My View of Life on the Dock
Clavichord, Organ, Harpsichord A Listener’s Odyssey
Organist Kevin Birch plays Byrd, Froberger, Sweelinck and more on the Jeremy Adams keyboards
Annisquam Village Church, Sunday November 6, 3pm
2022
Pumpkin boat
October 30, 1926 – 96 years ago today
photo description: 92 Mt. Pleasant THEN detail from Sanborn Fire Insurance map, 1917; 92 Mt. Pleasant NOW (same footprint)
“Gloucester, Oct. 30
Hale and hearty at the age of 90, Capt. William W. Foster, an ancient mariner of East Gloucester, strolls down to the wharves every day, puffs his pipe and looks with optimistic eye on life in general, and the passing fishing schooners remind him of his early experiences.
Capt. Foster was born in Port Medway, N.S., Oct. 20, 1836*. He lives with his daughter, Mrs. Susan B. Eason, wife of patrolman W. Wallace Eason of the Police Department, at 92 Mt. Pleasant av, East Gloucester. There, Oct. 20, he quietly observed his 90th birthday.
Capt. Foster’s life has been mainly passed on the seas. Until he was 15 he worked on his father’s farm. Then he went fishing for the Summer. The next year he shipped on a salt fishing trip to the Labrador and for many years thereafter followed the sea, fishing, and on merchant voyages to the West Indies.
He was married in 1872 to Miss Patience Cole of Liverpool, N.S., after which he worked as a stevedore at that place. In 1877 he shipped on a voyage to the Grand Banks.
The vessel came to Gloucester to dispose of her cargo.
Mr. Foster liked the old fishing town so much that he determined to make it his home and so shipped out of here on fishing voyages and worked around the wharves. in 1882 he sent for his wife and family.
In January, 1903, his wife died and his daughter, Dezlah, assumed the duties of mistress of the home until 1911, when he received word from his mother that his father had died. Then he went home to live with his mother until 1916 when his mother died. In 1923, his son, Harry W. Foster of the police department went down to Port Medway and brought him back to Gloucester.
Captain Foster is in good health. he reads the papers and magazines with the aid of glasses. Except once when he was taken with the cramps, he never has had the services of a physician. While he enjoys a good smoke he has always been an abstainer from liquor.
His grandfather, Joseph Foster, died at 93.
His father, Benjamin, lived until 92.
His mother saw the ripe old age of 103.
He has two sons, Harry and J. Mack, and two daughters, five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.”
Boston Globe, 1926
Capt. Foster returned in Gloucester’s tercentenary year, and stayed until his death in 1928. His daughter, Susan, died Oct. 31, 1966. Her husband was officer W. Wallace Eason. Capt. Foster’s son J. Mack died Dec. 10, 1931 (widow Flora G., resided on Highland). In the 1930s, his son Harry W. was employed as a salesman. I wonder what happened to Dezlah.
Both buildings require immediate facade care. Preservation goals have been outlined for the Legion that will be necessary, too.
They’re heritage landmarks of cultural significance then and now.
Captain Lester S. Wass Post 3 of the American Legion is located at 8 Washington Street, Gloucester, MA.
Our Lady of Good Voyage is located at 142 Prospect Street, Gloucester, MA.
Private-public partnership projects for incremental studies, phases, projects and initiatives greenlit in Gloucester have been awarded funding support with big price tags: $400,000, 1 million, 4-5 million, 29 million, 56 -90+ million, and incentives. Perhaps **new** endeavors could include care of irreplaceable cultural mainstays as part of their ventures.
Read more about the Legion then|now here
Legion organizing its own fundraiser – read the Gloucester Daily Times article here
Our Lady of Good Voyage Church – blue domes sustained damage. Read more about it here
The Steve Connolly Seafood Company closed its Gloucester site January 1, 2022. What’s next for 431 Main Street? I hope the iconic lobster at the wheel signs were acquired by Cape Ann Museum. Love those signs!
January 1, 2022 | October 27, 2022
Congratulations to the boys soccer teams and the GHS senior student athletes: Deston, Geremy, Jacob, Kayky, Peter, Richard, and Yuniel!
including local artists that are residents, too
And announcing…a new concertmaster!
Cape Ann Symphony Musicians Unleashed Concert Series
AMERICAN CLASSICAL MUSIC
Featuring works by The Grateful Dead, Florence Price, William Grant Still, Rachel Grimes, Dvorak & Cape Ann Symphony Concertmaster Scott Moore
at Gloucester’s Unitarian Universalist Church
The Cape Ann Symphony’s Musicians Unleashed programs were launched in 2019 and have become a wonderfully popular series with overwhelmingly enthusiastic audience response. Ticket prices for American Classical Music are $40 for Adults and $15 for Youth. Call Cape Ann Symphony at 978-281-0543 or go to www.capeannsymphony.org for tickets.
