Kingston (Massachusetts) Public Library
March 12 marks the 100 year anniversary of the first meeting of the Girl Scouts and to help the local troops celebrate, the Local History Room’s monthly exhibit shows a number of 1940s and 1960s Girl Scout artifacts, including badge sashes, pen knives and a collapsible camping cup. Stop by and take a look.
There are a number of similar views in the Local History Room collections, captured by the anonymous eye of an unknown photographer, but this one stood out today. The sweep of the land, the curves of the river, the angle of railroad bridge, the scattered buildings at the waterside and up on the hill, and one solitary sailboat are now a moment fixed in time here, yet long gone.
“To Russell from Wilfred”
Source: Loring Postcard Collection
I don’t know who he was or where he lived, but I believe that he loved his little dog friend.
Source: Loring Photograph collection.
In 1924, the Kingston Highway Department did a good deal of work on the roads — particularly West Street, Pembroke Street, and Maple Street — and a new “highway beacon” was installed.
While discussions of municipal spending on roadways dates back to the earliest town meetings, automobile traffic — that “modern method of travel” — was a new and rapidly growing concern. Highway Surveyor Warren S. Nickerson did his best to balance repairs, new construction and snow removal within his budget. He pointed out in his annual report that costs were held down by judicious purchase and careful maintenance of equipment.
Some of those parts came from the Buffalo-Springfield Roller Company.
Sources: Town of Kingston Annual Reports; TOK-5 Accounting
This month’s exhibit features a dozen or so hooks made by C. Drew and Company of Kingston. Stop by and take a look.
The schooner Cordova, 93 tons, 69′ in length with a beam of 18 ‘ and a draft of 8’, was built in Kingston in 1835 by Lysander Bartlett for Benjamin Delano. Described by Henry Jones in Ships of Kingston as a full-bowed vessel, with masts raked well aft, bowsprits steeved very high and ports painted in the old style, she sailed to the West Indies, along the New England coast and throughout Atlantic fishing grounds until 1882.
In 1835 Cordova brought in a haul of 42,000 fish from the Grand Banks, but in 1855, she engaged in a different kind of business there, one that may have saved a sister schooner.
Grand Bank, August 29th 1855
Received on Board the Schr [schooner] called the Mary Brewer of Castine, from on Board Schr. Cordova of Kingston viz. one anchor weighing two hundred and fifty pounds, and the stock belonging thereunto for which I promise to pay the owners of the Cordova or return said anchor &c in good order. James Brophy
The Mary Brewer, a schooner of 115 tons, 77′ by 21′ by 8′, had been built in Vinalhaven, ME in 1852, but sailed from Castine. She was one of the largest of the Grand Bankers in the Penobscot Bay area.
For more on Grand Banks fishing, take a look at this Smithsonian exhibit.
Source: MC13 Arthur Beane Collection/Jones River Village Historical Society; Ships of Kingston by Henry Jones.
In 1928, the first and second graders in one of the Kingston schools wrote a short book about Laddie, the dog who saved Christmas. As Elspeth Hardy, their teacher and editor, wrote in the preface, “The children worked collectively; one child started with an opening sentence, the others took the thought and followed on until the tale was finished.” Illustrations by Kingstonian Marion Cobb Dries complete the work.
Stop by the Library and read this Kingston Christmas classic.
