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Text
A Little Night Music
Under a star-filled midnight-blue sky,
they wear warm winter jackets and woolen hats
then sing carols on the snow-covered green.
Kathleen Casey
�
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Title
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Wish You Were Here: Postcards from the Past
Subject
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Falmouth
Creative writing
Photography
Historical postcards
Description
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<em>Wish You Were Here: Postcards from the Past</em> is a collection of community-sourced writing and art, created in response to Falmouth Public Library's historic postcard collection. It was run and curated by Calliope Poetry for Community in 2023. Postcard reproductions and their associated derivative works were originally displayed at the Falmouth Historical Society's Museums on the Green from October 6th, 2023 – May 10th, 2024.<br /><br /><a href="https://falmouthpubliclibrary.omeka.net/exhibits/show/wish-you-were-here"><strong>Visit the Wish You Were Here digital exhibit to see these items on display.</strong></a>
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Calliope Poetry for Community
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2023
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Kathy Andrews, Julie Bogosian, Mary Boylan, Kathleen Casey, Mark Chester, Nancy Cherico, Meg Costello, Lisa Willow Dunn, Sally Fine , Diane Hanna, Ilene Karnow, Micheal Klehm , Alice Kociemba, Leslie Lichtenstein, Jim McIlvain, Miriam O’Neal, Marie Palmer, Scott Peterson, Laura Puopolo, Hilton Railey, Claudine Reilly, Paul Rifkin, Marilyn Rowland, Lisa Jo Rudy, Robin Smith-Johnson, Milt Williamson, Rich Youmans, Catherine Miron Youngstrom, Ron Zweig
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Anita Gunning Postcard Collection
Robert C. Hunt, Jr. Postcard Collection
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A Little Night Music
Under a star-filled midnight-blue sky,
they wear warm winter jackets and woolen hats
then sing carols on the snow-covered green.
Kathleen Casey
Dublin Core
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Title
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Village Green Kathleen Casey
Description
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Written piece entitled "A Little Night Music," by Kathleen Casey, inspired by a historic postcard
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Kathleen Casey
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2023
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Wish You Were Here: Postcards from the Past
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Falmouth Village Green
Kathleen Casey
poetry
Wish You Were Here: Postcards from the Past
-
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Wish You Were Here: Postcards from the Past
Subject
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Falmouth
Creative writing
Photography
Historical postcards
Description
An account of the resource
<em>Wish You Were Here: Postcards from the Past</em> is a collection of community-sourced writing and art, created in response to Falmouth Public Library's historic postcard collection. It was run and curated by Calliope Poetry for Community in 2023. Postcard reproductions and their associated derivative works were originally displayed at the Falmouth Historical Society's Museums on the Green from October 6th, 2023 – May 10th, 2024.<br /><br /><a href="https://falmouthpubliclibrary.omeka.net/exhibits/show/wish-you-were-here"><strong>Visit the Wish You Were Here digital exhibit to see these items on display.</strong></a>
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Calliope Poetry for Community
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2023
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Kathy Andrews, Julie Bogosian, Mary Boylan, Kathleen Casey, Mark Chester, Nancy Cherico, Meg Costello, Lisa Willow Dunn, Sally Fine , Diane Hanna, Ilene Karnow, Micheal Klehm , Alice Kociemba, Leslie Lichtenstein, Jim McIlvain, Miriam O’Neal, Marie Palmer, Scott Peterson, Laura Puopolo, Hilton Railey, Claudine Reilly, Paul Rifkin, Marilyn Rowland, Lisa Jo Rudy, Robin Smith-Johnson, Milt Williamson, Rich Youmans, Catherine Miron Youngstrom, Ron Zweig
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Anita Gunning Postcard Collection
Robert C. Hunt, Jr. Postcard Collection
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Village Green Paul Rifkin
Description
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Color photograph of Falmouth Village Green with Christmas decorations.
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Paul Rifkin
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2023
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Wish You Were Here: Postcards from the Past
Falmouth Village Green
Paul Rifkin
photographs
Wish You Were Here: Postcards from the Past
-
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PDF Text
Text
Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript
Recorded: March 3, 2020
Oral Historian: Kevin Doyle
Interviewer: Barbara Kanellopoulos
Topic: Old Stone Dock
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
The Book of Falmouth is available from Falmouth Public Library under REF LocHist 974.492
BOO, as well as at other CLAMS locations.
00:00
[Music]
00:45
it's always fun to talk about the Old
#oldstonedock
Gunning_Village_Har_0173
through 0188
Hunt_Village_Bch_0089 through
0095
00:46
Stone Dock
00:47
it's uh it's a relic
00:50
of of what commerce was in Falmouth
00:53
during the 19th century
00:55
and you don't get to see things like
00:57
that along the shoreline much anymore at
00:59
all
01:00
in fact if you were to go down to the
01:02
shore today
01:04
there's a sign that says it's the kiddie
01:06
pool and for all the world nobody has
01:09
ever asked why you would build a kiddie
01:10
pool out of granite blocks
1
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
01:13
but nevertheless it's uh it's all been
01:15
silted in
01:17
but in its day and its day was 200 years
01:19
ago
01:21
it was built in 1817
#1817
01:24
following a hurricane of 1815
#1815 #hurricane
01:28
of course they weren't called hurricanes
01:30
then it was the great gale
01:31
of September 1815.
01:36
there are three hurricanes that have
01:38
really ravaged through the
01:40
New England area has lots of hurricanes
01:43
but the first one was in 1635 when
01:46
Boston and the and the Pilgrims and and
01:48
the colonies were just getting started
01:50
the second one
01:52
the same power and magnitude was the
01:54
Storm of 1815
01:56
and then the third one was a hurricane
01:59
of 1938 which
02:01
which people are far more familiar with
02:03
and they see pictures of the destruction
02:05
and so forth
02:06
but meteorologists will tell you that
02:08
those three hurricanes were very similar
02:10
in their track and their speed they came
#gale
#1938
2
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:13
up the coast with a speed of 100 miles
02:14
an hour they were blowing 100 mile per
02:16
hour winds
02:17
and they just destroyed everything in
02:19
their path
02:20
prior to 1817 then this Old Stone Dock
02:25
there was a a dock that was made out of
02:28
wood
02:29
uh and we think it was built in 1805 and
02:31
it would have been built out of palmetto
02:33
logs
02:34
which is basically a palm tree uh
02:37
obviously no palm trees growing around
02:39
Falmouth so
02:40
once again a surmise is that probably uh
02:44
Captain Swift brought them up in his
02:47
as part of his live oak adventures going
02:50
at getting wood
02:51
down out of the Carolinas and into
02:53
Florida
02:54
and so he probably brought these very
02:56
resilient palmetto logs
02:58
up to up to Falmouth there's not much
03:02
that
03:03
will verify that there was a dock prior
03:06
to this but it seems logical that that
#1805
#swift #elijahswift
3
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:10
was
03:10
the landing place of some sort it was
03:14
the scene
03:14
of the British invasion or
03:18
attempted invasion in January of 1779
#1779
03:21
during the American Revolution
#americanrevolution
03:23
they were repulsed they never landed
03:26
they did shoot musket balls at us and
03:28
they weren't too happy with us but they
03:29
didn't they weren't able to land
03:31
and the second time was in 1814 during
03:34
the
03:35
towards the end of the War of 1812 where
03:37
once again
03:39
the British came and tried to come
03:41
ashore they were repulsed again by
03:43
by our cannons so it would seem that
03:47
that's
03:47
probably there was probably some kind of
03:48
a landing area in that site prior to the
03:51
Old Stone Dock itself
03:55
the other reason why you'd think that
03:57
that was probably true is because that's
03:59
where
03:59
Falmouth was settled when the uh
04:03
the proprietors as they're called here
4
#1814
#warof1812
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:05
they're called different
04:06
different by different names but they're
04:08
the folks who basically
04:10
uh bought the land from the tribes the
04:13
the
04:14
indigenous tribes Wampanoags uh and uh
#wampanoag
04:17
Nauset Indians
#nauset
04:18
which was a sub-tribe of the Wampanoags
04:22
and the proprietors here started in
04:25
Barnstable
04:26
and came down we don't know whether they
04:28
came down by boat or by
04:29
by walking but if you look down in the
04:32
uh
04:33
down at the beach area today you'll see
04:36
what
04:36
what Jim Lloyd of the Historical
04:38
Department [Falmouth Historical Society?] likes
to call
04:40
Falmouth Rock he said Plymouth has their
#plymouth
04:42
Plymouth Rock we have our Falmouth Rock
#plymouthrock
04:44
we have a rock that says these are the
04:47
proprietors they landed here in 18
04:49
uh in 1660 and so forth and
04:53
and founded the town well the
04:56
the tribe had been here first obviously
#barnstable
5
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:58
they came down and we
04:59
uh we followed a lot of the Indian
05:01
trails to be here
05:03
uh and it makes sense because that area
05:06
of Surf Drive Beach opens onto a
#surfdrivebeach
05:10
Vineyard Sound and then it has Siders
#vineyardsound #siderspond
Gunning_Village_Pnd_0148 and
0149
Hunt_Village_Pnd_136
05:12
Pond which is freshwater pond after
05:15
named after Consider Hatch one of the
05:16
original proprietors
05:18
is on the one side and on the other side
05:20
is Salt Pond
#considerhatch
#saltpond
Gunning_Village_Sts_0010
through 0016
05:22
which is salt water and oysters are
05:25
plenty and that sort of thing
05:27
so there they were between fresh water
05:28
and salt water and the Sound so it was a
05:31
perfect
05:31
location for commerce and just
05:34
for survival you had the fish lots of
05:37
alewives the
05:38
herring run is right there which
05:40
is brackish water coming in
05:43
from the sound and going up towards
6
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
05:45
Siders Pond
05:46
so it's a perfect area to to
05:50
start the start the town
05:53
a lot of people you know are used to
05:56
seeing towns that have started from the
05:58
center and they move
05:59
outward because that's how the the
06:00
railroads did it
06:02
when when railroads were built and
06:04
they'd go along every 100 miles or
06:06
whatever the distance would be
06:08
did make the town grow right from the
06:10
depot and go
06:12
outward concentric circles for us it was
06:15
different and it was different for
06:16
for almost 100 years the commerce was
06:19
coming off of the off of the Surf Drive
06:21
Beach area
06:23
and the main area to to move was right
06:26
up Mill Road where the current Mill Road
#millroad
Gunning_Village_Sts_0001
through 0016
Hunt_Village_Sts_075 through
178
06:28
goes between the salt pond and the uh
06:32
fresh water pond uh and and on
06:36
up so the green was actually founded in
7
#falmouthvillagegreen
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Gunning_Village_Sts_0053
through 0078
06:39
1749.
#1749
06:40
so here we are at 1660 and then 1749
06:43
about 80
06:43
90 years later before they got up to the
06:46
green
06:47
so the center of commerce then
06:50
was right there on the on the beach so
06:53
this hurricane comes along and destroys
06:55
everything that was wooden and
06:57
through natural erosion you can imagine
06:59
the other wooden piers probably gave way
07:02
as the ships became larger or the
07:05
elements took took their toll on a
07:08
wooden pier
07:09
so along about 1817 then they say hey
07:13
what we really need to do is build this
07:16
thing to last
07:17
uh and I should probably just say at
07:20
that point
07:22
as I talked about the progression of the
07:23
town it goes up so it took 80 years to
07:25
get to the green and then it started
07:27
heading to the east it started heading
07:29
back down
8
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
07:30
towards uh towards Barnstable down down
07:32
Main Street
#mainstreet
Gunning_Village_Sts_0017
through 0041
07:34
and after a certain point they realized
07:36
that so far the only road to get to the
07:39
dock
07:39
was down Mill Road so here they are now
07:42
they're up at Locust they're going down
07:44
Main Street
07:46
and they're getting further and further
07:47
away so in 1800
07:50
just a few years before the Stone Dock
07:52
was built but in 1800
07:54
the townsfolk got together and said what
07:56
we really need to do is go
07:58
from this point which was right where
08:00
Barbo’s Furniture is right now
08:02
and go straight down to the pier and
08:04
that's why if you look at Shore Street
#locuststreet
#shorestreet
Gunning_Village_Sts_0080
through 0083
Hunt_Village_Sts_171 and 172
08:06
it's eight tenths of a mile long
08:08
it's straight as an arrow and it's its
08:10
objective was to get
08:12
people from Main Street to the dock
9
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:15
uh that's what it was all about so
08:18
uh after this great gale of September
08:21
uh goes blowing through
08:24
the townsfolk got together and uh and
08:28
built this
08:29
granite block now the way that's built
08:32
is they import it and there's some
08:33
question as to exactly what those
08:35
granite blocks are
08:37
I like to think that the Falmouth
08:38
granite
08:40
underneath it all but of course after a
08:41
couple hundred years they're
08:43
they're all black and covered with
08:46
seaweed and so forth so it's really kind
08:48
of hard to distinguish
08:49
the origin of all those granite blocks
08:52
but the point of it was
08:54
they would build a a a
08:57
line which which you see right now
09:00
actually uh
09:01
of of granite blocks and then they built
09:04
the
09:05
the dock the actual docking area right
09:08
over it
09:09
so it's the same palmetto logs it's the
#falmouthgranite
10
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
09:11
same planks it's the same everything
09:13
that you
09:13
used to seeing when you think of a pier
09:16
but this time they put the blocks in
09:18
there
09:19
so that it would be uh it would sort of
09:22
lend some extra support
09:24
to the the pier uh the piers themselves
09:27
and in
09:28
the uh the the structure of the of the
09:31
pier of the wharf so
09:34
that's what it is over time
09:38
all that all that wooden part you know
09:40
washed away again
09:41
but the granite blocks remain so why
09:44
wasn't it maintained
09:46
it wasn't maintained because as time
09:49
went on so that was built in 1815.
