My View of Life on the Dock
The lobster trap tree in downtown Gloucester at Main and Pleasant Streets basked in glorious early morning light and festooned with buoys hand painted by kids at Cape Ann Art Haven.
A welcome pause any time any vantage.
Continue reading “Gloucester Lobster Trap Tree – gather round”
The Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Public Library is holding a public meeting November 15, 6-8pm, seeking ideas about the library’s next steps.
In May and June 2018, the library’s volunteer group, thinkGloucester, held a series of community meetings facilitated by Gloucester Conversations. People were invited “to join these open conversations to share ideas and input for the library’s five-year strategic plan.” I went to one of the meetings which was lightly attended with 12 participants beyond staff, board and facilitators. Further outreach included meetings off site in different wards as well as through social media and on line. Postcards were sent to every residence encouraging participation in an online survey. I’ll look for a link to a summary page of results from that feedback. In the meantime, here’s a link to a message from the Board – Creating our Future an update on the building project, June 2018
More staff, books, better bathrooms, celebrate Saunders, children’s library, local art, archives!
Prior posts about proposed library plans Continue reading “Weigh in! Sawyer Free Public library seeking ideas for next steps (since the summer 2018 thinkGloucester conversations) November 15th”
The Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Public Library is holding a public meeting November 15, 6-8pm, seeking ideas about the library’s next steps.
In May and June 2018, the library’s volunteer group, thinkGloucester, held a series of community meetings facilitated by Gloucester Conversations. People were invited “to join these open conversations to share ideas and input for the library’s five-year strategic plan.” I went to one of the meetings which was lightly attended with 12 participants beyond staff, board and facilitators. Further outreach included meetings off site in different wards as well as through social media and on line. Postcards were sent to every residence encouraging participation in an online survey. I’ll look for a link to a summary page of results from that feedback. In the meantime, here’s a link to a message from the Board Creating our Future an update on the building project, June 2018
More staff, books, better bathrooms, celebrate Saunders, children’s library, local art, archives!
Prior posts about proposed library plans Continue reading “Weigh in! Sawyer Free Public library seeking ideas for next steps (since the summer 2018 thinkGloucester conversations) November 15th”
Continue reading “Colors of the season- fall charm on Cape Ann”
Spectacular City Hall, Gloucester’s cultural landmark and active municipal building, has nearly reached its 150th milestone at 9 Dale Avenue. Rising from the ashes, construction began in 1870 after the Gloucester fire of 1869 consumed its short-lived precursor. Gridley J.F. Bryant & Louis P. Rogers, leading architects at this time, were awarded the commission. Massive disaster response came two years later: the Great Boston Fire wiped out scores of Bryant designed buildings and the firm was awarded a significant percentage of its own rebuilds.
City Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973… which means the research and preparations leading up to that designation timed with its centennial birthday.Recently the expansive floors in Kyrouz Auditorium were buffed and polished and not for the first time. 150 years! Imagine all the footsteps and the generations of staff and volunteers that have cared for this building and community.
Credit DPW for their professionalism and kindness, and steadfast support for the city’s culture. Note their extra caution for protecting heritage from airborne material: mural and portraits were covered.
Before / After
City Hall looks stunning always- BEFORE shots
during (these two photos shared with me)
after
The Manchester Historical Museum opens the first major solo museum exhibit of Manchester based artist, Marion Hall, October 5th, 2018 with an artist’s reception from 6:30-8:30PM. The show features recent watercolors and will be on view through November 10. The museum is located at 10 Union Street, within the historic Trask House (1823), Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts.
About the artist and scenes from the artist’s studio Continue reading “First solo museum exhibition for artist Marion Hall opens October 5th, 2018 Manchester Historical Museum”
Haskell’s House, 316 Main Street, is one of more than 110 homes and vistas in Gloucester, Massachusetts, that inspired artist, Edward Hopper (1882-1967).
Gloucester merchant, public official (city councilor / state representative), and Master Mariner, Melvin Haskell (1848-1933), commissioned the house in 1884.
