07 why they're called what they're called 06:08 and uh what's gone into that so 06:11 the um the Wicks House has been the 06:14 center of our universe for you know 06:17 better part of 06:18 nearly 100 years 06:20 and 06:22 it's been something that the Historical Hunt_Village_Bldg_029 & Gunning_Village_Bldg_0455 6 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 06:23 Society has maintained it's gone through 06:25 a couple of iterations 06:27 among the things that are in the Wicks 06:30 House is some 06:32 18th century French wallpaper that was 06:34 originally brought back 06:37 by a whaling captain 06:39 in 1802 and set up in a different house 06:42 but brought over to the Wicks House in 06:44 the 1950s so it's not original to the 06:47 House but it's one of the own the Wicks 06:49 House is now one of the only three 06:50 buildings in the united states that 06:52 actually has 18th century French 06:54 wallpaper the other two are 06:57 located in Washington, D.C and in Boston 07:00 um uh it's also 07:03 walls have been removed um it used to be 07:06 uh 07:08 multiple walls and what's now the dining 07:10 room but the the uh 07:13 the Board at the time said let's try to 07:14 make a little more stately so they took 07:16 out different walls so it's a much 07:18 larger dining room 07:20 so it's gone through different 07:21 iterations but it's definitely been 7 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 07:25 the absolute 07:27 apex of what the Historical Society has 07:30 wanted to do and show off since they 07:31 acquired in 1932. so they were they're 07:34 rightfully proud of it and they've the 07:36 boards over over the years have done a 07:38 good job of maintaining 07:40 um its elegance 07:44 and thank you for that wonderful and 07:45 detailed intro and so 07:47 over the decades 07:49 the campus has really become 07:53 a cultural center for the community 07:55 where people come and gather and not 07:58 only have the ability to 08:01 see the artifacts that are on site in 08:03 the Wood slash Wicks house 08:06 but then 08:07 hear a living history of the town 08:10 through the 08:11 visitor center and the authors and the 08:13 speakers that you have there so it's 08:16 really grown from 08:18 a static display to a living 08:22 breathing example of our local history 08:25 and the people that have contributed to 08:26 it thank you for saying that that's 8 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 08:28 that's really our intention we we 08:30 realize that um we're right at the 08:32 beginning of uh the downtown area that 08:35 we we know that there are people who 08:37 uh come into town and want to learn more 08:40 about what's going on in Falmouth and we 08:42 try to provide that it's a bit of 08:45 education entertainment information 08:48 that we hope we can provide to people 08:50 through 08:52 guided tours of the Wicks House who are 08:53 walking towards the town through um 08:56 uh 08:58 lectures and talks 08:59 uh obviously through the through the 09:01 pandemic we've had to do things 09:02 virtually although the walking tours 09:04 remain in person and they've been very 09:05 popular with 09:07 because of the um 09:09 the pandemic we have to make sure that 09:11 people still wear masks when they go 09:13 into the Wicks House 09:15 because we don't want any docents any 09:16 volunteers any visitors to get sick but 09:18 then 09:20 but it's been 9 #pandemic �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 09:21 our way of kind of showing people how 09:23 the the town has changed how it's 09:26 progressed how things how things have 09:29 gone from 09:30 um 09:31 the Federal period in which the house 09:33 was built 09:34 through through whaling through 09:38 whaling captains and on through 09:42 tourism being the main 09:43 industry of the town so it's our way of 09:46 trying to give a doff of the cap to that 09:48 and inform people that this is what 09:50 happened 09:51 through the years 09:52 tell us a little bit about the the 09:54 whaling history and Falmouth it's not 09:57 something that's often discussed but in 09:58 the day was an important economic driver 10:02 for the community people forget that 10:03 that um that for about a 30-year period 10:06 this really was the business of Falmouth 10:09 and uh so from 1920 to 1820 1850 10:14 um Falmouth was 10:16 a major whaling port it was not 10:19 Nantucket it was not 10:21 New Bedford #whaling 10 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 10:22 but 10:23 arguably it was third and 10:26 there there were famous whaling captains 10:27 that went all throughout the world 10:30 if you go up and down Locust Street 10:31 there are whaling um captain's homes in 10:34 fact 10:35 um 10:36 the 10:37 the aforementioned Wicks slash Wood House 10:40 was actually a whaling captain's house 10:41 for the better part of 86 years so it's 10:44 um 10:46 as much as we focus on Wicks 10:50 and end with Julia Wood in between were 10:52 some significant whaling families that 10:55 lived in that house as well as other 10:57 houses in the town and uh until oil is 11:01 discovered in Pennsylvania 11:03 um that was really 11:05 whale oil was really the driving force 11:07 for Falmouth's uh economy for a good 30 11:11 years 11:13 so as you've noted uh in 11:16 one of the portions of the museum uh 11:18 there are 11:20 displays of #locuststreet 11 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 11:22 clothing and 11:24 different tools and artifacts from 11:26 Falmouth's history highlight a couple of 11:29 maybe your favorites or the the more 11:31 interesting items you have on display 11:34 well if you would walk into 11:37 the Wicks House 11:38 itself we want to give a guided tour so 11:41 you can go through everything and try to 11:43 see 11:44 uh furniture from the you know from the 11:47 18th and 19th centuries 11:49 china 11:51 paintings and portraits of of some 11:54 major luminaries from the town 11:56 um 11:57 if you go into 11:59 the Conant House right next to it you can 12:01 get a self-guided tour 12:04 of a timeline of Falmouth's past 12:06 I personally my favorite artifact in in 12:10 the whole collection is a 1939 jukebox 12:14 that was in the Falmouth Grange that 12:16 still plays 12:18 one of our 12:20 one of our members a long time had it in 12:22 his barn he passed away his widow asked 12 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 12:24 would we like it I 12:26 couldn't say yes fast enough 12:28 it took a couple years to get restored 12:31 but it plays beautifully and I think 12:33 it's 12:34 amazing to watch people of any age 12:37 understand appreciate and really 12:40 uh just glow when it plays so so you see 12:44 different things all throughout um 12:47 Falmouth's past we've got something from 12:49 the wreck of the Andrea Doria you know that uh 12:53 there are things that go back um 12:54 obviously there's a painting of the HMS 12:56 Nimrod which attacked 12:58 Falmouth in 1814 13:00 that you can 13:01 see an artist's rendition of that so 13:04 there's so many things we literally have 13:06 over a hundred thousand artifacts in our 13:08 collection much of it's paper and books 13:10 and 13:11 ship’s logs 13:12 but 13:14 we feel that we're the repository of 13:15 Falmouth's past and we try to do 13:19 a good job of protecting that past 13:23 in climate controlled environment and #andreadoria #hmsnimrod #1814 #warof1812 13 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 13:25 making sure that what we have 13:28 is 13:29 protected and ultimately offered for the 13:31 public to see 13:33 one of the uh I think 13:36 critical roles that the Historical 13:38 Society uh and 13:40 and your leadership play is 13:44 creating 13:45 uh 13:47 capturing today's 13:49 history so that a generation or three 13:51 generations from now when people visit 13:54 the Museums On the Green they'll be able 13:56 to get a sense of what it was like to 13:58 live today 14:00 and 14:01 uh this is conjecture on my part but I 14:03 would venture to say that when people 14:05 from future generations look back on 14:06 this era in Falmouth uh from an artistic 14:09 standpoint because you mentioned 14:11 paintings that they will look back on 14:13 Karen Rinaldo as one of the the leading 14:16 artistic voices of our time uh and you 14:20 have on display 14:22 one of her most prominent paintings tell 14 #karenrinaldo �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 14:24 us a little bit about that yeah I mean 14:26 um 14:28 Karen painted uh something in 1995 14:31 called The First Thanksgiving 1621 and 14:33 she actually did it for 14:36 a church group out of Wisconsin they are 14:38 the actual owners of it 14:40 and it's the one painting 14:43 that 14:43 has all of 51 surviving members of the 14:46 Mayflower the 91 Wampanoag who came to 14:50 visit them 14:51 who were in attendance at the first the 14:53 first Thanksgiving in 1621 and she did 14:56 copious research on this and it's 14:59 it's the one 15:00 obviously there was nobody there with a 15:01 Polaroid or with it with an iPhone but 15:04 it's the one painting that's got all of 15:06 them there and we have it till the end 15:08 of the year 15:09 um 15:10 then our loan agreement I don't know 15:12 where it's going to go after that but 15:13 it's been a real honor to have that and 15:16 uh 15:17 um #1995 15 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 15:18 so that's one of the things we have and 15:19 I’m really glad to mention that and 15:22 and thank you for saying two about the 15:23 future generations our research 15:25 librarian Meg Costello is second to none 15:28 and she does a great job of informing 15:30 people 15:31 of what has happened in days gone by and 15:34 and we we try to make sure that we tell 15:36 little interesting stories about 15:38 uh snippets of Falmouth's past we also 15:41 have tried to make it a point the 15:42 pandemic has kind of put 15:44 a little crimp on this and so we're 15:46 going to try to pick it up when things 15:47 get a little bit back to normal 15:50 as you mentioned one of the things that 15:51 we want to be able to do is to 15:54 acquire stories have oral histories of 15:57 people 15:59 from things that are not so in the 16:01 distant past that aren't necessarily 16:02 18th and 19th centuries that 16:07 if you stop and think about it and 16:09 not to make everyone feel old but uh 16:12 you know if you're in high school right 16:13 now you weren't alive at 9/11. you know 16 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 16:16 that that so that's 16:17 that's a story to you you weren't there 16:20 but we know that there's people in town 16:22 that might have attended Ted Williams’ 16:24 last game or their they watched Bobby 16:26 Orr play they saw the Beatles in at 16:28 Boston Garden or um 16:31 they made a they might have been living 16:33 in Boston during bussing or they were 16:34 working in Washington during Watergate 16:37 it's those kind of stories that we'd 16:39 like to accumulate while people 16:41 are still around to talk about them 16:43 because 16:45 there are people that is 16:48 maybe not ancient history but it's 16:50 certainly history so it's um 16:52 it's one of the things that we want to 16:53 be able to focus on it's not just about 16:57 um 16:59 yesteryear it's about 17:01 days that haven't gone that aren't all 17:04 that far in the rearview mirror but 17:05 people are still lucid and and and 17:08 can tell stories that firsthand 17:10 experiences 17:12 that are really 17 #watergate �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 17:14 important 17:15 to catalog and and to have in the 17:17 database so that's 17:19 one of our real uh points of emphasis 17:22 that 17:23 we really hope to be able to pick up on 17:25 when we can get back to some air fingers 17:27 normalcy and uh in this world so that's 17:30 I’m thank you for bringing that up well 17:32 it I think it it's an important 17:35 perspective because from the beginning 17:36 of time 17:38 up until yesterday 17:40 right that entire span is our collective 17:42 history exactly and so to capture the 17:44 more recent history is important so that 17:48 people in the future look back on these 17:50 times it's funny you mentioned Watergate 17:52 and 17:53 as I’m sure you know right here in 17:54 Falmouth we have 17:57 the gentleman who actually drafted the 17:59 articles of impeachment against 18:00 President Nixon lives here in Falmouth 18:03 uh I actually did not know that so 18:04 there's a bit of our history that that 18:06 we can share in this interview and uh #impeachment 18 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 18:08 and uh 18:10 he's actually a dear friend and a 18:12 volunteer at the Carousel of Light so uh 18:15 but I think that's the ongoing value 18:18 because I you raise an important point 18:20 Mark people when they think of history 18:22 they think of ancient history right yeah 18:24 and 18:25 to people of a certain age uh you know 18:28 that the 70s the 80s the 90s were part 18:32 of our lives but 18:34 to young people who were born after the 18:35 turn of the century that's 18:37 ancient history and so to capture 18:40 that's why these oral histories are so 18:42 important because it allows us to just 18:44 have a conversation about 18:46 our community and what 18:49 uh 18:49 all of that collective history has led 18:51 us to the to be the community we are 18:53 today I’m into that I mean it we we tend 18:56 to think that if it happened in our 18:58 lifetime it's quote not cool or just 19:00 it's not that important well we've gone 19:02 through some pretty 19:04 major things in our lifetime you know 19 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 19:05 that uh 19:07 um you know we just mentioned 9/11 which 19:09 is you know epic but you know 19:11 that 19:12 I’m sure that there were people in the 19:14 town that were at Woodstock you know 19:16 that that that uh or that protested 19:19 against the war or served in Vietnam or 19:21 served in Afghanistan or 19:23 um may not have anything to do with the 19:25 military but that they they were 19:28 they were at Fenway Park when the Red 19:30 Sox won you know that 19:32 you know look as I’m a lifelong Chicago 19:34 Cubs fan I finally got to live long 19:36 enough to see the Cubs win a World 19:37 Series I didn't think that was going to 19:38 happen 19:40 but it's those kind of memories it's 19:42 those kind of 19:44 pass-downs that we want to be able to 19:46 capture record and set and savor 19:50 for 19:52 current grade school high school kids 19:54 and their kids you know that uh what was 19:56 it like when 19:57 you know people forget that we're going #redsox #chicagocubs #worldseries 20 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 19:59 through this golden era of 20:01 the Patriots 20:03 what was it like when Vinatieri’s kick 20:05 went through and you won it for the 20:06 first time 20:07 wow this is awesome that the that you 20:10 finally got to see the Bruins win the 20:11 Stanley Cup 20:13 you know it's those kind of things that 20:16 uh while they're fresh in your mind you 20:18 want to be able to um to to detail and 20:21 to record and say this is what it was 20:24 like 20:25 or how you felt when the ball went 20:26 through Buckner’s legs 20:28 so as a Cubs fan I’m sure that was not 20:30 as crushing to you as it was to me I uh 20:34 look I I I have no love for the Mets 20:38 so for those watching who weren't alive 20:40 in 1986 uh that was when the Red Sox 20:43 lost game six of the World Series to the 20:44 New York Mets for me it's 1984 watching 20:47 the ball go through William Durham’s 20:48 legs but yeah 20:50 but all of that 20:52 it is relevant to our discussion because 20:53 it's part of our local history and so 21 #1986 #1984 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 20:56 it's great to have you to be able to to 20:58 share that with us and to catalog it for 21:00 future generations 21:03 what else would you like to share with 21:04 us 21:05 speak to a future generation of 21:07 Falmouthites and and talk to them about 21:09 what it's like to be in Falmouth in 2021 21:11 well I think it's been it's been really 21:13 interesting watching the world go by and 21:16 how people have 21:18 really had to 21:20 retrench 21:21 and 21:25 re-prioritize things because of the 21:27 pandemic I mean 21:28 as a history major as somebody who used 21:30 to teach history or something who's paid 21:32 to to educate people in history it's 21:35 it obviously hits me at my core 21:37 when watching history getting 21:40 devalued and de-emphasized in school 21:43 curriculum that that that cuts and it 21:45 hits me where I live 21:47 so I want people to understand 21:49 what it is that we went through and why 21:51 history is important and that's why we 22 #2021 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 21:53 do as many of the 21:56 the talks as we do and and doing them 21:58 virtually 22:00 um 22:01 I can ask just about anyone from just 22:03 about anywhere to talk about just about 22:05 anything historically and the worst 22:07 thing they can say is no that if they're 22:09 doing it from their house 22:11 that if Troy Clarkson is in Seattle and 22:14 he's got a book about 22:17 fill-in-the-blank historical topic 22:20 I can ask you to talk about it and we 22:22 can we can discuss things that might be 22:26 of 22:28 current interest 22:30 be it what's going on in in the world of 22:33 politically uh socially economically 22:36 and put it into some kind of a 22:38 historical context we don't have to get 22:39 into it into any kind of 22:42 take political positions but but we can 22:44 sit there and kind of educate about 22:47 why this is relevant and germane 22:50 so for me 22:53 I think that being in Falmouth in 2021 22:57 and 23 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 22:58 what's been really gratifying for me and 23:01 we're at the studios of FCTV for 23:04 right now 23:05 is knowing that 23:07 people like Debbie Rogers at FCTV have 23:10 been there 23:11 all along to make sure other non-profits 23:13 are still doing okay that 23:16 um 23:17 that we're making sure that 23:20 restaurants are still surviving and that 23:23 the the library is reopening to people 23:25 and 23:26 um that it's been difficult 23:29 to watch businesses that had been 23:32 thriving prior to all of this 23:35 not 23:36 or maybe go under it's it's been it's 23:39 been heartbreaking and um 23:41 I’m 23:42 I’m very gratified for the fact that 23:45 we've been able to endure this we've had 23:48 some 23:49 great supporters great members great 23:51 donors 23:52 who have made sure that we didn't 23:55 