Waiting

 

Date of Original Trip:  October 8, 1929

Date of Recreated Trip:  August 12, 2019

Hotel and Address:  The Colonial, Gardner Mass.  American Hotels Corporation, N.Y.

Tuesday evening, Tina Dear: – Here I am stopping in a place where I had no idea of doing so.  Ed Hoffman told us to clean up around here and tomorrow to go to Fitchburg for the rest of the time left.  I could not feel any worse if I had been alone in some dense woods all day long. What is the use, I’ll have to wait for Friday and then, you can cheer me, and I’ll try to cheer you dear.  Always thinking of you sweetheart, Loads of love, Joe

We left Fitchburg at 12:29 p.m., and headed west on Route 2A, which is part of Tour 2B.  After a short trip through Westminster, we arrived in Gardner at 12:58 p.m. and parked at a meter across from an imposing brick building.  This building was actually the building that housed the Colonial Hotel!   How did I come to find this location?  Was it as easy as it seemed?

What is interesting about this location is that there is a Colonial Hotel in Gardner currently, and when I first read the letter head, I was really excited about the fact that it was still operating as a hotel, as I know people who have stayed there.  But after a little sleuthing, I found out that this Colonial Hotel is not the Colonial Hotel in Gardner that my Grandfather visited in 1929. So, the million dollar question is, where was the original Colonial Hotel and was it still around?  

Luckily, I found my answer pretty quickly in the February 9, 2019 edition of the Gardner News.  There seemed to be a series of special articles, done on headlines of the past in Gardner history.  This headline read: February 6, 1924: Colonial Hotel opens its doors in downtown Gardner. The Colonial Hotel formally opened its doors to guests on February 7, 1924.  Back then, Gardner was a bustling furniture manufacturing city and if you wanted to hang out in the “hippest” place in town, you would want to stay at the Colonial (you did have four other choices on where to stay in Gardner).  In addition to business travelers, Gardner was ideally situated in the middle between Boston and North Adams on the Mohawk Trail (aka Route 2). This is a distance of 131 miles, which would take us a little under three hours to do.  But, back when cars did not travel as fast, Gardner would be a great stopping place for the night.  

The Colonial was actually a “chain” hotel.  The Gardner Chamber of Commerce lobbied to bring one of 20 Colonial hotels nationwide to Gardner.  It was sited in the center of the town, on a new road called CIty Hall Avenue. Eventually CIty Hall, the Police Station, the Courthouse, and the Post Office would all be located right near the hotel.  For the opening night of the hotel, there was an extravagant evening of dinner and dancing.

This was a very modern hotel.  It was fully fireproof, 60 guest rooms had private baths and toilets and the other 40 guest rooms had private toilets.  There was a beautiful lobby, a large lounge and dining room, and a colonial fireplace on the first floor. Also on the first floor was a beauty shop, a barber shop, a coffee shop, and a small shop.  The guest rooms were found on the next four floors. After Prohibition ended, The Can Can Room, one of Gardner’s most popular taverns, opened in the basement of the Colonial Hotel.

The hotel hosted both Senator John F. Kennedy and Robert Frost for lunch.  It’s other claim to fame was when “The Human Fly”, George Polley climbed the five stories of the outer wall.  

During 50 years of operation, the hotel underwent many management changes.  In 1974, Gardner’s hotel business was declining. The hotel closed and was turned into housing for the elderly.  The Colonial Hotel building does still stand and today is known as the Colonial Apartments.

On the side of the building, a barbershop and small restaurant still existed, much like it did when it opened.

It was really exciting to see the building as it existed back when my Grandfather visited in 1929.  There were several residents sitting out on the front porch, enjoying an iced coffee and we shared with them what we were doing.  As I have found throughout this journey, everyone that I tell what I am doing finds it really amusing.  These two residents were no exception.  As we took some video and more pictures, I started to wonder if we could perhaps get inside to see if the beautiful lobby still existed.  I always say if you ask someone, what is the worst thing they will say – “no”, so I went back and asked if perhaps we could get inside.  One of the women, Jean, happily agreed to take us in.  She said that there were several pictures of the hotel hanging in the lobby.  With that, we followed her through the set of double doors and into the lobby of the building.  She pointed out the two pictures and how the roof line had changed.