Hopper and artist, Jo Nivison (1883-1968), were married in 1924. They nicknamed the fancy house high atop the hill the Wedding Cake House. The famous drawing was originally purchased by American master painter, George Bellows (1882-1925), from a sensational Hopper solo exhibition held in the Frank K. M. Rehn Gallery in 1924. The watercolor changed hands and was eventually gifted to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, by Mr. and Mrs. Herbert A. Goldstone in 1996. Hopper depicted the house in two other works, both side views from Prospect street rather than this view from Main Street.
The house was listed for sale at $830,000 throughout the spring and summer of 2018. Landscaping today involved major brush and tree removal. The result will be a scene closer to the one experienced by artists Edward Hopper and Jo Nivison in the 1920s. The scenic locale is a power spot: down the block from the Crow’s Nest and across the street from Gloucester’s Inner Harbor, Beauport Hospitality’s Cruiseport and Seaport Grill venues, Cape Ann Whale Watch, and Gorton’s.
Tree and heavy brush removal underway September 26, 2018, 316 Main Street, Gloucester, Massachusetts, revealing a scenic vista closer to the one that inspired Edward Hopper back in 1924 ©Catherine Ryan
Aymar, Jimmy, Edgar and Pedro were some of the adroit and brave tree climbing removal crew with ALZ Landscaping and Tree Service out of Lynn, Massachusetts. The unwieldy trees grew threateningly high.
short video: Edward Hopper Haskell’s House in Gloucester Mass is easier to view after tree removal Sept 2018 © catherine Ryan
August 4, 1909, Gloucester Day brought an audience of 20,000 to Stage Fort Park in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The 1909 pageant of “The Canterbury Pilgrims” by Percy Wallace Mackaye was touted as the “greatest open air performance ever attempted in the country”.
“Stage Fort Park was the magnet which attracted thousands of people at the close of the grand afternoon parade yesterday, the procession in that direction, commencing early and continuing all through the evening, until between the hours of 7 and 8 o’clock, there was a continuous mass of moving color along both sides of the boulevard, with the middle of the street almost covered with the swifter moving carriages and automobiles. This scene was most inspiring, giving one something upon which to build an imagination for the greater display to come, when the play and pageant were presented for their consideration. The vast amphitheatre, with its great stage, were soon filled, the latter by nearly 20,000 spectators, in the boxes, on the seats and in automobiles, while the wings of the latter were filled with (thousands of) players.”
William H Taft (1857 – 1930), the 27th President of the United States from 1909-13, planned to be in attendance, thanks to host, John Hays Hammond, Sr., his boyhood friend and college classmate at Yale. The Mayor of Gloucester at the time of the 1909 pageant was Hon. Henry H. Parsons. Artist Eric Pape (b.Oct 17, 1870 San Francisco – d.Novembre 7, 1938), Master of the Pageant, directed the Canterbury performance. He was the lead design for Gloucester’s enormous bronze plaque and granite bas-relief commemorating the Founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony set in tablet rock at Stage Fort Park and dedicated in 1907.
Few days left to bid! Link to more photos of the collectible and sale found here: sale on capeanntiques, ebay seller
July 30, 1909 Gloucester Day Badge – Unique Design to Commemorate Event
“The Gloucester Day badges have arrived and are certainly worthy of the occasion. The special gold badge to be presented to the president is fo the same design as the others. It consists of a bar, backed by anchor stock, with the cables running along each side, and in the center a miniature of President Taft, flanked by the dates 1623-1909. Suspended from this bar by two chains is the embossed shield, the central figure of which is a Georges handline fisherman, riding at anchor under bare poles. On either side, clinging griffin-like to the inner circle dividing th ose parts is the inscription, “Gloucester, mass. Settled 1623. Incorporated, 1642” and beneath this is a representation of the Roger Conant house, with the word “built” on one side and the date “1623” on the other, and the inscription, “Roger Conant House,” beneath.”
“May be worn as badges or watch fobs…Design selected after keen competition.” They were pre sold for 50 cents.
