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FRIENDS OF THE FALMOUTH PUBLIC LIBRARY
H O LI DAY BO O K SA LE
Day 1
Saturday
December 4
10am - 5pm
Day 2
Sunday
December 5
1pm - 5 pm
Day 3
Monday
December 6
10am - 5pm
Newsletter
Fall 2021
A SUCCESSFUL SUMMER BOOK SALE
Because Covid restrictions were not clear this summer, the Friends annual book sale was
not held during the first week in July. Residents and visitors alike were disappointed
that they could not purchase books over the Fourth of July holiday, an activity that is
a highlight of the year for many people. However, with the decline of Covid cases in
July, it was decided by the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Falmouth Public
Library to proceed with having a book sale during the last week in August. Under the
leadership of Mary Tamucci, the Friends president, along with board members Lenny
Miele, Deborah Winograd, Rob Gillis, Edwina Yee, and Kevin O’Brien, the book sale was
held from August 15 to August 22. More than 40,000 books were transported to the
library lawn on Main Street where they were categorized by subject and sold under six
tents.
The largest tent anchoring the book
sale included non-fiction books and
all categories of literature. There was
also a history/biography tent, a
specials tent with nautical, music,
antiques, and Americana books, a
children’s tent, a cooking and how-to
tent, and a media tent with CDs,
DVDs, and picture puzzles.
The Friends of the Falmouth Public
Library want to thank all the loyal
volunteers who worked for five days
arranging, sorting, and packing books, serving as cashiers, and rolling and unrolling
protective tarps each morning and afternoon. It was a productive and gratifying team
effort that helped to raise $58,000 for our three libraries.
Change Ser vice Requested
1
Friends of the Falmouth Public Library
P.O. BOX 480
Falmouth, Massachusetts 02541
Non-profit Org
Permit No. 63
Falmouth, MA 02540
US POSTAGE
PAID
�LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
It has been a busy summer. It was wonderful to be
able to conduct our summer book sale. We had a great
turnout with shoppers who seemed very happy to be
once again browsing the book tables. Many thanks
to our super team of volunteers without whom none
of it would be possible. The show of support from
the Library and the Board of Library Trustees was
outstanding and very much appreciated. Thank you to
the fabulous library staff for treating us to a wonderful
array of refreshments throughout the sale. I want to
recognize the teen helpers, Town of Falmouth Building
Department, the DPW, Dig Safe, Bay Side Tents, Colonial
Movers, and Discovery Books for being very prompt
with service and support despite short notice in some
cases. Special thanks to Cavossa Disposal for recycling
all the cardboard boxes we emptied.
I’m happy to report that our Book Nook is back in full
swing and open for business in the Katharine Lee Bates
lobby of the main branch. We have two satellite sale
cases. One is located at the East Falmouth branch and
the other is at the Bus Station. Please drop by and
browse.
Moving into autumn we’re happy to welcome several
new members and book room volunteers. We’re again
open to accept your book donations by appointment.
Due to the large volume, we’re asking that people call
before dropping off donations to make sure there will be
enough space in the book room and someone to accept
your books. We still need help moving packed books to
storage. If you’re interested in sharing your time and
talent, please email friends@falmouthpubliclibrary.
org. It would be great to have three or four people with
a truck or SUV who would be willing to do this task on
a rotating basis.
We’re happy to announce that The Friends Holiday
Book Sale will be held during Falmouth Holidays by the
Sea weekend. The sale will be open Saturday, Sunday
and Monday December 4 -6 in the Herman Room in the
lower level of the library. As always, all books offered
will be in like-new condition and suitable for gifting.
Hours will be 10 – 5 on Saturday and Monday, and 1 – 5
on Sunday.
FFPL Board
President
Mar y Tamucci
Vice President
Treasurer �
� Lenny Miele
Rob Gillis
Recording Sec’y� Deb Winograd
Member-at-large� Kevin O’Brien
Member-at-large � Edwina Yee
Book Nook
Amazon
Newsletter
Pat Parker
Nancy English
Lenny Miele
Carolyn Brzezinski
Friends of the Falmouth
Public Librar y
PO Box 480, Falmouth,02541
BOARD OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES 2021 ANNUAL REPORT
What follows is an excerpt from the Board of Library Trustees’ Town report covering the
Town’s fiscal year from July 2020 to June 2021.
The current Board of Library Trustees are Jenifer Alai, Secretary; Kathryn Elder, Treasurer;
Judith Fenwick, Chair; Lucy Helfrich; Lindsay Hopewood, Corresponding Secretary; Kathie
Mount; and Sylvia Szulkin, Vice Chair. In May 2021 Jenifer Alai and Kathie Mount were
re-elected to the Board, and Lucy Helfrich was elected for her first term; these Trustees
will serve until 2024. The Trustees welcome Lucy ’s new perspective and fresh ideas. She
filled the seat held by Margo Finnell who stepped down after one term during which she
served with distinction as the Board’s Treasurer.
Two of the Trustees, Jenifer Alai and Judy Fenwick, worked on developing and refining the
Library ’s 2022-2027 Strategic Plan as members of the Plan’s working group. The working
group was also composed of staff members Linda Collins and Jennifer Woodward, and
community representatives Len Miele of the Friends of the Falmouth Public Library,
and Suzie Hauptmann, Director of Falmouth Human Services. The Strategic Plan was
approved by the Trustees in May 2021, submitted in September 2021, and approved
within a week. Submission and acceptance of the plan by the Mass. Board of Library
Commissioners allow eligibility for grant programs and state aid.
In July 2020 the community had come out of COVID lockdown but with town buildings
still not open for public access. The Library staff found ways to bring the Library outside
with curbside pickup of books and materials ordered ahead at all three locations, and
curbside “grab and go” kits and projects for children and adults. The late summer
followed with soft openings and the Library feeling its way to welcome the community
back inside in September 2020.
The Friends of the Falmouth Public Library under the leadership of Mary Tamucci and
Len Miele powered through a challenging year saddened by having to cancel its annual
July book sale, not only for the loss of income, but because the book sale is a muchballyhooed community event. Despite that loss of income, the FFPL still honored the
Library ’s annual wish list. This made sure there was no gap in FFPL’s support including
children’s programs, digital collections, and the Joy of Learning classes which were
Zoom-based in 2020 and 2021, as well as helping to support the “grab and go” kits that
entertained and engaged children and adults throughout the Library ’s closure. When
the book sale did finally take place in August 2021 (outside of this reporting period),
it was like the grand re-opening of the Library, a community party on the Library lawn.
The FFPL continues to be supportive of the Library and its mission, and the Trustees are
grateful for the FFPL’s continuing generosity, innovation, and collaboration.
Judith Fenwick, Chair
Wishing everyone a safe autumn and winter and a
happy holiday season.
2
Mary Tamucci, President
3
�BOOK REVIEWS
DIRECTOR’S REPORT
In the words of Bob Dylan, the times they are a changin’ at the Falmouth Public Library.
We have been fortunate to enjoy fairly stable staffing over the years but we are about to
lose two long-term Department Heads. Children’s Librarian, Laura Ford has crossed the
Bourne Bridge for the last time and will now be delighting the children of Plymouth with
her unique story telling abilities. Laura first came to Falmouth in 2007 as a Reference
Librarian. It wasn’t long before we discovered her talents were working with the little
ones and getting children of all ages excited about books. Miss Laura has managed the
Youth Services Department ever since. She will be missed by young and old alike.
Head of Reference and Adult Services, Jill Erickson has worked at the Falmouth Public
Library since 1991. She came to Falmouth from the Boston Athenaeum. The nineties
were a pivotal time for libraries and Jill helped to shepherd us along into the digital
age. A month after her arrival the Falmouth Public Library went online with the CLAMS
catalog. When asked what brought her the most satisfaction over her time at here Jill
said,” There are so many things that I am proud of having done during my 30-years of
working at the Falmouth Public Library, but there are two that particularly stand out.
The deep pleasure of helping patrons find the answers to their questions, and the joy of
being able to talk about books monthly on our local NPR station, CAI.” Jill’s retirement
is well earned, but we will miss her both here in the Library and on The Point with Mindy
Todd.
Librarians will be hired to fill these important roles but Laura and Jill have left their
mark and will forever be a part of the history of the Falmouth Public Library.
Undaunted by John O. Brennan
Undaunted is more of an autobiography than other similar books.
Previously, I have not read the details on the selection, training, and
development of CIA analysts and agents. The author went from a
son of immigrants to the highest levels in the US government as
Director of the CIA and advisor to the President. He addresses many
topical issues of concern both in the private and government sectors
and appears to have a strong moral bearing based on his upbringing
as he strives for personal integrity for himself and his country. He is
a firm supporter of the men and women in the CIA who silently labor
on behalf of the citizens of the US.
As a former Director of the CIA, he addresses many issues in
Undaunted from his perspective on various crucial topics such as the intervention in Iraq,
the Benghazi tragedy, enhanced interrogation techniques, the Mueller investigation, Bin
Laden’s death, and Russian interference in the US elections. The background discussions
of each issue were very enlightening from my perspective. The book is a history lesson
with insights into the obscure area of national security with implications for our country ’s
relationship to the rest of the world at a time of a chaotic political environment in this
country. --Paul Dreyer
Flee, Fly, Flown by Janet Hepburn
Linda Collins, Director
Lillian and Audrey, residents of a memory care facility, decide they
need a vacation. While they can get confused, and often do, they
are sharp enough to plan their “escape” from the facility, retreive
a car that once belonged to Audrey, and begin their journey. While
this plot could have easily fallen into a slapstick or lighthearted
tale, it is so much more.
Jill Erickson
Laura Ford
REPORT FROM THE FALMOUTH PUBLIC LIBRARY SUPPORT FUND
Finally, after well over a year we were able to meet in-person for our September board
meeting and everyone agreed was wonderful to do and see one another. While a
relatively quiet period, we were able over the Summer to provide funding for the library
to purchase canopies for the East Falmouth Library to hold their youth programs outside
in the Children’s Reading Garden. At our recent board meeting our guest speaker was
Jill Irving Bishop, Falmouth Senior Center Director. Jill provided an overview on the
new Senior Center, and board members brainstormed on how we might work with the
Center on special programs. As we get back to meeting and holding events in-person,
we look forward to funding new projects, and as always, we look forward to working
with The Friends of Falmouth Public Library on new funding opportunities. Thank you
and wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season!
4
Bob Ripley, Chair
Hepburn has a keen understanding of the aging process and what it
must be like to not be able to count on your grasp of a situation. The
two engage a young homeless man to drive them west and Lillian
alternately sees him as her son, her husband, or their new friend,
caretaker, and driver. Knowing she cannot rely on her memory she
writes in her notebook only to later question, who has been writing in my book?
The one very real question this book addresses is that of quality of life. In the facility
Lillian and Audrey are safe, but they are told what and when to eat, when to sleep, and
when to play bingo. Can we provide people with the freedom to live their lives as they
age and require care and protection? Perhaps a road trip with a homeless musician is out
of the question, but he provides Lillian and Audrey with the one thing they do not seem
to receive from the staff at the facilty or even from their families and that is respect and
appreciation for the unique individuals they are and the lives they have lived.
Flee, Fly, Flown is a quick read that leaves you with so much more to think about.
--Linda Collins
5
�“POSTCARDS FROM FALMOUTH” , A LOCAL HISTORY PROJECT
Seems like it was just yesterday that the
Library kicked off Postcards from Falmouth, a
Library Services Technology Act grant that
enabled the Library to usher in new approaches
to how staff develops, manages, and shares
the Library ’s local history resources. The
primary goal of the effort is not only to create
an oral history based upon the Library ’s
extensive collection of historical postcards of
Falmouth, but to also build a digital archive to
preserve and provide access to such resources
for generations to come.
Although the
pandemic delayed the undertaking, the staff is delighted to resume work on the project.
Anna Lee, the grant assistant, is busy scheduling oral history recordings in the FCTV
studio again, and Barbara Kanellopoulis and Troy Clarkson continue to interview an array
of local oral historians. A work in progress between the staff at FCTV and FPL, after the
oral histories go through a post-production process, they are uploaded to the Library ’s
digital archives, along with the transcripts and other pertinent resources. To date, there
are eight, and they are available to view through the Library ’s website, just click on the
blue Digital Collections@Falmouth Public Library logo.
Also included in the first round of oral histories are two noted historians with deep ties
to Falmouth, who regretfully passed not long after the recordings:
Richard Kendall, a dedicated public servant who served in the MA House of Representatives
and as the Commonwealth’s Commissioner of Environmental Management, and who
remained an active part in town government, shares recollections of baseball games in
Falmouth Heights, from informal youth games to Cape League contenders.
Donald Fish, a direct descendant of the Hatch Family, shares several memories of growing
up in Falmouth, from the Hurricane of 1938 to the town’s celebration of the end of
WWII. In fact, Mr. Fish is interviewed by his niece, Carrie Aiken, a Library staff member,
and filmed by her son, Cameron.
Soon to be released oral histories include Rob Blomberg on the Woods Hole Library, Linda
Collins on Falmouth Public Library, Reverend Nell Fields on the Waquoit Congregational
Church, Charles McCaffrey on the West Falmouth Library, Mark Pearson on the College
Light Opera Company (formerly the West Falmouth Inn), Joel Peterson on the Dome
Restaurant, and Mark Schmidt on the Falmouth Historical Society.
The Library invites the public to share their memories of Falmouth inspired by the
postcards, too, by commenting in our digital archives, on the Library blog, or on the
Library ’s social media. Contact us for more information, or if you know a potential oral
historian: postcards@falmouthpubliclibrary.org or (508) 457-2555 (ext 2951).
A TRIBUTE TO MARILYN SANDBORN
Marilyn Sanborn, a true friend of the Friends of the Falmouth Public Library,
died on March 24, 2020 at the age of 93. Marilyn was a founding member
of the Friends and an active member of the organization until last year. She
served as president of the Friends, was the editor of the Friends Newsletter,
chaired the Programs Committee, and was a member of the Finance
Committee. During her career, Marilyn was a teacher and elementary school
librarian in New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts before moving to
Falmouth with her husbandRaymond in 1986. She received a BA degree
from Brown University and MAs in Education and Library Science from the
State University of New York and Villanova University.
