Swampscott Historical Photos Out Soon

These meeting minutes were taken by History Buffs member Betty Holmes.

At the History Buffs October meeting, a dozen of us discussed the 2012 Swampscott Historical Society Calendar, soon to be available at the Town Hall, the Library and the Senior Center.

The cover of our 2012 calendar is a color picture of the double-ended passenger ferry, the “Swampscott” which was originally part of the Narrow Gauge Railroad from Lynn to Boston.  

Inside the cover is information about joining the Swampscott Historical Society along with a picture of three former Presidents of the Society, David Callahan, Joseph Balsama, and Thomas Kiley, who are attending the dedication of the Humphrey House as it becomes listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The picture for January is of the variety store at the junction of Essex Street and Cherry Street, at the Lynn line. The second floor, seen in the picture, was lost in a fire in the 1950’s. The trolley tracks of the Eastern Railroad Company are clearly visible. This building was called “Lollypop Lane” for many years and some of us in the History Buffs group still refer to the building as “Lollypop Lane.”

Part of the building is in Swampscott and part of the building is in Lynn. Betty Holmes said, “Years ago, when many people did not have cars, there were small variety stores all over town.” 

The top of the hill in the background is bare of any buildings has very few trees. Gallo suggested, “The street name is Buena Vista, probably because the view was unobstructed, and you could see the ocean.”

The hill area was known as Mountain Park. “There must have been very few trees in that entire area, because when the town acquired Jackson Park, they planted seven thousand trees one year, and planted four thousand trees another year”, Gallo said. 

The February picture shows Swampscott’s steam fire engine hurrying to a fire, drawn by three horses.  The Town Hall, in the background, housed the High School, the Library, and the Police Department. 

The old Town Hall is the present site of the Swampscott Fire Department. Someone asked, “Is it the “Atlantic?” Lou Gallo commented, “No, it is not the “Atlantic” fire engine. This fire engine is a steam engine.” March shows the Holden Block a 132 Humphrey Street, on the corner of Redington Street. The building was totally destroyed by a two-alarm fire March 1-2, 2011.

Five fire departments responded. In the building were ten apartments and a number of businesses. Jean Reardon said it is to be re-built, but only one story, at least at first. 

April’s picture is of Swampscott’s Civil War veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic. The picture was taken in 1900 at the Swampscott Railroad Station.

In the background is a “surrey with a fringe on top," waiting for the next train.

Gallo suggested that the cupola on the big barn in the background is probably an air vent for the barn. 

The May picture is of the three-masted schooner “Lucia Porter”, which wrecked on Swampscott beach on May 17, 1916. The entire crew was saved and the crew brought ashore their two kittens. 

The cargo was narrow strips of wood called laths and the laths washed up on shore for many days. Laths were used as a base for plastered walls. Kids were paid three cents a bundle to gather the laths.

The littler kids gathered lots of laths and then the bigger kids chased away the little kids and claimed the laths. The police found out who’d really gathered the laths, the big kids got scolded, and the little kids got paid. 

The really nice picture for June shows 49 Orient Street in 1938. Orient Street is now Puritan Road. C. A. Scrymgeour, boatbuilder, made, sold, and rented dories and skiffs. The little Dory Shop sold ice cream and souvenirs.

Doug and Duncan Maitland told the group that this picture was a recent donation to the Swampscott Historical Society. Jean Ladd is featured in the month of July. She is an active member of the society and is part of the History Buffs group. She graduated Swampscott High in 1941.

In competition, she was the first ever to win the National Drum Majorette Championship of the VFW and American Legion four times. As a prize-winning drum majorette, she strutted and twirled in parades all over the country.

Jean knows she could still twirl, but she’s currently out of practice. Veeder Nellis, was visiting in upstate New York where he grew up and when he said he was living in Swampscott, someone asked him if he knew Jean Ladd, the famous prize winning drum majorette.

 And that was five hundred miles away.  Jean said, “That was because of the Associated Press coverage.” The August photo shows the house of Mrs. L. A. Little, which was moved each summer season and set up as a Tea Room, near where the Beach Club is now. In the fall it was moved back to Vinnin Square, to be a Gift Shop next to the General Glover Inn.  

Lou Gallo said it was easy to move houses as they had no plumbing, no electricity. Mrs. Little also owned the Sunbeam Inn and the Sunbeam Farm in the Vinnin Square area. The September picture shows the proposed addition to the 1894 Phillips High  School on Greenwood Avenue, probably designed in the 1920’s.  

The addition would have needed many stairs to be level with the original school at the top of the hill. 

Jean Reardon commented, “If they had built this addition, we would not have needed to build a new high school.” 

The October photo shows Harry Atwood, of Swampscott, piloting a Wright Brothers plane in 1911. He flew from Boston and landed on the White House lawn to accept an award from President Taft. The Maitland brothers found this picture on the cover of a book called, “the History of the White House.”

 During World War II, Harry Atwood helped design the “Higgins Boat.” The Higgins Boat was constructed from plywood, had a shallow draft. It was a barge like boat. It could ferry a platoon-sized group of thirty-six men to shore at nine knots. 

 The men would climb down a cargo net hung off the side of the troopship to get on the boat, and they exited at the shore by charging down the boat’s bow ramp. General Eisenhower stated that “this boat was crucial to the success in Europe.”

 In November we have a 1959 “Beat Marblehead” high school football rally picture, attended by Walter Brennan, who attended Swampscott High. Brennan won Oscars for the Best Supporting Actor in 1936, 1938, and 1940. Lou Gallo commented, “Also, I clearly remember. We won that football game.” 

The question was asked, “How are the calendar pictures selected?” Five historical society members select the pictures and then they are voted on. The December choice was the only picture without a unanimous vote.  It had only a 4-1 vote. Gallo voted against using it.

The newsprint photo is of young Larry Bithell, current Harbormaster, and young Lou Gallo, our resident historian, standing on a dead right whale that had come in on the tide in Swampscott Harbor in 1958.  

The Coast Guard soon towed the reeking carcass out to sea, and  blew it up, probably to keep it from floating back into the harbor. Betty Holmes suggested, “It became bite-sized fish food.”

Gallo’s mother could smell him coming, before he ever got into their yard. He had a bleach bath, a tomato juice bath, and still reeked of dead whale. He slept on a couch in the basement at his grandmother’s house that night, and felt he was lucky she even let him in the house. 

Gallo added that the newspaper picture went all over the country and that summer, at the Swampscott New Ocean House, a woman guest from New York said, “We knew that was you, on that whale. We recognized you.”  

Back cover:  The wooden toboggan run at Jackson Park went from the Girl Scout Lodge at the top of the hill, across Jackson Park, toward Essex Street. It is said that two men once went down the toboggan run on skis. Jean Reardon said, “One was my father, John Reardon.” 

Betty Holmes said, “I was told the other one who skied down the chute was Ty Anderson.” The run was dismantled after a girl suffered serious injuries.  Molly Connor pointed out people near the center top of the photo, carrying their long toboggan. This Swampscott Historical Society calendar will soon be available. It makes a nice gift for those in town and for those who have moved away from town.