There were other residents hanging out in the lobby and she told them what we were doing.  The lobby was not as open as I would had thought it was back in the day, but it still had remnants of beautiful moldings, marble steps and large doors as it probably did back then,

On our way out, we met another resident whose uncle had played at the Can Can Room as a member of the Overtones.  This resident shared stories about being there and hearing his uncle play in the actual room.  He talked about his childhood, which seemed like it fluctuated between New Brunswick and Gardner.  He was also so excited to share his stories.

We said goodbye and walked back out to take several more looks at the building before walking to find someplace to eat.  Gardner was full of older buildings, including a J.C. Penney building, many older banks, and some vacant storefronts.  We found the Gardner Ale House and elected to sit on the back deck, which was filled with customers.  This looks like another fun place, that has live music at night, Sunday Brunch and a great menu.  If you are out in this area, I would highly recommend this restaurant.

 

On the way home, we took Route 140 south.  There was a detour that had us end up on Mountain Road in Princeton, which provided us with incredible vistas!  From there, we were on parts of Route 12 & Route 62 through Sterling, some backroads where we ended up on Route 110, and then onto Route 117.  It was a little bit longer of a ride as we left Gardner at 3:08 p.m. and arrived back in Maynard at 4:27 p.m.  It was a roundtrip of 83 miles for the day.

As I later reflected on the day,  I was so thrilled for many different reasons.  First, the entire building still existed, which was a first for my journeys.  But I think the most important reason, was the ability to learn about a human connection to the building.  To meet people who lived there and who were excited to tell their stories really made this one special trip.  This is the intent of this blog – Waiting for Stories to be told, and today, not only my Grandfather’s story was told, but stories of connections to this hotel made it one fabulous trip.

 

 

 

Date of Original Trip:  October 9, 1929

Date of Recreated Trip: August 12, 2019

Hotel and Address: American House, on May Street from Blossom Street to Day Street, Fitchburg, Mass, Wm. Berger, Proprietor

October 9, 1929.  Tina Dear: – I am in the writing room and in the lobby, I can hear the radio broadcasting from New York, just at the present they are playing the Indian Love Call, well I’m not an Indian, but I certainly am calling for a little dear, not so very far off from here, and I wish that I were in Saugus, fifty miles away from here.  Tina dear, I guess we both were blue Monday, for it seems like ages and ages since last I have seen you. I wrote Hall, asking him for at least three weeks around home, and I guess that my wish shall be granted. The worse of my travelling is over with now Tina dear. I am not sorry for it either. Today has been the first time this week that I had any sort of a break, for I made five calls and put in a window at every five of the calls I made, it was after one P.M that I got through but it was a great relief to have the afternoon off to myself but what good did it do me, other than I had more of time uninterrupted for thought of you, and got blue.  I watched Cushing Academy scrimmage for awhile and before I knew it, I was in there throwing forward passes to the fellows. It seemed like old times, but the only regret I had was that I did not don on a suit and had a little fun with the rest of them, the coach asked me whether or not I wanted a suit, so that I could join in with the boys, but I thought ,what would be the use, I would be so stiff from this exercise that I probably would not be able to move, so naturally, I declined the invitation. This shall be my last letter as I’ll be leaving this hotel Friday morning and be home the same night. With the greatest of expectations, Loads of love, Joe

On Monday morning, August 12th, I set out to do the Worcester County version of the 1929 road trips.  Again, the order was reversed – Fitchburg was actually my Grandfather’s last stop of a Western Massachusetts – Vermont Road Trip that took place in October 1929.  But for this trip, I had two special friends who wanted to accompany me on one of the trips.  This one wasn’t going to be long like last week’s journey, so they were excited to join in,