09:53
uh the gale was 1815 the the dock was
09:56
built in 1817
09:57
and things were going along fine but it
09:59
was about that time as
10:00
uh the railroad came to town and
10:04
the railroad starts coming down from
10:05
Boston and so forth
10:07
the Old Stone Dock is at least a mile
11
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:10
away
10:11
from the railroad station and
10:14
it just didn't work you couldn't send
10:16
freight down
10:19
on a train and get it to the pier in any
10:22
efficient manner the train dead
10:25
ended
10:26
in Woods Hole and of course that's where
10:29
the ferry terminal is today that's what
10:30
the Steamship
10:31
Authority is and that's where the
10:33
trains met
10:34
the boats so commerce went there
10:38
it also it's a much deeper uh harbor
10:41
in Woods Hole than it is off of Surf
10:44
Drive Beach
10:46
so the the question then became so what
10:49
happens now
10:51
it was a stone dock it was made for
10:52
commerce there were whalers
10:54
whaling ships that went there his
10:56
primary function was packet ships
10:58
and and by packets those would be ships
11:01
that would sail when you had the cargo
11:02
they didn't necessarily go on a schedule
11:05
you'd bring down your goods to to be
#woodshole
#steamshipauthority
#whaling
12
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
11:07
freighted up to Boston or down to New
#newyork
11:09
York and every port in between all
11:12
down down across the Martha's Vineyard
#marthasvineyard
11:14
and over to New Bedford and Fall River
#newbedford #fallriver
11:17
and so forth all those
11:18
uh all those ports between Boston and
11:21
Falmouth
11:22
and uh and New York were the frequent
11:27
markets for our strawberries the eels
11:30
the salt cranberries and so forth wood
11:34
that was the main commerce uh forestry
11:37
and so forth
11:38
incoming timbers uh as well uh
11:42
and since the Swifts were big in that
11:44
type of a trade
11:45
they would bring their goods up and
11:47
bring them to Falmouth
11:49
the Sarah Herrick is a uh is a whale
11:52
ship that was
11:53
registered or said to be to be
11:57
brought into the Falmouth dock so that's
11:59
how we know that there were whaling
12:01
ships there as well
12:03
but after the commerce now ends up in
12:06
Woods Hole
12:09
the dock started to become more
#sarahherrick
13
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
12:12
available to people and if it didn't
12:15
have the upkeep that it did
12:16
boats used to be able to sail right
12:18
inside of it uh
12:20
now that won't happen the Book of
#bookoffalmouth
From FPL: REF LocHist 974.492
BOO
12:22
Falmouth mentions a
12:25
a black who had a mail
12:28
route he would uh sail to the Old Stone
12:31
Dock
12:32
with mail for the new town is that
12:35
accurate
12:36
I can bet it is I I I don't know for
12:40
sure but yeah that
12:41
that would be the type of commerce that
12:43
you would find
12:44
coming out of the dock and the heavy
12:47
stuff would end up going down towards
12:48
Woods Hole
12:49
but that type of mail run or milk run
12:52
type of a
12:53
run over to the Vineyard and out to
12:56
Nantucket
#nantucket
12:57
and down to uh Cuttyhunk that would
#cuttyhunk
12:59
have been
14
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:00
the the daily commerce going from the
13:03
Old Stone Dock
13:06
when things when the the railroad came
13:08
in then and went down there
13:10
they said that well they needed
13:12
someplace else for
13:14
a dock for for a harbor and that's when
13:17
the Inner Harbor was created
#falmouthharbor
Hunt_Village_Har_103 through
120
Gunning_Heights_Har_1320
through 1334
13:19
and that's why you'll still see
13:20
references on charts and
13:22
when people talk sometimes they'll talk
13:23
about the Inner Harbor
13:25
well that would be sort of old-time talk
13:28
because most people now talk about the
13:29
harbor and they think of the Flying
#flyingbridge
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0377
through 0383
13:31
Bridge Restaurant and
13:32
the commerce that goes on but it was
13:34
never heavy commerce if you look at it
13:37
you say well this used to be the Old
13:40
Stone Dock used to handle
13:42
handle hogsheads of produce and
15
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:45
fresh cut vegetables and so forth there
13:47
was never anything like that in
13:49
in Falmouth Harbor all that had gone to
13:51
Woods Hole
13:53
so Falmouth Harbor really became they
13:55
dredged out
13:56
if you take a look and you wonder why
13:58
why in the world Clinton Avenue is
14:01
so abruptly at the Clam Shack and then
14:03
resumes over in front of the Falmouth
14:05
Yacht Club
14:06
that was a road it had been cut off it
14:09
was it was a pond of its own it was
14:11
Deacon's Pond
#clintonavenue
#deaconspond
Gunning_Village_Har_0190
14:12
and when it was dredged out it created
14:14
an inner harbor
14:16
and over the years that had been
14:17
improved and so forth
14:19
but that was in 1908 that the Inner
14:22
Harbor
14:23
opened up and for many years thereafter
14:26
people would sail their sailboats up to
14:29
up to the Old Stone Dock and they'd put
14:30
in there and many of uh
14:32
the Robert C. Hunt postcard collection
#1908
16
#robertchunt #postcardcollection
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
14:36
has great pictures of tourist day
14:39
sailors
14:40
you know boats that you and I would have
14:42
uh pulled up to the Old Stone Dock
14:44
and it's featured right there you'll see
14:47
some that have a uh some of the pictures
14:49
will have the old time
14:51
uh bath house still in that picture
14:54
and you look at it and you get a much
14:57
better picture
14:58
in looking at those old postcards
15:01
than you would ever get today when you
15:03
look at at the
15:04
Old Stone Dock but those postcards will
15:07
give you some idea of the depth and the
15:09
type of commerce that could pull up
15:11
some of those postcards still have the
15:14
pilings that were lining the the Old
15:17
Stone Dock and if you look real close at
15:19
some of them
15:20
you'll see wooden side buoys there where
15:23
you'd be pulling up
15:25
so nobody wants to pull a ship up beside
15:27
a granite block I mean that's not how
15:29
you
15:29
how you treat a boat but so
#bathhouse
17
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
15:33
over time as I say it's become a
15:35
favorite now for
15:37
the uh for the kiddie pool
15:40
if you talk to kids in Falmouth today
15:42
they'll tell you that they learned how
15:43
to
15:44
how to swim in the Old Stone Dock and
15:47
most of them don't even know that it was
15:48
there
15:50
a neighbor of ours Jim Crossen started
#jamescrossen
15:53
the Old Stone Dock Association up in the
#oldstonedockassociation
15:55
1970s
15:56
and really brought a lot of history with
15:58
it and brought a lot of
16:00
attention to this relic it is
16:03
really it's a monument to to Falmouth to
16:06
have that here
16:07
and there's very few towns who can point
16:09
to something on the waterfront and say
16:10
that was there 200 years ago
16:12
so the Old Stone Dock Association has
16:14
really worked to preserve that heritage
16:16
and
16:17
that type of history the other place
16:19
where you'll find a reference
16:21
to it is is on the there's a big
18
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
16:24
uh boulder with a
Hunt_Village_Sts_179
16:27
with a plaque on it and with an anchor
16:29
atop it right at the end of Mill Road
16:31
right where Mill Road turns on to Locust
16:34
and if you take a look at that you'll
16:35
see that that was a monument dedicated
16:37
to the seafarers
16:39
uh of in 1908 and it was really
16:44
the end of the Old Stone Dock that was
16:46
their farewell
16:47
uh to what had been such an active
16:49
center of commerce and the seafarers who
16:52
who made it such uh but in 1908
16:55
the the uh the harbor had been
16:59
dredged the Inner Harbor was now taking
17:01
over
17:02
and over time people started bringing
17:04
their boats into the Inner Harbor
17:06
and the Old Stone Dock became the Old
17:09
Stone Dock
17:12
and was there a window
17:15
a windmill and an attempt
17:19
to manufacture was it
17:23
a product glass no well yeah
17:26
a couple of things going on right down
17:28
there on the beach the windmill was up
19
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
17:30
on Mill Road and if you were to drive go
17:32
up Mill Road from the beach uh
17:36
just as the road bends and it bends
17:38
right at the end of the salt pond
17:40
that's where the windmill was located
17:42
that windmill was actually
17:45
made to to grind uh corn
17:49
it wasn't it wasn't part of the glass
17:51
tree but i'll bring that up in a sec
17:54
that was that was that was a grinding
17:56
mill and I know that because Bill Swift
17:59
told me and if anybody knows anything
18:00
about the town of Falmouth it's Bill
18:02
Swift
18:03
and he used to live right down there so
18:05
that's where that's where the windmill
18:06
was
18:07
now there were many windmills along the
18:10
shoreline uh of
18:14
Surf Drive Beach the point of
18:17
them was to to bring in salt water they
18:20
would go out into the
18:21
into the Sound and suck up the water
18:23
bring it up and put into great big vats
18:26
typically about 10 feet by 10 feet and
20
#williamswift
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0439
through 0450
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
18:28
it put water in it probably about 18
18:30
inches deep
18:32
and it would they would leave it out in
18:34
the sun
18:35
to evaporate and what you'd end up with
18:38
after
18:38
after all that water had been brought up
18:40
and left in these vats for
18:42
for some period of time it would
18:44
evaporate and you'd have salt
18:46
up until the Civil War salt was a
18:48
prime
18:49
a premium product in fact many
18:53
Civil War battles were fought
18:56
at the shoreline to destroy what was
18:58
called the salt works
19:00
and the salt works was the windmill and
19:02
the vats that dried the water
19:05
and they would just they would try to
19:06
destroy that because
19:08
salt was used to preserve meats and
19:11
anything that was perishable would be
19:13
encased in salt uh prior to the period
19:16
of refrigeration
19:19
the glass company uh was because of the
19:22
sand
#americancivilwar
21
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
19:23
and they would use the furnaces to heat
19:25
that sand up and get the silicone
19:27
and yes that was that would have been
19:29
located at the corner of Shore Street
19:32
so it's right kind of where the parking
19:34
lot is now
19:36
where Shore Street comes down and Surf
19:38
Drive goes across
19:40
it was on that corner uh and that's
19:42
where the Beach Breeze Inn is
19:44
right now and that's sort of an area
19:47
there was a bank down there there was a
19:50
tavern
19:51
and there was this glass manufacturing
19:54
and when you think about it of course
19:56
with the uh it was a perfect place for a
19:58
tavern and
19:59
and the bank because these packet ships
20:03
are coming back from their run
20:04
and now they want to deposit the money
20:06
or they need the money for some purpose
20:09
and and having a tavern and a little
20:12
little spot for the sailors to pull into
20:13
when they get there
20:14
is was kind of refreshing
20:18
yes it's interesting that you talk about
22
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
20:21
the center of town as being right on the
20:23
shore there which is makes a lot of
20:25
sense
20:25
we we don't think of uh the center of
20:28
town as being
20:30
out there no you wouldn't and and as you
20:33
look
20:34
there's actually the first two meeting
20:36
houses if you take the time to
20:38
to go along Surf Drive and then up Mill
20:40
Road to the very end right up to where
20:42
that boulder is that I talked about the
20:44
head the plaque and the anchor
20:46
there's a cemetery off to the one side
20:49
in that cemetery of course the reason it
20:51
was the cemeteries
20:52
when they used to bury their dead
20:54
outside the church outside the meeting
20:56
house
20:57
and that was the site of two meeting
20:59
houses the first two meeting houses that
21:01
were built in Falmouth
21:03
were built in that in that cemetery area
21:06
the third meeting house is it has a
21:08
stone marker
21:09
as you turn onto Locust Street before
#oldburyingground
23
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
21:12
you even get up to the green
21:14
there's a marker on the side of the road
21:16
that says this is the site of the third
21:18
meeting house uh and it's not until you
21:21
get to the green
21:23
1749 that you will find the fourth
21:26
meeting house
21:27
so yes it was it was the center of life
21:30
the houses that are extinct is still on
21:33
Elm Road there's the Hatch
21:35
foundation I guess the house is
21:38
questionable
21:39
there's a sons houses across the street
21:41
but there's a
21:42
heavy granite foundation on the left
21:45
side if you're going
21:46
up from away from the water which was
21:49
the foundation of the Hatch house and
21:50
Hatch was one of the original
21:52
proprietors
21:52
of Falmouth I have heard that at the
21:56
at that triangle with that rock and
21:58
anchor
21:59
underneath is a time capsule with
22:02
the names of 100 more than 100 sea
22:06
captains
#elmroad #hatch
24
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
22:07
but what you say is interesting because
22:09
I've never thought of that before as a
22:11
kind of
22:12
putting a period to period two seafarers
22:16
I think it was I think it was their
22:17
goodbye uh
22:19
and uh whether there's a time capsule
22:22
under there
22:22
or not I don't think we'll ever know and
22:24
I don't think the
22:26
DPW will let us dig it up anymore so
22:30
uh I don't know I don't know I've heard
22:33
the same thing whether it be under that
22:35
boulder or
22:36
in front of the boulder we've certainly
22:37
done lots of plantings around the
22:39
boulder
22:40
no evidence of it has ever come up so
22:44
perhaps it's there I don't know
23:07
[Music]
25
�
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Transcript of Kevin Doyle's Oral History on the Old Stone Dock
1749
1779
1805
1814
1815
1817
1908
1938
American Civil War
american revolution
Barbara Kanellopoulos
Barnstable
bathhouse
Book of Falmouth
Clinton Avenue
Consider Hatch
Cuttyhunk
Deacon's Pond
Elijah Swift
Elm Road
Fall River
Falmouth
Falmouth granite
Falmouth Harbor
Falmouth Main Street
Falmouth Village Green
Flying Bridge
gale
Hatch
hurricane
James Crossen
kevin doyle
locust street
martha's vineyard
mill road
nantucket
nauset
new bedford
new york
old burying ground
Old Stone Dock
old stone dock association
oral history
plymouth
plymouth rock
postcard collection
Postcards from Falmouth
robert c. hunt jr.
salt pond
sarah herrick
Shore Street
siders pond
steamship authority
surf drive beach
Swift
transcript
vineyard sound
Wampanoag
War of 1812
whaling
william swift
Woods Hole
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/32209/archive/files/93030e08076b2f7422e36b1cf60f0c21.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=u7PudRSJ738LEPLaTYmaRpb%7ERbA8hLqDig1aVFnpRaQDgkARG8rkP9kB7WiCaabo1t2Ftrxuhuqc35791KMhhdQd0aCbr77YBhTGunxb6lU2zbi6Li4FDln0zbu%7Eu1oP0voTRH6S-12UUjWuVmFfZ61rdpu8nrEIkd4Dvz0Q8jztjvYFp9NAl1WxP%7EpfOvmtxs3-2SymXwd-WgVI-iCgBpmj8%7EARM60XTe-7LZDbrrWT6a4zLIwBuI%7EtFc-Kl%7EZo5S002k4JdePMx-LgP-0fzrrROU%7EgPNpDlbF6nmfGdOrP-tQ3eCq47KoF-ZBu029%7ECFh4yvWYfZxOGGfUUnWOIw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
6f3f55d8786adbd2d3d9a7177fa2cd29
PDF Text
Text
Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript
Recorded: February 24, 2020
Oral Historian: Reverend Jonathan Drury
Interviewer: Troy Clarkson
Topic: First Congregational Church
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
00:00
[Music]
00:44
so welcome
00:45
thank you and my first question to you
00:47
is I’d like to begin by
00:48
asking you to tell us your full name and
00:51
the postcard you'll be discussing and
00:52
you can certainly show it to us
00:54
my name is Jonathan Drury I’m the 24th
00:57
pastor of the First Congregational
#firstcongregationalchurch
Hunt_Village_Bldg_001
Hunt_Village_Sts_152
Gunning_Village_Sts_0073
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0346 through
0365
00:58
Church in Falmouth
00:59
uh this is the postcard that I’m going
01:01
to be discussing that's a photograph
01:03
of or a picture I don't know if it's a
01:05
photograph
01:06
um of the church that is taken from the
1
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
01:09
south side of the green
#falmouthvillagegreen
See above for postcard views of the
First Congregational Church on the
Green
01:12
and there's a number of other postcards
01:15
of this church
01:16
here's another example
01:21
it's a very prominent structure on the
01:24
green
01:24
probably the most prominent structure on
01:26
the green and so I I thought I’d talk a
01:28
little bit about the history of
01:30
the buildings that have supported the
01:32
Congregational Church over the years
01:34
the First Congregational Church in
01:36
Falmouth was established in 1708
01:39
and it was established at the same time
01:40
that the town of Falmouth was
01:42
established
01:43
so the congregation was an offshoot of
01:45
the West Parish in Barnstable
01:48
which claims to be the oldest
01:49
congregation on Cape Cod they were
01:51
established in 1614.
01:54
um so this is you know for for American
01:56
history this
01:57
predates our nation by easily 150 years
#1708
#westparishofbarnstable
#1614
2
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:01
so it's it's pretty remarkable
02:02
um 1708 a group of people decided that
02:05
they wanted to establish their own
02:07
congregation
02:08
and to do that they also had to
02:09
establish a meeting house where there
02:11
could be
02:13
some form of governance some some
02:15
structure of governance so
02:17
initially the the first meeting house
02:19
was built off of Mill Road in the old
#millroad #oldburyingground
Gunning_Village_Sts_0001 through
0016
Hunt_Village_Sts_075 through 178
02:21
burial ground
02:22
and it was likely built sometime between
02:24
1690 and 1700
02:27
that would have also been the seat of
02:29
governance for Falmouth at the time
02:31
and it was a very simple structure as
02:33
far as I know
02:34
had no paint had no heat no organ no
02:37
bell
02:38
um the Puritans were were
02:43
their approach to purity included
02:45
aesthetics and
#puritan
3
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:47
they they didn't need much in terms of
02:49
artifice
02:52
later on there was another
02:55
meeting house built on that location
02:58
this was a
03:00
meeting house built in 1717 that was
03:03
actually
03:05
designed to look just like the meeting
03:07
house in
03:08
Barnstable so they they very much saw
03:10
themselves as an offshoot of that
03:12
congregation
03:13
and then in 1750 the first church
03:18
was moved to the from the old burial
03:21
ground
03:22
to the brand new green space that had
03:25
been established in Falmouth what we
03:26
think of now is the town green
03:28
the town green initially was actually
03:30
kind of the front lawn of the church
03:32
because the church was built on the
03:33
south end of of the green
03:36
in 1750 and at that time there were
03:40
roads but it was not divided the way it
03:42
is today um
03:43
there were you know dirt roads that were
#1717
#1750
4
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:46
used for
03:47
horses and and buggies um but they were
03:50
not in the same
03:52
location that our current roads are in
03:54
the green was much larger and what's
03:55
also kind of interesting about the green
03:57
is that it has always been a green space
04:00
um
04:01
before it was established as the town
04:03
green it had been a green space that was
04:04
available for anybody to use
04:07
for their horses and so it's the
04:09
equivalent of the parking lot for for
04:11
downtown Falmouth
04:12
and remains a green space of course
04:15
today
04:16
um that's also where the the local
04:18
militia would have gathered
04:19
uh to do their training um both for the
04:22
Revolutionary War then later for the
#americanrevolution
04:23
Civil War
#americancivilwar
04:25
which is interesting so in 1750 the
04:28
church was built on the south end of the
04:29
green
04:30
and it remained there until 1796 when
04:33
the fourth meeting house was built and
5
#1796
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:36
at that time in 1796
04:39
a decision was made to outfit this new
04:41
meeting house with a bell
04:42
which brings me to a riddle the riddle
04:45
is
04:46
the living to the the living to the
04:49
church I call
04:51
and to the grave I summon all
04:54
what am I a bell
04:58
a church bell that's right that riddle
05:01
which is actually not a riddle it's just
05:03
a poem is engraved along the top of all
05:06
of Paul Revere's bells
05:08
so in 1796 the First Congregational
05:11
Church
05:11
uh commissioned a bell from Paul Revere
05:13
who was a bell maker in Boston at the
05:15
time
05:16
the bell that was purchased weighs 807
05:18
pounds and we have the original
05:20
receipt signed by by Paul Revere and
05:22
what's interesting about that receipt
05:24
is that along with having the price and
05:26
the weight of the bell
05:28
it indicates that the price was derived
05:31
by a specific cost per pound
#churchbell
#paulrevere
6
#boston
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
05:34
so almost like you were selling poultry
05:36
or something he sold his bells
05:38
42 cents per pound so 807 pounds
05:42
at 42 cents came out to just under 400
05:46
which would have been a small fortune in
05:47
1796.
