Kate and I are going to feature one or two local places to buy holiday gifts each day highlighting the fact that there’s no need to buy your presents online or trudge up to the mall.
There’s excellent places to shop right here in Gloucester.
Question: On Sunday, December 11, 2022, Jill wrote GMG wondering if the photographs she found showed a Gloucester hotel.
They don’t.
“Hello,
I came upon your website while trying to research some old photos. I have an old photo album, c. 1900s – 10s, of people from Boston. This hotel (see attachment) looks similar to the Oceanside Hotel, but not similar enough. I don’t know your area at all and wondered if you wouldn’t mind taking a look and seeing if it looks familiar? Thank you so much for your time.
Jill, email to GMG Sunday, December 11, 2022, 1:09 PM
The Oceanside, Gloucester, MA
Jill mentions Gloucester’s glamorous Oceanside Hotel as a comp, recognizing that it’s a close one but no cigar, and so many grand resorts operating at this time in our area. This special postcard shows Oceanside Hotel, Gloucester, MA, a 400 room hotel built in 1878. The building burned down to its foundation in 1958.
*photo of a postcard from the David Cox postcard collection, shared with me, and featured on the HarborWalk.
Buena Vista Springs, PA
The Buena Vista Springs was a luxury property banking on expectations of the tony Pen-Mar vision: a scenic park and amusement destination development that was constructed in 1877 on the Pennsylvania and Maryland border in the Blue Ridge mountains accessible by direct rail from regional hubs. The opulent hotel was built out ca. 1890 but shuttered fast– its short run a casualty of the 1893 financial crash. New owners stepped in. The building stood until a 1967 fire.
Both historic hotel properties reveal an elaborate architectural design, room capacity, timeline, and collapse. Both hotels catered to their respective regional brass and competed for summer destination status promising relief from the heat. One hailed its coastal bona fides, the other its proximity to the Blue Ridge Mountains, Gettysburg, and clean, healing waters. Clean fresh air and water was emphasized at the time of the Russian Flu Pandemic, hence the marketing of “springs” in the name which doubled as short hand differentiation from other Buena Vista towns.
Note proximity to train
one could hike there- advertised in printed matter
Tagline – The Alps of America
See the original Rennert’s marketing brochure from the Collection of the National Library of Medicine
“What the Catskills and the Adirondacks are to New York, Buena Vista Springs–the most enchanting spot of the Blue Ridge (the Alps of America)–is destined to be to Baltimore and Washington, a resort for the betterment of health, pleasurer and recreation. It is easy to access: taking as the starting point, Baltimore, to which railroads from the North, South, East and West converge, the route lies over the Western Maryland Railroad, a line which traverses a section of country charming in the picturesqueness of its undulating lands, and which has been described as the Garden of the state by travellers of discernment. There is not a mile of this territory but has its special features to entrance the eye and leave their pleasant impression…Seated in these luxuriously appointed parlor cars, the visitors are whirled past towns and villages, pastoral scenes and busy mills, until a faint tint of azure fringes the landscape–the first glimpse of the Blue Ridge. The special “Blue Mountain Express” trains make the distance of seventy one miles between Baltimore and Buena Vista Spring Station in about two hours…”
Buena Vista Spring Hotel pamphlet – PDF here – includes topo map and floor plan
A Dry Atmosphere. Absolutely Pure Water Supply. Perfectly Sanative.
“Buena Vista Spring Hotel is most advantageously situated; There are no mountains rising above or near it to shut off the ozone impregnated air. The mountain zephyrs, in all the wantonness of summer idling, have free and obstructed access, and freighted with the odors of a thousand blooms and the balsamic aroma of a thousand mountain blooms and the balsamic aroma of a thousand mountain pines…”
Water analysis as sales tool:
Gettysburg back cover
Buena Vista Springs In the News – Society Scandals
1913 “Love Affair Again Rumored “
Medical conferences for DC policy movers and shakers
Hotel guests included foreign dignitaries and politicians. Medical conferences were a draw including at the time of the 1918 Flu Pandemic; the locale maintained a focus as a restorative retreat. (For more about the 1918 Flu epidemic and Gloucester see here)
1915 – “Tuberculosis taken up by conference”
1916 – “Rotarians Plan Trip by Motor for Days Outing”
1920s
1931
Regional Tourism AD
1950s
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Gift cards to the Happy Humpback make great gifts and stocking stuffers! Come pick some up Tuesday through Sunday from 6am to 2pm or order eGift cards online anytime at happyhumpbackcafe.com/giftcards/
Love their Happy Burger
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Chief Eric Smith is pleased to announce that the Gloucester Fire Department is one of over 300 fire departments across the state to have been awarded a grant as part of the Department of Fire Services Fiscal Year 2023 Firefighter Safety Equipment Grant Program.
The $18,550 grant awarded to the Gloucester Fire Department will be used to purchase modern nozzles that are less expensive to buy and maintain, and easier to operate, than the department’s current equipment.
“In recent years we’ve come to understand the need for updated hose and nozzle equipment, which are more reliable and more predictable for our firefighters,” Chief Smith said. “This grant funding will help ease the financial burden of our work to update our nozzles which will have a direct positive impact on firefighter and community safety. We are grateful to DFS for its support, and for the work of Sen. Bruce Tarr and Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante on this important initiative.”
The grant program provides local fire departments with a variety of equipment that makes the dangerous job of firefighting safer. This is the third year that funding has been awarded for this purpose as part of a five-year, $25 million bond bill filed by the Administration to support firefighter safety and health in the coming years.
Fire departments in Massachusetts were able to apply to this program for 121 different types of eligible equipment, including ballistic protective clothing, thermal protective clothing, gear washers and dryers, thermal imaging cameras, assorted hand tools and extrication equipment, communications resources, hazardous gas meters, fitness equipment and more.
“Every time a firefighter goes to work, they could be asked to rescue a child from a burning building, clean up a spill of hazardous materials, treat a patient with a contagious medical condition, or rush into a hostile event to rescue and treat victims,” said State Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey. “This program is absolutely vital to helping fire departments prepare for the vast array of hazards they face today and making sure that firefighters go home safe after every call.”
A complete list of the awards by department can be found here.
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with quality win 63-44 at Danvers. Improve to 2-0 on the young season. Leading the Fishermen: Nate Montagnino 16pts Brady Sullivan 14pts Adam Borowick 13pts
Girls battle till the final buzzer, but fall 41-38 to Danvers. Carollo w/11pts & Purdue-DelTorchio w/10pts to lead the way
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Thank you to the businesses and community members for your support today. It was nice to see some of our great work remain in the community!
It’s no surprise that after 10 years in the beautiful Blackburn Tavern, we have accumulated so much stuff! For this reason, we will be having a FINAL SALE on Thursday 12/15 from 11AM-1PM, where EVERYTHING MUST GO!
We have desks, chairs, monitors, file cabinets, office supplies, beverage alcohol memorabilia and a bunch of SWAG!!!
Please join us, make a contribution (large or small) and take it away! All proceeds will go to Cape Ann Food Pantry.
GAP Promo
1 Washington St.
Gloucester, MA 01930
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Sometimes you need to do your own self a favor during the holidays so we stopped at Virgilios on Main St. for lunch and treats. Though I was tempted by the hot dish offerings of the day, since it was Monday I asked for a meatball sub. Jim got the St. Joes. We added some bread and cookies and had ourselves a feast. I wish I could share the smells with you! The festive music adds quite a lot. See you down there sometime soon!
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Good Morning Gloucester 