Because of her nearly three decades of dedication
supporting the Friends, the Friends Room in the lower level
of the main library has been officially named the Marilyn
Sanborn Friends Room.
AMAZON SALES
A b o u t ten years ago t wo s eas o n e d vo lu nte ers as ke d t h e Boa rd p erm i s s i on to s et u p
an A m azo n acco u nt fo r s o m e o f o u r s p e cial d o n ate d b o o ks . S om e of t h es e b ooks
we re p as s e d d own t h ro u gh ge n e rat io n s an d even t h o u gh t h e d on ors fel t torn a b ou t
giv in g u p t h e b o o ks to s ell, t h ey kn ew t h ey m u st d own s ize . Ot h er b ooks a re b ea u t i fu l
ar t an d m u s ic b o o ks , s p ecial s p o r t s b o o ks , h isto r y an d ch il d ren ’s , a n d even col l ege
tex t s , O ve r t h e years we h ave d evelo p e d a system o f id ent i f y i n g b ooks we t h i n k
will s e ll, list in g t h em o n o u r A m azo n acco u nt , an d f ilin g t h em on ou r s h el ves w h i l e
wait in g fo r a s ale . We h ave ab o u t 4 ,0 0 0 b o o ks o n lin e avera g i n g b et ween $ 1 0 ,0 0 0
to $ 1 5 ,0 0 0 a year in s ales . M o nt h ly we rev iew t h e b o o ks o n s a l e, com p a re ou rs to
o t h ers o n lin e, an d p e r h aps re d u ce t h e p r ice o r rem ove t h em for ou r s u m m er s a l e.
Th e Fr ie n d ’s Bo ard agree d to o ffer any b o o k we h ave o n lin e to a ny m em b er of t h e
Fr ien d s fo r a 2 5 % d is co u nt . O u r s eller ’s n am e o n A m azo n is S h i n i n g S ea . You m u st
p ick t h e b o o k u p in p ers o n an d p ay by cas h o r ch eck. Yo u ca n ca l l t h e l i b ra r y at 5 0 8 4 5 7 -2 5 5 5 , ex t . 2 9 1 8 to s p e ak wit h a vo lu nte er.
Na n c y En g lis h , A m a zo n G r o u p
Kim DeWall, Head of Technical Services
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�
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Friends of the Falmouth Public Library Newsletters
Creator
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Friends of the Falmouth Public Library
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1992-present (sporadic)
Format
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Language
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English
Type
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Newsletter
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
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Friends of the Falmouth Public Library Newsletter Fall 2021
Creator
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Friends of the Falmouth Public Library
Language
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English
2021
Amazon
Bob Ripley
book review
book sale
COVID-19
Donald Fish
Falmouth Public Library Support Fund
Falmouth Senior Center
FFPL
FFPL newsletter
Flee Fly Flown
FPL Board of Trustees
FPL Board of Trustees Annual Report
FPL Director's Report
Janet Hepburn
Jenifer Alai
Jill Erickson
Jill Irving Bishop
John O. Brennan
Judith Fenwick
Kathie Mount
Kim DeWall
Laura Ford
Lenny Miele
Linda Collins
Lucy Helfrich
Marilyn Sanborn
Mary Tamucci
pandemic
Postcards from Falmouth
Richard Kendall
Undaunted
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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
�
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Transcript of Mark Schmidt's Oral History on the Falmouth Historical Society
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/021971ab8a1ab847cb531a2196923946.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=M%7ER6gZMhWqJVa73NLVJ1Ge9XERuNn0iLhK5VW225hKQ4WLtfZxr95U04PXbUdkLlbTLJVh8MzTHIsSfyMq9l4pD-jw3EactZqLHR2%7E7bZlqSLbZgIIgEEO5xq4VVYRERUOm66Y5EE2WwS1vR8n3QQi1dq00lYcDf2FOsLGcbDDuMH2bMpKNf5WVHimAx%7E7sSzCxhGMeOAmXsheaJYQWg-8s%7EDeWYvS94BewRjvWxvkjDhmhAv1ogXHD35rI77fKYNctueqddYcykfX3usFhGF8PtnRSdZWQNLRr1oeX%7Ewg8amMQj-D%7E9dWhOMySoGEGcNv0XJJjjvnzcytiSFQvIGQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
275518a6faacc8bd77aa66ce1082a54f
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Text
Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript
Recorded: August 19, 2021
Oral Historian: Charles McCaffrey
Interviewer: Troy Clarkson
Topic: West Falmouth Library
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
00:00
[Music]
00:45
so on the theme of libraries Charlie
00:47
welcome you are part of the West
#westfalmouthlibrary
Hunt_West_Bldg_479 through
482
Gunning_West_Bldg_1558
through 1563
00:49
Falmouth Library which is
00:51
not only a beautiful and historic
00:54
building in the West Falmouth Village
00:56
but also an important part of the
00:58
community's culture and cultural history
01:01
so just please give us
01:03
a brief introduction of both the
01:04
building and the organization okay well
01:09
you said my name is Charlie McCaffrey
01:10
I’m
01:11
a lifelong
01:13
summer resident of Falmouth
01:15
of North Falmouth actually not West
01:18
Falmouth
#westfalmouth
#northfalmouth
1
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
01:19
and
01:20
I moved to Falmouth full time in
01:24
2005.
01:26
at that time I was aware of the
01:29
West Falmouth Library as a wonderful
01:31
building but I had never been in it and
01:34
a friend urged me
01:35
to go visit the West Falmouth Library
01:38
shortly after I moved full time
01:40
I quickly became involved with its
01:43
activities and learned a great deal
01:45
about its history
01:47
I was struck by the library because it
01:49
reminded me
01:51
physically of the small
01:53
branch library in Boston that I had went
01:56
to as a child it looked very similar
01:58
and that was the center of my childhood
02:01
in uh growing up in Boston
02:03
so I felt very comfortable
02:05
at the library and began to volunteer
02:08
for events
02:10
the library was started
02:13
in the late
02:16
19th century by the 1870s by a group of
02:19
women in West Falmouth who wanted to get
02:22
together and share books
2
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:24
they
02:25
had a small building
02:27
which they quickly outgrew
02:29
and sought to develop a real library
02:32
and
02:32
got through the
02:34
generous donation of people in the
02:36
community they were able to acquire the
02:38
land that it's on
02:40
and to build
02:42
the main building
02:43
in
02:44
1895
02:47
and it's continued as a library since
02:49
1895.
02:51
initially staffed primarily by
02:54
volunteers
02:55
but increasingly over the last 20 years
02:58
by professional staff
03:03
the library building
03:04
uh
03:06
was added on to
03:08
in the 1970s
03:10
and then
03:11
we became aware
03:13
while I was on the Board of the library
03:16
that we needed to modernize and bring it
#1895
3
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:19
up to the
03:21
21st century needs of a public library
03:25
I say public library we are a public
03:27
library
03:28
though we are not a municipal library we
03:30
receive a small amount of support from
03:33
the town but we need to raise
03:36
our budget
03:37
annually
03:39
to keep the library operating and thanks
03:42
to the generosity of people in West
03:44
Falmouth and in Falmouth as a whole and
03:46
be
03:47
beyond we're able to sustain a very
03:50
efficient library operation
03:52
but as I started to say we need
03:55
to recognize that the physical plan was
03:57
not adequate for a 21st century library
04:01
so we needed to add
04:03
such things as better accessibility
04:07
handicapped-accessible bathrooms
04:09
modern heating and ventilation uh
04:13
archive space that's temperature
04:15
controlled for the significant papers of
04:18
the history of West Falmouth that we
04:21
hold some going back to the
04:23
mid uh 17th century
4
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:28
so in
04:30
2013 we began to raise funds
04:33
to renovate
04:35
the existing library to restore it to
04:37
its original
04:39
appearance
04:40
it had been well maintained
04:43
and not altered in any great detail
04:47
since 1895 but it certainly showed the
04:50
effects of 120 years of wear and tear
04:55
and to put in the modern features that
04:57
we needed without compromising the
05:01
original space we put on a small
05:03
addition
05:04
that has
05:06
the archive room
05:07
for handicap-accessible bathrooms a new
05:11
quiet reading room
05:12
uh stairs and in that great entrance
05:17
the general the project cost us
05:19
approximately
05:21
three million dollars
05:22
and through the generosity of the
05:25
community in a town and state grant
05:28
we were able to complete the project in
05:31
2017.
05:34
today we are
#2013
#2017
5
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
05:37
open 30 hours a week
05:39
we have a professional staff
05:42
and we undertake many programs such as
05:45
lectures
05:46
music programs
05:48
children's programs that are open to the
05:51
whole town and are well attended by
05:53
people from throughout the town
05:56
thank you
05:57
for that wonderful history of the
06:00
organization and the building I always
06:02
say a library is the heart of a
06:04
community and that certainly is true for
06:06
the West Falmouth Library and I’m glad
06:08
you do the distinction
06:11
between the West Falmouth Library and
06:14
the Falmouth public slash municipal
06:16
library because
06:17
the West Falmouth Library is
06:21
open and accessible to the public and I
06:23
know that's an important part of your
06:24
mission
06:25
it is and it's interesting that
06:29
as a community center and that's very
06:32
much what it is as a library and has
06:33
always been that
06:35
but that also
6
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
06:37
correlates well with what is happening
06:40
to libraries today
06:42
libraries are very much community
06:44
centers and a provision for the place
06:46
for the community to gather and
06:48
individuals to use for many purposes
06:51
they are not just
06:53
about lending books
06:56
particularly as
06:58
reading materials are available from
07:00
many sources they continue to provide
07:03
that
07:03
and need to expand what they provide
07:06
the key thing with the library is it
07:08
provides
07:10
materials for learning for free
07:14
but it complements that
07:17
with a variety of programs
07:19
that the community can enjoy in a place
07:22
where the community can gather
07:25
I remember
07:26
this is going back
07:28
some years but when I was running for
07:30
public office for the what was then
07:32
called the Board of Selectmen is today
07:34
called the Select Board uh local
07:36
candidate debates would be held at the
7
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
07:39
West Falmouth Library and I know you
07:41
still have many of those civic events
07:42
there now and so that really reinforces
07:46
the role of a village community library
07:49
as as you say not just an institution
07:52
where you can experience information in
07:55
multimedia fashion but where you can
07:58
gather and be part of the community one
08:00
of the great events that I’ve enjoyed
08:03
participating in is one of the annual
08:05
fundraisers where people gather at the
08:07
library then fan out to different
08:09
people's homes to eat and then come back
08:11
for dessert tell us about that
08:13
that's called the Movable Feast it has
08:15
been a major fundraiser for the library
08:17
for the last 12 years
08:19
excepting
08:21
the last year of course because of the
08:23
pandemic
08:25
actually was an event that I started and
08:28
copied it from
08:30
an event of the same name and character
08:32
that was held by the Historic Albany
08:35
Foundation where I used to live before I
08:37
moved to
08:38
Falmouth um
#movablefeast
#pandemic
#historicalbanyfoundation
8
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:40
it
08:41
well received it because it does
08:43
build
08:44
on and strengthen community interaction
08:48
the idea is that people come to the
08:50
library and they're randomly for
08:52
cocktails and then they're randomly
08:55
assigned
08:56
to one of a dozen homes in the
08:58
neighborhood
09:00
for dinner and conversation so they meet
09:03
new people
09:04
and then come back to the library and
09:06
where did you have dinner who did you
09:08
meet what
09:10
new people
09:11
uh have you found you know so it's it's
09:15
a very popular event uh
09:18
I would add on the community center role
09:21
of the library and how
09:23
that's not just a new concept in
09:25
libraries
09:26
but
09:27
when the library was built in 1895
09:30
the main building had two rooms of
09:32
approximate equal size one had the books
09:37
and the other was a community room which
9
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
09:39
still exists
09:41
and did not have any books in it it had
09:43
a bench all the way around the perimeter
09:46
and it was for community gatherings so
09:49
it was built as much as a community as
09:52
much as a community center and gathering
09:54
place as a place for borrowing books
09:58
and because the the library has been
10:01
part of the community for
10:03
as you said more than 120 years now but
10:06
is also
10:07
the keeper of archives dating back even
10:09
before the building was built you
10:11
mentioned that your archives include uh
10:14
documents that date back to the 17th
10:16
century tell us about uh some of the
10:18
more interesting documents you have in
10:20
your collection uh one of the documents
10:22
is a deed
10:23
from a Wampanoag Indian
10:26
granting 30 acres of land
10:29
to I forget first name but a Gifford and
10:31
we know that his
10:33
name has a long history in town
10:36
uh so it's the actual deed from
10:39
1673 I believe of 30 acres of land in
10:42
West Falmouth to the
#wampanoag
#gifford
#1673
10
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:44
Giffords um
10:47
I have a friend actually who's who
10:50
bought
10:51
the Giffords built a house
10:54
and today it's the oldest extant Cape Cod
10:57
style house
10:58
in
10:59
1678
11:01
and it remained in the Gifford family
11:04
until the early 90s
11:07
when actually a friend of mine acquired
11:10
it
11:11
and occasionally opens it to the public
11:15
so isn't that amazing so uh although the
11:17
building has been around for a little
11:20
more than a century it captures nearly
11:22
four centuries of local history yes
11:24
another document that's interesting is a
11:27
passport
11:29
for a ship
11:31
signed by
11:32
Secretary of State James Madison and
#jamesmadison
11:35
President Thomas Jefferson
#thomasjefferson
11:40
and it's an it's rather an elaborate
11:42
printed document with their signatures
11:45
for a ship that had been built in West
11:48
Falmouth Harbor and sailed around the
11
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
11:50
world
11:51
isn't that amazing now in fast
11:53
forwarding all these years still today
11:56
the West Falmouth Library is an active
11:58
participant in
12:00
capturing today's history and and being
12:04
part of the living history like what
12:06
we're doing today
12:08
but also continuing to be a focal point
12:10
a gathering point as you called it for
12:12
the community yes and I do recall a
12:14
while ago
12:15
we did have an oral history project and
12:18
recorded some older residents of West
12:20
Falmouth
12:22
isn't that then that's so important like
12:24
what we're doing here today so that
12:25
future generations can understand uh
12:28
what life was like in in Falmouth uh in
12:31
2021 yeah
12:33
um
12:35
and I I would add
12:37
um I myself
12:39
uh I’m President of the Board
12:42
for another few days
12:44
but will continue in my involvement with
12:46
the library I’m giving a presentation
12
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
12:50
at the library on
12:52
sea level rise
12:54
which will be
12:56
the probably the most important event
12:58
that will affect West Falmouth and all
13:00
of the town over the next 50 100 years
13:04
so I’m reporting on what the town
13:07
is doing
13:08
to make us resilient to sea level rise
13:11
which will require a huge effort on the
13:13
part of everyone
13:15
for sure and so
13:17
a generation or two from now people will
13:19
look back on what we did
13:21
uh
13:22
to to understand uh
13:25
and to deal with sea level rise and and
13:28
that will be
13:29
that is an important part of what
13:31
Falmouth will look like a generation in
13:34
the library
13:35
not only West Falmouth but the others
13:38
are a key place where
13:40
what we are facing can be communicated
13:42
to the public effectively
13:45
you know that that's a really good point
13:46
because
#sealevelrise
13
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:48
today
13:50
it seems is sometimes
13:53
scientific fact
13:54
is even debated but libraries continue
13:57
to be a place where there is
14:00
some ability to to have discussion about
14:04
public policy and facts and to share
14:06
those in a in a neutral uh educational
14:10
environment right