05:49
so in 1796 that bell was put into the
05:52
steeple of the church
05:53
and has been ringing over Falmouth ever
05:56
since
05:57
which is quite remarkable
06:00
but the church was moved it was moved in
06:03
1858
06:05
the decision to move the church came as
06:07
a result of a very generous offer offer
06:09
from the Swift family
06:10
to give them a parcel of land the Swift
06:14
family was a very prominent
06:16
family in town they owned the first
06:18
mercantile store in Falmouth
06:20
they also owned the first bank in
06:22
Falmouth and they owned quite a bit of
06:24
land in Falmouth
06:25
um probably the equivalent of the Beebes
in
06:28
that regard
#1858
#swift
7
#beebe
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
06:29
they owned all of the land that exists
06:32
behind the church
06:33
and the parsonage which is directly next
06:34
door to the church extending
06:36
all the way back to Lakeview which is
#lakeview
06:40
the neighborhood behind the Lawrence
#lawrenceschool
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0232
06:42
School so all of the Lawrence athletic
06:44
fields all of the Katharine Lee Bates
06:45
Road
06:46
all of the land behind the church all
06:47
belonged to the Swift family
06:49
and in 1858 they agreed to offer a
06:53
parcel of this land
06:54
to the to the congregation the
06:57
congregation decided to take advantage
06:59
of this offer and to move the church and
07:02
so depending on who you ask
07:04
the story is that they either rolled the
07:06
church on logs across the green
07:08
I think that's very unlikely the truth
07:11
is most of the trees would have been cut
07:12
down by that point
07:13
to build the ships in Woods Hole so
07:16
there's a widow's walk on top of the
07:18
parsonage next door
#katharineleebatesroad
#woodshole
8
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
07:19
and you would have easily been able to
07:21
see the ocean
07:23
from that widow's walk today you can't
07:25
see those you can see a lot of trees
07:27
but those trees didn't exist when in
07:30
1814 when that house was built
07:32
so they probably didn't roll the church
07:34
across the green
07:35
um some people say that they put it on a
07:38
sled
07:38
and they pulled it across um which is a
07:41
possibility though I think that the
07:43
train wouldn't have really accommodated
07:44
that
07:45
it was a big building and then other
07:47
folks said that they parceled the the
07:49
church
07:49
literally taking apart piece by piece
07:51
and then rebuilding it in
07:53
a new location whatever they did they
07:56
didn't do it well
07:57
because within a year they tore that
07:59
building down and they built the fifth
08:01
meeting house
08:01
I say that the truth is the claim has
08:03
always been that the congregation was
9
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:05
growing so quickly that they needed to
08:06
have a larger sanctuary
08:08
and needed to have a larger foundation
08:10
for the church
08:12
so we'll go with that but they did build
08:14
that
08:15
that church in 1858 the fifth meeting
08:18
house
08:19
now here's some also some some
08:21
remarkable history attached to the
08:22
church
08:24
two things one we discovered not long
08:26
ago
08:27
that um the steps in front of the church
08:30
were covered with bluestone and we had
08:33
to add a new railing to the front of the
08:35
steps
08:36
when the the masons were doing the work
08:38
on the steps
08:39
we heard them kind of yell out they were
08:40
very excited I was hoping they had found
08:42
a box of gold doubloons
08:44
underneath the stone steps that wasn't
08:46
what they found what they found
08:47
might be you know an equivalent treasure
08:50
though they discovered that underneath
10
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:51
the blue stone was
08:52
original pink granite some of the
08:55
Falmouth granite
08:56
and so somebody in fact we know is
08:58
probably in
08:59
1952 someone decided to put
09:03
bluestone on the steps we had lost track
09:06
of that
09:07
and so it was a great find to be able to
09:09
restore those front steps back to their
09:11
original condition
09:12
so um in 1858 these were what the steps
09:16
would have originally looked like
09:17
in the process of of thinking about
09:19
those steps and looking at the steps we
09:21
also had some of the masons
09:22
bring to our attention the fact that the
09:24
whole foundation of this church
09:26
is made from that pink granite
09:30
and there is virtually a few hundred
09:31
tons worth of this pink granite
09:34
at this church so it may be that the
09:36
true value of the church
09:38
is really the church's foundation we'll
09:41
see
09:41
um but I I just think it's it's a
#falmouthgranite
11
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
09:43
remarkable piece of kind of
09:45
lost history that was recently
09:46
discovered
09:48
one of the most interesting aspects of
09:50
that move
09:52
that took place in 1858 is that that is
09:54
the year
09:55
that William Bates came as the pastor of
09:58
the church
09:59
so William Bates who is the father of
10:00
Katharine Lee Bates
10:02
was the was one of the ministers of the
10:04
First Congregational Church
10:05
he served that church for one year 1858.
10:09
he was sick from the moment he arrived
10:12
to the moment he passed away in fact the
10:15
last service he presided over was
10:17
Katharine’s baptism
10:18
she was three months old at the time so
10:21
I’ve always wondered
10:23
was this seen as a great challenge for
10:26
the congregation
10:27
this decision to move the church during
10:29
this time when the pastor was not
10:31
available to offer leadership
10:32
or was this seen as kind of
#williambates
#katharineleebates
12
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:35
an opportunity to make that move because
10:37
they weren't able to meet for worship
10:40
this was a chance for them to to make a
10:42
transition to a new space
10:44
as a result I don't know the answer to
10:46
that but I’ve
10:47
I’ve always been curious to know um how
10:50
that impacted the
10:52
the move itself not having William Bates
10:54
as the pastor or actively
10:56
engaged as the pastor at the time
11:00
so there have been a number of of other
11:02
additions to our
11:04
church building over the years in 1952
11:07
an educational wing was added
11:08
and then in 1992 as a result of a very
11:11
generous
11:12
gift from the Faxon family we're
11:14
able to build a Christian education
11:16
center the Faxon
11:17
Education Center and so the church has
11:20
continued to
11:20
expand and grow we really do think of
11:24
ourselves as a community church
11:26
we take to heart this this attachment to
11:29
the to the town of Falmouth and we see
#faxon
13
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
11:31
ourselves
11:32
as a place where people should gather
11:33
and meet um to to be in conversation to
11:36
have potluck suppers to worship
11:39
um we've got really great parking
11:42
which is essential if you're going to
11:44
have people gather
11:45
we're in a wonderful location and so we
11:48
really try to open up the church as much
11:49
as possible
11:50
we're we're actively looking for ways to
11:52
support our community
11:54
with with our space um and it is a
11:56
beautiful space
11:57
I’m always surprised recently in the
11:58
last four or five years we've been
12:00
opening up the the
12:01
church on the Lighting of the Green um
12:04
in December
12:05
and it's amazing how many people come
12:07
for the Lighting of the Green
12:08
opening of the church has allowed people
12:10
just to come in and warm up we usually
12:12
have a little bit of a hymn sing
12:13
the bathrooms are available I’m always
12:17
shocked to hear from folks who have
14
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
12:18
lived in Falmouth
12:19
their whole lives that this is the first
12:22
time they've been in the First
12:23
Congregational Church
12:25
I say that not as a pastor of a church I
12:28
say as someone who's just genuinely
12:30
curious about history and and the
12:32
connection of that church to the history
12:34
of Falmouth
12:35
I think that that church should be on a
12:38
short list
12:39
of locations where every single student
12:41
in our school system should come and
12:43
hear about the history of that church
12:44
I’d love to take them up to the bell to
12:46
see the bell but you've got to be a
12:47
little bit of a billy goat and
12:49
I would hate to lose any children along
12:51
the way um
12:53
but it is remarkable history and and
12:55
we're really proud of it and we really
12:57
would like to be able to share it
12:58
generously
12:59
with folks so the
13:02
the building itself is one of the
13:05
uh iconic images of Falmouth for sure
15
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:08
yes and you've just described the rich
13:10
history one of the
13:12
interesting things that has emerged
13:14
during the interviews that we're
13:15
conducting
13:16
we've chatted with Rabbi Lieberman with
13:20
Reverend
13:20
Will Mebane yes is the shared history
13:23
uh of the congregations in the faith
13:27
communities
13:29
for instance the the Jewish Congregation
13:33
can trace
13:34
its history the building at least
13:37
to that same first meeting house that
13:39
you mentioned is that right
13:40
uh because the East End Meeting House
#eliaslieberman
#williammebane
#falmouthjewishcongregation
#eastendmeetinghouse
Gunning_Hatchville_Bldg_0526
through 0531
13:43
which is today
13:44
the the headquarters of the Jewish
13:46
Congregation
13:47
uh was built and created because
13:50
uh the meeting house down at Mill Road
13:53
uh
13:54
could not accommodate a growing
13:56
community is that right
16
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:57
so what's fascinating is that uh the
14:02
history
14:03
is a shared history it sure is and and
14:05
today that interconnectivity
14:07
yes uh Reverend Mebane used the same
14:10
phrase that you just use as a community
14:12
church
14:12
yes and and and so
14:17
uh today those faith communities
14:20
continue to have
14:21
yes we do a shared history and a shared
14:23
mission absolutely
14:24
I think two of the finest examples of
14:26
that shared history mission
14:27
would be the Service Center in Falmouth
14:29
so the Service Center which
14:31
which has a huge impact on this
14:32
community and is really the front line
14:35
in terms of responding to need there are
14:37
other organizations that
14:38
that provide outstanding support to
14:41
folks in need but I think that we all
14:43
consider the Service
14:44
Center to be at the center of that that
14:46
support system
14:47
that organization was established
17
#falmouthservicecenter
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
14:49
originally by the clergy in Falmouth
14:51
because they recognized that they could
14:53
not do
14:54
as much of the follow-up and the
14:56
background uh work that they needed to
14:58
do to be able to provide the the best
15:01
care available and so 25 years ago they
15:04
they got together and said this is
15:05
worthwhile and we should make it happen
15:07
and now
15:08
that has a huge impact on this community
15:10
another example is the Upper Cape
15:12
Chaplaincy which supports the
15:13
the chaplain's position at the hospital
15:15
that was also
15:17
a result of of the collective will of
15:20
the clergy in town
15:22
and we still have an active group of
15:24
people who meet together on on a monthly
15:26
basis to talk about our community and
15:28
how we
15:29
as the communities of faith should be
15:32
supporting one another and
15:33
and supporting the good work that's
15:35
being done by so many organizations in
15:37
this town
#uppercapechaplaincy
18
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
15:38
I I feel this absolutely today you know
15:41
we are living in a time
15:42
where there's so much divisiveness and
15:45
division
15:46
um regardless of how you feel
15:50
about your relationship with with
15:52
eternity or
15:54
or the divine or not um
15:57
we are in relationship with one another
15:58
and our churches
16:00
and our um congregations have always
16:04
been at the center of of the community
16:07
and they should continue to be they the
16:09
our our
16:11
congregation should be open and
16:12
available as a place where people can
16:14
feel
16:16
you know not the divisiveness but the
16:18
the potential that exists in harmony
16:20
when we work together
16:22
to do good things and I think we're
16:24
going to have plenty of opportunities
16:26
to talk about doing good work with one
16:27
another in the in the next few years
16:29
indeed for sure so what does it mean to
16:31
you
19
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
16:33
to be part now of the the rich history
16:37
of
16:37
the Congregational Church and Falmouth
16:39
and and
16:41
that the congregation itself has evolved
16:44
along
16:45
as the history of the building unfolded
16:47
and today
16:48
continues to be a vibrant part of the
16:50
fabric of the community
16:51
it does um you know I’m very honored to
16:54
be
16:54
in the role that I have been given and
16:57
I’m
16:58
really grateful to work with really good
17:00
people you know my colleagues
17:03
both within the the church that I serve
17:05
but also you know the
17:07
my fellow clergy folks and and the other
17:10
folks who are serving organizations in
17:12
town that we support
17:13
um I really appreciate the the good work
17:15
that they do
17:16
but also the members of the of our
17:20
congregation are really outstanding
17:22
people they're they're all
20
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
17:23
very effective people and they're all
17:26
very much engaged in in this world I
17:29
will say our churches are trending much
17:31
older
17:31
and Cape Cod in general is turning much
17:33
older and so
17:35
I spent a lot of time with with my
17:36
constituency thinking about the end of
17:38
life and
17:39
and some of the concerns that that exist
17:41
around that
17:42
um it's all good it's all good
17:45
and and so I’m grateful to have that
17:47
opportunity there's a certain amount of
17:48
of
17:49
responsibility that comes with that and
17:51
I I am aware of it
17:52
um and I take it to heart and so there
17:55
are times where where
17:56
I think you know we we really have a lot
17:58
of work to do in Falmouth
18:01
there's a lot of need in this community
18:03
and it's not always apparent
18:05
right we work hard to make Falmouth a
18:07
beautiful place
18:08
and certainly we're aware that we have
21
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
18:10
folks who visit us every summer
18:12
who come because this is a beautiful
18:14
place and so we work hard to keep a
18:16
certain
18:17
a certain beauty here
18:20
it's not a facade it's real but below
18:23
that beauty
18:24
below the surface of it there is another
18:26
community that exists and
18:28
there are a lot of people who struggle
18:30
there's a terrible affliction
18:32
that exists in this community addiction
18:34
is awful
18:35
in Falmouth there are a lot of folks who
18:38
are living right at the point
18:39
of of not being able to to get by
18:42
and so um I’m aware of that we're the
18:45
downtown church one of the downtown
18:46
churches and I
18:47
I learned a long time ago if you're
18:49
going to point at God
18:51
with your big steeple you better expect
18:53
that people are going to see that and
18:54
they're going to come looking for God
18:56
or you know the equivalent of that so I
19:00
take that to heart too we we try to do
22
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
19:01
right by people if we can
19:04
it's a long answer to your question what
19:06
a wonderful one thank you
19:07
is there anything that we didn't cover
19:09
that you'd like to share today
19:12
there's so much there's so much rich
19:15
history if you had
19:16
an hour I would fill it um so I you know
19:19
I can't think of anything
19:21
specifically right now that I didn't
19:23
cover that I wanted to but if there's
19:25
ever anything
19:27
that you're curious to know more about I
19:28
would love to to come and
19:30
talk more about the history of of our
19:32
community
19:34
thank you so much you're very welcome
19:55
[Music]
23
�
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Transcript of Reverend Jonathan Drury's Oral History on the First Congregational Church
1614
1708
1717
1750
1796
1858
American Civil War
american revolution
Beebe
Boston
church bell
East End Meeting House
Elias Lieberman
Falmouth granite
Falmouth Jewish Congregation
Falmouth Service Center
Falmouth Village Green
Faxon
First Congregational Church
jonathan drury
Katharine Lee Bates
katharine lee bates road
lakeview
lawrence school
mill road
old burying ground
oral history
paul revere
Postcards from Falmouth
puritan
Swift
transcript
troy clarkson
upper cape chaplaincy
west parish of barnstable
william bates
william mebane
Woods Hole
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/32209/archive/files/3de455b50809c266d578d8efec6f032c.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=UE-J8rrxhzEXmtIvMzPRFfZREx-E6o1yUf8yB8D20JDa9vPDs0z8ok8wwfh4BOCOzhQsiIwe4hsMjAqhkuvMy782eWZIHFohNY-jb96G5JexzI%7EB5YtSafTES03DTIifbS5jhDHvxk79bGXNCwZEn8V-YD8oZ662lfWNGQCr5LlNZj3ykSu%7EPwfjyyqplmxit1ne5qxetEEjCOPKeTzT3yEe7cQLbJsQDCaEkErgfZmaQ9BMVncB19xghQetqpcUlcrOCDdAMuJ%7EFRfZH0Oku1AtIotwsiUgkBZ%7EUYq93xiidiXBvxO3J8e%7EzGEX-MRoJmGwQQjQBxSQmikq%7ET1ikA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
e45db08f519e10bf7aa99085b8c35a3b
PDF Text
Text
Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript
Recorded: February 24, 2020
Oral Historian: Rabbi Elias Lieberman
Interviewer: Troy Clarkson
Topic: East End Meeting House
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
