This photograph from the early 1890s shows the twin lighthouses of Thacher Island, with Loblolly Cove in the foreground. It would have been taken from somewhere above where Eden Road runs today.
According to this 1885 map of the area, Eden Road was then called Tintagel Road and Loblolly Cove was labeled Lamorna Cove.
I’ve had two prior posts (here and here) showing these real-photo postcard views of Widcombe-by-the-Sea, built in 1910 as the summer home of Francis Smith and later known as the Rocky Shores Manor.
This postcard shows the view down the driveway, looking towards Eden Road and out over Loblolly Cove. (The outside edge of the cove is just visible along the top of the photo.) This former driveway is now named Popplestone Lane. The stone columns at the end of the driveway are still there.
If the angle of this photo were just a bit higher, you would see Thacher Island the the Twin Lights beyond the cove.
Like one of the other postcards of Widcombe-by-the-Sea, this one is stamped on the reverse with the name of a Boston photography studio, Hoffman Studio.
The cottage shown in this real-photo postcard was located on Point de Chene Avenue in Pigeon Cove. I do not know its full history but I do know that for several years, including 1915, it was the summer home of Capt. and Mrs. Frank E. Cutter of Concord, Mass.
Cutter was a prominent businessman in Boston and was active in Concord town politics. He was treasurer of the Cutter-Wood Supply Company in Boston. In Concord, he was elected assessor in 1893 and served on both the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Health during the 1890s.
One of Cutter’s military manuals.
From 1887 to 1894, he was captain of the Concord Artillery, which later became Company 1, 6th Infantry, of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia. (It appears he continued as a reserve officer at least into the early 1900s.) He wrote two military manuals, the Manual of Military Courtesy and Guard Duty in 1889 and Questions and Answers Extracted from The Guard Manual for Instruction to Privates in the Duties of a Sentinel, sometime in the late 1880s. In the 1894 re-enactment of the 1775 Revolutionary War battle at Concord, Capt. Cutter led the company of Minutemen.
Cutter was a long-time summer visitor to Pigeon Cove. Earlier in the 1900s, he owned a cottage on Phillips Avenue. I mentioned him and his wife in a post here about the New Oakdene hotel, quoting an 1896 newspaper article that mentioned them as guests at the hotel, noting, “Capt. and Mrs. Cutter of Concord, Mass. are among the tandem bicyclists of Pigeon Cove summer residents.”
Capt. Cutter died in February 1916.
This is a real-photo postcard sold by the Rockport Stationery Co. As I noted in a previous post, the Rockport Stationery Co. went out of business in 1913. This postcard was postmarked in Pigeon Cove on Aug. 17, 1910.
Last February, I posted a real-photo postcard of a house at 163 Granite Street in Pigeon Cove identified as The Hamlin House. Recently, the owner of what are now two condominiums in the house sent me more historical details. Her information identifies the house as The Samuel Wheeler House. Here is the information she gave me:
The northerly portion of the present house was build by Samuel Wheeler, fisherman, about 1792. Some sixty years ago it was doubled in size by a grand daughter, Sarah Dean Knowlton, Mrs. Thomas Mason. Those who remember the old house state that it was like the one now numbered 165 Granite Street. Samuel married Betsey Tarr in November 1784, seven years before his father deeded him this lot. Their children were Betsey, born 1785, married James Harris, Jr., May 26, 1805; Sally Dean, baptized November 23, 1787, and died April 29, 1806; Patty, baptized August 22, 1790 (no further record); Rhoda, born 1795, married William Fears December 12, 1815; Lydia, born 1796, married Jabez Woodbury Kendall March 31, 1817; Samuel, born 1797, married first Lucy Woodbury 1822, second Amelia Woodbury 1827, third Mary Tarr 1834; Epes, born June 5, 1800, married Rebecca Woodbury January 28, 1827; David, born 1803, married first Caroline Woodbury 1824, second Mary Lurvey; Martha, born 1805, married Washington Knowlton March 11, 1832. Mrs. Thomas Mason mentioned above was their daughter. Mrs. Samuel Wheeler died in January 1843. Samuel died February 21, 1849.
In 1985, the building was completely renovated into three condominiums, each on a separate floor. In the fall of 2003, the second and third floor condos were remodeled and connected into one pleasant unit with two floors.
I note that one of the children, Lydia, married Jabez Woodbury Kendall. The 1888 History of the Town of Rockport lists a Jabez W. Kendall as among the town’s residents who died fighting the Civil War. He might have been their son or even their grandson. He died in New Orleans on Jan. 16, 1863, at the age of 19. That would place his birth date as 1844, which would have been 27 years after they married. It seems more likely that he was their grandson, and thus the great grandson of Samuel Wheeler.