suffer as much as we could have 24 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 23:58 but there's other businesses that can't 24:00 necessarily say that so I 24:03 I 24:05 the pandemic has taught us lessons in 24:07 business as to what we can do and 24:09 prioritize and maybe do a little bit 24:11 better 24:13 but I don't wish this on anyone you know 24:15 that this is 24:16 this 24:17 I can think of other ways to have fun 24:19 and this this has not been one of them 24:21 but I’m I’m very uh gratified for those 24:24 who have 24:25 banded together and 24:28 tried to weather the storm you know that 24:30 we are going to be doing something 24:31 called the One Falmouth project there's 24:33 14 non-profits 24:35 that are going to do a a televised event 24:38 we hope in the first quarter of 2022 24:40 to try to show that we're still around 24:42 and we still need support we're still 24:44 going to be here and we and we want this 24:45 to be the first of many iterations of 24:47 that 24:49 but #onefalmouth #2022 25 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 24:49 that's been a real 24:52 um gratifying takeaway for me is that 24:54 there's been 24:56 we've been able to stand together and 24:58 you know it you know it's that uh famous 25:00 historic line about from uh from the 25:03 Revolutionary War if we don't hang 25:04 together all hang separately and uh I 25:06 think that we've we've hung together 25:09 that's a great way to wrap it up we are 25:11 indeed one Falmouth and thank you for 25:13 spending a little time with us here to 25:15 be able to capture 25:17 Some of Falmouth's history and and what 25:19 it means uh to all of us moving forward 25:22 so Mark Schmidt thank you very much and 25:23 uh it's been great visiting with you 25:25 thank you for having me it's been a real 25:26 pleasure and honor 26 � 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 Postcards from Falmouth Oral Histories Description An account of the resource A collection of transcribed oral history interviews from the Postcards from Falmouth project, 2020-23. Postcards from Falmouth is a local history project made possible by a Library Services Technology Act grant administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Falmouth Public Library Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Falmouth Public Library 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 Schmidt's Oral History on the Falmouth Historical Society Subject The topic of the resource Falmouth Historical Society Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Falmouth Public Library (Falmouth, Mass.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Video transcript Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Postcards from Falmouth Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Falmouth Public Library (Falmouth, Mass.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 19, 2021 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Mark Schmidt Troy Clarkson Falmouth Community Television Falmouth Public Library 1730 1790 1814 1900 1904 1932 1938 1984 1986 1995 2012 2021 2022 American Revolution Andrea Doria Boston Red Sox Chicago Cubs Colonial Gardens Conant House COVID-19 Falmouth Garden Club Falmouth Historical Society Falmouth Museums on the Green Falmouth Village Green Francis Wicks Hallett Barn Henry Herbert Smythe HMS Nimrod impeachment Julia Wood Karen Rinaldo Katharine Lee Bates Road Locust Street Mark Schmidt Memorial Park OneFalmouth oral history Palmer Avenue pandemic Postcards from Falmouth Robinson Bodfish Saint Barnabas Church transcript Troy Clarkson War of 1812 Watergate whaling Wicks House World Series https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/32209/archive/files/93030e08076b2f7422e36b1cf60f0c21.pdf?Expires=1777507200&Signature=mRF2VXppFViTu8tZ%7EtS8-SPUiQhjszM0XlaCsZz5TF5pUiCpXBKcLu-SeVNYVGb13R11UTMoh6fbRFstMZuRlynavDm%7EJzmQZMmx66V94IyKrDr0KdQl-EN5VV4Tm8p35-zqsq8WNjzKRJzISDuRzsI2EMxgmGn34BIxQf0sX7iGhMLcFzxhE8Sy54XfgXEtjJ26c-hQBHEpSEhBfPQp-lVqXWdA81qGMvt7YHJA3fpog-16rOh1Mn1g-kSnGOePBQMNov6P7v7dVS5fz0DhHVz7KY55bxGgfRf6L9jlI-jmlaxh8vQgNkc35wwrXLOpPWwzp-TCcLUlERHIlmeaVA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 6f3f55d8786adbd2d3d9a7177fa2cd29 PDF Text Text Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript Recorded: February 24, 2020 Oral Historian: Reverend Jonathan Drury Interviewer: Troy Clarkson Topic: First Congregational Church Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital Commonwealth online collection. 00:00 [Music] 00:44 so welcome 00:45 thank you and my first question to you 00:47 is I’d like to begin by 00:48 asking you to tell us your full name and 00:51 the postcard you'll be discussing and 00:52 you can certainly show it to us 00:54 my name is Jonathan Drury I’m the 24th 00:57 pastor of the First Congregational #firstcongregationalchurch Hunt_Village_Bldg_001 Hunt_Village_Sts_152 Gunning_Village_Sts_0073 Gunning_Village_Bldg_0346 through 0365 00:58 Church in Falmouth 00:59 uh this is the postcard that I’m going 01:01 to be discussing that's a photograph 01:03 of or a picture I don't know if it's a 01:05 photograph 01:06 um of the church that is taken from the 1 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 01:09 south side of the green #falmouthvillagegreen See above for postcard views of the First Congregational Church on the Green 01:12 and there's a number of other postcards 01:15 of this church 01:16 here's another example 01:21 it's a very prominent structure on the 01:24 green 01:24 probably the most prominent structure on 01:26 the green and so I I thought I’d talk a 01:28 little bit about the history of 01:30 the buildings that have supported the 01:32 Congregational Church over the years 01:34 the First Congregational Church in 01:36 Falmouth was established in 1708 01:39 and it was established at the same time 01:40 that the town of Falmouth was 01:42 established 01:43 so the congregation was an offshoot of 01:45 the West Parish in Barnstable 01:48 which claims to be the oldest 01:49 congregation on Cape Cod they were 01:51 established in 1614. 01:54 um so this is you know for for American 01:56 history this 01:57 predates our nation by easily 150 years #1708 #westparishofbarnstable #1614 2 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 02:01 so it's it's pretty remarkable 02:02 um 1708 a group of people decided that 02:05 they wanted to establish their own 02:07 congregation 02:08 and to do that they also had to 02:09 establish a meeting house where there 02:11 could be 02:13 some form of governance some some 02:15 structure of governance so 02:17 initially the the first meeting house 02:19 was built off of Mill Road in the old #millroad #oldburyingground Gunning_Village_Sts_0001 through 0016 Hunt_Village_Sts_075 through 178 02:21 burial ground 02:22 and it was likely built sometime between 02:24 1690 and 1700 02:27 that would have also been the seat of 02:29 governance for Falmouth at the time 02:31 and it was a very simple structure as 02:33 far as I know 02:34 had no paint had no heat no organ no 02:37 bell 02:38 um the Puritans were were 02:43 their approach to purity included 02:45 aesthetics and #puritan 3 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 02:47 they they didn't need much in terms of 02:49 artifice 02:52 later on there was another 02:55 meeting house built on that location 02:58 this was a 03:00 meeting house built in 1717 that was 03:03 actually 03:05 designed to look just like the meeting 03:07 house in 03:08 Barnstable so they they very much saw 03:10 themselves as an offshoot of that 03:12 congregation 03:13 and then in 1750 the first church 03:18 was moved to the from the old burial 03:21 ground 03:22 to the brand new green space that had 03:25 been established in Falmouth what we 03:26 think of now is the town green 03:28 the town green initially was actually 03:30 kind of the front lawn of the church 03:32 because the church was built on the 03:33 south end of of the green 03:36 in 1750 and at that time there were 03:40 roads but it was not divided the way it 03:42 is today um 03:43 there were you know dirt roads that were #1717 #1750 4 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 03:46 used for 03:47 horses and and buggies um but they were 03:50 not in the same 03:52 location that our current roads are in 03:54 the green was much larger and what's 03:55 also kind of interesting about the green 03:57 is that it has always been a green space 04:00 um 04:01 before it was established as the town 04:03 green it had been a green space that was 04:04 available for anybody to use 04:07 for their horses and so it's the 04:09 equivalent of the parking lot for for 04:11 downtown Falmouth 04:12 and remains a green space of course 04:15 today 04:16 um that's also where the the local 04:18 militia would have gathered 04:19 uh to do their training um both for the 04:22 Revolutionary War then later for the #americanrevolution 04:23 Civil War #americancivilwar 04:25 which is interesting so in 1750 the 04:28 church was built on the south end of the 04:29 green 04:30 and it remained there until 1796 when 04:33 the fourth meeting house was built and 5 #1796 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 04:36 at that time in 1796 04:39 a decision was made to outfit this new 04:41 meeting house with a bell 04:42 which brings me to a riddle the riddle 04:45 is 04:46 the living to the the living to the 04:49 church I call 04:51 and to the grave I summon all 04:54 what am I a bell 04:58 a church bell that's right that riddle 05:01 which is actually not a riddle it's just 05:03 a poem is engraved along the top of all 05:06 of Paul Revere's bells 05:08 so in 1796 the First Congregational 05:11 Church 05:11 uh commissioned a bell from Paul Revere 05:13 who was a bell maker in Boston at the 05:15 time 05:16 the bell that was purchased weighs 807 05:18 pounds and we have the original 05:20 receipt signed by by Paul Revere and 05:22 what's interesting about that receipt 05:24 is that along with having the price and 05:26 the weight of the bell 05:28 it indicates that the price was derived 05:31 by a specific cost per pound #churchbell #paulrevere 6 #boston �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 05:34 so almost like you were selling poultry 05:36 or something he sold his bells 05:38 42 cents per pound so 807 pounds 05:42 at 42 cents came out to just under 400 05:46 which would have been a small fortune in 05:47 1796. 