00:00
[Music]
00:44
I'd like to begin by asking you to tell
00:46
us your full name
00:48
and the postcard you'll be discussing I
00:50
am Elias
00:51
Jacob Lieberman I'm rabbi of Falmouth
00:54
Jewish Congregation
00:55
and I am discussing this wonderful
00:57
postcard
00:58
which depicts the East End Meeting House
#falmouthjewishcongregation
#eastendmeetinghouse
Gunning_Hatchville_Bldg_0526
through 0531
01:01
in East Falmouth
01:03
so the East End Meeting House has a rich
01:06
history in this community
01:08
and it goes way back to the
01:12
the days of the incorporation of our
01:14
community tell us a little bit about it
01:15
absolutely
01:16
um I need to give a shout out I'm
01:18
indebted to a couple of people who did
1
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
01:20
some wonderful
01:21
early research on the Meeting House one
01:23
of whom is Reverend Doug Showalter the
#douglasshowalter
01:25
minister for many many years of First
#firstcongregationalchurch
01:27
Congregational Church here in Falmouth
01:29
he's an avid historian and he did
01:31
incredible research on the history of
01:33
the Congregationalist community in
01:35
Falmouth and the other is Andrea Rosen
01:37
who for her Master's thesis in
01:40
Architecture
01:41
did a study of the history and the
01:43
structure of the East End Meeting House
01:45
so here's what I learned back in 1686
01:49
among the early settlers in Falmouth
01:51
decided it was time for a meeting house
01:53
so a very simple structure was
01:55
erected with town funds probably
01:59
where Mill Road is in Falmouth today the
#andrearosen
#1686
#millroad
Gunning_Village_Sts_0001 through
0016
02:02
Old Burying Ground
#oldburyingground
02:04
several structures occupied that spot
02:06
until well into the 1700s it was decided
02:09
to
02:09
move the location of that meeting house
02:12
and a simple structure was built on what
02:15
is now the
2
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:16
Falmouth Village Green later that became
#falmouthvillagegreen
Gunning_Village_Sts_0053 through
0078
02:19
the beautiful
02:19
First Congregational Church with its
02:21
beautiful white spire
02:23
etc later in the 1700s as the town grew
02:28
there was a perceived need for a second
02:30
meeting house
02:31
and there was a debate about where that
02:33
should be so
02:35
the powers that be decided to divide the
02:37
town in half
02:38
with a dividing line roughly separating
02:41
Teaticket from the rest of Falmouth
#teaticket
02:43
Tataket at that time
#tataket
02:45
and it was decided that the Falmouth
02:48
meeting house would be the beautiful
02:49
white church on the green
02:51
and that a new meeting house would be
02:52
built in East Falmouth
#eastfalmouth
02:55
Ezekiel Robinson one of the early
#ezekielrobinson
02:58
founders of Falmouth
02:59
and a land owner donated land out in
03:02
what is now Hatchville
#hatchville
03:04
the corner of Hatchville and Sandwich
#hatchvilleroad #sandwichroad
03:07
Roads today
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0346
through 0365
3
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:08
and that's where a very simple structure
03:11
was built
03:12
the initial meeting house in the east
03:15
end of town
03:17
it was probably a simple uh gabled roof
03:19
structure
03:21
its main entrance faced the small road
03:23
Hatchville Road
03:24
its long side was facing the main road
03:28
which is
03:28
Sandwich Road so in in
03:32
those days uh you mentioned that uh
03:35
the original meeting house down by Mill
03:37
Road was constructed actually with
03:39
town funds so explain to us a little
03:42
bit about how that worked because in
03:43
those days as you know
03:44
those meeting houses were both civic
03:47
spaces where people would gather but
03:49
also where people would worship
03:50
absolutely this predates what we've come
03:52
to think of as the separation of church
03:55
and state
03:56
but prior to that point it functioned as
03:58
as you say
03:59
a meeting house for civic affairs for
04:01
worship
4
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:03
those structures certainly
04:04
Congregationalist meetinghouse were very
04:06
simple
04:07
and it was only probably early
04:10
1840s or so when this principle began to
04:13
evolve
04:14
that there should be a separation
04:16
between government and
04:17
church and religion that
04:21
meeting houses and worship spaces took
04:23
on a decided
04:25
Christian look spires were added
04:28
bells were added as if to say we're now
04:31
dedicating this space
04:33
for religious purposes civic purposes
04:36
might be held elsewhere and so that's
04:38
when many of those buildings begin to
04:40
look more like a stereotypical
04:43
New England church and that was true for
04:45
the East End Meeting house
04:48
1842 a member of that congregation whose
#1842
04:52
name was Shubael
#shubaellawrence
04:54
Lawrence and I meant to look up the
04:57
derivation of that name because it's
04:59
certainly a biblical name
05:00
and to the best of my Hebrew knowledge
05:02
it probably means God's
5
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
05:03
oath
05:06
regardless he left a bequest in his
05:09
estate
05:10
he said I will leave to the East End
05:14
Congregational Society the sum of ten
05:17
thousand dollars
05:18
to be invested in what he described as
05:20
good stocks
05:22
which will serve as a preaching and
05:24
teaching endowment
05:25
to fund a minister and his
05:29
service to the community and I’ll give
05:31
you that gift if you do the following
05:34
if you rotate the building 90 degrees
05:37
so that the main entrance faces Sandwich
05:40
Road
05:41
if you put up a spire and a bell
05:45
and you agree to maintain the cemetery
05:48
behind
05:48
the meeting house in perpetuity
05:52
the congregation jumped at that
05:53
opportunity it met his
05:56
requirements within two years of his
05:58
will being
05:59
probated and the meeting house really
06:03
took on the look that it has to this
06:06
very day
#eastendcongregationalsociety
6
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
06:07
so can you share with us uh
06:10
to the degree that that you know
06:14
the evolution then of the that building
06:17
since that point
06:21
nearly 200 years the occupants and the
06:24
people who have gathered
06:25
right so I’ve learned some interesting
06:27
things about the building from reading
06:29
and certainly from experiencing uh
06:30
the building over the past few decades
06:34
when it was originally built there were
06:36
galleries
06:37
on three sides of that building upstairs
06:39
galleries
06:40
those galleries were designated for the
06:42
poor and for servants
06:44
pews down below the fixed pews were
06:47
essentially sold
06:48
to family members when the building was
06:52
rotated
06:53
two of the side galleries came down
06:55
there was a remaining gallery in the
06:56
back which which still exists
06:59
the building really had no heat not
07:02
surprisingly
07:02
there were two pot-bellied stoves with
07:05
long pipes
7
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
07:07
going around sides of the building not
07:08
doing much
07:10
the records indicate that people would
07:12
bring heated bricks
07:14
they would bring small portable stoves
07:16
of some kind to
07:17
set at their feet and uh the pews had
07:21
doors to try to keep out some of the
07:22
draft
07:23
but it's hard to imagine that it was a
07:24
very comfortable space especially in
07:27
winter weather uh
07:31
it's still a very beautiful building
07:32
much of the the glass windows are still
07:34
the original glass
07:37
through the years the building suffered
07:39
from
07:40
the weight of that additional steeple
07:42
and bell
07:44
since the building was not originally
07:45
designed to carry that weight
07:47
over the course of time the roof began
07:49
to experience some serious sag
07:52
so uh I’m jumping ahead now so
07:56
by the 1960s that
07:59
congregation had grown quite small and
08:02
it was hard to
8
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:03
find the finances to maintain that
08:05
building in the way that
08:07
it needed to be a
08:11
society was formed the East End
08:12
Congregational Society
08:14
circa 1964 and it set about to do some
08:17
serious fundraising to address some of
08:19
those
08:20
problems with the building and it was
08:22
quite successful in that regard
08:24
the building was used um somewhat beyond
08:27
that point it was open to many different
08:29
denominations who would use it
08:31
and almost exclusively in the summer by
08:33
that point
08:34
summer worship became a a factor from
08:37
the 1960s on
08:40
by about 1981 that group had grown so
08:44
small
08:44
that the decision was made to see if
08:46
there might be another
08:48
faith community interested in taking
08:50
over that building
08:51
and taking over the responsibility of
08:53
maintaining it
08:55
and by happy coincidence certainly for
08:56
the Jewish community that was right at
9
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:58
the time when a fledgling Jewish
09:00
congregation was being formed
09:04
Bob Ament Jeff Oppenheim
09:07
to stalwarts of our community were
09:09
movers and shakers both young men at the
09:11
time
09:12
but they realized that there were
09:13
probably enough Jews in Falmouth by that
09:15
point
09:16
to see if it would be feasible to
09:19
pull together a congregation and that's
09:21
what happened around 1981
09:24
and around that time this wonderful
09:26
offer came from the East End
09:27
Congregational Society
09:29
we'd like to offer you this historic
09:31
meeting house
09:32
we'd like to offer you the parsonage
09:34
house which sits just down the road on
09:36
Hatchville Road
09:38
as well as that preaching and teaching
09:40
endowment
09:42
and it's my understanding that by 1981
09:44
that ten thousand dollars
09:46
was about seventy five thousand dollars
09:50
by the way that ten thousand dollars in
09:52
1842 would have been the
#robertament #jeffreyoppenheim
#1981
10
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
09:53
equivalent of about three hundred
09:55
thousand dollars in 2020
09:56
dollars
09:57
so it was a significant gift the Jewish
10:00
community
10:00
jumped at that opportunity it was really
10:02
quite extraordinary because
10:04
the Jewish community had been meeting in
10:06
Saint Barnabas church
#saintbarnabaschurch
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0316
through 0343
10:07
in bank meeting rooms and the
10:10
opportunity to create a home
10:12
was really just enormously powerful and
10:16
wonderful
10:18
the meeting house was conveyed to the
10:20
Jewish community
10:21
the Jewish community set about raising
10:22
funds to make restorations
10:25
and to do those things necessary to
10:27
transform it into a synagogue
10:31
the parsonage house became offices and
10:33
classrooms for this fledgling
10:35
congregation
10:36
and uh the congregation took on the
10:39
opportunity to maintain this building in
10:41
perpetuity
10:42
as well as the cemetery behind it so
11
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:46
someone at the time approached the
10:49
American Jewish
10:50
Archives premier historical research
10:53
organization
10:54
and we received the really phenomenal
10:57
message that to the best of its
10:59
knowledge
11:00
this was the first time in recorded
11:01
history of a Christian community
11:04
donating its building to a Jewish
11:05
community
11:06
so that it might have a home to worship
11:08
in which is a pretty powerful story
11:13
until this very moment didn't know that
11:14
portion of the history so
11:16
what a remarkable example uh of the
11:19
sense of community that
11:20
to this day is woven through uh
11:24
so many facets of our community
11:27
absolutely
11:28
Troy right around that time
11:31
circa 1983 the first uh Jewish service
11:34
was held there
11:35
on July 29 1983 a Sabbath service
11:39
and members from all over the community
11:41
were invited and attended
11:44
Jewish communities need and go to great
#americanjewisharchives
#1983
12
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
11:47
lengths to
11:48
attain a Torah scroll the Torah contains
11:51
the Five Books of Moses and
11:53
is read regularly in Jewish worship
11:56
the congregation did not have a Torah
11:58
scroll but was able to acquire one
12:01
with a very special history
12:05
after World War II it was discovered
#worldwartwo
12:07
that the Nazis had collected Torah
#nazi
12:10
scrolls and Jewish ceremonial objects
12:12
from all of the Jewish communities that
12:14
they had destroyed in Europe
12:16
they gathered all those items in Prague
12:18
and warehoused them
12:19
at the end of the war they were
12:20
discovered including hundreds of
12:23
Torah scrolls some that were centuries
12:25
old
12:26
in many cases they were too far damaged
12:28
to ever be used again
12:31
those which could be restored were sent
12:34
to a synagogue in Westminster
12:36
London which became the repository for
12:38
what are called
12:39
Shoah scrolls Shoah is the Hebrew word
12:41
for devastation the word
12:43
referring to the Holocaust those scrolls
13
#torah
#london
#holocaust
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
12:46
that were able to be repaired were then
12:48
made available on permanent
12:50
loan to Jewish communities around the
12:52
world
12:54
Falmouth Jewish congregation applied for
12:56
one of those scrolls
12:58
and the cost of bringing it here
13:00
shipping it insuring it
13:02
were donated by the Church of the
#churchofthemessiah
Gunning_WoodsHole_Bldg_0565
through 0569
13:04
Messiah in Woods Hole
#woodshole
13:06
so that church that community made
13:08
possible
13:09
a key element in the celebration of
13:12
Jewish life and worship for our
13:13
community
13:14
and that's a that's a gift that
13:17
remains firmly in the minds of our
13:19
community ever since
13:22
so really the the East End Meeting House
13:25
symbolizes
13:27
so much more than being simply a
13:29
gathering place but
13:31
how it exists today is
13:35
based on the story you just shared is
13:37
one of the shining examples of
13:39
community really absolutely without
14
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:42
question
13:43
by happy coincidence the Hebrew word for
13:46
a synagogue
13:47
two Hebrew words beit which means house
13:50
knesset
13:51
gathering or meeting so beit knesset
13:55
really can translate
13:56
quite easily as a meeting house
13:59
and so it's very wonderful that the
14:01
first worship space for our community
14:04
was a beit knesset from 1797
14:07
a meeting house that's wonderful is
14:09
there anything else you'd like to share
14:11
I’ll just give a quick synopsis of what
14:12
happened since then
14:14
the congregation um had taken over the
14:17
Meeting House circa 1982
14:19
did the necessary restorations and began
14:22
to use it full time for worship
14:24
um the congregation grew quite quickly
14:27
in the 1980s
14:29
and it became apparent by that point
14:30
that it would need to expand
14:32
but there was no room around the meeting
14:34
house for that expansion
14:36
so the congregation purchased 10 acres
14:38
of land across Hatchville Road
#1797
15
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
14:41
and built a building with the
14:43
possibility of picking up that
14:45
meeting house and moving it across the
14:47
street
14:48
and then joining it to the building
14:50
which was designed for that new space
14:53
for various reasons that I won't go into
14:55
that didn't happen the meeting house
14:56
still sits in its
14:58
original location and we have another
14:59
beautiful facility
15:01
our Seifer Community Center building
15:03
which has a chapel classroom
15:05
social hall et cetera so we have these
15:07
two wonderful buildings
15:08
the meetinghouse is still used although
15:10
primarily in warm weather
15:13
we put in heating and air conditioning
15:15
back in the 1980s
15:17
90s so it is certainly functional but
15:20
most of what we do takes place in our
15:22
community center building
15:24
but that building remains a cherished
15:26
part of our congregation
15:28
uh and hopefully always will be
15:31
wonderful thank you so much for uh
15:33
sharing this rich history with
16
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
15:36
all of them you are very welcome thank
15:38
you
15:40
[Music]
17
�
Text
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Transcript of Rabbi Elias Lieberman's Oral History on the East End Meeting House
1686
1797
1842
1981
1983
American Jewish Archives
Andrea Rosen
Church of the Messiah
Douglas Showalter
East End Congregational Society
East End Meeting House
East Falmouth
Elias Lieberman
Ezekiel Robinson
Falmouth Jewish Congregation
Falmouth Village Green
First Congregational Church
Hatchville
Hatchville Road
Holocaust
jeffrey oppenheim
london
mill road
nazi
old burying ground
oral history
Postcards from Falmouth
robert ament
saint barnabas church
sandwich road
shubael lawrence
tataket
teaticket
torah
transcript
troy clarkson
Woods Hole
world war 2
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/32209/archive/files/e90803d9615b949938f20efee1b39c40.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=v209L210B2zQ3lQxoMfp0VVJqONmyDLV-AsaW0M9pGymcpMST-MToHNGwNOnQXxnvU-svRGvBqOvZhhog1BV3A-5jtqWlbukP6Pr3QXK50u2%7EEsabqq2TjX7l0Rol8S-lKmTv%7EsGo-vw4MqipBU9ZfOCJ7T-SbLgPA4uBbGw81KKV67YpamWzR0JcOdJV3pT4cX4z5O0001KXiBXsRxjVWsEN5D%7EJZsBkP3NrOeeJfGxXDj2LU8zARa28xoGtKLI4pZ54mBN54SKk6MzLOPne9YXeIQyA9um9EmgHaGOnQCuPzHLld%7Eo0uZP2rBRwY9WuI0UUooZx2fuxw99XtlKFg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
42328b30a144368d49163c4225892f5c
PDF Text
Text
Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript
Recorded: February 24, 2020
Oral Historian: Reverend Will Mebane, Jr.
