A busy season begins.
Several dates to share as the perennials knock through the sandy garden right outside this window. The Boxing Day Blizzard is a gift that keeps on giving as I clean up around here but the Hosta and Seedum have begun to show.
The Scituate Historical Society will be presenting the 1938 photographs of Life photographer Hansel Meith at the GAR Hall on Country Way beginning May 21st with an early evening reception. The cost is $10.00 for the reception and allows the buyer to use that ticket all week. Hansel Meith captured a slice of life and focused especially on the Town Meeting that year. If you can't make the reception you can drop in any day for a $5.00 donation.
In addition, photographs have been entered by current Scituate students in a contest to be judged by a panel of eminent photographers. A book is being assembled of these photographs and will be a must by for parents and grandparents alike. This is the deal of the century. Don't miss this educational and entertainment opportunity. The show runs from May 21 to May 28.
On May 27, Mat Brown will be at the Scituate Town Library with his Tall Tales of Old Scituate. If you have never heard Mr. Brown on the fables and foibles of the town, you have missed a raconteur at the top of his game. Tickets for this talk are available at Town Hall and at the Front Street Bookshop. Do not pass up a chance to learn a little and laugh a lot.
June 19th will see the first of the Open House dates here at the Lighthouse and at the Bates House on Jericho Road. I have been working with the materials for display at the Bates House and am discovering a tale of Old and New Scitaute. It has been fascinating to dig into this history and I feel certain visitors will not be disappointed by setting time aside for this event.
As I noted in the last post, there will be a five hour cruise to the Cape Cod Canal on Saturday, July 16th. These tickets are limited and it would be a good idea to get yours soon. Last year this was a sellout with just over 200 welcomed aboard for a three hour cruise north. Check out the archives for last June for the blog post on that amazing event. This year's hopes to build on that tradition. Call or visit the Schoolhouse today in order to secure your spot.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Calendar Update
The Open House Dates are set.
The first Open House will be on June 19th from 1:00 to 4:00 and will coincide with the first ever opening of the Bates House on Jericho Road.
The second date this year is July 17th and that follows on the heals of the Historical Society cruise through the Cape Cod Canal the day before.
The Heritage Days weekend of August 6 & 7 will see the house open on both days from 1:00 to 4:00.
On August 21st the Cottage and Tower will be open as will all the Historical Society sites.
The last date for this year is October 16th and lets hope the weather is better than this past year. It was a cold raw day with Julie and Barbara Whitfield bearing the worst of it.
Be sure to set one of these dates aside to be part of the 200th year of the Lighthouse here on Cedar Point.
The first Open House will be on June 19th from 1:00 to 4:00 and will coincide with the first ever opening of the Bates House on Jericho Road.
The second date this year is July 17th and that follows on the heals of the Historical Society cruise through the Cape Cod Canal the day before.
The Heritage Days weekend of August 6 & 7 will see the house open on both days from 1:00 to 4:00.
On August 21st the Cottage and Tower will be open as will all the Historical Society sites.
The last date for this year is October 16th and lets hope the weather is better than this past year. It was a cold raw day with Julie and Barbara Whitfield bearing the worst of it.
Be sure to set one of these dates aside to be part of the 200th year of the Lighthouse here on Cedar Point.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Town Meeting
Good news for Lighthouse fans from last night's town meeting.
There were two articles on the warrant that directly concerned Old Scituate Light. One concerned the repair of the storage room damaged in the Boxing Day blizzard, the replacement of the decaying oil burner, and the restoration of the west most wing or utility room. That wing is loaded with old wiring and has only two walls that are properly sided. The ceiling is falling in places and there is a 1950's era TV antenna tucked into that same broken ceiling. This work was approved with the majority of the funding coming from Community Preservation funds. I can't wait to be able to use that room during the open houses as it was once a store and will provide me the opportunity to talk about the twentieth century keepers and caretakers in a new way.