14:12
and where
14:13
people actually interact rather than
14:16
individually looking at the information
14:18
and making decisions
14:20
without the context of discussion right
14:24
and that's so that goes back to your
14:25
original point about the value of a
14:27
library as a gathering place because uh
14:30
rather than it's a place where people
14:31
can come and rather than speaking at
14:33
each other can speak with each other yes
14:37
yeah the idea of libraries as a
14:40
quiet place is somewhat passé right and
14:43
importantly so right yeah
14:46
uh so
14:47
are there any other either historical or
14:50
interesting facts about the West
14:51
Falmouth Library you'd like to share
14
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
14:53
with our viewers
14:57
I think its role as with discussion
15:00
implies is central
15:02
to the community
15:04
a community to be in a
15:06
a thriving community needs a sense of
15:09
place
15:10
which is created by its history and
15:13
interactions but also by key physical
15:16
places
15:17
and
15:18
the West Falmouth Library is central
15:21
to that place called West Falmouth it's
15:24
an interestingly enough
15:28
in this series we also had someone from
15:29
the Woods Hole Library
15:32
which has a similar rich history as a
15:35
partially privately funded but publicly
15:38
accessible library makes me I think of
15:41
the point
15:42
Falmouth more than many communities
15:45
has distinct villages each with their
15:47
own identity and each with their own
15:49
history and and so
15:52
it's important that the West Falmouth
15:55
library not only catalogued the history
15:57
of the Falmouth community
#woodsholepubliclibrary
15
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
15:59
but what's unique uh and special about
16:01
West Falmouth itself yes
16:04
uh
16:05
it it is very much West Falmouth but as
16:07
I said earlier too it also serves and
16:10
draws people from throughout the town
16:12
I myself
16:14
have always lived in North Falmouth
16:16
but found the library a very important
16:19
cultural
16:21
center so became involved
16:24
and as by doing that became much more
16:27
familiar with West Falmouth
16:29
as well as
16:31
other parts of Falmouth
16:33
and that's so important because we are
16:36
at the end of the day we are one
16:37
Falmouth in one one community absolutely
16:40
well Charlie thank you so very much for
16:42
sharing some time with us and a little
16:44
bit of the history of both that
16:46
beautiful historic building that's been
16:48
lovingly restored and modernized but
16:51
also of the history of the library
16:53
organization itself and we wish you many
16:55
many more decades of success
16:57
thank you Troy
16
�
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 Charles McCaffrey's Oral History on West Falmouth Library
1673
1895
2013
2017
charles mccaffrey
COVID-19
Gifford
Historic Albany Foundation
james madison
movable feast
North Falmouth
oral history
pandemic
Postcards from Falmouth
sea level rise
thomas jefferson
transcript
troy clarkson
Wampanoag
West Falmouth
west falmouth library
woods hole public library
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/32209/archive/files/30c6efec7127bc9e294765868626e690.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=NMWD5C6jU6eSQ7ixiylyIO7QU557NsHazysbiyMZwe7xbC15ngH8UOSfY7qk6JZJiyN4z%7EFpKGB1cnCRl2l4TN1480BAKkeAfofjuGJuZs7b8Btb5-rG2IR0cVhCUwH-gGD-IriIbkgRWRQCrEzlPYI18oIogACnfaK%7E4Bz05BQUspMDdzQQzApY356hlT-XqHQcNvp1vADrfKGXtOG16LbxAaPp7H7dn5cP-TW%7ELy6K08BkYpQAjHEROPpLQjru631QOdUj09C-XpAVj30dF76VcXMNewWK%7EUZ9iMgHHR4GQ1nxpyqDLo9MKmF20hkxxyXxfsXX9wZRc6BEvpDdyg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
2019dca8de5f5025e3c404d18f6b60c0
PDF Text
Text
Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript
Recorded: September 22, 2021
Oral Historian: Reverend Nell Fields
Interviewer: Anna Lee
Topic: Waquoit Congregational Church
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
00:00
[Music]
00:45
so the church obviously it's this really
00:47
striking building and it's had a lot of
00:50
time to become embedded in the fabric of
00:52
the community
00:53
so if you could just do a rundown of the
00:55
history for me tell me a little bit
00:57
about how that started
00:59
uh absolutely and first of all thank you
01:01
for inviting me here uh Waquoit
#waquoitcongregationalchurch
Hunt_Waquoit-Bldg_364
01:05
Congregational Church
01:07
was built in 1848
01:12
so it's not
01:13
that old
01:15
and the reason why uh the folks in the
01:18
village decide to build the church is
01:19
they got tired of walking to the East
01:23
Falmouth church which is in Hatchville
01:26
and if if if that weren't far enough
#1848
1
#hatchville
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
01:29
some of the folks were going to the
01:30
downtown church and they said you know
01:32
let's save some time let's let's build a
01:35
church so they built
01:37
uh the
01:38
the building for
01:41
1350
01:42
dollars
01:43
and back in the day
01:45
we didn't have they didn't have enough
01:47
money
01:49
to really do the inside with that fancy
01:51
plaster that you have so they used
01:55
poor man's plaster which is tin
01:58
so we're
01:59
one of the few churches I know of on the
02:02
Cape that have
02:04
that has tin on the ceilings and tin on
02:07
the walls
02:09
and it's not
02:10
just one
02:12
type of panels there's 18 different
02:15
tin
02:17
panels in there
02:18
I said to somebody now how do you know
02:20
they're 18. and they said oh I counted
02:23
them I said I hope you didn't do that
2
#firstcongregationalchurch
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:24
during my sermon
02:26
so nowadays it's it's it's really lovely
02:29
and it's very very expensive now to have
02:33
tin panels but back in the day and it
02:35
started off as a summer church
02:38
and it became really a year-round church
02:41
in the 1950s
02:43
and when it was built it was
02:46
the the color scheme of the day was
02:50
white with dark green corner boards and
02:54
dark green
02:56
shutters I wore my dark green clergy
02:59
shirt to to show the listeners the
03:02
viewers
03:03
the the color that it was but when I
03:06
arrived there 11 years ago it was all
03:09
white
03:10
with black shutters
03:12
and the white wasn't even painted it was
03:15
vinyl siding
03:18
and we noticed when the the vitals vinyl
03:21
siding was starting to crack we noticed
03:23
that there was some rot there
03:25
and we were very fortunate to get a CPC
03:27
grant
03:28
to
03:29
renovate
3
#cpc (Community
Preservation Committee)
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:30
the church
03:32
and so we peeled off the the vinyl
03:35
siding and it revealed these dark corner
03:39
boards
03:41
underneath
03:43
white that had been painted over them
03:46
and
03:48
we wanted to go back to what the church
03:51
was originally but it originally looked
03:53
like and we took a sample of that and it
03:55
wasn't black it was this very
03:58
specific
03:59
dark
04:00
green and so we painted it
04:04
so it could look like it did in 1848
04:08
that's really fascinating so there was a
04:10
um a strong historical restoration
04:13
component to that renovation then right
04:15
oh my gosh that I’m getting absolutely
04:18
so we restored it to the original color
04:21
and just as an aside
04:24
just to give you an idea of how iconic
04:27
that church is because many people if
04:29
you're going to downtown Falmouth you
04:31
pass that church when we repainted it
04:34
and restored it
04:38
instead of using a white primer on those
4
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:41
corner boards you want to use a little
04:43
bit darker color and so our painter
04:47
used a
04:49
oh like a turquoise a Key West green
04:53
just as the primer well people had no
04:56
idea was the primer they thought that's
04:58
what we were painting the church
05:00
I got more phone calls
05:03
and some not very pleasant phone calls
05:05
like I can't believe that you're
05:07
painting that you know Key West green
05:10
the Chamber got calls the town got calls
05:12
and finally I I told our painter I said
05:14
can you just
05:16
you know get a piece of plywood and
05:18
write the word primer on it and so he he
05:22
wrote “it's primer”
05:24
so we had that leaning up against the
05:26
church while we were renovating that
05:28
uh kind of interestingly
05:31
when we were we had to replace some of
05:33
the siding and as we peeled back the
05:35
siding
05:36
we saw what our
05:39
what the the folks used for
05:42
insulation
05:43
it was a newspaper
5
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
05:45
back from the 1800s
05:48
so there's nothing there's really
05:50
nothing between the siding in that tin
05:52
but old newspaper and I was able to save
05:55
some of it it's all in like six point
05:57
type and one of the stories talked about
06:00
a neighborhood lad who got lost in the
06:03
woods but he was found
06:05
you know that was that was exciting news
06:07
back then
06:08
that idea of um being able to peel back
06:11
the surface to see history underneath
06:13
that is um really interesting I think
06:15
one of the things we're trying to get at
06:16
with this project so I’m glad you
06:18
brought that up and it does sound like
06:21
um people are very invested in the idea
06:24
of the church as a local icon
06:27
and they they really want to weigh in on
06:29
what they see and how they how they
06:30
perceive it as part of the community
06:32
yes and especially for
06:34
in our situation Waquoit is the smallest
06:37
village in
06:38
in Falmouth and
06:40
the the church over the years really has
06:43
become
6
#waquoit
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
06:44
the heart
06:46
of the village
06:47
when these
06:50
buildings were erected
06:53
initially they were not only a church
06:55
they were a meeting house they were the
06:57
center for activity in the village and
07:00
if there was something of important that
07:03
people needed to discuss everybody would
07:05
gather in there and they would you know
07:07
talk about it and and now we've really
07:10
become the focus of the community not
07:13
only because of the building but all the
07:16
things that we do
07:18
to reach out to the community and invite
07:20
the community in together
07:23
but the outside of the building
07:25
doesn't tell the full story
07:27
because as iconic as it is on the
07:30
outside
07:31
it's equally iconic
07:33
inside
07:34
because
07:38
the folks who belong to that church
07:41
actually
07:42
paid for the church
07:44
by buying a pew
7
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
07:47
and so our pews are still numbered and
07:49
if maybe the Fields family had 16 or the
07:52
Bourne family had
07:54
20 and they
07:56
literally paid for the pew they built
07:59
their own
08:00
book rack you can go into that church
08:02
and there's
08:04
oh five or six different designs on the
08:06
book rack
08:08
of course the Fields family had
08:09
something very plain but the Bournes had a
08:11
very scrolled book rack they made their
08:14
own elbow rest
08:16
it's just like a curve thing it's not
08:18
very
08:19
comfortable
08:20
the person who was in pew 27 liked to
08:24
chew tobacco and um
08:27
there's still a spittoon on the floor so
08:30
you and you pick up
08:31
the cover of it and it's all copper
08:34
inside
08:36
we use that during the summer
08:39
to put a dehumidifier hose in
08:43
the other thing that's sort of iconic is
08:45
is
#bourne
8
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:46
looking at the changes over the years
08:49
that our foreparents
08:51
made
08:53
when this was first built there was no
08:55
altar area that came a little bit later
08:58
there's a step and then the altar area
09:01
uh about six seven years ago
09:05
we had to replace that platform because
09:07
it got a little squishy and and one of
09:09
our folks replaced it and just left the
09:12
wood out in the back
09:14
and I thought oh I better haul that wood
09:16
away and when I looked at the wood that
09:19
that platform first was built
09:22
it had stencil on it
09:24
and it said
09:25
to Waquoit Church
09:27
from
09:28
the New England Organ Company
09:32
good old Yankees we built that first
09:34
platform on with the crate
09:38
that our first organ
09:40
came in
09:41
um I looked at that uh
09:43
the New England Organ Company went out
09:46
of business in the
09:48
late 1800s so I I’m pretty sure that
9
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
09:51
that was
09:52
the original platform at the time
09:55
wow so there are a lot of really it
09:57
sounds like interesting
09:58
personal decorative details really
10:00
worked into yeah
10:02
I didn't even get to the the beautiful
10:05
uh chandelier that's in the map in the
10:07
middle it's Sandwich glass and it was
10:09
originally uh filled with whale oil and
10:12
you have to go up into the attic
10:14
to
10:15
crank that
10:17
line down we now replaced it with with a
10:19
chain in order to fill it
10:22
with whale oil and we have Sandwich
10:25
glass lanterns on the side that are now
10:27
electric
10:29
and and the other thing that we did over
10:31
the years is that we did put seat
10:33
cushions in
10:34
new seat cushions because they didn't
10:36
have them
10:37
it was all wooden pews
10:39
but we also
10:41
extended the seat cushion for about
10:44
two to three inches because
10
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:46
over the years
10:47
you know people have gotten a little a
10:49
little bit bigger than our foreparents
10:52
yeah it's the little things it's the
10:53
little things but got to keep people
10:55
comfortable during those hour-long
10:57
service
10:58
hour-long sermons thinking about all
11:01
that I can imagine that there must be a
11:03
really strong sense of personal
11:04
investment people have really left their
11:06
mark and been allowed to
11:08
see that they have left their mark
11:09
themselves their families
11:11
and
11:12
that concept and the idea of
11:15
faith communities working to build
11:17
something that has a lasting impact in
11:18
the community
11:20
is a theme that's come up um over and
11:22
over again in these interviews
11:23
is there something along those lines
11:25
that you want to
11:26
reach something recent or ongoing that
11:28
you want to spotlight in terms of that
11:30
kind of project that reaches out to the
11:32
community
11
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
11:33
um
11:34
well I think for us it's sort of ongoing
11:36
you know we're we're here for the
11:38
community we respond to the community
11:40
one thing I do want to highlight is
11:42
um
11:44
I’ve always seen
11:46
our chapel I call it a chapel because
11:48
it's it's tiny and it's so beautiful
11:51
I’ve always seen our chapel as a place
11:54
of light and and
11:57
metaphorically of course and so I’ve
12:00
always thought this is a place of light
12:02
for people this is a a harbor a safety
12:06
place
12:07
a place where people can come no matter
12:08
who they are and feel welcome there
12:13
fast forward a couple of years I learned
12:15
what the word Waquoit means it's a
12:17
Wampanoag word and it means
12:20
a place of light
12:22
and and I think it just sort of
12:25
the the the sanctuaries and everything
12:28
it represents just sort of speaks for
12:29
itself it is a place of light in a
12:33
village
12:34
that is a place of light
#wampanoag
12
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
12:36
that's wonderful and I do think I know
12:38
what you mean in the sense that um
12:42
you know you're right there in Waquoit
12:43
Village kind of out on the edge of
12:44
everything right out to the sea
12:47
and um
12:48
that becomes people
12:50
people build a strong sense of identity
12:52
in a place like that and that becomes
12:53
something that's entrenched
12:55
oh
12:56
I’ve had you're absolutely right I’ve
12:57
had so many people uh tell me that
13:01
it just makes them smile makes them
13:02
happy when they drive by that church I
13:06
can't I personally
13:08
cannot ever imagine
13:11
that church
13:12
not being there
13:14
because it is so
13:15
um identified with Waquoit it's so
13:18
identified with that community and and
13:21
back in the day
13:23
you could go up in the balcony and you
13:25
could see Waquoit Bay that was our you
#waquoitbay
Gunning_Waquoit_Har_0563
13:27
know the the first harbor that the town
13
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:30
ever had was in Waquoit Bay
13:32
and
13:33
sailors actually used our steeple
13:36
to find their way home
13:38
sail toward the steeple and now that
13:41
steeple is used
13:43
for the Falmouth Airpark they always
13:45
know that they're home because they're
13:46
flying toward the steeple so it's a it's
13:49