Interviewer: Troy Clarkson
Topic: Saint Barnabas Church
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
00:00
[Music]
00:45
so
00:45
welcome and my first question is I’d
00:48
like to begin by asking you to tell us
00:49
your full name and the postcard you will
00:51
be discussing
00:53
so I am the Reverend Will Mebane the
rector
00:56
at Saint Barnabas
#saintbarnabaschurch
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0316 through
0343
00:57
Memorial Episcopal Church here in
00:59
Falmouth and I’ll be talk
01:01
talking about the postcard that has the
01:04
structure the building of Saint Barnabas
01:07
Church and so
01:10
Saint Barnabas church has a rich history
01:13
in this community
01:14
uh the cornerstones were laid uh
01:18
many many years ago that's right uh by
1
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
01:21
uh people with a name that still
01:24
resonates throughout our community
01:26
so tell us a little bit about that so
01:28
there is no Saint Barnabas without the
01:30
Beebe family and so that name does
01:33
resonate
01:34
throughout the community and to this day
01:37
the cornerstone was
01:38
laid in 1890 it was a memorial
01:42
to the Beebe family the mother and father
01:47
of the family
01:48
by their eldest surviving son Edward
01:51
Pierson Beebe
01:53
the origin of the parish is
01:58
somewhat interesting in that the Beebes
02:01
were not
02:02
originally Episcopalians they were like
02:04
most folks in New England at the time
02:07
Congregationalists but they used to
02:08
summer in
02:11
Woods Hole and the Church of the
Messiah
#beebe
#1890
#woodshole #churchofthemessiah
Gunning_WoodsHole_Bldg_0565
through 0569
02:14
in Woods Hole is the first Episcopal
church
02:16
in town
02:18
and they used to make the trek down to
2
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:20
Woods Hole from Falmouth
02:22
from the Village Green where they stayed
#falmouthvillagegreen
Gunning_Village_Sts_0053 through
0078
02:24
at an inn
02:25
for services on Sunday but that got to
02:28
be
02:29
old pretty quickly and the
02:32
the family decided that they would
02:34
prefer not to have to make that foul
02:36
five mile trek down to uh to Woods Hole
02:41
and one of their own parish now
02:44
parenthetically lots of people in
02:46
Falmouth say to me today
02:48
Woods Hole is so far but can you imagine
02:52
how far it was back in 1888
02:55
having to use a buggy and carriage of
02:57
horses to get down there
03:00
but the Beebe children decided to
03:04
when the James Madison Beebe died
03:07
the Beebe children wanted to build the
03:10
parish
03:10
in memory of their mother Esther and
03:13
their father James
03:16
that's great and so and from that point
03:18
uh
3
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:20
there uh there is a long history of the
03:23
development of
03:24
the uh the the church itself uh and of
03:28
continuing generations
03:30
uh of of babies and
03:33
uh and and other prominent members of
03:35
the community supporting not only the
03:37
building but the congregation itself
03:39
so there's uh another interesting
03:42
bit about the formation of
03:46
Saint Barnabas parish originally
03:50
the as I said the family was worshiping
03:53
in Woods Hole
03:55
and then they began to have the
03:58
pastor from Woods Hole do services at
04:02
the
04:02
town
04:05
town hall Falmouth Town Hall on Sunday
04:08
afternoons
04:10
and from that they decided to
04:13
want to build their own parish but the
04:16
in order to build a parish
04:18
or to start a parish in a community
04:22
you cannot do so if there is another
04:24
Episcopal church within the same
04:26
boundary
4
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:28
not without getting approval from the
04:29
standing committee
04:31
of the diocese of Massachusetts and that
04:33
was the case here
04:35
and when the petition was put forth
04:38
to start a parish in Falmouth
04:43
the Falmouth village and it was not
04:47
received enthusiastically by the diocese
04:50
and in fact the
04:51
president of the standing committee
04:54
argued very forcefully against
04:58
authorizing the formation of this parish
05:01
and approval from the standing committee
05:03
is necessary
05:05
to get a new parish started so already
05:08
in the beginning you have the president
05:09
of the standing committee saying no
05:10
to this idea because he felt that
05:14
the Beebes were really trying to form a
05:18
parish that was basically for their
05:21
benefit only
05:22
or primarily in fact the Sunday
05:24
afternoon worship services
05:26
were attended primarily by the Beebes
their
05:28
family members and their guests
5
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
05:30
and maybe a few people from the village
05:34
so there was a um a struggle with the
05:38
standing committee and the Beebes to get
05:41
the church built
05:42
but ultimately the Rev. Phillips Brooks
05:46
who was at that time the rector of
05:49
Trinity Church Boston
05:51
very influential church then and now
05:54
uh sided with the Beebes that he thought
it
05:58
would be worthwhile to have a parish in
06:00
Falmouth village
06:01
and that really turned the tide turn the
06:03
opposition
06:05
and allow for the construction of Saint
06:08
Barnabas
06:10
the cornerstone was laid on the 11th of
06:13
June in 1890
06:16
on Saint Barnabas Day
06:20
now there's doubt and
06:23
about why are there questions about
06:26
why that particular day was chosen what
06:30
was significant about
06:31
Saint Barnabas and the only thing
06:35
that anyone has been able to discover
06:38
today
#phillipsbrooks
#trinitychurch #boston
6
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
06:39
is that there was probably or may have
06:42
been
06:42
a family member with the name Barnabas
06:45
in the Beebe family and that is one of
06:48
the reasons they chose
06:50
the name Barnabas for the parish
06:54
very interesting wow so of course
07:01
somewhere contemporaneous with that
the
07:03
Beebes also constructed
07:05
and had then two beautiful
07:09
summer uh estates up on the hill yes
07:12
that we now know today is Highfield Hall
07:14
and the other
07:15
uh is no longer there right that was
07:17
Tanglewood
07:18
right yeah yeah yeah so
07:22
and they had acreage
07:25
that now was known as Beebe Woods
right and
07:27
so the uh
07:28
the everlasting influence of that family
07:31
is as you said very much still felt
07:33
today yeah very prominent
07:34
even today I think it was 95 acres if I
07:36
remember correctly
07:39
so since that time that the cornerstone
#highfieldhall
#tanglewood
#beebewoods
7
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
07:41
was laid
07:42
both the building and the congregation
07:45
that is gathered there has seen
07:47
quite an evolution can you walk us
07:49
through that a little bit
07:50
sure let me do that but I want to first
07:53
talk a little bit about the
07:55
architecture because that's what people
07:57
are going to see on the postcard
08:00
and so it was designed by Henry Vaughan
#henryvaughan
08:05
known as the mentor for the Gothic
#gothic
08:08
revival
08:09
movement in America he himself
08:12
was an Englishman and the Beebes
08:15
found him and from their connections in
08:18
England and got him to come over
08:22
and to design the the building
08:25
made out of a red sandstone and
08:29
that style for Saint Barnabas
08:33
was the first in a series of nine
08:36
churches nine parishes that Vaughan
08:39
designed
08:40
three of them in southern New England
08:43
there's one in Swansea and
08:47
one in New Bedford and then Saint
08:49
Barnabas and the other
8
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:51
six are outside of southern New England
08:55
Vaughan was well respected but it said
08:58
that
09:00
he was not interested in fame or
09:03
influence how well you did your work
was
09:06
more important to him
09:08
so the building has survived very well
09:12
thanks to Vaughan's design
09:16
and we still today get hundreds if not
09:19
thousands of people visiting Saint
09:21
Barnabas to admire the the beauty
09:24
of the structure
09:27
Historically Saint Barnabas has been a
09:30
community parish by that I mean a
09:34
place that was open to the community
09:37
to organizations uh non-profits and the
09:41
like
09:42
to together and to
09:46
hash out their strategic agendas
09:50
and so we today do the same thing at
Saint
09:52
Barnabas
09:53
we like to be known as the parish of the
09:56
community
09:57
so we are constantly opening our doors
10:00
and welcoming
9
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:02
non-profit organizations and other
10:03
entities
10:05
to use our beautiful campus as a
10:07
gathering for
10:09
retreats and for organizational meetings
10:12
and for community meetings of all types
10:17
and so that legacy continues today
10:21
that that's wonderful uh
10:24
to go back to the architecture for just
10:26
a minute the
10:28
architecture itself and the style it
10:30
really draws a very nice contrast
10:32
to the other more traditional New
10:35
England
10:36
buildings including the the
10:38
Congregational Church across the green
#firstcongregationalchurch
Hunt_Village_Bldg_001
Hunt_Village_Sts_152
Gunning_Village_Sts_0073
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0346 through
0365
10:41
and to me that symbolizes
10:45
what I call the mosaic of the community
10:48
because
10:49
all of the buildings around the green
10:50
are shining tiles in that mosaic
10:53
but Saint Barnabas in particular I think
10
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:56
draws
10:57
uh our attention to the fact that
11:01
a church can look differently but still
11:03
be very much part of the community
11:05
you raised an interesting point about of
11:08
the history
11:10
of Saint Barnabas with the
11:11
Congregational Church 19th century now
11:16
and Congregationalists and the
11:20
Episcopalians didn't play well
11:22
together and
11:25
in fact there's a story that has been
11:27
verified that when
11:29
Saint Barnabas was finally being built
11:33
the spire and the tower
11:37
fell during the construction
11:40
during a autumn storm
11:44
and a member of the Congregational
11:46
Church
11:48
remarked I am so glad that is exactly
11:51
what I’ve been praying for
11:56
and it took several uh
12:00
years before the Congregationalists and
12:03
the Episcopalians began to play well
12:05
together
12:06
uh fortunately the pastor at the First
11
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
12:10
Congregation and I
12:11
see one another a lot and we're very
12:13
involved in lots of the same
12:15
projects and causes around town
12:18
but yeah they didn't start out that way
12:22
but today both stand as pillars not only
12:25
of the
12:26
faith community but of the larger
12:27
community and one of the
12:29
the themes that's emerging during these
12:31
uh interviews
12:33
the topic is the postcards but really
12:36
what's developing is a sense of how
12:38
incredibly connected our communities are
12:42
and in many ways through
12:44
our faith communities yes Falmouth I
12:47
think someone told me there's something
12:48
like 27
12:51
faith communities in and around the
12:53
Falmouth area
12:55
which is a large number
12:58
and very diverse and we also
13:02
have a Saint Barnabas has also had a
13:04
very
13:07
positive and cooperative relationship
13:10
with the Falmouth Jewish Congregation
12
#falmouthjewishcongregation
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:12
for example there was a time in their
13:14
history
13:15
when they needed a place to worship
13:18
and Saint Barnabas made its chapel space
13:22
available
13:23
for that congregation to worship and
13:26
in the spirit of recognizing that we are
13:29
one people under
13:30
God and we should be being good
13:33
neighbors
13:34
to one another my concern today
13:37
is for
13:41
obviously the future of Saint Barnabas
13:43
as well
13:45
and I have concern about the climate
13:48
crisis
13:48
in which we're we find ourselves today
13:53
it's been forecast that in within the
13:56
next 50 years
13:58
that what we now know as Surf Drive in
#surfdrive
Gunning_Village_Sts_0085
14:01
Falmouth
14:02
will be at the front steps of Saint
14:05
Barnabas
14:07
that's difficult for us to wrap our
14:10
heads around
13
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
14:12
and but that is what the scientists are
14:15
projecting and we have great scientists
14:17
in this area
14:18
and so what does that mean for First
14:22
Congregational Church
14:23
on the Green there and for Saint
14:25
Barnabas on the Green there
14:27
so it's not something
14:30
anyone probably ever thought they would
14:32
have to worry about but there is
14:33
something now that is a concern of ours
14:37
if there is a silver lining in that
14:40
cloud as the communities in Falmouth
14:43
have
14:44
that history that you referenced of
14:45
working together
14:47
and helping each other out so uh
14:50
being the eternal optimist that I am we
14:53
see opportunities in the future
14:55
yeah for uh for the faith communities to
14:58
once again
14:59
uh work together to ensure that there's
15:01
a there's always a place to gather
15:05
since I’ve been here I’ve been here just
15:06
over a year and a half now
15:08
and I’m grateful to my clergy colleagues
14
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
15:12
from the other denominations and faith
15:14
traditions and
15:15
the reenergizing of the Falmouth Clergy
15:19
Association
15:21
of which I’m an active member myself
15:24
because we do need to have that
15:25
collaborative relationship uh because we
15:28
never know when we might need one
15:30
another for
15:32
any number of reasons is there anything
15:35
we didn't cover that you'd like to
15:36
discuss
15:38
just take a look here this will be
15:41
edited yep
15:42
yep
15:47
there is one story I would love to tell
15:49
but I don't know that it's
15:51
true so I’ll share with you
15:54
not for uh insert uh
15:58
that Mrs. Beebe uh
16:02
not only did they get tired of going to
16:04
Woods Hole
16:05
to Church of the Messiah but she is said
16:08
to have said
16:10
that she got tired of her
16:13
petticoats getting dusty on the ride
15
#falmouthclergyassociation
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
16:15
down two weeks old
16:17
and that was the determining factor
16:22
I would love to find out if that's true
16:23
I haven't found that any
16:25
anything I’ve ever seen so far no there
16:27
was no painting back then
16:29
right oh okay yeah did you imagine yeah
16:31
I mean that was
16:32
that was an effort uh let's see
16:37
we talked about that
16:45
yeah so this is going to be three
16:46
minutes so I think you may have enough
16:50
Kim has anything that you oh great idea
16:54
what's that we'll talk about Strawberry
16:57
Festival
16:58
oh yes yes yes yes one of the
17:01
I would say iconic uh
17:04
event that connects Saint Barnabas to
17:06
members of the community who may not
17:08
gather there in worship
17:09
is the Strawberry Festival which uh
17:12
which brings together the
17:13
agrarian history of our community uh
17:16
with
17:17
the parish of Saint Barnabas so tell us
17:20
a little bit about that
16
#strawberryfestival
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
17:21
yeah so the Strawberry Festival uh is
17:24
indeed a seminal event each year
17:26
in the life of Saint Barnabas people
17:29
come from near and far
17:31
for this they they look forward to it
17:33
each year
17:35
we just celebrated our 90th Strawberry
17:38
Festival
17:40
uh let me check I need to check that
17:41
that may not be right and
17:43
because we have so many it was the 90th
17:46
it was the 90th of the Christmas Fair
17:49
not the Strawberry Festival
17:50
Strawberry Festival has actually been
17:52
going on longer than that
17:53
I can't remember the exact it's a
17:56
hundred and
17:56
some years but the Strawberry Festival
18:00
at Saint
18:01
Barnabas brings the community together
18:03
and what I’m most proud of
18:05
today is that a
18:08
significant portion of the funds raised
18:12
from the Strawberry Festival
18:13
go back into the community a
18:17
conscious intentional decision
17
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
18:20
has been made by the parish that if the
18:22
community is going to support an event
18:24
like the Strawberry Festival
18:26
the proceeds from that should go back
18:29
out in the community
18:30
to support the needs of the community
18:33
so it has had a very long history there
18:36
have been times when
18:38
there have been there's been concern
18:40
about whether
18:42
they could pull it off but somehow
18:45
miraculously
18:46
it continues and some individuals have
18:49
been doing
18:50
that organizing for
18:54
decades that's great and then
18:57
the uh
19:01
are the strawberries locally sourced do
19:02
they come from
19:04
there was a time when they all came from
19:09
farms farms in the area and people would
19:11
go out
19:12
members of the congregation would go
out
19:14
and do the picking
19:16
and I think we've had to
18
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
19:20
upgrade to more contemporary means for
19:23
gathering
19:24
the strawberries now because of course
19:26
I’m guessing
19:27
uh more than a hundred years ago when
19:28
the Strawberry Festival started
19:31
a good portion of the land any East
19:33
Falmouth
19:34
particularly Davisville where I grew up
19:36
were strawberry farms yes yes
19:38
yes yes and Tony Andrews is probably the #tonyandrewsfarm
19:41
only
19:41
working strawberry farm left and that
19:45
is where most if not all of the
19:48
strawberries for the Strawberry Festival
19:50
uh are sourced
19:53
yeah that's one that's right yeah
19:56
great well thank you very much for
19:59
spending this time with us
20:00
and sharing the rich history of Saint
Barnabas Troy
20:03
always a pleasure to be with you I’m so
20:05
grateful to the Falmouth Public Library
20:07
for this series and I look forward to
20:09
learning more about Falmouth’s rich and
20:13
great history
19
#davisville
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
20:34
[Music]
20
�
Text
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Title
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Transcript of Reverend William Mebane's Oral History on St. Barnabas Church
1890
Beebe
Beebe Woods
Boston
Church of the Messiah
Davisville
Falmouth Clergy Association
Falmouth Jewish Congregation
Falmouth Village Green
First Congregational Church
Gothic
Henry Vaughan
Highfield Hall
oral history
phillips brooks
Postcards from Falmouth
saint barnabas church
strawberry festival
Surf Drive
tanglewood
tony andrews farm
transcript
trinity church
troy clarkson
william mebane
Woods Hole
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/32209/archive/files/be41b3eb3d260d188d3086d5af635ce2.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=DT-EhzI2AVSY5j2sI1jswO52Stxht98cw2jQu7oIcWcmxl%7Et9dsOAG63x3OaDBu-A-NoTeSZ%7EA-evxU0WzkESTVEVZY8Auxfhds0A%7EAzxmFz-XsGxxJdqj9UDB5WwHxoUM0MajJJ7JH-UdBbzYLiYE4qBiiNOugqr6YsfvBAHDQgDvtjhtvBkdZbPgGUmS1Ee1X3CIsKJNu8Vo55LAbQwm3SVD8bDsvGSrOWBZyN2Zgv421yvK1GUrIL6fO%7E2fLCLbjXv26yjg127nuzHA9YqzSX%7Ewe3NatxcYjI0UWBp6jJnEXODCoYj-By6NuhK%7Eg3g2D3PwDwcULOGtYuGCaMRg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
41ff504f81c3ba69fe1267d0db07a180
PDF Text
Text
Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript
Recorded: June 30, 2021
Oral Historian: Nancy Eldridge, Camille Beale
Interviewer: Barbara Kanellopoulos
Topic: Falmouth Main Street in the 1900s
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
00:00
[Music]
00:44
welcome to the Falmouth Public Library's
00:47
oral history project I’m Barbara
00:50
Kanellopoulos and with me are our oral
00:54
historians Nancy Eldridge and Cam Beale
00:58
who are going to tell us stories that
01:01
along with the historic postcards will
01:04
give us an idea of what Main Street in
#mainstreet
Gunning_Village_Sts_0017 through
0041
01:07
Falmouth looked like in the mid-1900s
01:12
Cam
01:13
Cam you arrived here in Falmouth in the
01:16
mid 50s and and married Falmouth
01:19
resident
01:21
Barry Beale whose parents owned
01:24
the Beale’s Shoe Store on Main Street and
01:27
Nancy you came to Falmouth
01:30
around 1940 as a child and you lived on
01:34
Main Street in fact Main Street was your
01:37
playground
1
#bealesshoestore
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
01:39
so I’ll turn to Cam first to tell us how
01:42
has uh how has Main Street changed over
01:45
the years well surprisingly Barbara it
01:47
really hasn't changed very much
01:50
from the mid-1900s the
01:53
buildings around the village green and
01:55
the center of Falmouth really
01:59
you would recognize them if you
02:01
looked at those postcards they look
02:02
pretty much the same as they do in the
02:05
postcards so the buildings have not
02:07
changed very much some of them have been
02:10
expanded some have been downsized for
02:13
them for
02:15
mostly
02:16
the town is the same
02:18
the town hall was
02:21
in the center of town and it was
02:24
on the Noonan Park site
02:27
that we use today
02:29
and it was
02:32
and behind it was the police station
02:35
and the police station overlooked
02:37
Shiverick’s Pond
#falmouthvillagegreen
#townhall
#pegnoonanpark
#shiverickspond
Gunning_Village_Pnd_0120
through 146
Hunt_Village_Pnd_128 through 135
02:39
and of course Katharine Lee Bates Road
2
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:40
wasn't there at that time
02:43
and
02:44
so the Shiverick’s kind of
02:47
really came up behind those buildings
02:49
fairly close
02:52
the story goes that
02:56
Shiverick’s used to freeze over in the
02:58
winter time and they used it to skate on
03:01
like three to five weeks during the
03:03
winter
03:05
and
03:06
there was a policeman named White
03:09
and he was
03:11
quite a big man and he would go out onto
03:13
the pond and stand on the middle
03:16
of the ice and
03:18
deem it safe or not safe to
03:21
to skate on
03:23
and
03:24
one day my husband Barry
03:26
eight or nine years old went out onto
03:29
the pond
03:30
unbeknownst to anyone
03:32
hadn't been checked out
03:34
and
03:35
a policeman coming back from being on
03:37
duty saw him and went down got him off
3
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:40
the ice called his dad at the shoe store
03:43
his dad arrived at the police station
03:46
and they
03:47
read the riot act to Barry Beale yes yes
03:50
it was a personal time people took care
03:53
of each other yes and uh I see Nancy you
03:56
certainly were very aware of the
04:00
visibility of the police on Main Street
04:04
yes indeed I was and everyone in town
04:09
kind of knew everyone else and
04:13
I
04:14
um
04:16
when I first
04:17
know when I first learned how to drive
04:21
I learned
04:22
how to drive
04:23
and I was driving very well by the time
04:25
I was 15.