The second article that directly affected the Light concerned improving the foreshore protection in front of the Tower. This was also approved by acclamation. Regular readers know of the need for this; anyone stumbling on this blog needs only to check the older posts to learn of it. Once again the Community Preservation Committee brought this proposal to the Town Meeting, having combined a Town proposal with a Historical Society proposal during their deliberations. Should a study (with an allowed $50,000) determine that a seawall of some sort would better protect the Light and Cottage then funding would be made available to do that work up to an amount totaling $425,000. The timetable for the project is unknown just now but the hope here is that the study will be expedited. Next winter could be a winter of breathing easier and enjoying the wild storms in a unprecedented way.
Indirectly benefiting Cedar Point and the Light were two proposals concerning funding seawalls. The capital budget included a line item of $400,000 to address walls damaged and failing throughout the winter. There was also money proposed in an override question that would be dedicated to seawall maintenance going forward. The seawall that protects the neck of Cedar Point is more than one hundred years old; tests have shown that it has been reduced to sand at its center. To have a mechanism in place for its replacement has been a long desired goal of Cedar Point residents. It was fantastic to find that the rest of the town recognized the need for this work and were willing to include it in the override question. The next step is a referendum question scheduled for Saturday, May 7. While many will be focusing on the impact this vote will have on school staffing, I will be looking at it through a lens of better protection for the Light and increased safety for my neighbors.
There were two articles on the warrant that directly concerned Old Scituate Light. One concerned the repair of the storage room damaged in the Boxing Day blizzard, the replacement of the decaying oil burner, and the restoration of the west most wing or utility room. That wing is loaded with old wiring and has only two walls that are properly sided. The ceiling is falling in places and there is a 1950's era TV antenna tucked into that same broken ceiling. This work was approved with the majority of the funding coming from Community Preservation funds. I can't wait to be able to use that room during the open houses as it was once a store and will provide me the opportunity to talk about the twentieth century keepers and caretakers in a new way.
The second article that directly affected the Light concerned improving the foreshore protection in front of the Tower. This was also approved by acclamation. Regular readers know of the need for this; anyone stumbling on this blog needs only to check the older posts to learn of it. Once again the Community Preservation Committee brought this proposal to the Town Meeting, having combined a Town proposal with a Historical Society proposal during their deliberations. Should a study (with an allowed $50,000) determine that a seawall of some sort would better protect the Light and Cottage then funding would be made available to do that work up to an amount totaling $425,000. The timetable for the project is unknown just now but the hope here is that the study will be expedited. Next winter could be a winter of breathing easier and enjoying the wild storms in a unprecedented way.
Indirectly benefiting Cedar Point and the Light were two proposals concerning funding seawalls. The capital budget included a line item of $400,000 to address walls damaged and failing throughout the winter. There was also money proposed in an override question that would be dedicated to seawall maintenance going forward. The seawall that protects the neck of Cedar Point is more than one hundred years old; tests have shown that it has been reduced to sand at its center. To have a mechanism in place for its replacement has been a long desired goal of Cedar Point residents. It was fantastic to find that the rest of the town recognized the need for this work and were willing to include it in the override question. The next step is a referendum question scheduled for Saturday, May 7. While many will be focusing on the impact this vote will have on school staffing, I will be looking at it through a lens of better protection for the Light and increased safety for my neighbors.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Behind the Times
I am behind a week on my reporting.
Last Saturday marked the closest passing of the moon to the earth in 18 years. The first cameras arrived at 5:10 for a 7:15 moon rise. I had been anticipating the angles for 10 days and thought I had my spots picked out. I had two film cameras ready and the digital on a tripod to move around with me in the car. The film is still in the camera so I can't fill you in on those results just yet. There was a collective gasp as the moon rose and I was in the Tower. The first shot below has an orange glow that will stick with me as unusual. What you see on the left of the image is the Light as it turned. The second is a long exposure I got two hours into the event.
A better view of the real story was sent to me by a colleague. Kevin Black is a long time Whitman Hanson teacher who clearly has a handle on photography. The collage below is made from two different images.