a place of light and it's a it's a
13:51
beacon that it it almost calls to you as
13:54
you're rounding the bend as you're
13:55
coming
13:56
from Mashpee toward Falmouth you you just
13:59
you know that you're home because you
14:00
see that steeple
14:02
that is really wonderful and I think
14:04
maybe living in Falmouth some people
14:06
might become
14:08
not used to but we have
14:09
so many historical um
14:12
interesting historical buildings so many
14:14
hallmarks of the you know the history we
14:16
share around us that maybe
14:18
we might be tempted to take for granted
14:20
the idea that
14:22
we still have existing around us all
14
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
14:24
these
14:25
markers of you know the common identity
14:27
that we've built the ways we delineate
14:28
you know this is our place this is our
14:30
community
14:31
so it's it's great to be reminded of
14:32
that and know that something like that
14:34
is still out there and still
14:37
being you know
14:38
seen for the same purpose interpreted
14:40
for the same purpose
14:41
yeah now I think what what is unique
14:43
about um the Waquoit church is that it's
14:46
just right out there in the open
14:48
by itself I mean we have some historical
14:50
houses around it but there's there's
14:52
there's no crowding there's there's
14:54
there's nothing else around it so it's
14:56
it's just out
14:59
there and it doesn't get lost
15:03
in other buildings or with other
15:04
buildings
15:06
you said that you don't think you could
15:09
imagine Waquoit without the church and
15:11
I think for exactly the reason you just
15:13
described I think that's true for a lot
15:14
of people
15
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
15:15
it stands out
15:17
but um to pivot a little bit maybe to
15:20
speak about getting lost in a
15:21
metaphorical sense um
15:24
and especially
15:25
when we're talking about community
15:26
initiatives um is there anything in
15:29
terms of challenges that you faced in
15:31
the past year or so during the pandemic
15:33
that you think stand out in the history
15:35
of the church
15:37
um
15:41
the the pandemic was
15:44
an incredible time of growth for us
15:48
and you use my the word du jour pivot I
15:51
mean it was like
15:52
boom we had to pivot immediately so
15:56
we uh we never missed a Sunday
15:59
we had uh
16:00
technology our first thing of technology
16:02
was an iPhone and an iPad and we were we
16:06
went to Zoom and Facebook and now we
16:07
have cameras and and lights and and
16:10
everything else and uh the pandemic
16:13
taught us the value
16:15
of community and that
16:18
I think we were people were more willing
16
#pandemic
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
16:20
to be vulnerable with each other and
16:23
that hunger to connect and to be part of
16:26
something
16:27
greater than yourself really
16:30
really came through and we're we're a
16:32
different church we're a better church
16:35
a more responsive church than we were
16:37
before and oh my gosh we were very
16:40
involved
16:41
with
16:42
with the community and responding to
16:44
community
16:45
needs but during the pandemic it it
16:47
really it got real we started a food
16:50
program
16:52
we were delivering meals to
16:54
people in need on a weekly basis and my
16:57
idea was of need is not only a monetary
17:00
need but
17:02
parents who were just done with cooking
17:04
for the week um you know they would they
17:07
would call me up or somebody would
17:09
nominate them and we delivered them a
17:11
full meal for Christmas
17:13
we
17:14
uh partnered with our our good friends
17:16
The Buffalo Jump who they live in Waquoit
17
#thebuffalojump
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
17:18
and we gave away drive through 800
17:23
fully cooked turkey dinners
17:27
we wouldn't even
17:28
we didn't even think about that pre
17:30
pandemic and the fact that we have this
17:33
small church with this like big heart
17:35
just delights me some and I think that's
17:37
what people
17:38
see and feel
17:40
and and and think about when they drive
17:42
by that chapel oh that's the church that
17:45
does this that's the church that feeds
17:48
people that's the church that has great
17:50
music that's the church that does these
17:52
wonderful yard sales that the church
17:54
that
17:55
you know reaches out to inviting Afghan
17:58
families to come to development
18:00
that's another interesting and really
18:02
topical question that I’d like to ask
18:04
you about if you could elaborate on that
18:06
a little bit
18:07
we are working with four other
18:09
individuals
18:11
we
18:12
started a group called Neighborhood
18:15
um Support Team
18
#neighborhoodsupportteam
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
18:17
and we've identified three families who
18:20
are opening up their homes they had an
18:22
apartment maybe in their house or their
18:24
their summer folk
18:26
that we're going to we've asked to
18:28
resettle
18:29
uh three families from Afghanistan here
18:32
to Falmouth so we're currently working
18:34
with a an agency
18:36
they're waiting for those families to
18:38
come in from the military bases
18:40
and once they do they're going to show
18:43
families
18:44
our profile that we put together just
18:47
the greatness of a Falmouth you know our
18:49
scientific community and in Woods Hole
18:52
and
18:53
we're ready we've got all our teams put
18:55
together we've raised
18:57
we've raised money so we're ready to
18:59
welcome them
19:01
I think
19:02
looping back to the topic of the
19:03
pandemic it's really a watershed moment
19:05
for a lot of institutions and I would
19:07
hope that the thing that gets hammered
19:09
home for people is that it is about
19
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
19:12
standing up and making sure people don't
19:13
get left behind that's right which is I
19:16
see as the common theme of what you're
19:18
telling me
19:19
yes yes it's um
19:23
I think we saw that during the pandemic
19:26
and it's something that we've always
19:27
known
19:28
is that what
19:30
I think what makes Waquoit unique and
19:32
Falmouth unique is that
19:35
we do have a strong community and and
19:37
and because we're willing to reach out
19:39
and connect
19:41
with others and to make sure that people
19:43
aren't
19:44
left behind and it's so easy to be left
19:47
behind in so many in so many different
19:50
ways
19:51
and the pandemic taught us that
19:54
um you know we do have to reach out
19:57
and welcome people welcome all people
20:00
and that's the other thing that delights
20:02
me about uh Waquoit
20:05
and and not you know when you walk
20:07
inside
20:08
that chapel you feel the sense of of
20
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
20:11
welcome that yes you're kind of stepping
20:13
back in time but you're also stepping in
20:16
to a new future a new reality and when
20:20
you leave
20:22
you're changed
20:24
and isn't that what's supposed to happen
20:25
anyway
20:26
I think so and I think the the extent to
20:29
which
20:30
you believe that is really obvious and
20:32
I’m really happy to see it and um just
20:34
just to wrap up is there anything else
20:36
that you want people to know about the
20:37
church if they're looking for
20:38
information
20:40
no matter who you are no matter what
20:42
you've done no matter what you believe
20:44
in you are
20:45
welcomed
20:46
at our church and you don't even have to
20:49
believe in anything
20:51
then and anytime you just want a tour
20:53
you know
20:54
stop by or give us a call and we're very
20:56
happy to do so oh that's wonderful
20:59
well
21:00
and thank you so much for coming it was
21
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
21:02
great to have you as part of this
21:03
project it was wonderful thank you so
21:04
much
22
�
Text
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Transcript of Reverend Nell Fields' Oral History on Waquoit Congregational Church
1848
Anna Lee
Bourne
COVID-19
CPC
First Congregational Church
Hatchville
neighborhood support team
nell fields
oral history
pandemic
Postcards from Falmouth
The Buffalo Jump
transcript
Wampanoag
Waquoit
Waquoit Bay
Waquoit Congregational Church
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/32209/archive/files/993b5f7a2119fd736ab2b3bdf27623bf.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=bE0scb8ruJh8wXrdS2-V6qwlPl4cWcEFwEfhFdQ5PNeHYI9fidyLd1z7yLeMUjSXBfSEUhLtNKTttlVbe7zssxPEsMJfGwpYjmPbNVyoMlyzzMYq-iR--MSPDhCrXw42ljxPToYd4%7ET662RsMDWdxmNaDQAlYa4yXtf6cjbpaKldgIp6i-v8VPt92rBAl6UlidEcUqYwtWXrE5HvmXGQzR6XPSgruJ8EQ0PYmOXCqL2vIlDQsaljpxFHkw2gPmocuhx6XfHDvHZ%7EPcxDy3gHiaxXW2arpTYrIU5qbuAh8egrC-Ku2cPGVNm%7ECnwbqzaeAEOkrQrjAX1ClhsjmJZxNQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
f4136e540aa3dc09afb5619444d5e435
PDF Text
Text
Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript
Recorded: September 22, 2021
Oral Historian: Linda Collins
Interviewer: Anna Lee
Topic: Falmouth Public Library
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
00:00
[Music]
00:44
yeah so the um the library obviously the
00:47
Main Library is a real anchor of Main
#falmouthpubliclibrary
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0258
through 0288 &
Hunt_Village_Bldg_009 through
012
00:49
Street and the branches have been around
00:51
long enough to be these recognizable
00:53
community centers but it wasn't always
00:56
that way so can you give me a walk
00:58
through of the history of how that came
01:00
to be
01:01
happy to
01:02
there was a librarian in 1958
01:07
whose quote I use often she said library
01:11
Falmouth is a library-minded town and it
01:13
was true in 1958 it's true today
01:17
and it was certainly true um when the
01:19
library was being
01:21
um
1
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
01:22
put together in the 1800s
01:24
there was a subscription-based library
01:27
and goes back to the 1700s
01:31
but the main move to get a free public
01:33
library was in the
01:35
1800s the
01:38
Falmouth Free Public Library was
01:40
established at town meeting in
01:43
1891 um with an appropriation of 50
01:46
dollars a year
01:48
but the the real momentum behind it was
01:52
Esther
01:53
Elizabeth Beebe who died in
01:56
1889 and left us three thousand dollars
02:00
which was a substantial amount of money
02:02
at that time
02:04
to establish a library
02:06
the um
02:08
cost of the library was 35 000
02:11
and there was an interesting letter to
02:13
the editor
02:14
by somebody who signed it um “Heavy
02:17
Taxpayer” and he charged the the
02:21
library trustees with building a Taj
02:24
Mahal
02:25
because they were concerned about it
02:27
being a fireproof building so the
#1891
#estherbeebe #beebe
#1889
2
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:29
construction was
02:31
iron and concrete
02:33
and they had Vermont green slate for a
02:37
roof which we still enjoy today
02:39
and the base is local granite
02:43
so the the
02:45
the library was well built and the main
02:48
part of the library we still enjoy
02:50
the 1901 library was designed for
02:52
Falmouth of 1901 which had
02:55
about 900 homes
02:57
and the collection was about 5 000 books
03:01
so it quickly
03:02
it quickly got to be
03:04
a bit small
03:06
in the 1920s they considered building a
03:09
mezzanine to hold more more books and if
03:12
you go into the old part of the building
03:14
look up and see you would have to be
03:17
pretty short uh to make use of a
03:20
mezzanine in that area so although the
03:22
plans were drawn I’m I’m pretty
03:23
grateful that that
03:24
that they didn't follow through with
03:26
that plan
03:28
the main
03:30
addition to the library the first
#1901
3
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:32
addition to the library happened in 1967
03:36
when they built wings on either side of
03:38
the initial building and that added
03:40
another seven thousand square feet to
03:43
the building
03:44
in 1978
03:46
uh a
03:48
addition was added to the right which is
03:50
the current Adult Collections room and
03:52
that
03:53
uh added another 15 000 square feet
03:57
and then the most recent addition in 2007
04:00
added the wing on the left side which is
04:02
the Reference room and the meeting rooms
04:05
to bring it to the current um 40 000
04:08
square feet so when is the next addition
04:11
not going to happen we are
04:13
a steady state library for um
04:16
zero-based growth for every book that
04:18
comes in um
04:20
we we get rid of one and
04:24
that's not a bad thing uh it's a good
04:26
thing to um
04:29
to be good stewards of the collection
04:31
and keep the collection fresh and
04:33
current
04:34
um
4
#1967
#2007
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:37
that's the history of the main library I
04:38
should jump backwards and talk a little
04:40
bit about the branches because the
04:42
branches are interesting the North
04:44
Falmouth Branch
04:45
is actually older than the main library
04:49
that was established
04:50
in
04:51
1879 it was a room in the North Falmouth
#northfalmouthlibrary
#1879
#northfalmouthcongregationalchurch
Gunning_North_Bldg_1363 through
1368 & Hunt_North_Bldg_368 &
369
04:54
Congregational Church
04:56
and
04:57
in 1955 and looking for more room they
05:00
moved across the street to the old fire
05:03
station it's the little white building
05:05
that currently is used by the North
05:07
Falmouth Village
05:08
Association and
05:11
they were there for
05:12
10 years and then they moved to their
05:14
current location in Nye Park
05:18
and that's an interesting story the
05:20
building they're in
05:21
was an old barracks building that came
05:24
from the from um
#1955
#northfalmouthvillageassociation
#nyepark
5
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
05:27
from the base and it was moved across
05:30
land
05:31
it took five days to get it to Nye Park
05:34
uh it they had some heavy rains it got
05:37
stuck in the mud
05:39
an axle broke
05:41
they had to take a day off because it
05:42
was Sunday and they needed a day of rest
05:44
so
05:45
after five days of of dragging this poor
05:47
building across they set it up on blocks
05:50
in the parking lot and there it sat
05:52
waiting for um town meeting to vote for
05:55
the money to um establish it as a
05:58
community center not a library in Nye
06:01
Park and
06:03
one of the stipulations was that there
06:06
would always be room in the in the
06:08
basement for storage of Park Department
06:11
uh tools
06:12
and I haven't been in the basement in a
06:14
long time but the last time I was there
06:16
there was still tools belonging to the
06:18
Parks Department in the basement
06:21
so finally it was it was turned over to
06:24
the library um
06:26
I think it was in
6
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
06:27
1960 a pardon me for having my
06:30
notes but when I get nervous I would
06:32
need notes to tell you what my name is
06:35
in 1964
06:37
the building was transferred to the
06:39
Trustees of the public library and it
06:41
became
06:42
a public library and at that same
06:45
location still is
06:46
today the East Falmouth Library is not
#eastfalmouthlibrary
06:49
as old it was established in 1935 in a
#1935
06:52
classroom in the
06:54
East Falmouth Elementary School
#eastfalmouthelementaryschool
06:57
and in 1943
#1943
07:01
they needed that space
07:02
for kindergarten and so the library was
07:05
closed and it remained closed until
07:08
1958 when the school was able to give
07:11
them space again
07:13
but it was clear that the East Falmouth
07:15
Library needed more room and so in
07:17
1971
07:19
the um town purchased the Vidal House
07:22
across from or by Mill Pond next to
07:25
Smitty's and
07:27
that's where the library is today well
07:30
that's really fascinating the the note
#1964
#1958
#1971
#millpond
7
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
07:32
especially about North Falmouth Library
07:34
that is not the origin I would have
07:35
expected for that building
07:38
and um what you said about
07:40
building uh the idea of building a Taj
07:42
Mahal is very interesting because
07:44
libraries obviously become very heavily
07:46
identified with the buildings they
07:48
inhabit but at the same time they're an
07:49
institution that's beyond a building
07:51
that has to
07:52
think about how to serve the public
07:55
so if
07:57
you could tell me a little bit about the
07:59
library's intentions in the community
08:01
especially things that you think other
08:02
people may not necessarily be aware of
08:04
if they’re just casual patrons
08:07
well it's it's interesting
08:10
the services library services are
08:11
changing
08:12
and um
08:14
again the need for space
08:17
is
08:17
the need for a library is is always
08:20
going to be there
08:22
it's just that the use of the existing
8