The Fitchburg of 1929 and the Fitchburg of 2019 don’t differ much in terms of population.  In 1930, the population was 40,692.  In 2018, the population was 40,882.  The Fitchburg that existed in the 1840s, when the American Hotel was built is vastly different than the Fitchburg that exists today.  When the American Hotel was built in 1846, Fitchburg was a booming city.  The Boston-Fitchburg train line had just opened, bringing more people to to Fitchburg.  The same train line today also brings the people who are looking for more affordable homes into Boston for work. In the 1840s, there was an increase in businesses, such as textiles, paper mills and machinery manufacturers, which drew even more people to visiting Fitchburg.  These people needed a place to stay, so in 1846, the first American House was built on the corner of Main Street and Blossom Streets. In the 2015 edition of the Fitchburg Historical Society, there is a detailed description of the American House.  This was a rather large structure, being five stories in height. The first floor was home to a dining room, lobby, kitchen and several shops. The upper four floors were guest rooms and bathrooms. In 1854, the hotel was sold.  The new owner added on an addition that brought it down to the corner of Day Street. This new hotel had rooms for salesmen to show their goods, a grand ballroom, more rooms for guests and a new tavern. The hotel became the center of the downtown area.  Many famous people, such as Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas Edison, Henry David Thoreau, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Ralph Waldo Emerson stayed there after giving talks at Fitchburg City Hall. In the late 1800s, the Cummings Theater was built next door to the American House, thereby offering even more entertainment for hotel guests.  According to the information from the Fitchburg Historical Society, the hotel did survive both fires and multiple changes of ownership until 1952 when it was closed. It was torn down several years later and the clothing store, Roger’s, was built there. This store no longer exists.  The Cummings Theater also isn’t there any longer.  With this knowledge, I was interested to see how downtown Fitchburg compared to a more prosperous time in the past.

After having used the Maine and New Hampshire American Guide Series from the Federal Writers Project, I was now switching to the Massachusetts guide.  Their description of tours was rather amusing.

“The tours which follow cover every city, town, and village in the State.  If laid end to end, they would stretch from Boston to San Francisco, but no traveler, it is hoped, will attempt to lay them end to end, or even to follow them in their entirety.  Accordingly, the tours have been so arranged that you may choose the most direct route, if you are in a hurry. If you have more time, a plenitude of more devious routes and side trips awaits you.  Tours with a number only (as Tour 1) in general follow express highways. Tours with a number followed by a letter (as Tour 1A) are alternate routes, beginning or ending at an express highway. Although less direct, they are often more interesting.  Why follow a tour anyway? Be your own gypsy, running along a main tour until you get tired of it, then branching off on a side trip, and instead of returning to the main route, doubling back on another road. The Tour Map on pages 408, 409 will help you to abandon all rules and directions and to make up your own tours.  To assist you, addresses have been given for points of interest whenever possible. If you get lost, consult the State Map in the pocket at the back. If you are still lost, never mind. It’s fun being lost in Massachusetts.” (p. 406).

With this introduction in mind, Tour 2: From Boston to New York Line (Troy), 148 m., State 2 (The Mohawk Trail), seemed to be the tour to take.  Similar to my trip to New Hampshire, where Route 3 was a suitable route, but I didn’t take it until I hit Manchester because I thought the route was not true to what my Grandfather traveled on, I didn’t plan on taking Route 2 to Fitchburg and Gardner.  I asked Google to create me a no highway option map and it put me on Route 2A. Then I went back and read the Tour 2. What was curious is at first, it definitely sounded like the Route 2 that I currently travel – it passed Pleasant Street in Arlington, Waltham Street in Lexington and then Route 62 in Concord (which includes a nice side trip to Maynard).  But after it has you passing the Concord Reformatory, it then discusses the junction with Brook Street. I could not visualize this on Route 2. After that, it says, it “follows the shore of Lake Nagog at 25.6 m.” (p.447). I stopped at this point, because what we call Nagog Pond is now on what we call Route 2A. Shaker Lane (named for a “Hill that Shakes”) , Littleton Center and Ayer are all on Route 2A, as is the Bull Run Tavern in Shirley.  At this point, “State 2 becomes more winding and passes through alternate woods and open meadows” before heading into Lunenberg. Near the intersection of Route 13, we should be able to view both the city of Fitchburg and Mount Wachusett. This should bring us right into Main Street in Fitchburg, and we will be looking for 25 Blossom Street (or around there) to see where the American House is located.  So, that is the ride we did.  At 10:25 a.m., Kate, Pam and I climbed into Sage, headed north on Route 27 until the intersection of Route 2A/119.  We turned left at this intersection, heading west on Route 2A, past Nagog Pond, Shaker Lane, before entering Littleton, where we turned left at the common, onto King Street, and continued to follow Route 2A.  This led us through the pretty Ayer downtown, past the Bull Run in Shirley and onto that really pretty overview of Mount Wachusett and Fitchburg in Lunenberg.  It was an easy drive into Fitchburg Center where we quickly found Day Street, and hopped out of the car at 11:29 a.m.  This portion of the trip was 29.1 miles.

Fitchburg of the present looks different than what I am assuming Fitchburg of the past looks like.  The American Hotel is has been gone for 65 years and the building that took its place is also gone.  Now there is a nondescript building, that is manly vacant.