When I went out to count how many people had gathered I got up to 150 before I stopped counting. Once again this is the place to gather when nature presents the fantastic.
The story the next day was of a seal on the beach. Haley took the shots you see.
This guy (or girl, for all I know) was about 40 inches long, grey, brown and white. He sunned himself on the rocks for twenty minutes or so then maneuvered himself around for a swim away. He headed toward Jericho Road happily it seemed. I had thought we were past the season for such a visit. I was pleased to be surprised.
Last Saturday marked the closest passing of the moon to the earth in 18 years. The first cameras arrived at 5:10 for a 7:15 moon rise. I had been anticipating the angles for 10 days and thought I had my spots picked out. I had two film cameras ready and the digital on a tripod to move around with me in the car. The film is still in the camera so I can't fill you in on those results just yet. There was a collective gasp as the moon rose and I was in the Tower. The first shot below has an orange glow that will stick with me as unusual. What you see on the left of the image is the Light as it turned. The second is a long exposure I got two hours into the event.
A better view of the real story was sent to me by a colleague. Kevin Black is a long time Whitman Hanson teacher who clearly has a handle on photography. The collage below is made from two different images.
When I went out to count how many people had gathered I got up to 150 before I stopped counting. Once again this is the place to gather when nature presents the fantastic.
The story the next day was of a seal on the beach. Haley took the shots you see.
This guy (or girl, for all I know) was about 40 inches long, grey, brown and white. He sunned himself on the rocks for twenty minutes or so then maneuvered himself around for a swim away. He headed toward Jericho Road happily it seemed. I had thought we were past the season for such a visit. I was pleased to be surprised.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
New to Me
Several images to share that I discovered today in the archives of the Little Red Schoolhouse.
This is an image of the Living room in the Cottage in 1982. I have seen this green when opening the windows that overlook the harbor. The Gillis family was in residence that year and, not surprisingly, they kept a nice place.
This image is the room I am working in as I type. The painting remains here but is on a different wall. The spinning wheel is no longer part of the setting. I can tell it is this room by the notch in the corner beam.
This week I caught up with Jesse Cole Minehan Morrell who lived in the Cottage in the early 1960's. She shared some memories of the Tower being largely off limits to she and her sister Nancy. She also remembered knocks on the window and requests for tours that her mother turned away. After her marriage she returned to the Lighthouse with her two boys as she and her husband built a house. This was just before the Society took the site over and she recalls the Cottage as a Spartan place to live. I have been hoping to track down some pictures from those years but she was not hopeful. Maybe she'll surprise me when we get together again.
On a more positive note I share this picture. This image was marked on the reverse, "Photo by Wellington Furlong, 1961" I hate to argue with late Colonel but Haley and I have concluded that these two young women are the same two young woman who appear in a set of photos from 1936. The 1936 collection highlights a number of events that commemorated the 300th anniversary of Scituate and are very clearly of that occasion. This image gives me a great deal of hope all the same, as it was new to me. I am looking for images from this period and that today I found one I did not know about grants me a reason to be optimistic that I might find more. I so much want to discover a photograph of the store that was run here by the Cushmans and the Cobbetts. The goal is to bring that room into the open house tours and share the twentieth century stories better than we currently do.
My newest scans will go back into the archives tomorrow. I will start digging again when I am there.
This is an image of the Living room in the Cottage in 1982. I have seen this green when opening the windows that overlook the harbor. The Gillis family was in residence that year and, not surprisingly, they kept a nice place.
This image is the room I am working in as I type. The painting remains here but is on a different wall. The spinning wheel is no longer part of the setting. I can tell it is this room by the notch in the corner beam.
