My Grandmother’s Kitchen Revisited

By happenstance, I recently met the owner of my Gloucester grandparents home and he graciously allowed us to visit. Jeff Martin lives in my grandparents home on Haskell Street. I have fond memories of my times there ALL those years ago. The urge to revisit the home was ramped up when Jeff shared that he’d found a number of items hidden away in the attic walls that I though might relate to my family’s history.

In the intervening years, Jeff and his family have made many changes to the house but its bones remain and I was overwhelmed with memories even though it looks very different today than it did when I was a child. Even GMG Jim has his own memories of visiting this house on our honeymoon which enriched the time we spent with Jeff recently. We are very grateful to Jeff for sharing the house with us as well as the trinkets he found.

I understand that people might hide things in the walls of a home to bring luck to future inhabitants, but I kind of doubt that a hidden corset was intended to bring luck! Of most interest to me were the letters written between 1895 and 1899, proving the house existed prior to the 1900 date built as stated in city records (Jeff tells us there was a fire–believe me, there was ALWAYS a fire–and records that were lost defaulted to 1900) so that was enlightening. These letters were primarily between sisters Mabel and Elena Gertrude Goodwin. We have Goodwins in our family tree so I am working to make a connection. I hope to share more about these letters soon.

Thank you very much Jeff for sharing your home and your interest in history. If you ever get the chance to revisit a home from your childhood, I think you should consider it. Your grandmother’s kitchen holds a special warmth that will flood back regardless of the years gone by. If you get the chance to share your home with a former resident, I also think you should consider allowing it. I think it brings perspective to your life that you might not have considered. Thank you very much Jeff for your graciousness and giving this grandchild some memories back.