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:24
space will change
08:26
or be reconfigured to meet the changing
08:28
needs of the community and as as we're
08:31
all aware
08:32
a lot of the collections are becoming
08:34
digitized our current collection of DVDs
08:38
will slowly uh be phased out as as
08:42
we receive more of our um DVD watching
08:45
via video streaming we're buying a lot
08:47
of ebooks people are reading books
08:49
electronically the e-audiobooks it's a
08:52
big space grab in the library but new
08:56
cars are not even being equipped with CD
08:58
players so people are getting their
09:01
audio books through streaming and and
09:03
downloading them to their phones
09:05
I don't want to scare people we will
09:07
always have books we will always meet
09:08
the needs of the community and it's
09:10
interesting because we're a tourist
09:13
community and sometimes
09:16
our summer homes are not kept up
09:17
technology wise as
09:19
as as much as our main home so it's
09:23
important that we
09:24
we have it we still have a collection of
09:27
VHS tapes
9
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
09:29
they have got to be phased out there are
09:30
just a few people who are still using
09:32
VHS but
09:34
we'll hang in there as long as as there
09:36
is a need for it
09:39
the note about the rental homes is very
09:41
interesting because I can imagine people
09:43
um
09:44
there's a divide definitely between
09:45
people who interact with the libraries
09:47
locals and people who come back every
09:48
year as vacationers
09:51
and I would imagine they come back
09:52
expecting what they have seen for the
09:55
past five ten years maybe even their
09:57
whole childhoods
09:59
do you think that there's a difference
10:01
in the way the library serves
10:02
vacationers as opposed to locals in
10:04
terms of programming materials anything
10:06
like that well we certainly direct our
10:09
programming um which is
10:12
financed by
10:13
well the programs are financed by the
10:15
Friends of the Library and the Trustees
10:19
but we certainly
10:20
our main constituents are our tax-paying
10
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:24
residents of Falmouth but we we have a
10:26
real commitment to the tourists and we
10:28
do
10:29
allow borrowing and welcome them to the
10:32
library so
10:33
so
10:35
and and go out of our way to provide the
10:37
services that they need I was
10:39
talking with Jill Erickson and she was
10:42
telling she was showing me a letter from
10:44
some visitors from England who had
10:46
uh marveled over the the quilt that
10:48
hangs in the Reference Room and the
10:51
reference librarians gave them all kinds
10:53
of information about the quilt and even
10:55
found a poster an old poster of the
10:58
quilt which they took home and framed
11:00
and sent a photo back to us of of our
11:02
Falmouth quilts hanging on the wall in
11:04
their home in England so um
11:07
we always we meet the needs of the of
11:10
the public and
11:11
many times go above and beyond those
11:13
needs
11:15
the um speaking of the quilt that's very
11:17
interesting because
11:20
perhaps for some people it might fade
#jillerickson
11
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
11:21
into the background but the library
11:23
isn't just a home for
11:25
the materials that you would expect
11:26
there's also there's art there's other
11:29
things that are
11:30
in the collections that help to
11:33
preserve a picture of Falmouth as a
11:35
community not just
11:37
not just those informational materials
11:40
it's it's interesting because um
11:44
I found a quote from one of the original
11:46
Trustees of the library Reverend Henry
11:49
Smythe and he I’m going to have to read
11:50
this because I don't want to mix it up
11:53
he um said that the library should
11:55
gather and store materials related to
11:57
the history of the town and he talked
12:00
about old letters logbooks stories and
12:02
traditions
12:03
and he said specifically things that
12:05
have never been written down but which
12:08
are most important material for
12:09
understanding the town's life this is by
12:12
far the most valuable work a library can
12:14
do for a town
12:15
so yes our mission is beyond
12:19
current reading of fiction and that it
12
#henryherbertsmythe
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
12:20
is to preserve the history of the town
12:23
and this project they will that we're
12:25
working on Postcards from Falmouth
12:27
certainly meets um the desires of the
12:31
initial trustee who who would
12:34
greatly approve of what we're doing I’m
12:36
sure I would think so even though in the
12:39
way that um the idea of what the library
12:42
should be has changed there are some
12:44
things that um
12:45
that definitely haven't they still hold
12:47
strong
12:48
and
12:51
in terms of that obviously we've gone
12:52
through a period of a lot of upheaval in
12:55
the last couple of years or so so if you
12:57
could tell me a little bit about the
12:58
adaptations the library has had to make
13:00
to
13:01
things that might have otherwise been
13:03
considered iron-clad in order to deal
13:05
with the pandemic
13:06
oh during the pandemic
13:08
that that was a very interesting time
13:11
for us we had to rethink how we provided
13:15
library services
13:17
without people coming in the building
#postcardsfromfalmouth
#pandemic
13
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:19
we did a lot of home delivery we did
13:22
outside delivery of materials
13:25
people asked for they missed the
13:28
browsing so we loaded up book trucks and
13:30
brought books outside for people to
13:32
browse we
13:34
listened to the community to see what
13:36
they needed and what we could do to meet
13:39
those needs
13:40
one thing people missed was the
13:41
computers
13:43
and and
13:45
internet connectivity so we bought hotspots
13:48
that people could borrow we bought
13:50
Chromebooks that they could take home
13:52
um
13:54
we had to
13:55
be on our feet thinking fast and and
13:59
staying in touch with other CLAMS
14:00
libraries across the Cape
14:02
to get good ideas libraries are great
14:05
about sharing
14:07
and meeting the needs of everyone in
14:09
that way
14:10
we were lucky that
14:13
that we had already started down the
14:15
digitization path so we had a lot of
14
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
14:17
ebooks available for people
14:22
research that people would normally do
14:24
at the library is a lot more online and
14:26
I’m not talking about
14:28
Google
14:29
we had a wonderful digitization project
14:32
in 2012 using CPC funds
#cpc (Community Preservation
Committee)
14:36
and we digitized the Falmouth Enterprise
#falmouthenterprise
14:38
from January
14:40
of 1896 through
14:43
December of 1962 we
14:46
had to stop in 62 because there was a
14:49
requirement that um only historic
14:52
records could be
14:54
digitized so it had to be from 2012 when
14:57
we did the project back 50 years
15:00
we're looking we're working with the
15:01
Boston Public Library to complete that
15:03
digitization project
15:05
and the the Falmouth Enterprise is such
15:08
a wealth of information about the town
15:11
this is one of the the best things we
15:13
did it really is it's um
15:16
there's so much research so much you can
15:18
learn about that one thing I learned in
15:20
looking at the Falmouth Enterprise was
15:22
that there was a a crime that took place
15
#bostonpubliclibrary
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
15:25
in the library in December of 1943
15:29
the librarians came in to find that the
15:31
library had been broken into
15:33
and a set of historic stamps had been
15:36
stolen
15:37
and he'd come in through the basement
15:40
window and taken the displays off the
15:42
wall
15:44
and one of the librarians had remembered
15:46
a gentleman in army fatigue studying the
15:49
stamps the week before
15:51
and so she was able to give a
15:53
description of him to the police
15:55
and the police went to the base and
15:58
talked to the librarian there and she
16:00
said oh yes
16:01
a
16:02
gentleman had borrowed
16:04
the six books they had on the value of
16:06
stamps
16:08
prior to our break-in so they
16:11
they went and uh
16:13
arrested him
16:14
and he had
16:16
packaged the stamps up in a box and
16:18
buried them in his mother's garden in
16:20
Framingham
16
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
16:22
and they were retrieved
16:24
unharmed but the beautiful frames they
16:27
were in um
16:28
apparently he thought this would
16:30
identify the stamps with Falmouth so he
16:32
stopped on the Bourne Bridge and threw
16:34
them in the Canal
16:35
so those were not recovered but it's
16:38
stories like these that um that you
16:40
wouldn't know from uh
16:42
it would be too hard to go back through
16:44
microfilm and and learn about it I’ve
16:47
looked uh
16:48
that's not the end of the stamp story
16:50
I’m trying to figure out what happened
16:52
to the stamps and I’ve talked to the
16:53
Historical Society and
16:55
talked to people in the library but that
16:58
timeframe 1943 is just far enough back
17:01
that there isn't
17:02
uh memory of the event so I’m I haven't
17:06
given up though I’m still going to keep
17:07
looking to try and find the end of that
17:09
story
17:10
that is a really interesting little saga
17:13
maybe a sign or a I hate to say a
17:15
symptom but when you
#falmouthhistoricalsociety
17
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
17:17
have a an institution that's really
17:19
supposed to be a clearinghouse and a
17:21
place for as many people from the public
17:23
to come and be served and to gather
17:25
strange things happen yes for sure
17:28
and um
17:30
thinking of the the steps that the
17:32
library has taken to adapt to the
17:33
pandemic
17:34
do you
17:35
see any of those things carrying forward
17:38
has the patron response been to to hang
17:41
on to these things or they want to go
17:42
back to the way things were
17:44
absolutely library services are forever
17:47
morphing um we would never step
17:49
backwards and um library home delivery
17:53
is really uh important we have a a
17:56
homebound librarian who
18:00
people can register with and she will
18:02
deliver books to them and
18:04
she develops a real personal
18:05
relationship with the people that she
18:07
serves and she knows what books they
18:08
like she makes recommendations and
18:12
that's something that's certainly
18:14
ongoing it happened before the pandemic
18
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
18:16
but during the pandemic we expanded it a
18:19
bit I would
18:22
on several occasions I would stop at
18:24
people's homes with the instruction to
18:26
put the books underneath the back cover
18:28
of the pickup truck in the driveway or
18:31
or put the the bag of books in the
18:33
mailbox after the mail delivery that
18:35
came at four o'clock so it was kind of
18:37
uh kind of fun making sure that people
18:39
still had the reading material that they
18:42
desired
18:43
uh at that time of course we've always
18:46
done a phone-in reference service um ask
18:49
a librarian so a lot of the services
18:52
were there we just needed to ramp them
18:54
up a little bit
18:57
I would imagine that that kind of thing
18:59
really puts you up close and personal
19:00
with the the texture of people's lives
19:02
because people bring strange questions
19:04
to the library
19:06
they do
19:07
they do
19:09
that that would be a better question for
19:11
a reference librarian I know Jill has
19:13
her favorite questions
19
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
19:15
and um
19:18
they're not interesting stories are not
19:20
coming to my mind right now
19:23
I would like to talk about the um the
19:25
Postcards though the
19:27
Postcards from Falmouth is a
19:31
a grant funded project
19:33
and
19:34
why postcards and Falmouth and this is
19:37
an interesting story
19:41
some years ago
19:42
my husband and I were having
19:44
dinner at the Quarterdeck and a woman
19:47
that we knew
19:49
from the Falmouth Road Race and the
19:51
Falmouth Mile enough to say hello to
19:52
Doris Beatty was seated next to us so we
19:55
said hello she was
19:56
dining with a a friend
19:59
and the next night
20:00
we were at the Flying Bridge for dinner
#quarterdeck
#falmouthroadrace
#flyingbridge
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0377
through 0383
20:03
while we were having dinner two nights
20:04
in a row I don't know that's enough
20:06
that's a whole other story but seated
20:09
next to us was Doris Beatty and her friend
20:11
and so we teased them that they
20
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
20:14
were following us and we got talking
20:16
with them and um her friend Mr. Hunt
20:19
Robert Hunt
20:20
told me that he had been stationed here
20:23
during the war and had started a
20:25
collection of postcards about Falmouth
20:28
and would we be interested in having
20:29
them and I said absolutely so he came
20:32
with 600 postcards and we scanned them
20:35
and put them up on our our website and
20:38
they were we're really lucky in Falmouth
20:40
because um as a tourist town there are a
20:43
lot of postcards about Falmouth if
20:45
you're not a tourist community you might
20:47
have a handful of postcards but Falmouth
20:50
has lots as we found out
20:53
Mr. Gunning came in the library after
20:55
seeing the
20:57
Hunt collection and said that his mother
20:59
Anita Gunning had collected postcards
21:01
for years and would we be interested in
21:03
hers he brought in 1800 postcards
21:07
from about Falmouth so with volunteers
21:10
and staff we scanned the front and back
21:13
of those
21:14
postcards and then most recently a
21:17
gentleman in Falmouth Gareth Jennings
#robertchunt
21
#anitagunning
#garethjennings
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
21:20
brought in his collection and so we
21:22
scanned them so we have
21:25
well over 3000 postcards of Falmouth
21:28
scanned and you you might think there'd
21:29
be a lot of duplication yes there is
21:31
some
21:32
but um there are different time frames
21:34
the different collections of different
21:36
time frames so we're constantly finding
21:38
new postcards
21:40
and postcards you know what what do we
21:41
do with them well it's been really
21:43
interesting we had a creative writing
21:45
program where people chose a postcard
21:48
and wrote a story about it
21:50
um
21:51
this project Postcards from Falmouth to
21:54
to look at postcard locations across the
21:57
town and
21:58
film people's memory of that location
22:02
I had an interesting question from a
22:04
patron he was looking through our
22:06
postcards and came across one
22:09
where someone had written on the front
22:11
of the card “why so quiet,” signed Marie
22:15
and this this was the first batch that
22:17
we had scanned and we hadn't done the
22
Hunt_Village_Bch_093
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
22:19
front and back just the front and he
22:21
wondered if there was any more to this
22:22
question on the back of the card
22:25
so I looked and on the back of the card
22:26
was just the address and the postcard
22:29
had been sent to
22:31
a Julia Quiring in Boston so I looked
22:34
her up to see what I could find out and
22:36
she was a most interesting woman
22:37
fascinating she was a Boston Brahmin a
22:40
hat designer
22:42
her brother was an artist who did
22:44
frescoes in the theaters in in Boston
22:48
and she lived to be 108 which so
22:51
impressed me
22:52
I did find two other postcards addressed
22:55
not to her but to her sister Anna so
22:58
every time we get a new collection I go
22:59
through to see if there are any more
23:01
postcards written to this family but I
23:03
think
23:03
I think that's probably all we've heard
23:05
from the Quirings
23:07
I think that's a really a great example
23:09
of the idea of what we're trying to do
23:11
with the project being to use these
23:13
ephemera to capture moments
#juliaquiring
23
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
23:16
in history and in people's memories
23:18
because that's where the really
23:19
interesting particulars are and it's
23:22
also a great visual history of the town
23:25
I was so impressed with the postcards of
23:28
the train stations in North Falmouth
23:31
when when the main uh
23:33
means of transport to Falmouth was
23:35
trains and there it was a huge huge uh
23:38
depot in North Falmouth you wouldn't
23:40
think there'd be room for it but I think
23:42
it was mostly in the area where the
23:44
parking is for the uh for the ferries
23:46
now but quite fascinating
23:49
and nowadays it's kind of an element of
23:50
the landscape that's either been
23:52
effaced totally or really pushed into the
23:54