There appears to be a campaign to bring more business back to Fitchburg https://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/2016/11/29/this-is-fitchburg-campaign-starts-with-colorful-downtown-windows-video/ .  However, when I went to explore the website, it had been retired.  There is lots of evidence of many grand old buildings that were built during the later part of the 19th century that are still standing.  Unfortunately, many of these also are vacant.

 

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We ventured down to Strong Style Coffee, which was at the intersection of Cushing Street and Boulder Street.  Immediately after walking in the door, we knew we had found a gem.  With a very unique menu and an even more unique cafe, it offered a great contrast to the emptiness of the many buildings we had seen.  They have a great drink menu, including espresso, coffee drinks (including French Press coffee), and “Drinking Vinegars”.  I tried the Blueberry and Honey, and Pam tried the Ginger and Honey, which were both refreshing.  (And we think in the olden days, these were called “Shrubs”).  The cafe also served food, beer and wine, and hosts both musical events and trivia nights.  Outside on Boulder Street, there is outdoor seating.  I would strongly recommend if you are in the area to check this out!

Outside of the cafe, was an area that looked like a music venue, a parking garage and a cooly painted alley way.  There was lots of neat artwork as well.  It was encouraging to see a little pocket of revitalization in this once prosperous city.

With all of the older buildings still around the Main Street, it was easy to visualize what this section of Fitchburg once looked like.  There are efforts, such as partnerships between Fitchburg State University and a group called NewVue to help small businesses in the area. ( https://www.telegram.com/news/20190421/newvue-communities-ready-to-help-drive-fitchburg-revitalization).  The Fitchburg Art Museum is also very highly regarded.  It will be interesting to see Fitchburg transform once again into a city where the modern day equivalents of Grant, Edison, Thoreau, and my Grandfather come to stay once again.

 

 

 

From the information on the envelope, dated August 12, 1929, it just said The Phenix Hotel, Concord New Hampshire.  It is curious that many of them do not contain a street address. This was also well before the time before zip codes were used – they weren’t formally introduced until 1963. 

Monday evening – Tina Dear!  Here I am safe and sound in Concord, without any mishaps, Thank God, but ask me I am tired! Say Tina dear I could hardly keep my eyes open all day for it has been terribly hot in this town all day and which is warranted that when I am tired, it gets me sloppy.  

I got in at seven A/M/ and just as I was going out of the garage, Hale called up and wanted to know whether I had left.  The garage man replied that I was just about ready to leave, so he wanted to see me before I left. I went over and he bawled me out for starting so late and also for not putting on any tin signs on my car.  I felt like telling him what was the matter with Frank, for I noticed that his car was still in the garage and he had a much longer drive than I, but I guess that I used my head and kept quiet.

I will write to you tomorrow evening from Manchester.  My car has gone 505 miles to date, not so bad?

When trying to find out about the Phenix Hotel, Phenix Hall first appeared on my Google Search.  Phenix Hall was next to the Phenix Hotel. The hall was used for a gathering spot, where Abraham Lincoln (1860) and Teddy Roosevelt spoke there.  Lincoln spoke in the “old” Phenix Hall, which was destroyed by fire in 1893 and rebuilt. Roosevelt spoke at the “new” Phenix Hall in 1912. Phenix Hall had a 500 person theater, that was used for events such as political speeches as well as boxing and wrestling matches.  Currently, there is work being done on the second floor of the building, to restore it to a venue.

The Phenix Hotel was constructed in 1857, replacing a previous building which was destroyed by fire in December 1856.  On this building, there was originally a mansard roof on top of the fifth floor. This rook was replaced in 1947 with a flat roof.  This hotel was destroyed by a fire in 1950 and in 1954 the upper stories of the building were removed, leaving the present single-story structure.  This single story building now houses a CVS Pharmacy, which was the first floor of the Phenix Hotel. If you look at the front of the building, it looks like a CVS and there are no clues that it was once one of three very important hotels located on Concord’s Main Street.  However, from the National Park’s Register of Historic Places site, I found out that from the Phenix Avenue side of the building, there would still be evidence of the original hotel. On the south wall, there would be the original “rusticated” wood siding that would have a series of applied pilasters.  A pilaster can be described as a rectangular column that is built into a wall for either structural or decorative purposes. On the same wall, there would be five windows that are blocked, but would still have the wood moldings over and under the windows. The windows are also three different sizes. On the east side (back side) of the building, it will still appear to be two-storied, constructed from both granite and concrete blocks and bricks.  There will also be evidence of the arched windows, although those too will be filled in with bricks. 