05:49 so in 1796 that bell was put into the 05:52 steeple of the church 05:53 and has been ringing over Falmouth ever 05:56 since 05:57 which is quite remarkable 06:00 but the church was moved it was moved in 06:03 1858 06:05 the decision to move the church came as 06:07 a result of a very generous offer offer 06:09 from the Swift family 06:10 to give them a parcel of land the Swift 06:14 family was a very prominent 06:16 family in town they owned the first 06:18 mercantile store in Falmouth 06:20 they also owned the first bank in 06:22 Falmouth and they owned quite a bit of 06:24 land in Falmouth 06:25 um probably the equivalent of the Beebes in 06:28 that regard #1858 #swift 7 #beebe �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 06:29 they owned all of the land that exists 06:32 behind the church 06:33 and the parsonage which is directly next 06:34 door to the church extending 06:36 all the way back to Lakeview which is #lakeview 06:40 the neighborhood behind the Lawrence #lawrenceschool Gunning_Village_Bldg_0232 06:42 School so all of the Lawrence athletic 06:44 fields all of the Katharine Lee Bates 06:45 Road 06:46 all of the land behind the church all 06:47 belonged to the Swift family 06:49 and in 1858 they agreed to offer a 06:53 parcel of this land 06:54 to the to the congregation the 06:57 congregation decided to take advantage 06:59 of this offer and to move the church and 07:02 so depending on who you ask 07:04 the story is that they either rolled the 07:06 church on logs across the green 07:08 I think that's very unlikely the truth 07:11 is most of the trees would have been cut 07:12 down by that point 07:13 to build the ships in Woods Hole so 07:16 there's a widow's walk on top of the 07:18 parsonage next door #katharineleebatesroad #woodshole 8 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 07:19 and you would have easily been able to 07:21 see the ocean 07:23 from that widow's walk today you can't 07:25 see those you can see a lot of trees 07:27 but those trees didn't exist when in 07:30 1814 when that house was built 07:32 so they probably didn't roll the church 07:34 across the green 07:35 um some people say that they put it on a 07:38 sled 07:38 and they pulled it across um which is a 07:41 possibility though I think that the 07:43 train wouldn't have really accommodated 07:44 that 07:45 it was a big building and then other 07:47 folks said that they parceled the the 07:49 church 07:49 literally taking apart piece by piece 07:51 and then rebuilding it in 07:53 a new location whatever they did they 07:56 didn't do it well 07:57 because within a year they tore that 07:59 building down and they built the fifth 08:01 meeting house 08:01 I say that the truth is the claim has 08:03 always been that the congregation was 9 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 08:05 growing so quickly that they needed to 08:06 have a larger sanctuary 08:08 and needed to have a larger foundation 08:10 for the church 08:12 so we'll go with that but they did build 08:14 that 08:15 that church in 1858 the fifth meeting 08:18 house 08:19 now here's some also some some 08:21 remarkable history attached to the 08:22 church 08:24 two things one we discovered not long 08:26 ago 08:27 that um the steps in front of the church 08:30 were covered with bluestone and we had 08:33 to add a new railing to the front of the 08:35 steps 08:36 when the the masons were doing the work 08:38 on the steps 08:39 we heard them kind of yell out they were 08:40 very excited I was hoping they had found 08:42 a box of gold doubloons 08:44 underneath the stone steps that wasn't 08:46 what they found what they found 08:47 might be you know an equivalent treasure 08:50 though they discovered that underneath 10 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 08:51 the blue stone was 08:52 original pink granite some of the 08:55 Falmouth granite 08:56 and so somebody in fact we know is 08:58 probably in 08:59 1952 someone decided to put 09:03 bluestone on the steps we had lost track 09:06 of that 09:07 and so it was a great find to be able to 09:09 restore those front steps back to their 09:11 original condition 09:12 so um in 1858 these were what the steps 09:16 would have originally looked like 09:17 in the process of of thinking about 09:19 those steps and looking at the steps we 09:21 also had some of the masons 09:22 bring to our attention the fact that the 09:24 whole foundation of this church 09:26 is made from that pink granite 09:30 and there is virtually a few hundred 09:31 tons worth of this pink granite 09:34 at this church so it may be that the 09:36 true value of the church 09:38 is really the church's foundation we'll 09:41 see 09:41 um but I I just think it's it's a #falmouthgranite 11 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 09:43 remarkable piece of kind of 09:45 lost history that was recently 09:46 discovered 09:48 one of the most interesting aspects of 09:50 that move 09:52 that took place in 1858 is that that is 09:54 the year 09:55 that William Bates came as the pastor of 09:58 the church 09:59 so William Bates who is the father of 10:00 Katharine Lee Bates 10:02 was the was one of the ministers of the 10:04 First Congregational Church 10:05 he served that church for one year 1858. 10:09 he was sick from the moment he arrived 10:12 to the moment he passed away in fact the 10:15 last service he presided over was 10:17 Katharine’s baptism 10:18 she was three months old at the time so 10:21 I’ve always wondered 10:23 was this seen as a great challenge for 10:26 the congregation 10:27 this decision to move the church during 10:29 this time when the pastor was not 10:31 available to offer leadership 10:32 or was this seen as kind of #williambates #katharineleebates 12 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 10:35 an opportunity to make that move because 10:37 they weren't able to meet for worship 10:40 this was a chance for them to to make a 10:42 transition to a new space 10:44 as a result I don't know the answer to 10:46 that but I’ve 10:47 I’ve always been curious to know um how 10:50 that impacted the 10:52 the move itself not having William Bates 10:54 as the pastor or actively 10:56 engaged as the pastor at the time 11:00 so there have been a number of of other 11:02 additions to our 11:04 church building over the years in 1952 11:07 an educational wing was added 11:08 and then in 1992 as a result of a very 11:11 generous 11:12 gift from the Faxon family we're 11:14 able to build a Christian education 11:16 center the Faxon 11:17 Education Center and so the church has 11:20 continued to 11:20 expand and grow we really do think of 11:24 ourselves as a community church 11:26 we take to heart this this attachment to 11:29 the to the town of Falmouth and we see #faxon 13 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 11:31 ourselves 11:32 as a place where people should gather 11:33 and meet um to to be in conversation to 11:36 have potluck suppers to worship 11:39 um we've got really great parking 11:42 which is essential if you're going to 11:44 have people gather 11:45 we're in a wonderful location and so we 11:48 really try to open up the church as much 11:49 as possible 11:50 we're we're actively looking for ways to 11:52 support our community 11:54 with with our space um and it is a 11:56 beautiful space 11:57 I’m always surprised recently in the 11:58 last four or five years we've been 12:00 opening up the the 12:01 church on the Lighting of the Green um 12:04 in December 12:05 and it's amazing how many people come 12:07 for the Lighting of the Green 12:08 opening of the church has allowed people 12:10 just to come in and warm up we usually 12:12 have a little bit of a hymn sing 12:13 the bathrooms are available I’m always 12:17 shocked to hear from folks who have 14 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 12:18 lived in Falmouth 12:19 their whole lives that this is the first 12:22 time they've been in the First 12:23 Congregational Church 12:25 I say that not as a pastor of a church I 12:28 say as someone who's just genuinely 12:30 curious about history and and the 12:32 connection of that church to the history 12:34 of Falmouth 12:35 I think that that church should