Read all about it from the Cape Ann Symphony press release:
Cape Ann Symphony proudly announces the return of the popular Musicians Unleashed Concert Series with American Classical Music at 3:00 pm on Saturday, October 29, 2022 at The Unitarian Universalist Church, 10 Church Street in Gloucester, MA. The ticket price for American Classical Music is $40 for Adults and $15 for Youth. Call CAS at 978-281-0543 or go to www.capeannsymphony.org to purchase tickets.
The first Musicians Unleashed Concert of the 2022-2023 season, American Classical Music features music made in America.
“We wanted to put together a program of great music that reflects the vast and wide diversity of peoples and cultures that have made up and continue to make up our great country of America” says Cape Ann Symphony Music Director and Conductor Yoichi Udagawa.
The American Classical Music concert program includes a wide range of musical styles and composers from Dvorak to the Grateful Dead. The music from an eclectic slate of composers featuring Florence Price, Cape Ann Symphony’s recently appointed Concertmaster Scott Moore, William Grant Still, The Grateful Dead, Rachel Grimes, and Dvorak will be performed by four CAS musicians: violinist Scott Moore; violinist Erica Pisaturo; cellist Seth MacLeod; and violist Brandon White.
“How exciting to hear such a unique mix of composers performed by these talented musicians …all musicians who are relatively new to our CAS audiences,” points out Maestro Udagawa, “This is a great opportunity for audiences to get to to know some of the newest members of the orchestra.”
The concert program includes: Florence Price’s Juba from String Quartet No. 2: Scott Moore and Erica Pisaturo, violins; Brandon White, viola; Seth MacLeod, cello; Scott Moore’s Duo selections: Scott Moore and Erica Pisaturo, violins; William Grant Still’s Danzas de Panama: Scott Moore and Erica Pisaturo, violins; Brandon White, viola; Seth MacLeod, cello; Grateful Dead’s Truckin’, arranged by Minsky: Seth MacLeod, cello; Rachel Grimes’ Egon and Gertie – Violin/Cello Version: Scott Moore, violin; Seth MacLeod, cello; Scott Moore’s Fiddle Tunes (solo): Scott Moore, violin; and Dvorak’s American Quartet, 1st Movement: Scott Moore and Erica Pisaturo, violins; Brandon White, viola; Seth MacLeod, cello.
Cape Ann Symphony’s new Concertmaster Scott Moore makes his MU debut as a violinist and a composer in American Classical Music.
“Scott Moore is a fabulous violinist who plays at an incredibly high level in all kinds of styles from classical music to Kentucky Bluegrass. He’s also an unbelievable composer, arranger and all-around musician, say Udagawa, “We are thrilled that he is the new concertmaster of the Cape Ann Symphony, and I’m looking forward to our audiences getting to know him and his music making!”
Scott Moore was born and came of age in rural Kentucky. He began his career as a violinist and composer as a four-year-old in New York. He’s been a soloist with a number of orchestras, played Mozart for the Archduke of Austria, and given an impromptu recital in Carnegie Hall for an audience of ghosts. In 2018, he began performing, from memory, the complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by J. S. Bach.
Mr. Moore has been an organic farmer and a professional driver, learned fiddle tunes from old-timers in the hills of eastern Kentucky, drunk bourbon with rock stars on a steam-powered riverboat, and played music on four continents. An enthusiastic collaborator on stage and in the recording studio, he has forged a reputation as a skillful and inventive musician unbound by genre equally at home as a soloist with the Louisville Orchestra, with bands at festivals, or in the recording studio with Jim James, Tyler Ramsey, Houndmouth, Dawn Landes, Rachel Grimes, and many more.
A composer as well, he has composed six adventurous new scores for the Louisville Ballet, including As You Like It in August 2022. Recent seasons trace an exciting arc, with appearances running the gamut from contemporary classical to rock, jazz, bluegrass, and beyond. These include solo engagements with the Louisville Orchestra and extensive collaboration with LO music director Teddy Abrams. Ongoing work with pianist-composer Rachel Grimes includes several albums and performances like WNYC’s Soundcheck, NPR’s Performance Today, and two stints at Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival. As a longtime member of the 23 String Band, he has performed across the country as a crowd favorite at festivals like Rockygrass, Grey Fox, Forecastle, ROMP, Festival of the Bluegrass, and many more. He has also recorded two as-yet-unreleased albums with his own band, blurring the lines between acoustic and electric back porch folk and vintage rock-n-roll.
This native Kentuckian is now a resident of Gloucester. He and his wife violinist Erica Pisaturo, also a member of CAS, moved to New England in the fall of 2019. Moore is the 2022 Artist-in-Residence at the Annisquam Village Church, where he recently performed the complete Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by J. S. Bach.
photo credit: June Stratton
Violinist Erica Pisaturo is a native of New England, where she began her violin studies at the age of four. After earning a BA in Music and Art History from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, she escaped the harsh winters to earn an MFA at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia.