This week I caught up with Jesse Cole Minehan Morrell who lived in the Cottage in the early 1960's. She shared some memories of the Tower being largely off limits to she and her sister Nancy. She also remembered knocks on the window and requests for tours that her mother turned away. After her marriage she returned to the Lighthouse with her two boys as she and her husband built a house. This was just before the Society took the site over and she recalls the Cottage as a Spartan place to live. I have been hoping to track down some pictures from those years but she was not hopeful. Maybe she'll surprise me when we get together again.
On a more positive note I share this picture. This image was marked on the reverse, "Photo by Wellington Furlong, 1961" I hate to argue with late Colonel but Haley and I have concluded that these two young women are the same two young woman who appear in a set of photos from 1936. The 1936 collection highlights a number of events that commemorated the 300th anniversary of Scituate and are very clearly of that occasion. This image gives me a great deal of hope all the same, as it was new to me. I am looking for images from this period and that today I found one I did not know about grants me a reason to be optimistic that I might find more. I so much want to discover a photograph of the store that was run here by the Cushmans and the Cobbetts. The goal is to bring that room into the open house tours and share the twentieth century stories better than we currently do.
My newest scans will go back into the archives tomorrow. I will start digging again when I am there.
Monday, February 21, 2011
A Significant Date
The first of many notable anniversaries was today.
On February 21,1811 The Congress of the United States of America approved a bill authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to take no more than 6 acres of land to build a Lighthouse at Cedar Point, Scituate. I was working with some documents today when I came across that citation and noted the date. That wasn't the day the whole ball got rolling but it must have been some sweet satisfaction for the petitioners who had lobbied Congress for a Light. They would not have heard the news for at least a week but surely there was a great sense of anticipation and pleasure when they heard.
I wonder how they celebrated. I just went out and got myself a piece of carrot cake.
On February 21,1811 The Congress of the United States of America approved a bill authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to take no more than 6 acres of land to build a Lighthouse at Cedar Point, Scituate. I was working with some documents today when I came across that citation and noted the date. That wasn't the day the whole ball got rolling but it must have been some sweet satisfaction for the petitioners who had lobbied Congress for a Light. They would not have heard the news for at least a week but surely there was a great sense of anticipation and pleasure when they heard.
I wonder how they celebrated. I just went out and got myself a piece of carrot cake.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Lots to tell
A great deal to report on from out here on the tip of Cedar Point.
In a follow up to an earlier post I have a photograph to share. Just after the Boxing Day Blizzard the family pictured found the plaque described. Lost for nearly twenty five years it is recovered, cleaned up and ready to be part of the permanent record at the Mossing and Maritime Museum. Thanks go out once again to all the Concannons and especially to Brett (far right) who wanted to escape from this notoriety but could not.
Brett's mom Meg dropped off this photo earlier this week. She described a tough dig out at the spot where the small jetty meets the beach. I was told that there were a few anxious moments and some wondering just which of those giant pieces of granite might move when this plaque was removed. In the end no harm was done. Dad Concannon had his arm in a sling before the find.
In another follow up to an earlier post, I received a DVD in the mail this week from the BBC. Titled "What is Reality" this is the documentary on physics that was filmed in part here on Columbus Day. The old house never looked better and the topic was as far away from the every day lives of most of us as can be. MIT professor Max Tegmark appears at the top of the Light using the window panes as his chalkboard. He writes down a number of equations and explains how they express physical realities like gravity and the motion of atoms. While sitting by the jetty he explains how he believes reality is math, that reality is not just described by it but that math is the basic building block. This is Platonic philosophy for the twenty first century. I will forward a date for the program when I get it.
No group will ever have a finer day than Helen, Leili, Sam, Tobey and Max had that day and they took complete advantage of it. How they managed to get what they needed and not show the Cub Scouts, the families, and the hundreds of others that walked the jetty and played on the beach that day is the miracle of movie making.
Scituate will be celebrating its 375th birthday this year and as events become finalized I will include mention of them on the blog. We are hoping that the Light will be a focal point for several of the events as the milestones of the Town and the Light coincide.