be on a 12:38 short list 12:39 of locations where every single student 12:41 in our school system should come and 12:43 hear about the history of that church 12:44 I’d love to take them up to the bell to 12:46 see the bell but you've got to be a 12:47 little bit of a billy goat and 12:49 I would hate to lose any children along 12:51 the way um 12:53 but it is remarkable history and and 12:55 we're really proud of it and we really 12:57 would like to be able to share it 12:58 generously 12:59 with folks so the 13:02 the building itself is one of the 13:05 uh iconic images of Falmouth for sure 15 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 13:08 yes and you've just described the rich 13:10 history one of the 13:12 interesting things that has emerged 13:14 during the interviews that we're 13:15 conducting 13:16 we've chatted with Rabbi Lieberman with 13:20 Reverend 13:20 Will Mebane yes is the shared history 13:23 uh of the congregations in the faith 13:27 communities 13:29 for instance the the Jewish Congregation 13:33 can trace 13:34 its history the building at least 13:37 to that same first meeting house that 13:39 you mentioned is that right 13:40 uh because the East End Meeting House #eliaslieberman #williammebane #falmouthjewishcongregation #eastendmeetinghouse Gunning_Hatchville_Bldg_0526 through 0531 13:43 which is today 13:44 the the headquarters of the Jewish 13:46 Congregation 13:47 uh was built and created because 13:50 uh the meeting house down at Mill Road 13:53 uh 13:54 could not accommodate a growing 13:56 community is that right 16 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 13:57 so what's fascinating is that uh the 14:02 history 14:03 is a shared history it sure is and and 14:05 today that interconnectivity 14:07 yes uh Reverend Mebane used the same 14:10 phrase that you just use as a community 14:12 church 14:12 yes and and and so 14:17 uh today those faith communities 14:20 continue to have 14:21 yes we do a shared history and a shared 14:23 mission absolutely 14:24 I think two of the finest examples of 14:26 that shared history mission 14:27 would be the Service Center in Falmouth 14:29 so the Service Center which 14:31 which has a huge impact on this 14:32 community and is really the front line 14:35 in terms of responding to need there are 14:37 other organizations that 14:38 that provide outstanding support to 14:41 folks in need but I think that we all 14:43 consider the Service 14:44 Center to be at the center of that that 14:46 support system 14:47 that organization was established 17 #falmouthservicecenter �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 14:49 originally by the clergy in Falmouth 14:51 because they recognized that they could 14:53 not do 14:54 as much of the follow-up and the 14:56 background uh work that they needed to 14:58 do to be able to provide the the best 15:01 care available and so 25 years ago they 15:04 they got together and said this is 15:05 worthwhile and we should make it happen 15:07 and now 15:08 that has a huge impact on this community 15:10 another example is the Upper Cape 15:12 Chaplaincy which supports the 15:13 the chaplain's position at the hospital 15:15 that was also 15:17 a result of of the collective will of 15:20 the clergy in town 15:22 and we still have an active group of 15:24 people who meet together on on a monthly 15:26 basis to talk about our community and 15:28 how we 15:29 as the communities of faith should be 15:32 supporting one another and 15:33 and supporting the good work that's 15:35 being done by so many organizations in 15:37 this town #uppercapechaplaincy 18 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 15:38 I I feel this absolutely today you know 15:41 we are living in a time 15:42 where there's so much divisiveness and 15:45 division 15:46 um regardless of how you feel 15:50 about your relationship with with 15:52 eternity or 15:54 or the divine or not um 15:57 we are in relationship with one another 15:58 and our churches 16:00 and our um congregations have always 16:04 been at the center of of the community 16:07 and they should continue to be they the 16:09 our our 16:11 congregation should be open and 16:12 available as a place where people can 16:14 feel 16:16 you know not the divisiveness but the 16:18 the potential that exists in harmony 16:20 when we work together 16:22 to do good things and I think we're 16:24 going to have plenty of opportunities 16:26 to talk about doing good work with one 16:27 another in the in the next few years 16:29 indeed for sure so what does it mean to 16:31 you 19 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 16:33 to be part now of the the rich history 16:37 of 16:37 the Congregational Church and Falmouth 16:39 and and 16:41 that the congregation itself has evolved 16:44 along 16:45 as the history of the building unfolded 16:47 and today 16:48 continues to be a vibrant part of the 16:50 fabric of the community 16:51 it does um you know I’m very honored to 16:54 be 16:54 in the role that I have been given and 16:57 I’m 16:58 really grateful to work with really good 17:00 people you know my colleagues 17:03 both within the the church that I serve 17:05 but also you know the 17:07 my fellow clergy folks and and the other 17:10 folks who are serving organizations in 17:12 town that we support 17:13 um I really appreciate the the good work 17:15 that they do 17:16 but also the members of the of our 17:20 congregation are really outstanding 17:22 people they're they're all 20 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 17:23 very effective people and they're all 17:26 very much engaged in in this world I 17:29 will say our churches are trending much 17:31 older 17:31 and Cape Cod in general is turning much 17:33 older and so 17:35 I spent a lot of time with with my 17:36 constituency thinking about the end of 17:38 life and 17:39 and some of the concerns that that exist 17:41 around that 17:42 um it's all good it's all good 17:45 and and so I’m grateful to have that 17:47 opportunity there's a certain amount of 17:48 of 17:49 responsibility that comes with that and 17:51 I I am aware of it 17:52 um and I take it to heart and so there 17:55 are times where where 17:56 I think you know we we really have a lot 17:58 of work to do in Falmouth 18:01 there's a lot of need in this community 18:03 and it's not always apparent 18:05 right we work hard to make Falmouth a 18:07 beautiful place 18:08 and certainly we're aware that we have 21 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 18:10 folks who visit us every summer 18:12 who come because this is a beautiful 18:14 place and so we work hard to keep a 18:16 certain 18:17 a certain beauty here 18:20 it's not a facade it's real but below 18:23 that beauty 18:24 below the surface of it there is another 18:26 community that exists and 18:28 there are a lot of people who struggle 18:30 there's a terrible affliction 18:32 that exists in this community addiction 18:34 is awful 18:35 in Falmouth there are a lot of folks who 18:38 are living right at the point 18:39 of of not being able to to get by 18:42 and so um I’m aware of that we're the 18:45 downtown church one of the downtown 18:46 churches and I 18:47 I learned a long time ago if you're 18:49 going to point at God 18:51 with your big steeple you better expect 18:53 that people are going to see that and 18:54 they're going to come looking for God 18:56 or you know the equivalent of that so I 19:00 take that to heart too we we try to do 22 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 19:01 right by people if we can 19:04 it's a long answer to your question what 19:06 a wonderful one thank you 19:07 is there anything that we didn't cover 19:09 that you'd like to share today 19:12 there's so much there's so much rich 19:15 history if you had 19:16 an hour I would fill it um so I you know 19:19 I can't think of anything 19:21 specifically right now that I didn't 19:23 cover that I wanted to but if there's 19:25 ever anything 19:27 that you're curious to know more about I 19:28 would love to to come and 19:30 talk more about the history of of our 19:32 community 19:34 thank you so much you're very welcome 19:55 [Music] 23 � 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 Postcards from Falmouth Oral Histories Description An account of the resource A collection of transcribed oral history interviews from the Postcards from Falmouth project, 2020-23. Postcards from Falmouth is a local history project made possible by a Library Services Technology Act grant administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Falmouth Public Library Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Falmouth Public Library 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 Reverend Jonathan Drury's Oral History on the First Congregational Church Subject The topic of the resource First Congregational Church, Falmouth, Mass Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Falmouth Public Library (Falmouth, Mass.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Video transcript Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Postcards from Falmouth Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Falmouth Public Library (Falmouth, Mass.) Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jonathan Drury Troy Clarkson Falmouth Community Television Falmouth Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource February 24, 2020 1614 1708 1717 1750 1796 1858 American Civil War American Revolution Beebe Boston church bell East End Meeting House Elias Lieberman Falmouth granite Falmouth Jewish Congregation Falmouth Service Center Falmouth Village Green Faxon First Congregational Church Jonathan Drury Katharine Lee Bates Katharine Lee Bates Road Lakeview Lawrence School Mill Road Old Burying Ground oral history Paul Revere Postcards from Falmouth Puritan Swift (family) transcript Troy Clarkson Upper Cape Chaplaincy West Parish of Barnstable William Bates William Mebane Woods Hole https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/32209/archive/files/c2d120b7354e56242ea1ef0f4388bcf0.pdf?Expires=1777507200&Signature=CV9k3l0Iu-8Zgj22POfNoGebvW9h6DuI7pG7AVgGiT9WAorRUiyVAC35%7ExlJRq6iiWho7qSzRTR6Y09YgsOTfLuZNKEH2h6LMK1ZAwLYiz5gqpBpIHKqvwzeaWv6cCSv-EpjhKUm%7Ecp0lrfMzQpiSTwDdUWZtR7DBLBbcLYVz-HH7OtIuRPd2VmjM76K1S%7EweStMnyr1IWR9Yd2%7EzOS9PI05lBVk0O5ibWa2uqjhpR5e2EceKmeb3Yf4CwOqqW9X%7EsMAU49QZnlzeDcIIt-AruMDtjpSB%7EDFjpB8OkbmU9jB2ecegFnzN82OrXzuhPkhKYntVfcFK1Fuy6F1GEG7Pg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM f3b772a8908de074ba9a28092c5af618 PDF Text Text Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript Recorded: March 3, 2020 Oral Historian: Kevin Doyle Interviewer: Barbara Kanellopoulos Topic: Old Stone Dock Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital Commonwealth online collection. The Book of Falmouth is available from Falmouth Public Library under REF LocHist 974.492 BOO, as well as at other CLAMS locations. 00:00 [Music] 00:45 it's always fun to talk about the Old #oldstonedock Gunning_Village_Har_0173 through 0188 Hunt_Village_Bch_0089 through 0095 00:46 Stone Dock 00:47 it's uh it's a relic 00:50 of of what commerce was in Falmouth 00:53 during the 19th century 00:55 and you don't get to see things like 00:57 that along the shoreline much anymore at 00:59 all 01:00 in fact if you were to go down to the 01:02 shore today 01:04 there's a sign that says it's the kiddie 01:06 pool and for all the world nobody has 01:09 ever asked why you would build a kiddie 01:10 pool out of granite blocks 1 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 01:13 but nevertheless it's uh it's all been 01:15 silted in 01:17 but in its day and its day was 200 years 01:19 ago 01:21 it was built in 1817 #1817 01:24 following a hurricane of 1815 #1815 #hurricane 01:28 of course they weren't called hurricanes 01:30 then it was the great gale 01:31 of September 1815. 01:36 there are three hurricanes that have 01:38 really ravaged through the 01:40 New England area has lots of hurricanes 01:43 but the first one was in 1635 when 01:46 Boston and the and the Pilgrims and and 01:48 the colonies were just getting started 01:50 the second one 01:52 the same power and magnitude was the 01:54 Storm of 1815 01:56 and then the third one was a hurricane 01:59 of 1938 which 02:01 which people are far more familiar with 02:03 and they see pictures of the destruction 02:05 and so forth 02:06 but meteorologists will tell you that 02:08 those three hurricanes were very similar 02:10 in their track and their speed they came #gale #1938 2 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 02:13 up the coast with a speed of 100 miles 02:14 an hour they were blowing 100 mile per 02:16 hour winds 02:17 and they just destroyed everything in 02:19 their path 02:20 prior to 1817 then this Old Stone Dock 02:25 there was a a dock that was made out of 02:28 wood 02:29 uh and we think it was built in 1805 and 02:31 it would have been built out of palmetto 02:33 logs 02:34 which is basically a palm tree uh 02:37 obviously no palm trees growing around 02:39 Falmouth so 02:40 once again a surmise is that probably uh 02:44 Captain Swift brought them up in his 02:47 as part of his live oak adventures going 02:50 at getting wood 02:51 down out of the Carolinas and into 02:53 Florida 02:54 and so he probably brought these very 02:56 resilient palmetto logs 02:58 up to up to Falmouth there's not much 03:02 that 03:03 will verify that there was a dock prior 03:06 to this but it seems logical that that #1805 #swift #elijahswift 3 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 03:10 was 03:10 the landing place of some sort it was 03:14 the scene 03:14 of the British invasion or 03:18 attempted invasion in January of 1779 #1779 03:21 during the American Revolution #americanrevolution 03:23 they were repulsed they never landed 03:26 they did shoot musket balls at us and 03:28 they weren't too happy with us but they 03:29 didn't they weren't able to land 03:31 and the second time was in 1814 during 03:34 the 03:35 towards the end of the War of 1812 where 03:37 once again 03:39 the British came and tried to come 03:41 ashore they were repulsed again by 03:43 by our cannons so it would seem that 03:47 that's 03:47 probably there was probably some kind of 03:48 a landing area in that site prior to the 03:51 Old Stone Dock itself 03:55 the other reason why you'd think that 03:57 that was probably true is because that's 03:59 where 03:59 Falmouth was settled when the uh 04:03 the proprietors as they're called here 4 #1814 #warof1812 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 04:05 they're called different 04:06 different by different names but they're 04:08 the folks who basically 04:10 uh bought the land from the tribes the 04:13 the 04:14 indigenous tribes Wampanoags uh and uh #wampanoag 04:17 Nauset Indians #nauset 04:18 which was a sub-tribe of the Wampanoags 04:22 and the proprietors here started in 04:25 Barnstable 04:26 and came down we don't know whether they 04:28 came down by boat or by 04:29 by walking but if you look down in the 04:32 uh 04:33 down at the beach area today you'll see 04:36 what 04:36 what Jim Lloyd of the Historical 04:38 Department [Falmouth Historical Society?] likes to call 04:40 Falmouth Rock he said Plymouth has their #plymouth 04:42 Plymouth Rock we have our Falmouth Rock #plymouthrock 04:44 we have a rock that says these are the 04:47 proprietors they landed here in 18 04:49 uh in 1660 and so forth and 04:53 and founded the town well the 04:56 the tribe had been here first obviously #barnstable 5 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 04:58 they came down and we 04:59 uh we followed a lot of the Indian 05:01 trails to be here 05:03 uh and it makes sense because that area 05:06 of Surf Drive Beach opens onto a #surfdrivebeach 05:10 Vineyard Sound and then it has Siders #vineyardsound #siderspond Gunning_Village_Pnd_0148 and 0149 Hunt_Village_Pnd_136 05:12 Pond which is freshwater pond after 05:15 named after Consider Hatch one of the 05:16 original proprietors 05:18 is on the one side and on the other side 05:20 is Salt Pond #considerhatch #saltpond Gunning_Village_Sts_0010 through 0016 05:22 which is salt water and oysters are 05:25 plenty and that sort of thing 05:27 so there they were between fresh water 05:28 and salt water and the Sound so it was a 05:31 perfect 05:31 location for commerce and just 05:34 for survival you had the fish lots of 05:37 alewives the 05:38 herring run is right there which 05:40 is brackish water coming in 05:43 from the sound and going up towards 6 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 05:45 Siders Pond 05:46 so it's a perfect area to to 05:50 start the start the town 05:53 a lot of people you know are used to 05:56 seeing towns that have started from the 05:58 center and they move 05:59 outward because that's how the the 06:00 railroads did it 06:02 when when railroads were built and 06:04 they'd go along every 100 miles or 06:06 whatever the distance would be 06:08 did make the town grow right from the 06:10 depot and go 06:12 outward concentric circles for us it was 06:15 different and it was different for 06:16 for almost 100 years the commerce was 06:19 coming off of the off of the Surf Drive 06:21 Beach area 06:23 and the main area to to move was right 06:26 up Mill Road where the current Mill Road #millroad Gunning_Village_Sts_0001 through 0016 Hunt_Village_Sts_075 through 178 06:28 goes between the salt pond and the uh 06:32 fresh water pond uh and and on 06:36 up so the green was actually founded in 7 #falmouthvillagegreen �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth Gunning_Village_Sts_0053 through 0078 06:39 1749. #1749 06:40 so here we are at 1660 and then 1749 06:43 about 80 06:43 90 years later before they got up to the 06:46 green 06:47 so the center of commerce then 06:50 was right there on the on the beach so 06:53 this hurricane comes along and destroys 06:55 everything that was wooden and 06:57 through natural erosion you can imagine 06:59 the other wooden piers probably gave way 07:02 as the ships became larger or the 07:05 elements took took their toll on a 07:08 wooden pier 07:09 so along about 1817 then they say hey 07:13 what we really need to do is build this 07:16 thing to last 07:17 uh and I should probably just say at 07:20 that point 07:22 as I talked about the progression of the 07:23 town it goes up so it took 80 years to 07:25 get to the green and then it started 07:27 heading to the east it started heading 07:29 back down 8 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 07:30 towards uh towards Barnstable down down 07:32 Main Street #mainstreet