Enjoying all these sunny sunflowers swaying downtown. Can you spot them all? Hint- Main Street and Pleasant Street (Patti Amaral’s garden stretch); on the West End of Main Street at legendary storefront Bananas; Washington and Granite Streets nearby Mother of Grace; and Centennial nearly bookended at both Washington and Western Avenue.
Then (when there was a tower) and now 151 – 153 East Main
61 Middle Street Pike Newhall Funeral Home
Advertisement in 1902 Polk directory lists Pike business address on Washington Street prior to Middle Street relocation; the business was founded in 1900. 61 Middle formerly Winchester Inn
photo above: “Here is the second of the three gambrel roof houses in this section of Middle Street. Riggs Street is on the left and in the rear of the first gambrel roof house is Babson’s Field which was used as sites for some of the houses moved from Western Avenue in 1922-23′-’24 when Stacy Blvd. was constructed.” from History of Gloucester Vol. 3, published 1978, featuring photographs from James B. Benham collection and from Gaspar J. Lafata and Martin J. Horgan Jr.
Annotated illustration: Note gardens on properties abutting City Hall. William Haskell’s lots spread between Dale and Pleasant (#44 now) streets and beyond where Carroll Steele is located now, numbered 32 Pleasant Street, rear when he lived there. On the 1884 Hopkins and 1899 Stadly maps the lot is identified where the new post office is now.
Another Haskell (Cpt. John Haskell) was associated with 34 Pleasant (former Moose Home*), and Melvin Haskell with 136 Main Street. *The house history trail for 34 Pleasant (THEN 26 Pleasant): Pearce-J. Haskell-Calef-Moose Lodge (razed 2011)-Cape Ann Museum parking lot. This area could be an African American history stop spotlighting both abolitionist and antiabolitionist connections.
Street numbers were shifted. Behind #44 Pleasant Street now (below)
Dates: b.January 23, 1810 – d.August 26, 1902
Parents: Eli (b. 1776 Gloucester, MA) and Lydia (Woodbury Bray) Haskell
Brother: Epes
Grandfather: Elias Haskell
First Wife and two daughters: Sarah Ann Bray (1811-1836) “died September 12, 1836 leaving two daughters* now deceased, one of whom (Sarah*) married a Mr. (Thomas*) Symonds of Reading and the other (Judith*) married Edwin Bradley of Rockport and was the mother of Mr. Edwin Archer Bradley* of Gloucester, Mass.” E Archer Bradley was Captain Sylvanus Smith son-in-law. E Archer Bradley is listed in the 1913 Polk directory as Vice President of the Gloucester Mutual Fishing Insurance Co and Director Rocky Neck Marine Railway Company.
Second Wife and six children: Mary S. Smith (died August 15, 1889) Married July 19, 1838. They had six children: “William G. Haskell of Washington, DC, Col. Edward H. Haskell and Charles A Haskell of Newton, Frank A. Haskell of California and Mrs. Saddie, wife of Samuel W. Brown of this city. One son, Asaph S. Haskell, laid his life on the altar of his country at Morehead City, N.C., September 28, 1863, of yellow fever while a member of Co. C, Twenty-third Regiment, where he had gone awaiting transportation home, his death occurring on the date of the expiration of his term of enlistment.”
Raised: West Gloucester, learned the trade of shoemaker according to obituary
Gloucester 250th Anniversary: served as Vice President of 250th celebration committee
Residences: 44 Pleasant Street (was between Dale and Pleasant streets and beyond where Carroll Steele is located now) formerly address 32 Pleasant Street, rear– either may have evidence Undergound Railroad. Haskell’s lots spread between Dale and Pleasant.* Another Haskell (Cpt. John Haskell) was associated with 34 Pleasant (former Moose Home) and Melvin Haskell with 136 Main Street.
Biographical information I dug up and researched then confirmed at Gloucester Archives August 29th with a special thanks to Sandy and Sarah with Gloucester Achives. I wanted to confirm Haskell’s address and home, because streets and numbers change on maps over time, and because I knew Sandy could help best with tracking down cemetery information about Haskell’s first wife and the daughters’ names missing from records and I wanted to spotlight her dedicated efforts.
