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    Lighthouses and Life Saving along the Massachusetts Coast
    Lighthouses and Life Saving along the Massachusetts Coast
    Lighthouses and Life Saving along the Massachusetts Coast
    Ebook171 pages52 minutes

    Lighthouses and Life Saving along the Massachusetts Coast

    By James Claflin

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    About this ebook

    Author James Claflin combines an extensively researched text with this exquisite collection of many previously unpublished images to tell the story of a state dependent upon its coastal commerce.


    Lighthouses and Life Saving along the Massachusetts Coast is a unique tribute to the men and women who protected mariners from shipping disasters. With a variety of vintage images from private as well as museum collections,this rare glimpse into the lives of the dedicated workers who protected thousands of vessels plying the dangerous waters of Massachusetts Bay and Nantucket Sound is a visual journey to an earlier era in our nation's history. From Cape Ann to New Bedford, residents of Massachusetts have relied heavily on the sea for employment, trade, and nourishment. The task of lighting and protecting the coasts was taken on by the U. S. Lighthouse Establishment and the U. S. Life-Saving Service. Within these pages, see the Cape Ann lighthouse keeper proudly posed in his uniform, the Cape Cod life savers launching their surf-boat through the breakers toward the shipwreck, and the Boston Bay lighthouse keeper's family returning by skiff from their brief excursion to town.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateNov 2, 1998
    ISBN9781439616079
    Lighthouses and Life Saving along the Massachusetts Coast
    Author

    James Claflin

    James Claflin is a collector and dealer in fine nautical antiques, specializing in the U.S. Lighthouse Service, the U.S. Life-Saving Service, the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, and the U.S. Coast Guard. Lighthouses and Life Saving along the Massachusetts Coast celebrates the true American heroes who served to warn, rescue, and protect those in distress. It is sure to be enjoyed by residents of coastal Massachusetts as well as visitors to the area.

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      Book preview

      Lighthouses and Life Saving along the Massachusetts Coast - James Claflin

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      Mother’s Beach is shown here c. 1945.

      INTRODUCTION

      In 1870, Samuel Damon, Richard Hodgdon, Charles Goodwin, and John Townsend Trowbridge of Arlington, Massachusetts, shared a vision of turning Kennebunkport, Maine, into a first-class summer resort. To accomplish the task, they created the Boston and Kennebunkport Sea Shore Company. These men then joined forces with five other Massachusetts business associates and two Kennebunkport businessmen, Enoch Cousens and Charles Perkins. Together, they purchased approximately 600 acres at Cape Arundel and Kennebunk Beach. They laid out lots, built roads, turned farmhouses into boardinghouses, and constructed the first hotel: the Ocean Bluff. In time, the name of the company changed to the Kennebunkport Sea Shore Company. Unfortunately, the stock market panic of 1873 slowed development and almost destroyed all plans for a summer resort. The Sea Shore Company began marketing lots at Kennebunk Beach in 1882. By the 1880s, economic conditions had improved, and with the opening of the Boston & Maine Railroad station at Kennebunk Lower Village in 1883, a building boom began. The heyday of the summer visitor in the Kennebunks had begun. Kennebunkport would eventually rank with Bar Harbor, Maine, and Newport, Rhode Island, as a resort town, although no million dollar marble estates would be built there. Kennebunkport was for the wealthy working class—doctors, lawyers, and professors—as well as single women living on the threads of old family fortunes. The area also drew artists, writers, and actors, and would have its own playhouse and opera company in time.

      Visitors were drawn to the town’s old homes and history, along with its sandy beaches, rocky coastline, and, of course, the ocean. Some visitors built huge, rambling cottages in the popular shingle style, which incorporated shingles that were left unstained and naturally weathered in the elements, rock foundations, vast rooflines, and wide porches. These huge cottages would only be used three months out of the year. If one could not afford to build a cottage in the Kennebunks, accommodations could also be found in the area’s many hotels, or in the numerous guesthouses that owners opened in their private homes to take advantage of the tourist trade. These guest homes offered cheaper rates and a more personal atmosphere. In August 1899, the Wave, Kennebunk’s summer newspaper, reported, Several Cottagers announced that they will bring horseless carriages with them next season. The arrival of the automobile signaled the end of the large summer resort hotels.

      Americans began taking to the roads, traveling by day, staying at night in roadside cabins, and eating at diners. Roadside culture developed quickly with campgrounds, motor courts, cabins, diners, and gas stations. Businesses owners attracted automobilists by creating unique and colorful signs and theme motor courts. Cabins in the shape of tepees, miniature log cabins, or European villages, for example, began to dominate the newly constructed highways across the country. Hotels in the Kennebunks tried to adapt by adding garages and car services. Both World War I and the Depression cut into business, as fewer Americans traveled. When World War II began, many of the large hotels and supporting businesses shut down for the duration. Afterward, patrons failed to return to these hotels; whole summers at large resorts were replaced with the two-week vacation. By the 1960s, slow business, new fire regulations, and rising land values resulted in hotel owners demolishing their hotels and selling the land off in lots. Also, many hotels not intentionally destroyed by their owners fell victim to fire.

      Road conditions were a huge problem for the early motorist. In the 1920s, Maine began a road-building project that replaced the old Route 1 with a new, three-part concrete highway from Kittery to Bar Harbor. The old path from Kennebunk to Biddeford was a twisted, narrow road, with several buildings located close to its edge. Many small businesses and farms lined the old Post Road, and property owners were in favor of widening and straightening the existing road rather than constructing a new route. In the end, the state prevailed, and a new road was laid out. Without the traffic from motorists, the businesses and farms along the old road closed. Some of the businesses that opened when the new highway was completed in 1928 are featured in chapter 2. The new road was a success, as were the new businesses, and in September 1931, the Kennebunk Star reported: The overnight Camps along the state highway in York county have done a prosperous business this summer. Some of the proprietors report business ahead of 1930. It is understood that as a result of the increase in patronage some of the camp owners are contemplating building new camps before the opening of the season in 1932.

      The popularity of roadside cabins and restaurants waned faster than that of the seaside resorts. New automobile technology created faster and safer cars that could travel on less gas and needed fewer repairs, and as such, the need for roadside cabins declined. By the 1930s, Hollywood was making movies that depicted motels as being run-down and popular with criminals. During the 1940s, several business owners were raided frequently for renting cabins by the hour or running illegal gambling in back rooms. Finally, new highways like the Maine Turnpike, which opened

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