04:27
and one day for some reason I was sent
04:30
to do an errand while
04:34
using the car
04:35
at the age of 15 and I drove out on Main
04:39
Street and
04:41
there was the traffic policeman standing
04:44
as they used to in a circle in the
04:46
middle of the
04:47
Main Street
4
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:49
that
04:51
and of course as I
04:53
tootled on by driving my car at 15
04:58
uh the policeman
05:00
was it uh Elmer Wright by any chance now
05:03
Elmer White that was what I thank you
05:06
for reminding me that was it Elmer White
05:08
yelled
05:09
hey what are you doing driving that car
05:12
you're only 15 of course he knew
05:14
exactly how old I was he knew who I was
05:19
yes
05:20
but that was as far as it went I waved
05:23
and smiled and
05:25
yes yes
05:26
and
05:27
so and the high school was right there I
05:30
understand and that was the high school
05:32
you went to
05:33
I did indeed the red wood shingled
05:37
building with the belfry in the top was
05:39
my high school
05:41
we were
05:43
supposed to be the first class to
05:47
graduate from the new high school which
05:49
was being built across Shiverick’s Pond
05:52
which is now the middle school
#lawrenceschool
5
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
05:55
but the truth
05:57
like all buildings it didn't get
05:59
finished in time so we were the last
06:01
class
06:02
to graduate from the old wood shingle
06:05
building on
06:07
right on Main Street and it was
06:11
it was an
06:12
interesting building yes I understand
06:15
there's a plaque on Main Street next to
06:18
a stone that commemorates that that's
06:21
where the old high school was
06:23
and um
06:25
and so Main Street then um
06:28
had had
06:30
markets markets for food shops
06:32
yeah they did there were three markets
06:34
that I remember when I came to town one
06:37
of them was the A&P
06:39
that was in the center of town
06:41
the other was the First National and
06:43
that was across the street from what is
06:46
now Barbo’s but it was W.C. Davis at that
06:49
time it was furniture store
06:52
and the third one was a specialty shop
06:56
it was
06:58
called Ten Acre
#tenacre
6
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
06:59
and it catered to the summer people oh
07:02
yes yeah
07:03
Hollis Lovell owned it
07:05
and he hired a number of high school and
07:08
college students to work summers
07:10
and they have I’m sure
07:12
a lot of happy memories doing that
07:14
um also my memory is of the donut
07:17
machine in the window or in the front I
07:20
can't remember whether it was in the
07:21
window or the front of the store but
07:23
anyway every they wheeled it out every
07:26
uh Saturday
07:27
and it made those you know plain greasy
07:30
donuts
07:32
they put the mixture in it would plop
07:34
the donuts down into the grease they'd
07:36
bob around and turn around when they
07:39
were cooked it would automatically lift
07:41
them out and drain the grease from them
07:43
and then somebody would pick them up
07:45
through the donut holes and put them
07:47
into a bag yummy plain donuts
07:51
greasy yes delicious it sounds like
07:54
just watching this machine must have
07:56
been entertainment for the town yeah
07:59
right line up right
7
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:01
and
08:03
entertainment
08:05
makes me think of
08:06
Nancy you remember a movie house on
Main
08:10
Street oh I certainly do I remember both
08:12
of them but the there was a
08:15
um the Elizabeth Theater which was right
#elizabeththeater
Gunning_Village_Sts_0025
08:18
on Main Street and is now the
08:20
location from I believe Maxwells
08:23
department store or
08:25
clothing store
08:27
and
08:29
they ran movies every single day and
08:32
evening
08:34
and I lived right next door to it so I
08:36
always knew what movie was playing and I
08:39
saw many of them but
08:42
they always had a cowboy movie on
08:45
Saturdays
08:47
and
08:48
good first run movies that ran on
08:51
Sundays and Mondays and double features
08:54
on Tuesday Wednesday Thursday
08:57
don't remember what was on Friday but
08:59
always a cowboy movie on Saturday yes
09:02
and do you remember how much
8
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
09:04
admission
09:06
well as a child up till 12
09:10
and actually I got past 12 because I
09:12
wasn't very tall and didn't look 12.
09:15
I paid 10 cents plus 2 cents tax and I
09:20
think the the adult
09:22
um
09:23
charge was under a dollar
09:26
it must have been a place where all the
09:29
children went uh while their parents
09:31
were shopping on me
09:33
I would go shopping at the First
09:35
National and then I would come back and
09:38
say to the ticket lady I’m going to go
09:39
in and check on my children and she'd
09:41
say oh go ahead and tell the usher and
09:44
he'd let you go down talk to the kids
09:46
are you doing okay yeah fine all right
09:48
see you at the end and uh yeah for sure
09:51
it was yes yes yes it seems uh
09:54
that Main Street was just so homey it
09:58
seems at that at that time
10:00
and uh
10:02
of course there was um sometimes
10:04
entertainment even in the businesses how
10:07
about uh
10:09
the place called Harvey’s
#harveyshardware
9
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:11
somebody asked me about Harvey’s the
10:13
other day
10:15
we were at a I don't know where we were
10:17
but she said do you remember Harvey’s and
10:19
the animals and I said oh yes
10:22
Harvey had a monkey there he had that
10:24
monkey there all year long and it was
10:26
inside
10:28
and he had a Christmas time for at least
10:31
a couple of years I don't know how long
10:33
it went on but he had reindeer and sheep
10:36
now I can't remember whether they were
10:38
penned inside or whether they were
10:40
penned outside but it was a whole
10:42
different time it was an innocent time
10:44
and people and he used it crowds came
10:47
look at the reindeer it was yes and in
10:50
addition to looking it was a hardware
10:52
store it was a hardware store and Harvey
10:55
Martin owned it and he'd bring some of
10:57
his farm animals in from Hatchville
11:00
right and off and on throughout the year
11:02
but the one I remember the most is the
11:04
reindeer and Christmas yes yes
11:07
and
11:08
Nancy I understand that we had a five and
11:11
dime that you're quite familiar with
10
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
11:14
um yes well it was almost across the
11:18
street from where I lived
11:21
and
11:22
it was called Newberry’s and
#jjnewberrys
Gunning_Village_Sts_0025
11:25
it really did have things that were
11:29
5 and 10 cents um
11:32
if you can imagine it most of them were
11:34
a dollar or under
11:36
and actually when I was a teenager at
11:39
Christmas time
11:42
I actually got a job working there for a
11:45
couple of weeks to earn Christmas money
11:48
which was a treat for me and one of my
11:51
first jobs
11:53
now as I recall five and dimes used to
11:57
have lunch counters too it did have a
12:00
lunch counter and um
12:03
I think that a lot of people would come
12:06
in to have their lunch there are
12:08
merchants who were working on Main
12:11
Street
12:12
and that was consisted of
12:14
maybe a hot dog or something exactly
12:17
they were very
12:20
uh you know lunches under a dollar right
12:24
I see I see
11
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
12:26
can I just tell you about one store that
12:28
was kind of interesting yes yes on the
12:31
corner of Walker
12:33
there were you know where the ice cream
12:35
place is now
12:36
there was a store called the Store of
12:38
Three Wonders
12:39
and if you go to those postcards you'll
12:42
see that store
12:44
and you will see white sheets of paper
12:46
in the window because he used to put the
12:48
sale items
12:49
on the
12:51
white sheets of paper and post them I
12:53
see sort of handwritten signs
12:55
and it the three wonders were “you wonder
12:58
if I have it
13:00
I wonder where it is
13:02
and everybody wonders how I found it”
13:06
and it was kind of a precursor to Job
13:08
Lot I think because he had kind of
13:11
you know the tail end of inventories
13:14
that he had purchased I suspected
13:16
anything you needed in a hurry you could
13:18
probably find there yes yes yeah right
13:21
that that's that's charming then they
13:23
were also um
#storeofthreewonders
12
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:26
what did people do about clothing uh
13:29
well there were no malls no no no no
13:32
malls and there were clothing stores
13:34
where you could buy adult clothing
13:37
Malchman’s was mostly women's clothes
13:40
they did have some men but mostly women
13:42
Isaacson’s
13:45
was a clothing store for mostly men's
13:48
clothing
13:49
and Butner’s carried clothing they
13:52
carried
13:53
all kinds of things curtains they were
13:55
more of a department store they had
13:58
collectibles
13:59
but
14:00
a lot of people who wanted to buy
14:02
clothing for their youngsters
14:04
would get the ferry
14:06
in Woods Hole and go over to New Bedford
14:10
and they would purchase their
14:12
maybe school clothing for September yes
14:15
from
14:16
Cherry & Webb
14:18
and the story goes that Mrs. Beale Ruth
14:22
took Barry over one day
14:24
got the ferry went to New Bedford picked
14:27
out school clothing he wasn't feeling so
#ferry
13
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
14:30
great they got back on the ferry to come
14:32
home and by the time he got off he had
14:35
chickenpox and of course two days later
14:38
he was an item in the Enterprise
14:41
you know that he had gotten the
14:42
chickenpox on his his trip to New
14:45
Bedford for school clothing
14:47
I remember making that school that was
14:50
school shopping
14:52
yes
14:54
and perhaps Cherry & Webb was a bit
14:56
more economical indeed it was yes
14:59
and had a greater selection yes yes yes
15:02
that's true
15:04
and um
15:05
and so we have um
15:08
interesting that
15:10
that the stores reflected what people
15:12
needed and what people were doing at the
15:14
time for example the you spoke of a
15:18
linen store that had embroidery
15:21
and
15:22
the kinds of things that women who were
15:24
doing handcrafts
15:26
could go to for supplies exactly and my
15:30
mother was one of their best customers
15:32
because she was never without needlework
14
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
15:36
she
15:36
knitted and crocheted constantly
15:40
had did it so well that she could
15:43
read a book while doing it and
15:47
that so as I say she was Jane Russell’s
15:50
best customer yes yes I remember buying
15:53
my gloves there for when I was married
15:58
and I went in and she had all these
16:00
boxes with gloves in it and then she
16:03
took out one short long medium which one
16:06
do you want
16:07
took them out I got the short ones she
16:09
put them out on the counter
16:11
you know laid them out lovely and I
16:14
purchased my gloves I wore the short
16:16
gloves so that's so interesting because
16:19
there was a time when gloves were
16:22
important items in a woman's wardrobe
16:24
and hats and hats as well right gloves
16:27
and hats you always had to have a pair
16:29
of white gloves
16:31
wear to church yes yes interesting
16:33
interesting and then there was um your
16:37
uh
16:38
in-laws shoe store right at the Beale Shoe
16:42
Store right Granny Beale
16:44
Granny right he was called Granny
#granvillebeale
15
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
16:46
because his name was Granville and
16:48
everybody in town called him Granny
16:50
Beale
16:51
he was on the Board of Trade which is
16:54
now the Chamber of Commerce
16:56
he was
16:57
on the board of the Salvation Army and
16:59
he was quite active in town and
17:02
and in politics yes um he
17:06
is however the shoe store is really
17:08
quite well known for
17:10
the x-ray machine an x-ray machine oh
17:13
yes
17:14
it was uh
17:16
considered really a babysitter of the
17:19
day because people would go into Mrs.