Haskell’s first wife is buried in West Gloucester- historic Sumner St. Cemetery. Haskell and his first wife had two daughters. Sarah Ann Frances, born September 28, 1832 in Gloucester, died young, in December 1853. She married Thomas S. Symonds July 1851. (Haskell and his second wife named one of their daughters, Sarah “Seddie” Symonds Haskell, after his first child.) The second daughter, Judith Goldsmith, born February 20, 1836, married Edwin Archer Bradley on November 8, 1854.
“OLDEST MALE RESIDENT DEAD: William H. Haskell Closes Life at Age of 92 years- An Original Abolitionist and Life-long Republican
House History then and now for two former ‘old age homes’:
1911, Gloucester, Mass. “WILL OPEN ON CHRISTMAS DAY Several Old Sea Toilers Will Eat Christmas Dinner There Monday: Everything is in readiness for the opening of the Fishermen’s Home, formerly the Colby House, on Eastern avenue, and on Christmas day, a gathering of aged and disabled fishermen who have toiled their best days on the banks, but are no longer able to follow this hazardous occupation, will spend one of the happiest days of their lives and eat their first dinner in the new home…It would be a rather difficult undertaking to find a happier man today than Judge York. Two years ago after a conference with Dr. John Dixwell of Boston, who becoming interested in the work raised a fund among his friends for the relief of this class of men, who without friends or home were obliged to seek shelter in the house of coreection. Judge York went to Ipswich and secured the release of eight old fishermen, who were brought to this city and cared for at boarding houses during the winter months. Last winter the work was continued through the efforts of Dr. Dixwell and Judge York, and lately, their efforts were further crowned by the splendid gift of Mr. Hammond, who presented the home. The seven men who will become inmates of the home on Christmas Day are John Ryan, Joseph Alcott, John Nichools, Harris Atwood, James Halley, Robert Fraser and Henry Gormley.” article in the Gloucester Daily Times
The prior year “J. Hammond deeded lots for indigent fishermen at Beechbrook Cemetery.”- 1910 Gloucester Archives
After writing about his friendship with Captain Blackburn, “one of the most undaunted sailors America has ever had…I was proud to be one of the honorary pallbearers at his funeral…” John Hammond Sr. concluded his autobiography with more about Gloucester:
“I look back with the greatest pleasure on the hours I have spent with other old Gloucester fishermen. In the winter of 1910 several of these old fellow appeared before the district court and pleaded guilty to vagrancy. Without other means of gaining food or shelter, they were seeking some sort of sustenance in the poorhouse for the winter. In Washington, I read about this in the papers and got in touch with Judge York, Dr. Dickswell, Fred Shackelford, and others who were interested. We established a home to provide for these old fishermen. I learned to appreciate the fine traits of these men who were given refuge there. Often it was exceedingly difficult to persuade them that they were too old to stand the hardships of deep-sea fishing. Their truck garden faced the sea, and from there they could watch with their telescopes for the fishing vessels as they left and entered the harbor. Sailors, like miners, are notoriously spendthrifts and these of Gloucester were no exception. They would arrive at the Home in a destitute condition. Because they no longer went to sea, and there was no chance of their reaching the traditional sailors’ grave, they had a great dread of potter’s field. For that reason I provided a cemetery where all could be assured of decent burial. Above the gate is inscribed:
And here rest, brave toiler of the sea,
sleep undistrubed,
God’s peace be with thee.
Many of the inmates were choosey about the location of their graves. There were two in particular, bunkies since boyhood, who quarreled daily and, I fear, nightly, but who exacted from me a promise that they might be buried side by side.”
Gloucester bought 110 Prospect Street in 1887 for $12,000 to establish the “Huntress Home for Old Ladies of Native Birth.” I’ll write more about this one later.
Here’s how both senior housing options were described in the 1913 Gloucester Directory (from Gloucester Archives):
photos & research – C. Ryan
In response to Searching for artist Byron Brooks (Part 1) and (Part 2), David Collins, a Good Morning Gloucester reader and amateur geneologist, was inspired to act. First he emailed a PDF family tree for artist, Byron Lloyd Brooks, and then shared vivid remembrances and vintage photographs in response to the artist’s timeline in Gloucester, Massachusetts. These are wonderful additions to filling out Brooks story and a peek into Gloucester and Stage Fort Park history. Thanks so much, David!
