A post earlier this week talked about William N. Manning, the Rockport resident who once manufactured melodeons — a kind of organ — in a factory in Millbrook Meadow. In this postcard, you see the house where Manning lived. It was located on Beach Street, above Front Beach, where the Captain’s Bounty Motor Inn is today.
Manning died in 1930 at the ripe old age of 97. An obituary said he always “enjoyed vigorous health” and continued working as a jeweler until his death. I assume he continued to occupy this house until his death. His second wife survived him (he remarried at the age of 80) and presumably stayed on in the house for some time. Deb at Harmony Club writes that this house and the one north of it were joined as a Manning-family complex.
At some point, the house became an inn. It operated as an inn until 1966. From 1956 to 1966, the inn was owned by Arthur and Alice Munroe. There must have been something in the water at that house, because Alice, who died just last year, also lived to be 97. The motel that now occupies the spot was built in 1968.
This postcard was published by Grafton Butman and has a 1943 postmark. I assume this Butman was a descendant of the Grafton Butman who was a prominent banker in Rockport in the late 1800s and early 1900s. That Butman, who died in 1937, was president of the Granite Savings Bank in Rockport. He was the father of A. Carl Butman, who, together with Dr. Earl “Doc” Greene, hatched the idea of creating a Motif No. 1 float for the 1933 American Legion convention parade in Chicago.
Vintage Rockport 
A brief correction…William Norwood Manning, jeweler, watchmaker, musician and organ builder did not live at the Manning House. As a child he lived at the Manning Farm ( current Babson Cooperage) on Nugent Stretch. His father moved the family to town and they resided at what then was number 18 Main Street. Manning operated his store at number 38 1/2 Main (the Manning Block – immediately east of the former Poole’s Drugstore) and resided at then 2 Railroad Avenue to which he eventually moved his business. (Caution…all the numberings have changed including ‘flipping’ the odds and evens to opposite sides of the streets)
Thanks for clarifying that.
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I know a Manning left land near Squam Hill and the area is called Manning Park.
Deb, I would love to get more information on the Manning family that owned the Inn, that is now the Captain’s Bounty.
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I’m a descendant of Arthur and Alice Munroe, I enjoyed seeing the picture of the Manning House, which I spent the first year of my life.