Tag: Gloucester Fire Department
SHOUT OUT TO GLOUCESTER’S FINEST- THANKING OUR FIREMEN, POLICEMEN, AND EMTS
This morning I was rear-ended coming home from filming Plovers. No worries, just a touch of whiplash. I was a little shook up and didn’t ask for the name of fireman, EMT, and policeman who were there within moments of calling, but would very much like to thank them, not only for this morning’s help, but I have been thinking about them all week during Fiesta. They were present at every event throughout this past week’s fabulous fiesta, and I observed them providing assistance in myriad situations. I think we are very blessed in Gloucester to have such a dedicated and compassionate team of policemen, firemen, and emergency medical responders. A most sincere thank you for all that you do each and every day, and for all that you did to make this year’s Saint Peter’s Fiesta the wonderful success that it was.
Don’t they have the greatest badges too 🙂
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Gloucester Firemen Train to Save Lives
Training to jump out of a window head first.
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Juni Van Dyke solo exhibition at Jane Deering Gallery: Artist of such expressive power and spirit
Juni Van Dyke’s show at Jane Deering Gallery 19 Pleasant Street Gloucester MA opens Saturday October 29 5-7PM and continues through December 2017. I think Juni’s art transposes her passions and delights into works of sumptuous color and significance. They are beautiful, moving and resonant with her life experiences.
Jane Deering Gallery is located within the 1842 home built for Capt. Harvey Coffin MacKay and Sally (Somes) MacKay. They were married in 1816. The building is one of many distinctive assets within Gloucester’s Central Historic District. There aren’t many wood structures dating from this time because of fires.
McKay’s name is on the 1821 First Fire Club list, established in 1766, appointed to Engine No. Two. Members agreed to 14 Articles: “to be helpful to each other in case of fire; 2, each member to provide two good leather buckets and two strong bags of not less than three bushels capacity, the fine for non-compliance being 12-1/2 cents; 3, to meet annually, also quarterly, with a fine of 12-1/2 cents for non-attendance; 4, a committee of two to inspect each other’s premises and inspect all fire apparatus quarterly; 5, a moderator and clerk to be elected; 6, prescribe the duties of the clerk; 7, to expel members absent from four quarterly meetings and refusing to pay the fines and assessments; 8, to pay for buckets or bags lost at any fire; 9, each member to pay 50 cents for a printed copy of the articles; 10, a secret watch-word for the society, the fine for divulging the same being 40 cents; 11, a fine of 12-1/2 cents for buckets or bags being out of their proper places; 12, fines and assessments to be paid to the Clerk; 12, a three-fourths vote necessary for admission, etc.; 14, a quarterly assessment of 25 cents to meet ordinary expenses.” See The Gloucester Fire Department: its history and work from 1793 to 1893 by John J Somes, ©1892
Capt. MacKay was born Joshua Gee Whittemore, Jr; records indicate that on February 13, 1813 he was “allowed to take the name of Harvey C. Mackay,…and be called and known by the said name; and the said name shall forever hereafter be considered as his only proper and legal name, to all intents and purposes.” At one time MacKay was Fitz Henry Lane’s landlord. Fitz Hugh Lane changed his name to Fitz Henry Lane in 1832. You can learn more about Lane at the Cape Ann Museum, right next door to the Jane Deering Gallery. The MacKay house jogged my memory about something else I learned from the Cape Ann Museum in a brief article by Stephanie Buck. In 1879, Sarah Johnson, a MacKay lodger, was the first woman to vote in Gloucester for a public official. Buck’s article reveals who was second, third and fourth in line! I thought about that when I peeked through the window at Juni’s show. Here’s a solo exhibition by a woman, at a gallery owned by a woman, next to a museum run by Ronda Faloon, with nearby exhibits featuring other solo shows by women, galleries and businesses owned by women, and Mayor Romeo Theken at City Hall. I hope we can raise money to commission original portraits of Mayor Kirk and Mayor Romeo Theken to add to City Hall. They are the only Mayors that aren’t represented.
In 2014, a trunk filled with archival material attributed to Captain MacKay including papers about the ship Parthian fetched $900 (est. $150-200) at online auction site, Invaluable, for The Gallery at Knotty Pine in West Swanzey, NH.
“I, Harvey C. Mackay do solemnly, sincerely, and truly swear, that the within REPORT and LIST, subscribed with my name and now delivered by me to the Collector of the district of BOSTON AND CHARLESTOWN, contains, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the names, age, sex and occupation of all the passengers, together with the name of the country to which they severally belong, and that of which they intend to become inhabitants, which were on board the London Packet whereof I am at present master, at the time of her sailing from the port of London or which have at any time since been taken on board the said vessel. And I do likewise swear, that all matters whatsoever in said report and list expressed, are, to the best of my knowledge and belief, just and true. SO HELP ME GOD. (Signed) Harvey Mackay, MASTER. Sworn to before me, this twenty-fifth day of April 1827, (signed) J. W., Dy. COLLECTOR.” See the (short) Passenger list on board the packet Ship London from England to Boston, Massachusetts on 25 April 1827
A fishing schooner built in Essex in 1866 was named for ‘intrepid Capt Harvey C Mackay (1786-1869). From Out of Gloucester, http://www.downtosea.com: On December 24, 1879: The Sch. ‘Harvey C. Mackay’ Given Up as Lost: The Schooner Harvey C. Mackay, for whose safety fears have been entertained, and for whose coming back to port anxious ears have long been waiting, has been given up as lost by her owners, and she must be added, with her crew of hardy men, to the list of lost fishermen. She left port…
New Jane Deering Gallery opens in Gloucester
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Fisherman’s Memorial Plaques Get Washed
Gasper Lafata (Head of the Gloucester Fisherman’s Cenotaph Committee), arranged for the Gloucester Fire Department to come down and wash the much needed Fisherman’s Memorial Plaques.
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Golden Opportunity- Gloucester Fire Department Open House This Thursday For Recruitment
If ever there was a city job that you want it’s the Fire department. Great Hours – Great Pay – Tremendous Benefits. If you fit the criteria and don’t have a direction in life, let me tell you, it doesn’t get much better than being a Local Fireman. I never even knew the had to recruit. I just figured there was a backlog a mile long of applicants kinda like the waiting list for a mooring. If you have a son or daughter who fits the age requirements or are a vet returning from duty without a job you’d be crazy not to show up for this Gloucester Fire Department Recruitment Open House. Thursday February 27, 2014. get on it!
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Middle Street Fire Pics From Jay Albert
If you haven’t seen it yet from the link in my blogroll to the right, click this text to visit the photos from the Middle Street Fire that Jay took.
Good Morning Gloucester 