For a time, Brooks lived in 12 Stage Fort Avenue. Collins’ family lived in 7 Stage Fort Avenue 1940s-1960s. Does anyone know the neighbors Collins mentions or have more photographs of long gone homes and Barrett’s Camp at Stage Fort Park? I’m looking forward to scouting for that boulder.
“Hello, Catherine, Here is a little more information on the artist Byron L. Brooks, in case you are still interested. I have attached a family tree for him. It does also have some information on his two wives that I know of. I am not a professional genealogist, so don’t take the information as gospel. I grew up at what was then 7 Stage Fort Avenue (no “Park” in the address) in the late 1940s, 50s and early 60s in the house that is now 1 Anchor Lane, I believe. We moved to Connecticut in 1961 the week I turned 16. The house Byron lived in, 12 Stage Fort Avenue, was, back when I lived there, a 2-family house. Most of the other houses in that part of the neighborhood were, or had been, summer camps. Stage Fort Avenue Y-ed at our house and both parts, one going on to one of the Park’s parking lots and the other going past us to Barrett’s Camps, were named Stage Fort Avenue. The house in front of Byron’s, the address was 10 Stage Fort Avenue back then and is now 7 Stage Fort Avenue, didn’t exist – at least not in the large form it is in now. Sam and Marion (Kerr) Johnson lived there. I think the house burned down in about 1975.
Ralph and Evelyn (DeCoste) Bradstreet lived in the downstairs part of 12 Stage Fort Avenue and several families lived upstairs over the years. Byron must have lived in the neighborhood a while before my family did. I think my folks moved to #7 about 1939 or so. I don’t know when the Bradstreets moved into #12. That said, Byron Brooks was my mother’s 2nd cousin. They share Ephraim Brooks [1818-1905] and Ruth Ward [1816-1892] of Nova Scotia as great-grandparents.
However, I had never heard of Byron until your 2nd GoodMorningGloucester article. I even collect art by people who called Cape Ann home – Charles Movalli was my best friend growing up*. I also have an extensive family tree that I have worked on for many years. Still, I had no idea Byron existed! Of course, I had his parents in my mother’s part of our tree. I have now added information on him and his many siblings because of your articles. Thank-you! Hope this helps you, in return.” David Brooks 7/1/18
photo credit below (click to enlarge): 7 Stage Fort Avenue ca.1947-57 (L), and Stage Coach Inn vintage postcard, both images courtesy David Collins
about the photo with the girls on the rock and Stage Fort Avenue homes THEN (now gone):
“This one is of my sister and the girl (and her dog) who lived upstairs at 12 Stage Fort Avenue for several years while we lived on Stage Fort Avenue and then moved to School Street in Manchester. Her father, originally from Rockport, was a 7th cousin of Byron Brooks but I doubt he knew. The girls are sitting on a rock outside the side entrance to downstairs #12, the one the people we called Auntie Evelyn and Uncle Emerson (Ralph Emerson) Bradstreet (both cousins of each of my parents) probably used most often. It led into their kitchen. The doorway at the stairs in front (in the other picture I sent you) led into a hall, with stairs running up to the 2nd floor apartment and also a door at the left into the downstairs apartment.
The building behind the girls and to the left was, at least at one time, a Barrett camp. I think sometimes people bought them and made them more permanent homes even if they didn’t live in them year-round. The family’s name sounded like Brown-eyes but I don’t remember how it was actually spelled. Oh, I do remember: William and Irene (Douglas) Brauneis. Irene Douglas’ brother (a close friend and fishing buddy of my uncle) and his wife and family and his parents lived in the large house at the top of the hill behind the camps that was not a camp. I think the Brauneis family lived in theirs, maybe even full time eventually, long after we had moved.