Gunning_Village_Sts_0017 through 0041 07:34 and after a certain point they realized 07:36 that so far the only road to get to the 07:39 dock 07:39 was down Mill Road so here they are now 07:42 they're up at Locust they're going down 07:44 Main Street 07:46 and they're getting further and further 07:47 away so in 1800 07:50 just a few years before the Stone Dock 07:52 was built but in 1800 07:54 the townsfolk got together and said what 07:56 we really need to do is go 07:58 from this point which was right where 08:00 Barbo’s Furniture is right now 08:02 and go straight down to the pier and 08:04 that's why if you look at Shore Street #locuststreet #shorestreet Gunning_Village_Sts_0080 through 0083 Hunt_Village_Sts_171 and 172 08:06 it's eight tenths of a mile long 08:08 it's straight as an arrow and it's its 08:10 objective was to get 08:12 people from Main Street to the dock 9 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 08:15 uh that's what it was all about so 08:18 uh after this great gale of September 08:21 uh goes blowing through 08:24 the townsfolk got together and uh and 08:28 built this 08:29 granite block now the way that's built 08:32 is they import it and there's some 08:33 question as to exactly what those 08:35 granite blocks are 08:37 I like to think that the Falmouth 08:38 granite 08:40 underneath it all but of course after a 08:41 couple hundred years they're 08:43 they're all black and covered with 08:46 seaweed and so forth so it's really kind 08:48 of hard to distinguish 08:49 the origin of all those granite blocks 08:52 but the point of it was 08:54 they would build a a a 08:57 line which which you see right now 09:00 actually uh 09:01 of of granite blocks and then they built 09:04 the 09:05 the dock the actual docking area right 09:08 over it 09:09 so it's the same palmetto logs it's the #falmouthgranite 10 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 09:11 same planks it's the same everything 09:13 that you 09:13 used to seeing when you think of a pier 09:16 but this time they put the blocks in 09:18 there 09:19 so that it would be uh it would sort of 09:22 lend some extra support 09:24 to the the pier uh the piers themselves 09:27 and in 09:28 the uh the the structure of the of the 09:31 pier of the wharf so 09:34 that's what it is over time 09:38 all that all that wooden part you know 09:40 washed away again 09:41 but the granite blocks remain so why 09:44 wasn't it maintained 09:46 it wasn't maintained because as time 09:49 went on so that was built in 1815. 09:53 uh the gale was 1815 the the dock was 09:56 built in 1817 09:57 and things were going along fine but it 09:59 was about that time as 10:00 uh the railroad came to town and 10:04 the railroad starts coming down from 10:05 Boston and so forth 10:07 the Old Stone Dock is at least a mile 11 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 10:10 away 10:11 from the railroad station and 10:14 it just didn't work you couldn't send 10:16 freight down 10:19 on a train and get it to the pier in any 10:22 efficient manner the train dead 10:25 ended 10:26 in Woods Hole and of course that's where 10:29 the ferry terminal is today that's what 10:30 the Steamship 10:31 Authority is and that's where the 10:33 trains met 10:34 the boats so commerce went there 10:38 it also it's a much deeper uh harbor 10:41 in Woods Hole than it is off of Surf 10:44 Drive Beach 10:46 so the the question then became so what 10:49 happens now 10:51 it was a stone dock it was made for 10:52 commerce there were whalers 10:54 whaling ships that went there his 10:56 primary function was packet ships 10:58 and and by packets those would be ships 11:01 that would sail when you had the cargo 11:02 they didn't necessarily go on a schedule 11:05 you'd bring down your goods to to be #woodshole #steamshipauthority #whaling 12 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 11:07 freighted up to Boston or down to New #newyork 11:09 York and every port in between all 11:12 down down across the Martha's Vineyard #marthasvineyard 11:14 and over to New Bedford and Fall River #newbedford #fallriver 11:17 and so forth all those 11:18 uh all those ports between Boston and 11:21 Falmouth 11:22 and uh and New York were the frequent 11:27 markets for our strawberries the eels 11:30 the salt cranberries and so forth wood 11:34 that was the main commerce uh forestry 11:37 and so forth 11:38 incoming timbers uh as well uh 11:42 and since the Swifts were big in that 11:44 type of a trade 11:45 they would bring their goods up and 11:47 bring them to Falmouth 11:49 the Sarah Herrick is a uh is a whale 11:52 ship that was 11:53 registered or said to be to be 11:57 brought into the Falmouth dock so that's 11:59 how we know that there were whaling 12:01 ships there as well 12:03 but after the commerce now ends up in 12:06 Woods Hole 12:09 the dock started to become more #sarahherrick 13 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 12:12 available to people and if it didn't 12:15 have the upkeep that it did 12:16 boats used to be able to sail right 12:18 inside of it uh 12:20 now that won't happen the Book of #bookoffalmouth From FPL: REF LocHist 974.492 BOO 12:22 Falmouth mentions a 12:25 a black who had a mail 12:28 route he would uh sail to the Old Stone 12:31 Dock 12:32 with mail for the new town is that 12:35 accurate 12:36 I can bet it is I I I don't know for 12:40 sure but yeah that 12:41 that would be the type of commerce that 12:43 you would find 12:44 coming out of the dock and the heavy 12:47 stuff would end up going down towards 12:48 Woods Hole 12:49 but that type of mail run or milk run 12:52 type of a 12:53 run over to the Vineyard and out to 12:56 Nantucket #nantucket 12:57 and down to uh Cuttyhunk that would #cuttyhunk 12:59 have been 14 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 13:00 the the daily commerce going from the 13:03 Old Stone Dock 13:06 when things when the the railroad came 13:08 in then and went down there 13:10 they said that well they needed 13:12 someplace else for 13:14 a dock for for a harbor and that's when 13:17 the Inner Harbor was created #falmouthharbor Hunt_Village_Har_103 through 120 Gunning_Heights_Har_1320 through 1334 13:19 and that's why you'll still see 13:20 references on charts and 13:22 when people talk sometimes they'll talk 13:23 about the Inner Harbor 13:25 well that would be sort of old-time talk 13:28 because most people now talk about the 13:29 harbor and they think of the Flying #flyingbridge Gunning_Village_Bldg_0377 through 0383 13:31 Bridge Restaurant and 13:32 the commerce that goes on but it was 13:34 never heavy commerce if you look at it 13:37 you say well this used to be the Old 13:40 Stone Dock used to handle 13:42 handle hogsheads of produce and 15 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 13:45 fresh cut vegetables and so forth there 13:47 was never anything like that in 13:49 in Falmouth Harbor all that had gone to 13:51 Woods Hole 13:53 so Falmouth Harbor really became they 13:55 dredged out 13:56 if you take a look and you wonder why 13:58 why in the world Clinton Avenue is 14:01 so abruptly at the Clam Shack and then 14:03 resumes over in front of the Falmouth 14:05 Yacht Club 14:06 that was a road it had been cut off it 14:09 was it was a pond of its own it was 14:11 Deacon's Pond #clintonavenue #deaconspond Gunning_Village_Har_0190 14:12 and when it was dredged out it created 14:14 an inner harbor 14:16 and over the years that had been 14:17 improved and so forth 14:19 but that was in 1908 that the Inner 14:22 Harbor 14:23 opened up and for many years thereafter 14:26 people would sail their sailboats up to 14:29 up to the Old Stone Dock and they'd put 14:30 in there and many of uh 14:32 the Robert C. Hunt postcard collection #1908 16 #robertchunt #postcardcollection �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 14:36 has great pictures of tourist day 14:39 sailors 14:40 you know boats that you and I would have 14:42 uh pulled up to the Old Stone Dock 14:44 and it's featured right there you'll see 14:47 some that have a uh some of the pictures 14:49 will have the old time 14:51 uh bath house still in that picture 14:54 and you look at it and you get a much 14:57 better picture 14:58 in looking at those old postcards 15:01 than you would ever get today when you 15:03 look at at the 15:04 Old Stone Dock but those postcards will 15:07 give you some idea of the depth and the 15:09 type of commerce that could pull up 15:11 some of those postcards still have the 15:14 pilings that were lining the the Old 15:17 Stone Dock and if you look real close at 15:19 some of them 15:20 you'll see wooden side buoys there where 15:23 you'd be pulling up 15:25 so nobody wants to pull a ship up beside 15:27 a granite block I mean that's not how 15:29 you 15:29 how you treat a boat but so #bathhouse 17 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 15:33 over time as I say it's become a 15:35 favorite now for 15:37 the uh for the kiddie pool 15:40 if you talk to kids in Falmouth today 15:42 they'll tell you that they learned how 15:43 to 15:44 how to swim in the Old Stone Dock and 15:47 most of them don't even know that it was 15:48 there 15:50 a neighbor of ours Jim Crossen started #jamescrossen 15:53 the Old Stone Dock Association up in the #oldstonedockassociation 15:55 1970s 15:56 and really brought