background yeah so having that record is
23:57
it's valuable but also like you said it
23:59
really provokes people's curiosity and
24:01
leads them down interesting paths yeah
24:04
and to that point as we wrap up is there
24:06
anything that you want to
24:08
say to people about the library
24:10
yes I always am happy to talk about the
24:12
library
24:14
the library appropriation is only 1.5
Hunt_North_Bldg_403 & 404
24
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
24:18
percent of the town budget and it is um
24:22
a real deal for the for the residents of
24:25
Falmouth the um
24:28
there is so much to offer at the main
24:30
library the East Branch the North Branch
24:33
but also the West Falmouth Library and
24:35
the Woods Hole Library all open to the
24:38
public all offering different programs
24:40
and services there’s truly
24:42
something for everyone at the Falmouth
24:45
Public Library
24:47
and our our our two private libraries
24:49
that are still open to the public
24:52
well that's wonderful thank you for
24:53
coming thank you for having me
24:55
[Music]
25
�
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Transcript of Linda Collins' Oral History on Falmouth Public Library
1879
1889
1891
1901
1935
1943
1955
1958
1964
1967
1971
2007
Anita Gunning
Anna Lee
Beebe
Boston Public Library
COVID-19
CPC
East Falmouth Elementary School
East Falmouth Library
Esther Beebe
Falmouth Enterprise
Falmouth Historical Society
Falmouth Public Library
Falmouth Road Race
Flying Bridge
Gareth Jennings
Henry Herbert Smythe
Jill Erickson
julia quiring
Linda Collins
mill pond
north falmouth congregational church
North Falmouth Library
north falmouth village association
nye park
oral history
pandemic
Postcards from Falmouth
quarterdeck
robert c. hunt jr.
transcript
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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
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were built in Woods Hole 14 other ships
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uh we refurbished to the point that
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Woods Hole was deforested at one point
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as there was so much work that was done
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so everything from the Woods Hole wharf
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down past Captain Kidd and Woods Hole
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Market those were buildings that had to
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do with cooper with barrel making with
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sail making provisions um continuing the
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walk down to what really is MBL the old
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Candle House which was uh uh served as a
#candlehouse
Hunt_WoodsHole_Bldg_535
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place for spermaceti uh candles being
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made there down to waterfront park the
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beautiful view of of the Woods Hole
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passage at that point I mean people ask
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you know how did Woods Hole get its name
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well the reality was we don't know who
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Woods was but hole of course is a
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nautical term smaller body of water
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between two larger bodies of water and
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in this case we've got Vineyard Sound on
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one side and Buzzards Bay on the other
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so the Woods Hole passage is that hole
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but as you make your way down through
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the Elizabeth Islands you've got
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Quick’s Hole and Robinson’s Hole going out
#elizabethislands
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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all the way to Cuttyhunk so we usually
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make a turn there you know I talked I I
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walk behind Lillie and Crane
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beautiful view of Eel Pond you know
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looking
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east at that point toward you know the
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Woods Hole School make our way up by the
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Marine Resource Center and then cut up
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the other side of Water Street
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going uh really across you know into the
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WHOI area as well the WHOI campus uh the
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past the old Methodist church it's now
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the WHOI exhibit center uh the choirs
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across the Michael Walsh Garden uh with
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all the rambler roses and all the other
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garden and you know beautiful pollinated
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garden that WHOI has done for that then
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past Challenger House which Mrs. Swift
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was attacked in 1777 by the British she
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drove them off with a broom after they
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stole most of her livestock and we wrap
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up back at the museum itself so it's a
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it's a fun walking tour and what's nice
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is for the people that come we have some
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people that are Falmouth residents that
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know a lot about Woods Hole but a lot
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come in they're either there they're
Gunning_WoodsHole_Bldg_0679
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#michaelwalsh
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visitors heading to the Vineyard they're
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there because the scientific community
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whether it's WHOI MBL NOAA
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you know
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Woodwell Climate Institute whatever it
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might be um others are artisans you know
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I talk a lot about the artistic
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community we have the currently the
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Community Hall which has been in
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existence
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for well over 100 years at this point
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has an art show there
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we've got parts of the Woods Hole Film
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Festival the box office will be using
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the old fire station so Woods Hole has a
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lot of things to a lot of different
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people and
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it's a very fascinating place to come
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and certainly the library and the museum
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are major parts of it wonderful so one
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of the highlights on the tour and and I
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just learned
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several things
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during your virtual tour just now of the
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village starting at the library but one
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of the sites you mentioned was the Woods
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Hole School when I was a kid
National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
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#woodsholefilmfestival
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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it was still
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a public elementary school
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and so people my age went
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some went to elementary school there so
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and the linkage between
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learning
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at the library and
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learning in general is is significant so
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yeah
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is there any sort of history between the
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Woods Hole School and the Woods Hole
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Library that you’re aware of absolutely so you
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mentioned that yeah both my parents were
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proud graduates of the Woods Hole School
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um it is interesting also that the Woods
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Hole School is the only building in Woods
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Hole that's on the National Register of
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Historic Places even the Candle House
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part of MBL is not
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there's been this very strong connection
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between the Children's School of Science
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and the library itself and when the
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Woods Hole Library did have students
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before they they went to Mullen-Hall
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there were extensive programs that took
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place many of the teachers brought their
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classes over to the library itself again
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#nationalregisterofhistoricplaces
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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you had a perfect set up with you know
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tremendous like you know there were
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books obviously a smaller library at the
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Woods Hole School but they they brought
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their classes over during class after
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class and you know many students would
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come over and do their homework
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at the library itself with with some of
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the desks and areas that were set up
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it's it's always been very very children
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friendly uh place
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wonderful
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so
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anything else you want to share with us
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well no thank you very much Troy I
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appreciate uh given the opportunity to
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tell the Falmouth community about
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all the wonderful things about the Woods
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Hole Library and the Woods Hole Historic
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Museum and please come down and visit
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they would be happy to have you and a
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lot to see in Woods Hole and happen to
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stop by the museum we do have some of
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the brochures from the tours themselves
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who you can do your own walking tour if
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it's a day that that I’m not giving
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tours wonderful well Rob Blomberg thank
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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you so much I always say it takes a name
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to make a town but people to make a
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community so thank you for being one of
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the people that keeps the spirit in the
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history of Woods Hole and the Woods Hole
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Library alive thank you very much Troy
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appreciate it
22
�
Text
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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/9eed404c3e53dfe8e404b58603e7521f.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=gYY%7ENHoEws0wBkI98lkYnekZsIVPXO7HynHTL4QmIjipkfPhYrpZfncnYniWMUf33Jl1JgaQOXKNM2dG4FiIFqiPg9QVedYXZBsziSFyQuSpydqTktoVC2Xii0olZXDvvwWpjaJl1DbZmDKfCrGBAaolUcTKY574QZlr1fK5W0x9EH4qa2LJ99JSKhnB4aUafO3n0PETEMb%7EzWnB6bEhxbv9xy%7E6ASWbRdIqRXGwblELVwcB4SnpvJZBT2IDE%7EYpmGcykbA08FtebLFeM7sht4LDJ5fNZ9ZzI6e0-11kPQZJcKQchV2KIh%7ErVOg2LhAIcqjJ8Dgir5Av8qE7Sp-AaQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
a5f3c3b6d634299a3e6713b2304e7182
PDF Text
Text
Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Zoom Program Transcript
Recorded: July 20, 2021
Presenter: Christopher Setterlund
Host: Sue Henken
Topic: Historic Restaurants of Cape Cod, by Christopher Setterlund
•
Available from CLAMS under CAPE COD 647.95 SET
• Also mentioned:
o Cape Cod Nights: Historic Bars, Clubs, and Drinks, by Christopher Setterlund,
available at Falmouth Public Library under 647.95 SET
o Iconic Hotels and Motels of Cape Cod, by Christopher Setterlund, available at
Falmouth Public Library under 647.95 SET
o Cape Cod Wampanoag Cookbook, by Earl Mills & Betty Breen, available from
CLAMS under 641.59 MIL
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
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[Music]
and without further ado I wanted to
welcome Chris we're glad to have you
here
thank you so much I’m so glad to be here
and
yes like Sue said this is geared more
towards
Falmouth so it'll be
a lot of the places that are in my
restaurant's book are
here but in order to make this worth
your while for actually being
part of this Zoom presentation I added
some places that are not in the book
so what I’m going to do is I’m going to
pull my presentation
up so that you can see it
because it's more exciting to see the
actual presentation
and so I wrote this book
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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Historic Restaurants of Cape Cod
this was in 2017.