As I noted in my original post, there was a popular tavern close to this location known as the Wheeler Tavern and started by Capt. Daniel Wheeler. I have to assume he is a descendant or relative of Samuel Wheeler.
This photograph shows Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester, circa 1890. The twin lighthouses of Thacher Island are dimly visible in the background, between Salt Island to the right and Brier Neck to the left. Note the barns where the footbridge crosses the creek, where Nautilus Road is today. (Click image for larger view.)
This picture of Back Beach and its now-gone willow trees appears to have been taken at the same time as another picture I previously posted of the same scene. Not only were both cards published by the Rockport Photo Bureau, but both appear to show the same man sitting on the same bench.
The caption of this one refers to “The Orchard,” which was a tea room and restaurant located across the street from Back Beach, near the present location of the Legion Hall bandstand. There is a small white sign visible just to the left of the car which may be for the Orchard. I do not know what years the Orchard spanned, but I do know it was in business at least during the early to mid-1930s.
This postcard identifies Whale’s Jaw as located in Gloucester, Mass., but several maps I’ve seen place it within Rockport. Whichever, there is no debating that Whale’s Jaw is one of the most prominent landmarks of Dogtown, an area of about five square miles that spans both Gloucester and Rockport. Originally settled around 1642, the area is now uninhabited.
Dogtown is known for large and unique rock formations, or erratics, left behind by melting glaciers thousands of years ago. Whale’s Jaw got its name for its obvious resemblance to the open-mouthed head of a breaching whale.
Unfortunately, in 1989, a campfire left burning under the rock heated it so much that the left portion cracked and broke off. Also different for visitors today is that the area around Whale’s Jaw is now overgrown with trees and brush (although still reachable thanks to well-maintained trails). Years ago, cattle roamed through Dogtown and grazed there, giving the area its close-trimmed look. With the cows no longer there, nature has reclaimed it for her own.
This is a real-photo postcard, meaning it was published directly from a photo negative, not through a commercial printing process. You can see that the image is much sharper than a typical postcard. The graffiti you see in the picture is dated 1909, and the postcard backing is from a manufacturer that started producing in 1907, so I would estimate this image to be from 1910.
Here is a sloop setting sail from Rockport Harbor around 1908. The postcard is postmarked Jul 20, 1908. It was published by The Rotograph Co., New York City, and printed in Germany.
To the left you see the breakwater that protects the harbor from gales. The original breakwater was constructed by the U.S. government from 1836 to 1840. The first derrick ever erected in Sandy Bay was built to help supply the granite for this project.
I have to assume that this tennis court, with its clear and proximate view of Straitsmouth Island, was part of the old Straitsmouth Inn, out on Gap Head Road, off Marmion Way. But then I went down there and tried to replicate the view, I couldn’t exactly place it (at least not without straying in the backyards of the private homes that now line the road).
You can see, on the shore-facing side of the island, a small structure that was the boathouse. (It no longer exists.) Across the island, on its left side in this picture, you can see the Straitsmouth Light and the keeper’s house. The perspective of the lighthouse, which also seems to be from Gap Head, would appear to support the conclusion that the tennis court was part of the inn.
One thing I know, with that view, it must have been hard for these players to keep their eyes on the ball.
This postcard was published by Grafton Butman and was postmarked on Aug. 5, 1919. I’ve posted one other card published by Butman, of the Manning House. I conjectured then that this Grafton Butman may have been a descendant of the Grafton Butman who was a prominent banker in Rockport in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Now I wonder whether the banker might be the same Grafton Butman who published these postcards. In addition to banking, he also ran the Grafton Butman dry goods store in the late 1800s at the corner of Main and Beach streets and later the Butman & French dry goods store in the old Haskins building which was demolished to build the Shalin Liu Performance Center. Butman died in 1937, so he was certainly around when this postcard was published. The Manning House postcard was postmarked 1943, but could have been published many years earlier.
Here is an unpaved Marmion Way in Rockport, circa 1910, as seen in a real photo postcard (meaning it was printed directly from a photo negative). The view is from just past Gully Point, looking southwest up Marmion towards South Street.
The house in the background on the right side is, I believe, the house that currently stands at 27 Marmion Way. Its Zillow listing says it was built in 1870. Just past that, out of view here, would be Old Garden Road. The other houses to the right in this picture are no longer standing.
The reverse side includes markings from the manufacturer of the real photo postcard backing that indicates it is from somewhere between 1907 and 1914, so I’ll call it 1910.
Vintage Rockport 