While in the South, Ms. Pisaturo played violin in a number of professional symphony orchestras, including the Hilton Head Symphony and Savannah Philharmonic, both of which she also served as Orchestra Librarian. She has has toured and traveled the world extensively including studying architecture in Italy, making music on tour in China and Japan, and serendipitously meeting her husband, Scott Moore, CAS’s new Concertmaster. She and her husband moved to Gloucester in 2019 and Ms. Pisaturo now plays with the Cape Ann Symphony and Symphony By The Sea. Though she has left the South, she continues to perform in Georgia, South Carolina, and Kentucky when life allows. She recorded with Rachel Grimes and performed in the world premiere of The Way Forth (2019) with the Louisville Orchestra. Other recent performances include the Forecastle Festival and the Big Ears Festival.
Cellist Seth MacLeod earned his Bachelor of Music in cello performance from Boston University, where he studied with George Neikrug who dedicated to Seth a cadenza he composed for the Dvořák Cello Concerto. In September Mr. MacLeod joined the Cape Ann Symphony as Principal Cellist. He has performed as a soloist with the Wellesley Symphony, Lincoln-Sudbury Civic and the Metrowest Symphony Orchestras. Mr. MacLeod is also the principal cellist of the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra, and he is a member of Symphony By The Sea. He is a versatile chamber musician and string instructor at area schools. .
Violist Brandon White made his CAS debut in March 2022’s Musicians Unleashed Concert, the Virtual Clarinet Quintet Concert. Originally from New York and now residing in the Boston area, Brandon White has enjoyed a varied career as a violist. A classically trained violist, Mr. White has been recognized as an analytical, and forward-thinking musician with a love of all viola music and new compositions. He holds degrees from The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam where he studied under Shelly Tramposh and earned his BM in Viola Performance, as well as The Boston Conservatory at Berklee where he studied under Lila Brown and earned his MM in String Performance. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Jordan Hall, and Sanders Theater and played with the Orchestra of Northern New York, Hamptons Festival Orchestra and the Choral Society of the Hamptons. Mr. White currently performs in the Rivers Symphony Orchestra and is also a member of the contemporary viola duo Waterhouse Row alongside Emilie Catlett. He performs on a Hungarian Viola from 1968 made by Otto Erdesz.
Thanks to the boosters’ fundraising, customers at the snack booth & booster events, and local sponsors (including Classic Cooks, Markouk Bread, Sclafani Bakery) the GHS Boys soccer raised $1000 for the American Cancer Society. Way to go Fishermen!
Team photo by Dawn Enos
Along with an extensive regular menu, the Cherry Farm Creamery ice cream shop has small batch holiday flavors. I love their molasses cornmeal this time of year.
Sun N’ Air Driving Range | Cherry Farm Creamery homemade ice cream off Rt. 128 (old exit 21) open year round, 210 Conant St. Danvers
Crackerjacks, Rockport, Mass., Oct. 2022
Looping back from Dunfudgin and the high school to Emerson Avenue, I was delighted to encounter the soft and striking mural on the Pathways building, across the street from Open Door and the Veteran’s center.
It’s a city block long!
Gail McCarthy wrote a great piece about the project in the Gloucester Daily Times.
Mural on Pathways for Children in Gloucester, Mass., by Dúo Amazonas | Nati Andreoli and Lina Castellanos, 2022. Instagram @duoamazonas
Halloween decorations and leaves changing color. October 2022
same energy, same
GHS tennis courts
DPW projects around town include various sewer, sidewalk, or road work along Mt. Pleasant, School Street, Washington Street (various locations), and Hodgkins. Some road closures may be encountered.
Mt. Pleasant-
School-
Washington-
Roe, roe, roe the vote boat signs, Rockport, MA October 2022
Saw Some Autumn. It Was Awesome 2022 photo series description: Early fall Oct. 2022. Leaves are changing color in Gloucester and Rockport. Fall and Halloween scenes. See 2021 here.
Description- Late summer photos. Series around town. Gloucester and Rockport. Good Harbor Beach and Long Beach. Aug-September 2022. Simple pleasures of summer: beach towels on railings hung out to dry; sand rinse foot baths at Long Beach cottages; beach games; paper lanterns; clouds
downtown tree in Dock Square and for the playhouse too
GHS 10/8/2022
JV games at 2!
Girls varsity at 4!
Boys varsity at 6!
BONUS: Raffles and part of concession go to American Cancer Society
Pretty October moon
(Cellphone snapshots w/binocs. )
3:50pm – Perhaps some official training, one hopes. Two other boats were in the vicinity.
Good Morning Gloucester 