and for those who don't know me I am a
12th generation Cape Codder
and I’ve written a total of six books my
most recent one is in the bottom right
corner that's Iconic Hotels and Motels
of Cape Cod
that one along with Cape Cod Nights
will be
featured next week and that one will
also be
a presentation that is Falmouth centric
so it'll be a lot of fun this one was a
lot of fun to put together too
because I wanted to I had to do more
research and find
places that you will hopefully remember
and if you don't then
I can bring them back to life for you
so in June of 2015 that's when I started
chronicling
the legendary Cape Cod restaurants it
was part of
Arcadia Publishing's History Press label
and the end result was Historic
Restaurants of Cape Cod so the book
itself
is 39 restaurants
all of them are since closed
but there's a 40th chapter that includes
recipes from many of the restaurants
that are
in the book and I was lucky because I’ve
done a lot of work for Cape Cod Life
magazine
and way back when they first started in
the late 70s early 80s they would have
recipes from restaurants in their
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#2015
#capecodlife
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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magazine
and they basically told me in exchange
for
mentioning that they're from the Cape
Cod Life magazine I could use any
recipes I wanted so it ended up being a
great
sort of win-win so that's at the last
chapter of the book
the rest so I covered the entirety of
Cape Cod in the book
I didn't want to show favoritism I grew
up in Yarmouth live in Yarmouth so
naturally
I could close my eyes and think of two
dozen restaurants from
near where I live from my lifetime
but what I did was hundreds and hundreds
of hours of research
to make sure that the entirety of the
Cape was represented
the basis of this book was a 2005 Ohio
State University study
that explained that 60 percent of
restaurants don't survive
their first season and eighty percent
go under within five years and I’m sure
a lot of you have seen
restaurants I mean COVID kind of
accelerated some
but before that that you would see
restaurants come in
have a big grand opening and fade away
within a year or two
what I focused on was those restaurants
that have
that had come and gone but they had a
huge impact
they came and made a big impact and
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#yarmouth
#covid19
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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so this book is filled with a lot of
those
and for those of you that you know
beyond Falmouth I mean you probably have
heard of Thompson’s Clam Bar
Mildred’s Chowder House places like that
that's some examples of ones that are
outside of Falmouth but without further
ado
let's take a scroll down memory lane
places that you will
know and love and remember so
this one I put first because
uh it's very unique it was on the
top of my list as far as Falmouth
centric
restaurants now granted it's in Woods
Hole but it's so
close so The Dome Restaurant
#thompsonsclambar
#mildredschowderhouse
#thedome
Gunning_WoodsHole_Bldg_0607
and 0608
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the reason why I put this front and
center
first as far as places to talk about is
because it's being
worked on currently
so the plan is for the actual dome
itself to be
restored and possible
senior housing to be built around it in
the site of the former
Nautilus Motor Inn in 2016
the area was purchased for 2.9 million
dollars by a group called
Woods Hole Partners and that's who's
working on it right now
so The Dome Restaurant for those not
familiar with it it's down
#nautilusmotorinn #2016
#woodsholepartners
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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right near the Steamship Authority so
I’ve told people if you're driving down
going towards the Steamship Authority
once you can see the water
you're basically passing by the Dome
it is an authentic geodesic dome
much like Epcot Center in Disney and
there's a reason why because they were
built by the same person
a man named R. Buckminster Fuller and he
built this 54-foot diameter
geodesic dome and the restaurant itself
opened in 1954
and it was 170 seats the Dome was the
dining room
the kitchen and the rest of the
facilities were attached to it
and obviously it's a very unique
restaurant you can see in that
image on the right it's a postcard from
the Falmouth Historical Society
#steamshipauthority
#geodesicdome
#buckminsterfuller
#1954
#falmouthhistoricalsociety
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through 0453,
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that eating in a geodesic dome is quite
unique and so
people would flock to it but the problem
was
the geodesic dome in the summer
especially
conducts itself like a greenhouse which
made it very hot
and if you're talking the 50s and 60s
air conditioning wasn't
as prevalent I mean it was but
what they had to do and you can see in
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that picture on the right
on the left hand side of the postcard
there's that
white white thing hanging down it's a
tarp
the tarp was put over much of the dome
to shield it from the sun and keep it
from getting too hot
and so unfortunately you know it it got
to be
you wanted to eat at the Dome for the
view and then most of the view was
obstructed by a tarp
because it was too hot
the Dome closed in 2002 officially
it has been sitting there
basically decaying for the last nearly
20 years
there's been plans to at the very least
preserve it for history but now the idea
is to
refurbish the dome and create the senior
housing near it so
luckily this spot will seemingly be
around for a long time
however the Dome is far from the only
spot
in Falmouth that gained iconic
status so do you remember
Elsie’s also known as Elsie’s Lunch
so this spot was located on Palmer
#elsies
#palmeravenue
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through 0052
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Avenue
and this is also a postcard from the
Falmouth Historic Society
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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this restaurant was owned by a couple
Elsie and Henry Bowman
and they're very unique because they
fled
Germany ahead of World War II in the
late 1930s
and they actually settled up in Boston
and in 1955 Elsie and Henry
opened a sandwich shop in Harvard Square
that was also called
Elsie’s and it was very popular
they had sandwiches like fresher's dream
which was essentially you would consider
it a New York deli
sandwich or a Dagwood depending on what
you know it as
with ham turkey and corned beef they
also had the Elsie’s roast beef special
which was roast beef and onions German
mustard Russian dressing
and relish and Elsie worked hard
she worked hard at her restaurant in
Harvard Square
and what ended up happening was in 1965
she had a heart attack
so basically they told her you need to
retire
and what else he did was she retired to
Cape Cod moved to Falmouth
and stayed retired for about a year
before
she opened the second Elsie’s which was
on Palmer Avenue in 1966.
it stayed open through 1986 it was very
popular all the way through
before she eventually really retired in
1986
now the spot is a place called
Crabapples
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#elsiebowman #henrybowman
#germany #worldwartwo
#boston
#1955
#1966
#1986
#crabapples
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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which is still there that was Elsie’s
way back in the day
some of these legendary establishments
are still standing and
still open today and that's a neat thing
about
doing this being Falmouth centric was
the original Historic Restaurants
book every place in there was closed
and my publisher they dealt with that
one all right
they made it a point that for the Cape
Cod Nights book the nightlife
I needed to have at least a few places
that were still open in there
and the Iconic Hotels and Motels
they needed at least half of them to
still be open
so luckily a place like the Silver
Lounge restaurant which is still open
that's neat because you can see the
presentation and then go out to
Route 28a and check them out
they've been open since 1938
they've got a unique nautical theme
inside
where there's driftwood adorning some of
the walls in there from local beaches
they're known for seafood steaks
sandwiches
typical American fare the property was
once owned by a man named Manuel White
and it was bought by William Early and
he's the one
that opened it on May 28 1938
and early he was cross
promotion he came from a spot called the
Coonamessett Inn
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#silverlounge
#1938
#manuelwhite
#williamearly
#coonamessettinn
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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and they're still going strong there's
Uncle Bill's Country Store which is a
gift shop
right next to it so that's another
spot Route 28a that's kind of the nice
back roads but not back roads where
Route 28 I know out there is more of a
highway
but some of these places are a part of
recent Cape Cod history
and that talks to on the left the Nimrod
that just recently was torn down
it was on Dillingham Avenue
and it's mostly known for being
hit by a cannonball during the war of
1812
the restaurant itself was named for
the British ship the HMS Nimrod
uh before so this wasn't the original
location of the Nimrod
Dillingham Avenue it was actually
located
at a different spot in town and it was
known as the Boxwood Club
but then in the 1950s it was moved to
its spot
at Dillingham Avenue where it flourished
from there
the problem was that as it turned to the
21st century
the building was falling out of code
to the point where I guess if you had
the owners had
taken steps earlier it probably could
have been
9
#unclebillscountrystore
#route28
#nimrod
#dillinghamavenue
#boxwoodclub
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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saved but it turned out that
when they went to the health department
and such to see
how much it would cost to bring the
building up to code it was 2 million
dollars
and this is more than 10 years ago
so they ended up closing the restaurant
officially in 2012
and it sat the building decayed people
came in looking to buy
but what ended up happening was they
bought it more for
the property and less for the
restaurant itself now it's an empty lot
unfortunately they tried to save it
to make it you know a part of the
register of historic places but it did
not happen
the Leeside Bar and Grill that much
like the Dome is with an eyesight of the
Steamship Authority
that was Luscombe Avenue right there
near Water Street
#leesidebarandgrill
#luscombeavenue
#waterstreet
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in Woods Hole they were open for
more than 60 years as
kind of a restaurant bar
and it's known for its odd shape because
it's where
two roads meet so it's got almost a
triangular
shape to it the building itself is still
there
in 2013 the Leeside closed
and it was quickly purchased and
reopened as Quick’s Hole
Tavern so that is still there
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#quicksholetavern
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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it's interesting to see these places and
know that you can
go back and you can see a place like the
Leeside even though it's in a different
it's a different name now
other spots that were in the book and
that I researched
for this presentation are part of a
bygone generation
The Bellows is an interesting one it was
#thebellows
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0386
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on
Falmouth Heights Road and from 1933 to
48
it was a restaurant it was started as
more of a tea room
which I’m not it's kind of
lighter fare lunch and obviously
tea but it was opened by a woman named
Thekla Hedlund and she was from Long
Island
and it was a tea room with lobster and
more
so it became it started as a tea room
but she had a connection
that could get her fresh lobster so she
decided she'd be crazy not to do that
so it became more of a breakfast and
lunch place
and it was very successful the problem
was that
Thekla Hedlund even though she had her
family helping her out it's a lot of
work
to run a successful restaurant even one
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#falmouthheightsroad #1933 #1948
#tearoom
#theklahedlund
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that's only open during the summer
she would be down on the Cape for the
summer
spring summer and go back to Long Island
in the off season
in 1946 she had a massive
stroke and died shortly thereafter
what ended up happening was the family
sold The Bellows itself the restaurant
and a man came in and bought it ran it
for two more years as The Bellows but
when you buy an existing restaurant and
it's yours
you kind of you say you're gonna run it
as the previous owners did but then you
get your own ideas of what
you want to do with that property since
you own it
so what they did was change the name to
The Red Horse
Grill that only lasted for about
two years before it became known as the
Red Horse
Inn and the Red Horse Inn is still
standing
so unfortunately I couldn't get a better
photo with the postcard on the right
but it's the same building and if you
come for next week's presentation the
Red Horse Inn is front and center
so you may hear a little bit of this
similarity
but The Bellows was one of those hidden
gems that when doing my research
for the restaurants book it was
something I had never heard of and it
was a neat
unique story of a tea room that became a
successful
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#redhorsegrill
#redhorseinn
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lunch breakfast lunch place with lobster
and Thekla Hedlund she was a unique
person to
run this spot
so also falling along those lines
of The Bellows was the Hangar Tea Room
and the reason why I put this I could
not find a photo of the Hangar Tea Room
so the Megansett Tea Room in North
#hangartearoom
#megansetttearoom
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#northfalmouth
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Falmouth it's the same kind of idea
where like I mentioned a tea room is
lighter fare sandwiches
drinks the Hangar Tea Room is an
interesting one and I wrote
a longer story about it for I have a
blog
called the In My Footsteps Podcast Blog
now and I do a lot of Cape Cod history
over there I used to write a lot for
capecod.com I did
Cape Cod Cape Cod history
articles I left there about two years
ago because
I wanted to basically write about things
I found interesting and not
have to run it by an editor so that's
what I ended up doing and the Hangar Tea
Room
is a pretty good story that's on that
blog
so it started off in 1923 as a tea room
called the Gray Gull
and then a woman named Mary Fellows she
bought it
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#inmyfootsteps
#1923
#graygull
#maryfellows
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and ran it throughout much of the 1920s
and it had music and dancing this was
during Prohibition
so when you're running a place that has
entertainment during Prohibition you've
got to
make it good because there's no alcohol
to kind of keep people around
in 1930 it became known as the Hangar
Tea Room
and this is where the story gets
interesting
there was a man named William Wagner who
bought it and ran it the problem was
that it be there was a lot of complaints
about
noise cars parked all over the place
and also people drunk stumbling out into
the street
so during Prohibition when all these
things are happening
that kind of gets the antenna going of
the local police
and what ended up happening was on
November 3rd
1933 the police raided the Hangar Tea
Room
and they found alcohol they found
gambling equipment in there
and they essentially shut them down
briefly what happened was
William Wagner not too long after I mean
Prohibition
was overturned not too long after they
were raided so it was right on the cusp
so after Prohibition was overturned
William Wagner
tried to go and get an actual liquor
license for the Hangar Tea Room
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#prohibition
#wagner
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and he was turned down he even though it
was so close to the end of Prohibition
the town didn't forget that he had his
speakeasy there
so he even had his wife Dorothy
running it trying to get her like all
right we're not associated with
William Wagner anymore but still his
wife
eventually they gave them a liquor
license but it was too late
they closed down before the end of the
1930s
and William Wagner he did not like
having his
liquor license application turned down
so he decided to run for selectmen in
the town
and unfortunately for him he ran for
selectmen
11 times and he lost 11 times
so he did not have much luck once he was
raided
by the police in 1933 kind of went
downhill from there
some of these spots were a short drive
away
and Quintal’s
was just over the Bourne Bridge today
it's
uh Dunkin’ Donuts in a Speedway I believe
right where the Bourne Rotary is that
leads you into Wareham or up onto Route
25 Quintal’s was open
from the mid-60s through 2005
and I’m actually working on an in-depth
article about the history of the
Quintals and the family Robert and
Gloria who
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#speakeasy
#quintals
#bournebridge
#bournerotary
#wareham
#route25
#2005
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started it because I didn't realize how
how far their reach went I thought of
Quintal’s as
Bourne slash Buzzards Bay and this one
restaurant
but it turns out they had four
restaurants at once
so they had this one here they opened
one in Hyannis at the airport rotary
in the early 80s so it was
Red Coach Grill later it was Chili's
and in between it was Quintal's Red
Cabin
and it was brief they only had it there
for maybe three years
and it's interesting because they
expanded and all the expansions
didn't last that long because in
Yarmouth
they had Quintal Seafood was the name
of it
I believe they opened in 1979
and by 1983 they were closed and
replaced by
Oliver’s which is still there
the other one was actually
on the Cranberry Highway in Wareham
and it was called the Crack O Dawn
they actually weren't
weren't too long ago that they closed
down within the last
seven eight years and they were more of
a breakfast place Crack O Dawn with a
little rooster on the sign interesting
thing about Quintal’s was
they in 2005 after the
the parents Robert had passed away and
Gloria was
she was older she was retired they were
16
#bourne #buzzardsbay
#hyannis
#redcoachgrill #chilis
#quintalsredcabin
#quintalseafood
#1979
#1983
#oliversandplanckstavern
#cranberryhighway
#quintalscrackodawn
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selling it and they planned on closing
it at the end of the 2005
season but a fire broke out
in June of 2005 and it they
took it as a sign basically that it was
they didn't have the money or the time
to repair
the restaurant to reopen for a few more
months so they just closed it down
and it was interesting they sold it to
Christy Mihos
who he put his Christy’s in there but
then he went out of business
and on the right The Flume
was located in Mashpee it's now
the Naukabout Brewery but it was
owned for 32 years by High Chief Earl
Mills
he was known as Flying Eagle of the
Wampanoag
Tribe and what he did was he
had his own recipes that he grew up with
from his
family his parents and he put that into
everything all of his meals the Flume
it was interesting I interviewed Earl
Mills
for the restaurant's book and it's just
a funny story because he
I had him come and speak at the book
launch event
for it and he basically he was telling a
lot of the same stories that he told me
on the phone
the only problem was on the phone his
stories were
very R-rated with a lot of swears
and as he's telling these stories about
working in a kitchen and
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#christymihos
#christys
#flumerestaurant
#mashpee
#naukaboutbrewery
#earlmills
#flyingeagle
#wampanoag
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being a chef I just was cringing like oh
god please don't
swear so much because I was trying to
keep it where people were recording it
but he didn't he was good about that
another interesting thing so there's a
recipe in the book
from the Flume it's his Indian pudding
and I spoke to him I said oh yeah I put
a recipe of yours in the book
from Cape Cod life magazine and he
quickly cut me off and he said oh yeah
that's not the right recipe
and I was like wait what do you mean and
he was he was writing a cookbook of his
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own at the time
and what he told me was why the hell
would I
give them the recipe for free when I
could put it in my book and make money
off
of it and Earl Mills he's a hoot he
definitely
he was worth the time to interview
and there were icons of the Falmouth
restaurant scene like Danny-Kay's
which is on Route 28 it was opened
from 1959 to 1977
classic Italian restaurant owned by the
Bartolomei
family the grandson
of the owners Jay Bartolomei he owns a
spot called the Villaggio
in Cotuit so if you
went to Danny-Kay’s and you enjoyed their
food
you can go and kind of get a taste of it
at the Villaggio
18
Cape Cod Wampanoag Cookbook,
by Earl Mills & Betty Breen
#danny-kays
#1959 #1977
#bartolomei
#villaggioristorante
#cotuit
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I find it interesting that Danny-Kay’s was
an icon of
Falmouth restaurants and yet the place
the spot that replaced it
the Golden Sails Chinese restaurant has
been around for
more than twice as long as Danny-Kay’s
was there
and I don't know I’ve never eaten at the
Golden Sails I don't know how it is but
you know there they've been there for
more than 40 years
and there were also legends nearby the
Tin Man Diner
so it ended up being a part of Falmouth
restaurants but it got its start
far away from there so the diner car
itself so on the right
the original was called the Sterling
Steam Line
Streamliner diner car
the original was known as the Jimmy
Evans Flyer
and it was located in New Bedford and
opened in 1940.