Preparations continue for the 200th anniversary dinner for Old Scituate Light to be held this September 30th at the Barker Tavern. The tickets are being designed as I write and I will have news on their availability soon. The Historical Society currently has tickets to a five hour Lighthouse cruise through the Cape Cod Canal this July. Contact the Society at 781-545-1083 for more details. Tickets are going fast so call ASAP. Last summer's three hour cruise was one of the highlights of the season. Don't miss this one.
On February 23rd I will be speaking on Life at the Lighthouse at the South Shore Audubon Society in Marshfield. I have been looking forward to this chance for some time now and will offer the audience some brief remarks on the past two years here as Light Keeper. It is enormously flattering to have such an opportunity. My thanks to John Galluzo for the chance.
In the last two weeks we have taken the house room by room and given it a scrub. Just as we saw two years ago when moving in, Murphy's Oil and elbow grease has done the trick. The old floors come right back with some soap and water and the the wood work is free of dust for the moment. If I could get ten more degrees somehow I would get to the windows and knock that off the list. This office is the next room to get the treatment and that means it is time to wrap up this post. When next I write there will be a sheen to the desk and picking a book out will not risk a dust storm.
In a follow up to an earlier post I have a photograph to share. Just after the Boxing Day Blizzard the family pictured found the plaque described. Lost for nearly twenty five years it is recovered, cleaned up and ready to be part of the permanent record at the Mossing and Maritime Museum. Thanks go out once again to all the Concannons and especially to Brett (far right) who wanted to escape from this notoriety but could not.
Brett's mom Meg dropped off this photo earlier this week. She described a tough dig out at the spot where the small jetty meets the beach. I was told that there were a few anxious moments and some wondering just which of those giant pieces of granite might move when this plaque was removed. In the end no harm was done. Dad Concannon had his arm in a sling before the find.
In another follow up to an earlier post, I received a DVD in the mail this week from the BBC. Titled "What is Reality" this is the documentary on physics that was filmed in part here on Columbus Day. The old house never looked better and the topic was as far away from the every day lives of most of us as can be. MIT professor Max Tegmark appears at the top of the Light using the window panes as his chalkboard. He writes down a number of equations and explains how they express physical realities like gravity and the motion of atoms. While sitting by the jetty he explains how he believes reality is math, that reality is not just described by it but that math is the basic building block. This is Platonic philosophy for the twenty first century. I will forward a date for the program when I get it.
No group will ever have a finer day than Helen, Leili, Sam, Tobey and Max had that day and they took complete advantage of it. How they managed to get what they needed and not show the Cub Scouts, the families, and the hundreds of others that walked the jetty and played on the beach that day is the miracle of movie making.
Scituate will be celebrating its 375th birthday this year and as events become finalized I will include mention of them on the blog. We are hoping that the Light will be a focal point for several of the events as the milestones of the Town and the Light coincide.
Preparations continue for the 200th anniversary dinner for Old Scituate Light to be held this September 30th at the Barker Tavern. The tickets are being designed as I write and I will have news on their availability soon. The Historical Society currently has tickets to a five hour Lighthouse cruise through the Cape Cod Canal this July. Contact the Society at 781-545-1083 for more details. Tickets are going fast so call ASAP. Last summer's three hour cruise was one of the highlights of the season. Don't miss this one.
On February 23rd I will be speaking on Life at the Lighthouse at the South Shore Audubon Society in Marshfield. I have been looking forward to this chance for some time now and will offer the audience some brief remarks on the past two years here as Light Keeper. It is enormously flattering to have such an opportunity. My thanks to John Galluzo for the chance.
In the last two weeks we have taken the house room by room and given it a scrub. Just as we saw two years ago when moving in, Murphy's Oil and elbow grease has done the trick. The old floors come right back with some soap and water and the the wood work is free of dust for the moment. If I could get ten more degrees somehow I would get to the windows and knock that off the list. This office is the next room to get the treatment and that means it is time to wrap up this post. When next I write there will be a sheen to the desk and picking a book out will not risk a dust storm.
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