a lot of history with 15:58 it and brought a lot of 16:00 attention to this relic it is 16:03 really it's a monument to to Falmouth to 16:06 have that here 16:07 and there's very few towns who can point 16:09 to something on the waterfront and say 16:10 that was there 200 years ago 16:12 so the Old Stone Dock Association has 16:14 really worked to preserve that heritage 16:16 and 16:17 that type of history the other place 16:19 where you'll find a reference 16:21 to it is is on the there's a big 18 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 16:24 uh boulder with a Hunt_Village_Sts_179 16:27 with a plaque on it and with an anchor 16:29 atop it right at the end of Mill Road 16:31 right where Mill Road turns on to Locust 16:34 and if you take a look at that you'll 16:35 see that that was a monument dedicated 16:37 to the seafarers 16:39 uh of in 1908 and it was really 16:44 the end of the Old Stone Dock that was 16:46 their farewell 16:47 uh to what had been such an active 16:49 center of commerce and the seafarers who 16:52 who made it such uh but in 1908 16:55 the the uh the harbor had been 16:59 dredged the Inner Harbor was now taking 17:01 over 17:02 and over time people started bringing 17:04 their boats into the Inner Harbor 17:06 and the Old Stone Dock became the Old 17:09 Stone Dock 17:12 and was there a window 17:15 a windmill and an attempt 17:19 to manufacture was it 17:23 a product glass no well yeah 17:26 a couple of things going on right down 17:28 there on the beach the windmill was up 19 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 17:30 on Mill Road and if you were to drive go 17:32 up Mill Road from the beach uh 17:36 just as the road bends and it bends 17:38 right at the end of the salt pond 17:40 that's where the windmill was located 17:42 that windmill was actually 17:45 made to to grind uh corn 17:49 it wasn't it wasn't part of the glass 17:51 tree but i'll bring that up in a sec 17:54 that was that was that was a grinding 17:56 mill and I know that because Bill Swift 17:59 told me and if anybody knows anything 18:00 about the town of Falmouth it's Bill 18:02 Swift 18:03 and he used to live right down there so 18:05 that's where that's where the windmill 18:06 was 18:07 now there were many windmills along the 18:10 shoreline uh of 18:14 Surf Drive Beach the point of 18:17 them was to to bring in salt water they 18:20 would go out into the 18:21 into the Sound and suck up the water 18:23 bring it up and put into great big vats 18:26 typically about 10 feet by 10 feet and 20 #williamswift Gunning_Village_Bldg_0439 through 0450 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 18:28 it put water in it probably about 18 18:30 inches deep 18:32 and it would they would leave it out in 18:34 the sun 18:35 to evaporate and what you'd end up with 18:38 after 18:38 after all that water had been brought up 18:40 and left in these vats for 18:42 for some period of time it would 18:44 evaporate and you'd have salt 18:46 up until the Civil War salt was a 18:48 prime 18:49 a premium product in fact many 18:53 Civil War battles were fought 18:56 at the shoreline to destroy what was 18:58 called the salt works 19:00 and the salt works was the windmill and 19:02 the vats that dried the water 19:05 and they would just they would try to 19:06 destroy that because 19:08 salt was used to preserve meats and 19:11 anything that was perishable would be 19:13 encased in salt uh prior to the period 19:16 of refrigeration 19:19 the glass company uh was because of the 19:22 sand #americancivilwar 21 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 19:23 and they would use the furnaces to heat 19:25 that sand up and get the silicone 19:27 and yes that was that would have been 19:29 located at the corner of Shore Street 19:32 so it's right kind of where the parking 19:34 lot is now 19:36 where Shore Street comes down and Surf 19:38 Drive goes across 19:40 it was on that corner uh and that's 19:42 where the Beach Breeze Inn is 19:44 right now and that's sort of an area 19:47 there was a bank down there there was a 19:50 tavern 19:51 and there was this glass manufacturing 19:54 and when you think about it of course 19:56 with the uh it was a perfect place for a 19:58 tavern and 19:59 and the bank because these packet ships 20:03 are coming back from their run 20:04 and now they want to deposit the money 20:06 or they need the money for some purpose 20:09 and and having a tavern and a little 20:12 little spot for the sailors to pull into 20:13 when they get there 20:14 is was kind of refreshing 20:18 yes it's interesting that you talk about 22 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 20:21 the center of town as being right on the 20:23 shore there which is makes a lot of 20:25 sense 20:25 we we don't think of uh the center of 20:28 town as being 20:30 out there no you wouldn't and and as you 20:33 look 20:34 there's actually the first two meeting 20:36 houses if you take the time to 20:38 to go along Surf Drive and then up Mill 20:40 Road to the very end right up to where 20:42 that boulder is that I talked about the 20:44 head the plaque and the anchor 20:46 there's a cemetery off to the one side 20:49 in that cemetery of course the reason it 20:51 was the cemeteries 20:52 when they used to bury their dead 20:54 outside the church outside the meeting 20:56 house 20:57 and that was the site of two meeting 20:59 houses the first two meeting houses that 21:01 were built in Falmouth 21:03 were built in that in that cemetery area 21:06 the third meeting house is it has a 21:08 stone marker 21:09 as you turn onto Locust Street before #oldburyingground 23 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 21:12 you even get up to the green 21:14 there's a marker on the side of the road 21:16 that says this is the site of the third 21:18 meeting house uh and it's not until you 21:21 get to the green 21:23 1749 that you will find the fourth 21:26 meeting house 21:27 so yes it was it was the center of life 21:30 the houses that are extinct is still on 21:33 Elm Road there's the Hatch 21:35 foundation I guess the house is 21:38 questionable 21:39 there's a sons houses across the street 21:41 but there's a 21:42 heavy granite foundation on the left 21:45 side if you're going 21:46 up from away from the water which was 21:49 the foundation of the Hatch house and 21:50 Hatch was one of the original 21:52 proprietors 21:52 of Falmouth I have heard that at the 21:56 at that triangle with that rock and 21:58 anchor 21:59 underneath is a time capsule with 22:02 the names of 100 more than 100 sea 22:06 captains #elmroad #hatch 24 �Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth 22:07 but what you say is interesting because 22:09 I've never thought of that before as a 22:11 kind of 22:12 putting a period to period two seafarers 22:16 I think it was I think it was their 22:17 goodbye uh 22:19 and uh whether there's a time capsule 22:22 under there 22:22 or not I don't think we'll ever know and 22:24 I don't think the 22:26 DPW will let us dig it up anymore so 22:30 uh I don't know I don't know I've heard 22:33 the same thing whether it be under that 22:35 boulder or 22:36 in front of the boulder we've certainly 22:37 done lots of plantings around the 22:39 boulder 22:40 no evidence of it has ever come up so 22:44 perhaps it's there I don't know 23:07 [Music] 25 � 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 Postcards from Falmouth Oral Histories Description An account of the resource A collection of transcribed oral history interviews from the Postcards from Falmouth project, 2020-23. Postcards from Falmouth is a local history project made possible by a Library Services Technology Act grant administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Falmouth Public Library Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Falmouth Public Library 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 Kevin Doyle's Oral History on the Old Stone Dock Subject The topic of the resource Old Stone Dock, Falmouth, Mass. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Falmouth Public Library (Falmouth, Mass.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Video transcript Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Postcards from Falmouth Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Falmouth Public Library (Falmouth, Mass.) Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kevin Doyle Barbara Kanellopoulos Falmouth Community Television Falmouth Public Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May 20, 2022 1749 1779 1805 1814 1815 1817 1908 1938 American Civil War American Revolution Barbara Kanellopoulos Barnstable bathhouse Book of Falmouth Clinton Avenue Consider Hatch Cuttyhunk Deacon's Pond Elijah Swift Elm Road Fall River Falmouth Falmouth granite Falmouth Harbor Falmouth Main Street Falmouth Village Green Flying Bridge gale Hatch hurricane James Crossen Kevin Doyle Locust Street Martha's Vineyard Mill Road Nantucket Nauset New Bedford New York Old Burying Ground Old Stone Dock Old Stone Dock Association oral history Plymouth Plymouth Rock postcard collection Postcards from Falmouth Robert C. Hunt Jr. Salt Pond Sarah Herrick Shore Street Siders Pond Steamship Authority Surf Drive Beach Swift (family) transcript Vineyard Sound Wampanoag War of 1812 whaling William Swift Woods Hole