Jimmy Evans was a vaudeville entertainer
and he didn't run it himself he had his
wife run it
but he put his name on it figuring that
Jimmy Evans people would know
him and come to eat there thinking you
know he's got his name on it
it must be good in 1960
the Jimmy Evans Flyer was purchased
and it was no
uh that's it um he just referenced
oops he just referenced
building quality [unintelligible]
[unintelligible] takes about eight to ten
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#goldensails
#tinmandiner
#sterlingstreamliner
#jimmyevansflyer
#newbedford
#1940
#jimmyevans
#1960
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months
and I didn't exactly know what that
meant
not sure I follow that
so the Tin Man Diner was moved
to the Otis rotary where
stayed open as the oldest rotary diner
in the 1970s
then later on it was known as Mary
Muffins
but then it was leased to a woman named
Barbara Lind she's on the left
left-hand side of the left photo with
her daughter
and it was renamed My Tin Man Diner
it had a lot of military memorabilia
and Wizard of Oz memorabilia located in
there
unfortunately in 2000 it was
subject to arson the jealous boyfriend
of a waitress there
burned the building down and it was sad
because
a lot of the regular customers
would come to the charred remains in the
parking lot and sit there with their and
have coffee
where the building used to be
luckily there was a happy ending because
in 2008
it was resurrected in Falmouth and
that's the one that's on the left
it lasted for another three years
On County Road in North Falmouth before
eventually closing in 2011
but that was one interviewing Barbara
Lind
it spoke to the overall impact that
these
20
#marymuffins
#barbaralind
#mytinmandiner
#2000
#2008
#countyroad
#2011
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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restaurants had Barbara Lind sent me
these photos of
the Tin Man Diner and she was so
overwhelmed
with happiness and almost like a
validation
that I had included her building her
restaurant in my book
and that's the way I found it with this
book that
I didn't put any spot in there that I
didn't think belonged
as a historic iconic Cape Cod location
and that's what I found that's why when
doing the research for
the Falmouth area I wanted to make sure
it was places that
stuck out that deserve to be mentioned
and remembered
and no matter what though these spots in
there
they deserve to be remembered and
celebrated for the good
more than the good food but the good
memories that they give to people
and that's kind of where I fall on this
that it's bringing back the memories and
how you felt
being there just as much as it is about
the restaurants themselves
and I finished it with a couple of
different shots of Main Street Falmouth
#mainstreet
Gunning_Village_Sts_0017
through 0041
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one looks like it's from the early 40s
and the others from the
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probably early 60s but that's where we
wrap things up
with my presentation on historic
restaurants of the Falmouth area
and if there are any questions I will do
my best to
answer them I’m going to
stop sharing the screen
so if Sue I don't know if you want to
open it up
oh okay yeah um we had one in the chat
and someone asked what about Lawrence’s
#lawrencessandwichdepot
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do you know anything about that one
that is one that I’ve heard of I think
Lawrence’s sandwich shop is that
because that's been on a I don't know
much about it myself
but it was on it was on my list for the
original book the idea is
some places had as I say more meat on
the bone
thankfully in the years since
I did this book there's been more in the
way of
research opportunities online newspaper
archives that have allowed me to
expand that's why a place like Quintal’s
or a place like the Hangar Tea Room that
I wasn't able to get in
the original book I can now research
because of these expanded I mean
Falmouth Library they've got the
newspaper archives they go up to
22
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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1962 I believe so those
are fun to check out yeah we actually
have them we have microfilm too oh hold
on one second yeah we have microfilm of
those
um if you could turn your camera on if
you have a question and
just raise your hand and then we'll know
who's talking
does anyone
okay yeah I don't see any other
questions in the chat but if anyone
wants to ask a question or
mention anything about me these
restaurants just turn your camera on if
you can
or if you don't have a camera you can
unmute yourself too well I
see in the chat about the casino the
#casino
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casino
next week that's from my Cape Cod Nights
book
there were some places that
doubled as restaurants and nightclubs
there were some that doubled as
restaurants and hotels
so I had to pick and choose what went
where
now that's not to say that I didn't have
places that were
in multiple books a place like The
Columns that used to exist in West
Dennis
23
#thecolumns
#westdennis
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was in the restaurant's book and in the
nightlife book because
it doubled as a jazz club so the casino
you will see
um can you tell us just a little bit
more about your research for these books
too like
how do you approach these books when you
write them
so first thing with this restaurant's
book
basically the publisher came to me and
said
you can have any anywhere from five to
forty restaurants
and that was basically the only
restriction I had
so what I did was I asked family
parents grandparents friends about Cape
cod what places do you remember going
that you liked
and I jotted all of them down I think I
ended up with
almost a hundred wow and
then what I did was pick the ones that I
knew were the big time ones
Thompson’s Clam Bar Mildred’s Chowder
House
and the like and then ones that I wasn't
as familiar with
like when I saw the Dome I said oh my
god this place is awesome
because you can still go see it I mean
it's kind of
decayed but hopefully they're fixing it
but you start to pick your definite ones
that go in there
and I had a plan to do 40 restaurants
it was a nice round number with 40,000
24
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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words
was kind of the word count but it ended
up not happening so that's where the
recipes came from
oh yeah that's yeah that's Olde Surrey
#smithsoldesurreyroom
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Room is next week too
you're picking ones that see they fell
kind of in between
where believe me I’ve got photos of both
Smith’s Olde Surrey Room is is going to
be in the Cape Cod Nights
next week and the casino casino
Brothers Four it's interesting when I
did my
research for the Cape Cod Nights book I
didn't realize
that Terrace Gables which is it's next
#brothersfour
#terracegables
Gunning_Heights_Bldg_1169
through 1206
Hunt_Heights_Bldg_229 through
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week as well
a huge luxury hotel right on
uh Falmouth Heights right on the
Falmouth Road Race running route
I didn't realize that that became
Brothers Four
that it was basically they just put a
nightclub entertainment complex into
this hotel
and the same with the casino that that
they were
like neighbors and it's so interesting
that it got repurposed as that
but oh believe me that's that's coming
#falmouthroadrace
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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too
cool yeah that'll be a great
presentation
especially yeah it'll cover a lot
because it's a hotel it's two different
books hotels and nightclubs so
yes and I’ve got a whole brand new
presentation for that as well
oh that's great no we appreciate that
because even your books
to begin with you know cover a lot so
the fact that you went and found even
more on Falmouth that's great
and I enjoyed I took it as kind of a
challenge
to make it where it was worth it for the
people that came to
check it out to make it where it wasn't
just
three or four places from the book that
it fleshed out to a full
presentation and Falmouth was easier
than if you
told me to do it for like Wellfleet
Wellfleet would be a lot harder
Truro I I don't think they were even
represented in the restaurant's book and
I tried
but Truro it was a needle in a haystack
yeah there aren't a lot of restaurants
there that's for sure well I couldn't
even I don't think I could name you
one currently let alone
back 40 50 years ago yeah
yeah maybe one okay does anyone have any
questions or does anyone have any
comments in any of these restaurants if
they had been there
yes did I do justice to because so the
26
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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place
I could tell you the ones that I pulled
from the book that I have
you can tell the ones I have more
knowledge of the Dome
Elsies The Bellows The Flume
Tin Man Diner but places
like the Leeside and the Nimrod
those I weren't as familiar with so I
tried to do my best to
get information that I could share so
that it wasn't
just a photo and me skipping by
yeah I’m not from Falmouth myself so I
don't know any of these but I’m sure
some of these folks probably do
and someone typed that they had some
good memories I wonder if
who if anyone knew about Hangar Tea Room
room and the speakeasy because that was
fascinating
I did an article about it that goes way
more in depth
but I’ve started to become a big fan of
finding
speakeasies and writing about them there
was one I’m from Yarmouth and there's a
famous one called the Casa Madrid that's
down near the beaches
and it basically in 1933 it opened as
dinner and dancing and within six weeks
they had been raided and shut down
because they were speakeasy and they
didn't hide it very well
there were Boston-based politicians that
were supposedly
legend has it there when it got raided
and they jumped out the back window
to escape wow
27
#casamadrid
#1933
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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yeah that would be interesting well
maybe someone will come to us with some
of these stories at some point today
we can relay them yeah definitely if
anyone has any places they want me to
research and then do a future article on
I also do podcasts and I share a lot of
Cape Cod history there the podcast is
more New England-centric
but I have I did a stand-alone about the
Cape Cod Coliseum and things like that
yeah and I think
on your website is probably your email I
assume that people can contact you if
they have questions yes sir
I mean I have it too but I didn't I
think you have it posted on your website
too
and the website is good it's got so it
has my first
five books my sixth one hasn't been
uploaded yet but obviously you can get
it
pretty much anywhere and it's got
a link to my podcast and a link to I was
on
Chronicle two years ago this week so I
have that
embedded there so you can see it oh wow
that's great okay well
we'll definitely look forward to seeing
you next week and
hopefully you guys will all be back and
if you have anyone else that might be
interested in hearing about that that's
next week too
yeah yeah we do yeah and I’ll I’ll try
to get the link out to people who
attended this just so you'll have it too
28
#capecodcoliseum
WCBV Chronicle
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
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and event we are recording this so
eventually we will
you know get it up and post on our
social media and again thanks to FCTV
for helping us out with this
and letting everything run smoothly and
thanks everybody for coming and
have a great rest of your night and
hopefully we'll see you next week or at
another presentation
and thank you thank you all so much for
coming and I hope to see you all next
week for another presentation
okay have a great night
[Music]
29
�
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 Christopher Setterlund's Zoom Presentation on Historic Restaurants of Cape Cod
1923
1933
1938
1940
1948
1954
1955
1959
1960
1966
1977
1979
1983
1986
2000
2005
2008
2011
2015
2016
author talk
Barbara Lind
Bartolomei
Boston
Bourne
Bourne Bridge
Bourne rotary
Boxwood Club
Brothers Four
Buckminster Fuller
Buzzards Bay
cape cod coliseum
Cape Cod Life
Casa Madrid
casino
Chilis
Christopher Setterlund
Christy Mihos
Christy's
Cotuit
County Road
COVID-19
Crabapples
Cranberry Highway
Danny-Kay's
Dillingham Avenue
Earl Mills
Elsie Bowman
Elsie's
Falmouth Heights Road
Falmouth Historical Society
Falmouth Main Street
Falmouth Road Race
Flume Restaurant
Flying Eagle
geodesic dome
Germany
Golden Sails
Gray Gull
Hangar Tearoom
Henry Bowman
Hyannis
In My Footsteps
jimmy evans
jimmy evans flyer
lawrence's sandwich depot
leeside bar and grill
luscombe avenue
manuel white
mary fellows
mary muffins
mashpee
megansett tearoom
mildred's chowder house
my tin man diner
naukabout brewery
nautilus motor inn
new bedford
nimrod
North Falmouth
oliver's and planck's tavern
palmer avenue
Postcards from Falmouth
prohibition
quicks hole tavern
quintal seafood
quintal's
quintal's crack-o-dawn
quintal's red cabin
red coach grill
red horse grill
red horse inn
route 25
route 28
silver lounge
smith's olde surrey room
speakeasy
steamship authority
sterling streamliner
tearoom
terrace gables
the bellows
the columns
the dome
thekla hedlund
thompson's clam bar
tin man diner
transcript
uncle bill's country store
villaggio ristorante
wagner
Wampanoag
wareham
water street
west dennis
william early
woods hole partners
world war 2
yarmouth
-
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24535a24810728c7bd9109c4b494340e
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials.
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
The Side Dish Bible
Description
An account of the resource
I checked this book out just days before the Falmouth Public Library closed, and soon after that, they asked us not to return items until further notice. There are worse books to be sequestered with.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Janet Gardner
books
COVID-19
reading
-
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0e3d48406ff4b2ddae05ff7f2056f625
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials.
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
Reading the Decameron
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Janet Laurer
Description
An account of the resource
Started reading the Decameron written in 1348 during the Black plague. 100 stories in 10 days. Amazing!
books
COVID-19
reading
-
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2997f873834fe1002c5a744b4425368b
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials.
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/.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Chris Lynch
Title
A name given to the resource
Go Like Hell
Description
An account of the resource
Here are the books I'm reading so far while staying in place:
Go Like Hell, A. J. Baime (FPL adult collection)
The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern (FPL adult collection)
Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens
Reckless at the Border (a newly released book by local author Jane Parhiala & Pradeep Parashar)
Bring me Your Higher Love (The Roland Merullo new serialized novel released online)
A manuscript by a local author.
COVID-19
reading