17:22
Weeks’ shop which was next door and send
17:24
their children in to gaze down through
17:27
the x-ray machine to see the bones in
17:29
their feet
17:30
I’m not sure that that would be
17:32
appropriate today no
17:35
uh so that was uh
17:38
the interesting part of that and Nancy
17:40
you have a really interesting story
17:42
about uh Granny yeah yes um yes I
17:47
lived
16
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
17:48
in an old apartment building that is no
17:51
longer there now right behind the shoe
17:54
store
17:56
by the back entrance of the shoe store
17:59
I’m sure you used to have fun
18:01
with the x-ray machine
18:04
I did but it didn't come along until I
18:07
was older it wasn't there when I was a
18:10
young child it was more like when I was
18:12
a teenager but I did use it a lot and
18:15
play with it nevertheless what it
18:18
faceted fascinated me as a teenager so
18:21
yes um so I’m sure that I had my
18:25
good dose of x-ray
18:28
and
18:29
but I
18:30
was
18:32
very fortunate in
18:35
Granny Beale was a very kind and gentle
18:37
and wonderful man and and I would bop in
18:41
and out the back door of the shoe store
18:45
often I bopped in and out of
18:48
many of the Main Street stores because I
18:51
lived right there
18:53
near them or by them or behind them
18:55
right next to them
18:57
and
17
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
19:00
he
19:04
I
19:06
my mother was a single parent and I my I
19:10
was rough on shoes and so my shoes
19:13
didn't always
19:14
look so good even though she tried to
19:17
keep they always fit
19:19
but they didn't always look pretty
19:22
and
19:22
um
19:24
every
19:25
now and then at least once a year
19:29
um
19:30
we would get a note
19:32
or a message from Granny Beale
19:35
that there was a an old gentleman who
19:39
would like
19:40
me to have a new pair of shoes
19:44
and so I was to come in and choose a
19:46
pair
19:47
and it was always an old kind old
19:51
gentleman
19:52
he might we might have assumed he was
19:55
rich
19:56
or maybe
19:58
that was part of his description but I
20:00
always went in and picked out
18
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
20:03
any pair of shoes in the store that I
20:05
wanted from of course it
20:08
took
20:09
I was out of college before I figured
20:11
out it was Granny Beale who was the kind
20:14
old man no no mysterious benefactor it
20:18
was Granny Beale yeah it was um
20:21
um yes that um
20:24
the people it was more personal once
20:25
it's much more personal the smaller
20:27
population people tend to
20:29
yes
20:31
yes
20:32
and then I um have heard mention of
20:36
an exciting place in town called the
20:38
Smith Surrey Room yeah that was quite
#smithsoldesurreyroom
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0384
20:40
active during the war actually and after
20:42
the war too and we used to go from ‘53 on
20:47
but they he Dan Smith owned it
20:50
and he would have a
20:53
what they called the annual venison
20:57
dinner
20:58
and he would invite all his hunting
21:01
buddies and some dignitaries from the
21:03
town but mostly people from Main Street
21:07
and they would go down there and have a
#danielsmith
19
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
21:09
night out and enjoy
21:11
their catch 10 more minutes
21:15
so I just remember that and I remember
21:18
the special
21:20
that
21:21
that um
21:23
that
21:24
he they had there and it was baked
21:26
potato
21:27
filet
21:28
mignon
21:30
I’m looking
21:34
Barbara
21:35
yes
21:37
yes
21:38
and a uh
21:39
and canned peas
21:41
and a free drink and an alcoholic drink
21:45
like an alcoholic drink and it was music
21:49
there was lots of music
21:51
uh
21:52
it was townies all showed up so you
21:55
always knew someone yeah it was
21:57
gathering place yes yes yes you're right
22:01
one of the postcards so it's so
22:03
interesting because it's just a plethora
22:06
of signs
20
Gunning_Village_Sts_0032
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
22:08
large small neon painted and
22:12
the um
22:13
a rifle uh showing
22:16
guns for sale right yeah and uh tell us
22:19
so tell us about it well I think that's
22:21
interesting because there was
22:24
it was an Eastman’s block that that gun
22:27
shows up as an advertisement and uh I
22:31
think that there was upstairs there was
22:34
Mr. Harvey who
22:37
did
22:38
have a
22:39
a buy and sell antique guns
22:42
and so that could have been from him or
22:45
it could have been from Eastman who sold
22:48
guns and ammunition
22:51
and it was interesting because there's
22:53
so much signage in that one picture that
22:57
one postcard that you you know there was
23:00
no signage law as there is today yes
23:02
exactly you know and nobody questioned
23:05
you know in fact this
23:07
question the fact that there was a gun
23:09
as an advertisement
23:11
also there was a
23:14
speaking of things that would
23:16
would bring into thought today was there
21
#eastmanshardware
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
23:19
was a restaurant called the Wigwam and
23:22
nobody questioned that at that time yes
23:25
it was a
23:27
a casual a more casual a more innocent
23:30
time yes exactly now and the
23:33
Eastman’s block um
23:36
is isn't there something about
23:39
how they got their supplies well that's
23:41
an interesting thing I was talking to
23:43
Chucky Eastman young Chuck and he was
23:47
telling me that the train brought
23:51
a lot of their supplies and left them at
23:53
the grain mill
23:55
and then people from Eastman’s would go
23:57
up and pick them up from the early 1900s
24:00
to the 50s right that a lot of their
24:02
supplies came in through train right and
24:05
the train would then continue down to
24:08
Woods Hole where they'd unload and then it
24:11
would go on the supplies would go on the
24:13
ferry and go over to the island
24:16
so the train was an important part we
24:18
didn't have the the trucks the
24:21
you know the 16 wheelers or whatever
24:24
they call them that we have today and so
24:27
the train was the way to get supplies to
24:29
the merchants
22
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
24:31
and then the merchants on Main Street
24:35
always had their promotions Nancy I
24:37
think as a child you remember taking
24:40
part in one of those promotions
24:43
on that the Eastman’s Hardware store
24:46
carried
24:48
oh yes um
24:50
there was a
24:52
it was a it was a special day that
24:54
Falmouth used to have to I think to
24:56
promote the businesses all up and down
24:59
Main Street and every business would
25:01
have
25:01
something special to draw people in
25:05
um
25:06
over
25:07
you know from maybe
25:10
uh four to
25:12
seven in in the evening or
25:16
whatever I what I remember is that
25:20
Eastman’s um
25:22
had a
25:24
display in their
25:26
window and
25:28
they had a sign that said that in the
25:31
display there were 20
25:34
mistakes
23
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
25:35
or
25:36
anomalies that
25:38
needed to be found and it was a contest
25:41
and if you
25:42
found them all you or you
25:45
found the most you would get
25:47
ten dollars or twenty dollars I can't it
25:49
might have been 20. okay
25:52
um
25:53
and
25:54
uh so I spent a lot of time right
25:57
writing them all down
25:59
and um I won it you won you won the ten
26:02
dollars I did yes
26:05
and um I think you were also the
26:08
Enterprise picked up on lots of stories
26:10
like that and was reported in the paper
26:14
that
26:15
you won the contest
26:17
I won the contest yes and as a matter of
26:20
fact I found one more than 20.
26:23
I see I see
26:26
it was um an interesting time Main
26:29
Street was a
26:31
pretty busy camp well during the war it
26:34
was a beehive of activity yes
26:37
and uh of course Camp Edwards brought in
24
#campedwards
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Gunning_Hatchville_Miltry_0557
through 0561
26:39
a lot of service people and their
26:40
families
26:41
oh yes and of course we rose to the
26:43
occasion with entertainment for them
26:45
right and it went on quite late into the
26:48
evenings most nights yes but after the
26:51
war it
26:52
Main Street still was the center of
26:54
business and social life
26:56
and
26:57
those stores were owned by mostly local
27:00
people
27:01
and people seemed to know each other
27:04
if they didn't know each other they at
27:06
least knew each other when they passed
27:08
each other on the street yes they
27:10
recognized each other so it was a small
27:14
town still back then yes right and
27:18
things have changed over a period of
27:19
time and we have to adjust I guess yes
27:22
exactly in fact you never went to the
27:24
store without meeting someone you knew
27:26
that's correct
27:27
well I want to thank you so much for
27:29
being here and telling us these stories
27:33
and I want to thank viewers for tuning
25
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
27:35
in
27:36
and for
27:38
learning about these stories about Main
27:40
Street that are
27:42
along with the
27:43
historic postcards I remind us to all of
27:47
us that
27:49
places everywhere Falmouth and every
27:51
place are always constantly changing
27:55
thank you
27:56
[Music]
26
�
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Transcript of Nancy Eldridge and Camille Beale's Oral History on Falmouth Main Street
Barbara Kanellopoulos
Beale's Shoe Store
Camille Beale
Camp Edwards
Daniel Smith
Eastman's Hardware
Elizabeth Theater
Falmouth Main Street
Falmouth Town Hall
Falmouth Village Green
ferry
Granville Beale
Harvey's Hardware
jj newberry's
lawrence school
nancy eldridge
oral history
peg noonan park
Postcards from Falmouth
shiverick's pond
smith's olde surrey room
store of three wonders
ten acre
transcript
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/32209/archive/files/94d2d9600a0b647cc1e1f6079ffc8c56.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=dQEzFaQLH6mKIr%7EtVDFJcjS5whaOJFncelpSOIHe5vKdtB82CGFIM34ajiJkn-IawdyI0Tf8hAo%7ETsOaC3%7E3RrO26YJcBGGy-C2OZmaNXYm8Pslbkz5XlGzDlZvmsDenEYzw54cgFvxnPsrAMFlMc0gqTL6J8WXvKtX%7Ew8JAk4QI84ENxVqRzkCk2%7ECThOcBJcnOTRxpZf58wyFLmp3Bf8357MaHSnN9W0BQ6CCLY-pK5h45Bwe4zVB6giWXp3Z-1-ogTz2MKx-DB5RQUcns-VTheQ9BiD6oxogMAS15soisVULkQyI87AN9YO%7Eg2Fx4uf11Ac-Id42zSFlyeK16XA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
05f6315fa01e23069ba3e6aaca7e150b
PDF Text
Text
Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript
Recorded: August 19, 2021
Oral Historian: Mark Schmidt
Interviewer: Troy Clarkson
Topic: Falmouth Historical Society
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
00:00
[Music]
00:45
Mark welcome thank you for having me so
00:47
we have the opportunity the honor really
00:50
today of discussing uh what has become
00:52
an entire campus of the Falmouth Museums
#falmouthhistoricalsociety
#falmouthmuseumsonthegreen
00:55
On the Green but your postcard is of um
00:59
an an old
01:00
historic home
01:02
that has had many names uh and the
01:05
beautiful gardens which have a rich
01:08
history so just tell us a little bit
01:10
about uh those postcards but also the
01:13
history of the Falmouth Museums On the
01:16
Green sure absolutely it's a pleasure to
01:17
be here today and thank you for having
01:19
me um the Falmouth Historical Society
01:23
and later the Museums On the Green
01:25
they're kind of one in the same
01:27
um
1
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
01:28
was founded in 1900 and there's two kind
01:30
of rather colorful individuals one named
01:33
Henry Herbert Smythe who was the rector
#henryherbertsmythe
01:35
of Saint Barnabas uh church
#saintbarnabaschurch
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0316
through 0343
01:38
in Falmouth and he had
01:40
a friend named Robinson Crocker Bodfish
01:44
and
01:44
these two started up what they called
01:46
the Falmouth Historical Society in 1900
#1900
01:49
and later incorporated it in 1904.
#1904
01:52
they started it because they wanted to
01:54
capture the stories of whaling families
01:57
while they were still relevant you know
01:59
and still around to um to to capture
02:02
them
02:03
so
02:04
um Smythe became the first president
02:06
Bodfish became the treasurer
02:08
they had their meetings
02:10
at the old town hall as well as the
02:13
library
02:16
they incorporated in 1904
02:20
later in 1932 one of the postcards that
02:23
you've got there is a house that was
02:25
owned by a woman named Julia Wood and it
#robinsonbodfish
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0451
through 454
2
#juliawood
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:27
was originally built in 1790 by a
#1790
02:30
gentleman named Dr. Francis Wicks
#franciswicks
02:34
Wicks was a leader in smallpox
02:37
research he was also
02:39
a privateer during the Revolutionary War
02:42
um the house was essentially the
02:46
most stately mansion on the town green
#americanrevolution
#falmouthvillagegreen
Gunning_Village_Sts_0053
through 0078
02:48
at the time and it was bequeathed to the
02:52
Historical Society in 1932 by a woman
02:54
named Julia Wood now interestingly with
02:57
the house it also came with a ten
02:58
thousand dollar mortgage which if you
03:00
think about it we're at the height of
03:02
the Depression so they you know it was
03:04
great to get the building but they it
03:05
took them a while to get out of debt
03:07
until 1942 but that's where they then
03:10
had their meetings and um
03:13
so for a
03:16
good deal of time it was referred to as
03:18
the Julia Wood house or the Wood House
03:20
but
03:21
people got a little confused well of
03:22
course there's a Wood House what else is
03:24
it going to be made of
03:26
so it
3
#1932
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:27
then
03:28
in about 2005 the Historical Society
03:31
said let's start calling it the Dr.
03:33
Francis Wicks house
03:34
to kind of delineate where it is
03:38
also in that not included in the
03:39
postcards but next to it was a house
03:42
that Julia Wood had also owned at one
03:44
time called the
03:45
the Conant House which was built in 1730
03:48
and then the campus now entails the two
03:51
houses
03:52
a rebuilt barn
03:54
called the Hallett Barn that was
03:56
on the grounds that had had been
03:59
infested with powder post beetles the uh
04:02
the Historical Society decided to tear
04:04
it down rebuild it
04:06
and
04:08
that's what's now used as the visitor
04:09
center on the campus and in 2012 the
04:12
Historical Society build a cultural
04:14
center so if you come to the grounds now
04:16
at 55 and 65 Palmer Avenue
04:18
that's entails the Museums On the Green
04:21
the name Museums On the Green
04:23
came into the lexicon right around 2000
#wickshouse
#conanthouse #1730
#hallettbarn
#2012
#palmeravenue
4
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:27
because basically when you heard the
04:28
words Historical Society it gave the
04:30
inference that it was a bunch of
04:32
blue-haired old ladies dust-covered
04:34
stuff it sounded rather non-dynamic
04:37
the Museums On the Green
04:39
said
04:40
what we do where we are and
04:43
kind of gives a better location for that
04:45
so that's a little backdrop to the
04:47
Historical Society
04:49
and the building which they've they've
04:51
had since 1932 and that's really the the
04:54
Wicks House the Julia Wood House
04:57
has really been the center of what has
05:00
happened um with the Historical Society
05:03
since the 30s um the first tours were
05:06
given I believe in 1938 it cost 15 cents
05:10
um the first
05:12
school tours were given to fourth
05:14
graders starting in 1950
05:16
um and another postcard that you've got
05:18
in there as well and jumping a little
05:20
bit ahead is also the gardens the the
05:22
the Historical Society started working
05:25
with the um
05:27
Falmouth Garden Club
#1938
#falmouthgardenclub
5
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
05:28
in the late 30s early 40s
05:31
and the there are two separate gardens
05:34
that's next to
05:36
the Wicks House in between the Wicks
05:38
House and the Conant House
05:40
one is called um
05:42
uh
05:43
Memorial Park which is closer to
#memorialpark
05:46
Katharine Lee Bates Road
#katharineleebatesroad
05:48
and the other one is called the Colonial
#colonialgardens
05:49
Gardens which has some original cuttings
05:51
from way back when and and from the
05:53
ground so it's a
05:55
it's really been
05:57
a snapshot of Falmouth's past being on
06:00
his on the grounds of 55 and 65 Palmer
06:03
Avenue where the Museums On the Green
06:04
line is now located
06:06
as to
06:07
why they're called what they're called
06:08
and uh what's gone into that so
06:11
the um the Wicks House has been the
06:14
center of our universe for you know
06:17
better part of
06:18
nearly 100 years
06:20
and
06:22
it's been something that the Historical
Hunt_Village_Bldg_029 &
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0455
6
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
06:23
Society has maintained it's gone through
06:25
a couple of iterations
06:27
among the things that are in the Wicks
06:30
House is some
06:32
18th century French wallpaper that was
06:34
originally brought back
06:37
by a whaling captain
06:39
in 1802 and set up in a different house
06:42
but brought over to the Wicks House in
06:44
the 1950s so it's not original to the
06:47
House but it's one of the own the Wicks
06:49
House is now one of the only three
06:50
buildings in the united states that
06:52
actually has 18th century French
06:54
wallpaper the other two are
06:57
located in Washington, D.C and in Boston
07:00
um uh it's also
07:03
walls have been removed um it used to be
07:06
uh
07:08
multiple walls and what's now the dining
07:10
room but the the uh
07:13
the Board at the time said let's try to
07:14
make a little more stately so they took
07:16
out different walls so it's a much
07:18
larger dining room
07:20
so it's gone through different
07:21
iterations but it's definitely been
7
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
07:25
the absolute
07:27
apex of what the Historical Society has
07:30
wanted to do and show off since they
07:31
acquired in 1932. so they were they're
07:34
rightfully proud of it and they've the
07:36
boards over over the years have done a
07:38
good job of maintaining
07:40
um its elegance
07:44
and thank you for that wonderful and
07:45
detailed intro and so
07:47
over the decades
07:49
the campus has really become
07:53
a cultural center for the community
07:55
where people come and gather and not
07:58
only have the ability to
08:01
see the artifacts that are on site in
08:03
the Wood slash Wicks house
08:06
but then
08:07
hear a living history of the town
08:10
through the
08:11
visitor center and the authors and the
08:13
speakers that you have there so it's
08:16
really grown from
08:18
a static display to a living
08:22
breathing example of our local history
08:25
and the people that have contributed to
08:26
it thank you for saying that that's
8
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:28
that's really our intention we we
08:30
realize that um we're right at the
08:32
beginning of uh the downtown area that
08:35
we we know that there are people who
08:37
uh come into town and want to learn more