The next home which looks altogether different was rented out in the summer, too, but I have no idea who lived in it. In the next camp to that one, not in the picture, a Mrs. Morrison spent the summer and her daughter and family, the Kilroys, would join her for a few weeks. Mrs. Kilroy had grown up in Gloucester. I hung around with daughter Carol and brother Robert the part of the summer when they were in town…Henry and Pauline (Osmond) Garvey and family lived in the Barrett camp that abutted our property on (what was then) Stage Fort Avenue. Great family. They would summer there from Tuckahoe, New York, but both had been brought up in Gloucester. ”- David Collins
*author’s note – more on this connection later
Byron Brooks on line catalogue (updated)
from Photographic History of Gloucester Vol. 3 compiled by and from the collections of Caroline Benham, Gaspar J Lafata and Martin J. Horgan, Jr. © 1978
“Ruby Wolf” in big script
Cool sign on ground floor space below double orieole windows adorning W.G. Brown building on the 7-11 Pleasant Street side. What’s coming?
The building dates from 1882.
William Glover Brown was born in 1854 and emigrated from Scotland in 1872. He worked in Providence before building a business in Milford which he brought to Main Street in Gloucester in 1885. In five years the William G. Brown & Co drygoods moved to a bigger Main Street space. From Genealogical and Personal Memoirs, ed. William Richard Cutter ©1908 from Harvard College Library collection (digitized by Google), and one ad from Polk’s 1960 directory.
From the museum’s press release:
Cape Ann Museum’s special exhibition of works by artist and illustrator Harrison Cady (1877–1970)
Affectionately known to many as the bug painter, Harrison Cady (1877–1970) was a much loved member of Cape Ann’s summer art colony throughout the 20th century. A prolific illustrator, a printmaker and a painter, Cady was one of the last links to our nation’s Golden Age of Illustration, a distinction he earned through his long collaboration with writer Thornton Burgess. View from the Headlands, a special exhibition of works by artist and illustrator Harrison Cady (1877-1970) will open at the Cape Ann Museum on July 7, 2018, and remain on display through October 28, 2018.
Cady began his 70-year career as an illustrator with the Brooklyn Eagle and later worked for numerous popular American publications, including Life magazine, Ladies’ Home Journal, the Saturday Evening Post, and Good Housekeeping. His syndicated comic strip “Peter Rabbit” ran in the New York Herald Tribune for 28 years.
A frequent visitor to Rockport, Massachusetts, Cady made it his permanent summer home in 1920, purchasing a seafront property known as “The Headlands.” With his studio “the Silo” located nearby, Cady shifted his focus to painting landscapes and harbor scenes. Cady was an early member of the Rockport Art Association, founded in 1921.
View from the Headlands draws on public and private collections throughout the region with examples of Cady’s early magazine illustrations, his work with writer Thornton W. Burgess, and his later landscape paintings. The exhibition reflects the Cape Ann Museum’s commitment to preserving and presenting work that celebrates the area’s culture and history.
Harrison Cady (1877–1970). Lane’s Cove, c.1930s. Oil on board. The James Collection, promised gift to the Cape Ann Museum.
Walter Harrison Cady was born and raised in Gardner, Massachusetts, and headed to New York City at eighteen. The successful artist eventually had an eight room studio in the Sixty Seventh Studios building at 27 West 67, NYC. The Cadys purchased a summer house and studio on Atlantic Avenue in Rockport (see photos above). In addition to this exciting and rare chance to see original work by Cady at Cape Ann Museum, there is a new book celebrating Cady’s art currently in production: Madness in Crowds: The Teeming Mind of Harrison Cady. Cady had long ties with the Rockport Art Association and local artists. Cady’s work is in the collection of the Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and various private collections and institutions. The Archives of American Art has a gifted collection of Harrison Cady (sketchbooks, correspondence, estate papers digitized. How fantastic that work will be acquired by the Cape Ann Museum.
photos below: Harrison Cady sketchbook, ca. 1943. Harrison Cady papers, 1902-2002. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Library of Congress
Moving ivy –
ivy clad Gate Lodge built 1888, photograph ca.1900 Vs. ivy clad stone marker and grounds today
Good Morning Gloucester 