08:40
about what's going on in Falmouth and we
08:42
try to provide that it's a bit of
08:45
education entertainment information
08:48
that we hope we can provide to people
08:50
through
08:52
guided tours of the Wicks House who are
08:53
walking towards the town through um
08:56
uh
08:58
lectures and talks
08:59
uh obviously through the through the
09:01
pandemic we've had to do things
09:02
virtually although the walking tours
09:04
remain in person and they've been very
09:05
popular with
09:07
because of the um
09:09
the pandemic we have to make sure that
09:11
people still wear masks when they go
09:13
into the Wicks House
09:15
because we don't want any docents any
09:16
volunteers any visitors to get sick but
09:18
then
09:20
but it's been
9
#pandemic
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
09:21
our way of kind of showing people how
09:23
the the town has changed how it's
09:26
progressed how things how things have
09:29
gone from
09:30
um
09:31
the Federal period in which the house
09:33
was built
09:34
through through whaling through
09:38
whaling captains and on through
09:42
tourism being the main
09:43
industry of the town so it's our way of
09:46
trying to give a doff of the cap to that
09:48
and inform people that this is what
09:50
happened
09:51
through the years
09:52
tell us a little bit about the the
09:54
whaling history and Falmouth it's not
09:57
something that's often discussed but in
09:58
the day was an important economic driver
10:02
for the community people forget that
10:03
that um that for about a 30-year period
10:06
this really was the business of Falmouth
10:09
and uh so from 1920 to 1820 1850
10:14
um Falmouth was
10:16
a major whaling port it was not
10:19
Nantucket it was not
10:21
New Bedford
#whaling
10
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:22
but
10:23
arguably it was third and
10:26
there there were famous whaling captains
10:27
that went all throughout the world
10:30
if you go up and down Locust Street
10:31
there are whaling um captain's homes in
10:34
fact
10:35
um
10:36
the
10:37
the aforementioned Wicks slash Wood House
10:40
was actually a whaling captain's house
10:41
for the better part of 86 years so it's
10:44
um
10:46
as much as we focus on Wicks
10:50
and end with Julia Wood in between were
10:52
some significant whaling families that
10:55
lived in that house as well as other
10:57
houses in the town and uh until oil is
11:01
discovered in Pennsylvania
11:03
um that was really
11:05
whale oil was really the driving force
11:07
for Falmouth's uh economy for a good 30
11:11
years
11:13
so as you've noted uh in
11:16
one of the portions of the museum uh
11:18
there are
11:20
displays of
#locuststreet
11
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
11:22
clothing and
11:24
different tools and artifacts from
11:26
Falmouth's history highlight a couple of
11:29
maybe your favorites or the the more
11:31
interesting items you have on display
11:34
well if you would walk into
11:37
the Wicks House
11:38
itself we want to give a guided tour so
11:41
you can go through everything and try to
11:43
see
11:44
uh furniture from the you know from the
11:47
18th and 19th centuries
11:49
china
11:51
paintings and portraits of of some
11:54
major luminaries from the town
11:56
um
11:57
if you go into
11:59
the Conant House right next to it you can
12:01
get a self-guided tour
12:04
of a timeline of Falmouth's past
12:06
I personally my favorite artifact in in
12:10
the whole collection is a 1939 jukebox
12:14
that was in the Falmouth Grange that
12:16
still plays
12:18
one of our
12:20
one of our members a long time had it in
12:22
his barn he passed away his widow asked
12
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
12:24
would we like it I
12:26
couldn't say yes fast enough
12:28
it took a couple years to get restored
12:31
but it plays beautifully and I think
12:33
it's
12:34
amazing to watch people of any age
12:37
understand appreciate and really
12:40
uh just glow when it plays so so you see
12:44
different things all throughout um
12:47
Falmouth's past we've got something from
12:49
the wreck of the Andrea Doria you know that uh
12:53
there are things that go back um
12:54
obviously there's a painting of the HMS
12:56
Nimrod which attacked
12:58
Falmouth in 1814
13:00
that you can
13:01
see an artist's rendition of that so
13:04
there's so many things we literally have
13:06
over a hundred thousand artifacts in our
13:08
collection much of it's paper and books
13:10
and
13:11
ship’s logs
13:12
but
13:14
we feel that we're the repository of
13:15
Falmouth's past and we try to do
13:19
a good job of protecting that past
13:23
in climate controlled environment and
#andreadoria
#hmsnimrod
#1814 #warof1812
13
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:25
making sure that what we have
13:28
is
13:29
protected and ultimately offered for the
13:31
public to see
13:33
one of the uh I think
13:36
critical roles that the Historical
13:38
Society uh and
13:40
and your leadership play is
13:44
creating
13:45
uh
13:47
capturing today's
13:49
history so that a generation or three
13:51
generations from now when people visit
13:54
the Museums On the Green they'll be able
13:56
to get a sense of what it was like to
13:58
live today
14:00
and
14:01
uh this is conjecture on my part but I
14:03
would venture to say that when people
14:05
from future generations look back on
14:06
this era in Falmouth uh from an artistic
14:09
standpoint because you mentioned
14:11
paintings that they will look back on
14:13
Karen Rinaldo as one of the the leading
14:16
artistic voices of our time uh and you
14:20
have on display
14:22
one of her most prominent paintings tell
14
#karenrinaldo
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
14:24
us a little bit about that yeah I mean
14:26
um
14:28
Karen painted uh something in 1995
14:31
called The First Thanksgiving 1621 and
14:33
she actually did it for
14:36
a church group out of Wisconsin they are
14:38
the actual owners of it
14:40
and it's the one painting
14:43
that
14:43
has all of 51 surviving members of the
14:46
Mayflower the 91 Wampanoag who came to
14:50
visit them
14:51
who were in attendance at the first the
14:53
first Thanksgiving in 1621 and she did
14:56
copious research on this and it's
14:59
it's the one
15:00
obviously there was nobody there with a
15:01
Polaroid or with it with an iPhone but
15:04
it's the one painting that's got all of
15:06
them there and we have it till the end
15:08
of the year
15:09
um
15:10
then our loan agreement I don't know
15:12
where it's going to go after that but
15:13
it's been a real honor to have that and
15:16
uh
15:17
um
#1995
15
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
15:18
so that's one of the things we have and
15:19
I’m really glad to mention that and
15:22
and thank you for saying two about the
15:23
future generations our research
15:25
librarian Meg Costello is second to none
15:28
and she does a great job of informing
15:30
people
15:31
of what has happened in days gone by and
15:34
and we we try to make sure that we tell
15:36
little interesting stories about
15:38
uh snippets of Falmouth's past we also
15:41
have tried to make it a point the
15:42
pandemic has kind of put
15:44
a little crimp on this and so we're
15:46
going to try to pick it up when things
15:47
get a little bit back to normal
15:50
as you mentioned one of the things that
15:51
we want to be able to do is to
15:54
acquire stories have oral histories of
15:57
people
15:59
from things that are not so in the
16:01
distant past that aren't necessarily
16:02
18th and 19th centuries that
16:07
if you stop and think about it and
16:09
not to make everyone feel old but uh
16:12
you know if you're in high school right
16:13
now you weren't alive at 9/11. you know
16
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
16:16
that that so that's
16:17
that's a story to you you weren't there
16:20
but we know that there's people in town
16:22
that might have attended Ted Williams’
16:24
last game or their they watched Bobby
16:26
Orr play they saw the Beatles in at
16:28
Boston Garden or um
16:31
they made a they might have been living
16:33
in Boston during bussing or they were
16:34
working in Washington during Watergate
16:37
it's those kind of stories that we'd
16:39
like to accumulate while people
16:41
are still around to talk about them
16:43
because
16:45
there are people that is
16:48
maybe not ancient history but it's
16:50
certainly history so it's um
16:52
it's one of the things that we want to
16:53
be able to focus on it's not just about
16:57
um
16:59
yesteryear it's about
17:01
days that haven't gone that aren't all
17:04
that far in the rearview mirror but
17:05
people are still lucid and and and
17:08
can tell stories that firsthand
17:10
experiences
17:12
that are really
17
#watergate
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
17:14
important
17:15
to catalog and and to have in the
17:17
database so that's
17:19
one of our real uh points of emphasis
17:22
that
17:23
we really hope to be able to pick up on
17:25
when we can get back to some air fingers
17:27
normalcy and uh in this world so that's
17:30
I’m thank you for bringing that up well
17:32
it I think it it's an important
17:35
perspective because from the beginning
17:36
of time
17:38
up until yesterday
17:40
right that entire span is our collective
17:42
history exactly and so to capture the
17:44
more recent history is important so that
17:48
people in the future look back on these
17:50
times it's funny you mentioned Watergate
17:52
and
17:53
as I’m sure you know right here in
17:54
Falmouth we have
17:57
the gentleman who actually drafted the
17:59
articles of impeachment against
18:00
President Nixon lives here in Falmouth
18:03
uh I actually did not know that so
18:04
there's a bit of our history that that
18:06
we can share in this interview and uh
#impeachment
18
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
18:08
and uh
18:10
he's actually a dear friend and a
18:12
volunteer at the Carousel of Light so uh
18:15
but I think that's the ongoing value
18:18
because I you raise an important point
18:20
Mark people when they think of history
18:22
they think of ancient history right yeah
18:24
and
18:25
to people of a certain age uh you know
18:28
that the 70s the 80s the 90s were part
18:32
of our lives but
18:34
to young people who were born after the
18:35
turn of the century that's
18:37
ancient history and so to capture
18:40
that's why these oral histories are so
18:42
important because it allows us to just
18:44
have a conversation about
18:46
our community and what
18:49
uh
18:49
all of that collective history has led
18:51
us to the to be the community we are
18:53
today I’m into that I mean it we we tend
18:56
to think that if it happened in our
18:58
lifetime it's quote not cool or just
19:00
it's not that important well we've gone
19:02
through some pretty
19:04
major things in our lifetime you know
19
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
19:05
that uh
19:07
um you know we just mentioned 9/11 which
19:09
is you know epic but you know
19:11
that
19:12
I’m sure that there were people in the
19:14
town that were at Woodstock you know
19:16
that that that uh or that protested
19:19
against the war or served in Vietnam or
19:21
served in Afghanistan or
19:23
um may not have anything to do with the
19:25
military but that they they were
19:28
they were at Fenway Park when the Red
19:30
Sox won you know that
19:32
you know look as I’m a lifelong Chicago
19:34
Cubs fan I finally got to live long
19:36
enough to see the Cubs win a World
19:37
Series I didn't think that was going to
19:38
happen
19:40
but it's those kind of memories it's
19:42
those kind of
19:44
pass-downs that we want to be able to
19:46
capture record and set and savor
19:50
for
19:52
current grade school high school kids
19:54
and their kids you know that uh what was
19:56
it like when
19:57
you know people forget that we're going
#redsox
#chicagocubs
#worldseries
20
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
19:59
through this golden era of
20:01
the Patriots
20:03
what was it like when Vinatieri’s kick
20:05
went through and you won it for the
20:06
first time
20:07
wow this is awesome that the that you
20:10
finally got to see the Bruins win the
20:11
Stanley Cup
20:13
you know it's those kind of things that
20:16
uh while they're fresh in your mind you
20:18
want to be able to um to to detail and
20:21
to record and say this is what it was
20:24
like
20:25
or how you felt when the ball went
20:26
through Buckner’s legs
20:28
so as a Cubs fan I’m sure that was not
20:30
as crushing to you as it was to me I uh
20:34
look I I I have no love for the Mets
20:38
so for those watching who weren't alive
20:40
in 1986 uh that was when the Red Sox
20:43
lost game six of the World Series to the
20:44
New York Mets for me it's 1984 watching
20:47
the ball go through William Durham’s
20:48
legs but yeah
20:50
but all of that
20:52
it is relevant to our discussion because
20:53
it's part of our local history and so
21
#1986
#1984
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
20:56
it's great to have you to be able to to
20:58
share that with us and to catalog it for
21:00
future generations
21:03
what else would you like to share with
21:04
us
21:05
speak to a future generation of
21:07
Falmouthites and and talk to them about
21:09
what it's like to be in Falmouth in 2021
21:11
well I think it's been it's been really
21:13
interesting watching the world go by and
21:16
how people have
21:18
really had to
21:20
retrench
21:21
and
21:25
re-prioritize things because of the
21:27
pandemic I mean
21:28
as a history major as somebody who used
21:30
to teach history or something who's paid
21:32
to to educate people in history it's
21:35
it obviously hits me at my core
21:37
when watching history getting
21:40
devalued and de-emphasized in school
21:43
curriculum that that that cuts and it
21:45
hits me where I live
21:47
so I want people to understand
21:49
what it is that we went through and why
21:51
history is important and that's why we
22
#2021
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
21:53
do as many of the
21:56
the talks as we do and and doing them
21:58
virtually
22:00
um
22:01
I can ask just about anyone from just
22:03
about anywhere to talk about just about
22:05
anything historically and the worst
22:07
thing they can say is no that if they're
22:09
doing it from their house
22:11
that if Troy Clarkson is in Seattle and
22:14
he's got a book about
22:17
fill-in-the-blank historical topic
22:20
I can ask you to talk about it and we
22:22
can we can discuss things that might be
22:26
of
22:28
current interest
22:30
be it what's going on in in the world of
22:33
politically uh socially economically
22:36
and put it into some kind of a
22:38
historical context we don't have to get
22:39
into it into any kind of
22:42
take political positions but but we can
22:44
sit there and kind of educate about
22:47
why this is relevant and germane
22:50
so for me
22:53
I think that being in Falmouth in 2021
22:57
and
23
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
22:58
what's been really gratifying for me and
23:01
we're at the studios of FCTV for
23:04
right now
23:05
is knowing that
23:07
people like Debbie Rogers at FCTV have
23:10
been there
23:11
all along to make sure other non-profits
23:13
are still doing okay that
23:16
um
23:17
that we're making sure that
23:20
restaurants are still surviving and that
23:23
the the library is reopening to people
23:25
and
23:26
um that it's been difficult
23:29
to watch businesses that had been
23:32
thriving prior to all of this
23:35
not
23:36
or maybe go under it's it's been it's
23:39
been heartbreaking and um
23:41
I’m
23:42
I’m very gratified for the fact that
23:45
we've been able to endure this we've had
23:48
some
23:49
great supporters great members great
23:51
donors
23:52
who have made sure that we didn't
23:55
suffer as much as we could have
24
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
23:58
but there's other businesses that can't
24:00
necessarily say that so I
24:03
I
24:05
the pandemic has taught us lessons in
24:07
business as to what we can do and
24:09
prioritize and maybe do a little bit
24:11
better
24:13
but I don't wish this on anyone you know
24:15
that this is
24:16
this
24:17
I can think of other ways to have fun
24:19
and this this has not been one of them
24:21
but I’m I’m very uh gratified for those
24:24
who have
24:25
banded together and
24:28
tried to weather the storm you know that
24:30
we are going to be doing something
24:31
called the One Falmouth project there's
24:33
14 non-profits
24:35
that are going to do a a televised event
24:38
we hope in the first quarter of 2022
24:40
to try to show that we're still around
24:42
and we still need support we're still
24:44
going to be here and we and we want this
24:45
to be the first of many iterations of
24:47
that
24:49
but
#onefalmouth
#2022
25
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
24:49
that's been a real
24:52
um gratifying takeaway for me is that
24:54
there's been
24:56
we've been able to stand together and
24:58
you know it you know it's that uh famous
25:00
historic line about from uh from the
25:03
Revolutionary War if we don't hang
25:04
together all hang separately and uh I
25:06
think that we've we've hung together
25:09
that's a great way to wrap it up we are
25:11
indeed one Falmouth and thank you for
25:13
spending a little time with us here to
25:15
be able to capture
25:17
Some of Falmouth's history and and what
25:19
it means uh to all of us moving forward
25:22
so Mark Schmidt thank you very much and
25:23
uh it's been great visiting with you
25:25
thank you for having me it's been a real
25:26
pleasure and honor
26
�
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Transcript of Mark Schmidt's Oral History on the Falmouth Historical Society
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
-
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2653773316d8891f0c4bb141bbdbd844
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.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Postcard
Physical Dimensions
The actual physical size of the original image
9 x 14 cm.
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
Falmouth Village Green
Subject
The topic of the resource
Streets
Description
An account of the resource
Front and back scans of a historic postcard of Falmouth Village Green.
Front handwritten message reads, "The cross designates The Elm Arch Inn—This is a pretty old town. We autoed up to see Ma Nye yesterday—had only a minute with her. Am having a quiet but pleasant time and sleeping ten hours a day. Air perfectly great.
Love to all from all.
C.C.C."
Back of card is addressed to Mrs. Walter C. Nye, Warwick Neck, Warwick, Rhode Island.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Anita Gunning Postcard Collection
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[ca. 1900–1999]
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
jpeg
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Postcard
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Gunning_Village_Sts_0054
Anita Gunning Postcard Collection
Falmouth Village Green
postcards
Wish You Were Here: Postcards from the Past