From the American Guide Series, written by the workers of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of New Hampshire in 1938, I found out that when this book was published, the population of Concord was 25,228 and that there were seven hotels in the city.  In 1936, the Merrimack River’s flooding caused a third of the city to be totally flooded. Another interesting fact that I found out that connected Lowell to Concord New Hampshire was that a series of canals were also created to connect Concord New Hampshire to the Middlesex Canal, which went to Boston.  This enabled people to be able to trade goods easier. However, when the steam railroad connected Concord to Boston in 1842, people no longer used the canals for transportation.

I did the trip in reverse order from what my grandfather did.  The first stop was in Manchester NH and from there, I traveled onto Concord.

This part of the trip is listed in the New Hampshire American Guide Series as Tour 3: From Lowell to Second Connecticut Lake. From Manchester (mile 22.6)  to Concord in 1938, you would go US3.  Eight miles into this ride, you would enter Hooksett.  4.5 miles further, you would then enter Pembroke. At mile 41.9, you would enter Concord.  

After visiting Concord, I will be taking Tour 15: From Concord to Fitchburg and returning back to Maynard via Rt 119  

At 9:33 a.m., I did a U-turn on Merrimack Street and turned right onto Elm Street, going north.  (Note – I still had a little time left on my meter – the meter prices were really reasonable!). IN a couple of miles, Route 3 turned to the northwest, and I continued to follow it through multiple towns.  The road wasn’t particularly scenic – there were many strip malls on both sides of the road. Route 3 took a turn to the right, and I stayed on Main Street, heading towards Route 3A. This road runs parallel to Route 93 and did also cross over Route 89, both major interstate highways.  With a little help from my “local” guide, aka my friend Jane, I found the parking area behind the Main Street and arrived in Concord at 10:20 a.m .The odometer now read 68.2 miles, so the trip took me 47 minutes (included a wrong turn to find the parking area) and it was 18.5 miles in total.

I met up with Jane and we took a quick walk across Storrs Street to Depot Street and then to what was almost an alley, but was known as Phenix Avenue.  And there it was – the back of what was the Phenix Hotel. It was really exciting to see what was actually part of the building as I imagine that most of the places I will be seeing no longer exist.  The building was just as the Register of Historic Places described for the most part. The elevation of the back of the building appeared to be closer to two stories in height. This long wall was completely constructed of bricks and there were a combination of longer rectangular windows, shorter rectangular windows and partially arched windows.  There was eleven bricked up windows on the higher level and about ten windows on the lower level. Additionally, there was a back entrance for CVS employees and parking alongside the building.

On the southside of the building, that ran along a small alley out to Main Street, the building had a foundation of concrete blocks, and then the wood siding, although very weathered, was a combination of white and gray paint, that also showed some evidence of blue paint existing once.  This was especially evident on some of the pilasters as well as some of the siding towards the lower end of the building. On this side of the building, there was also a large mural, which was part of the Haley Rae Martin Mural Project, which provides teenagers the opportunity to create art that hangs on public buildings. This particular mural is based on the theme of Nature and Community.  

Jane and I ventured inside the CVS as I imagine that once upon a time, it served as a lobby area for the Phenix Hotel. The floor was extremely creaky and slanted in spots, a reminder that perhaps under the carpet lay the original flooring for the Phenix Hotel.  The developer who is working on the Phenix Hall also has plans to renovate this building once the CVS’s lease runs out. If that happens, I will certainly be back to explore this building more!

 

In front of Phenix Hall, Jane and I enjoyed a really leisurely lunch at The Works Cafe.  There was a large variety of items on the menu, and I opted for the Vegan Roll-up – hummus and vegetables, wrapped in a sweet potato wrap, along with an ice tea.  We sat outside at a table, that luckily had an umbrella (which was needed to dodge the raindrops!). The sandwich was outstanding. The iced tea was what one would normally find at a restaurant – it was good, but not anything special.  The Lowell iced teas have set the bar pretty high! It was great to be able to eat outside and observe both people and buildings. After our very leisurely lunch (and with several small showers and more ominous clouds on the western sky, I departed Concord at 1:07 p.m. While sitting outside at lunch, I noted that there are still many older buildings in downtown Concord area.   Passing through several streets, there were many interesting looking shops that would also be great to come back and explore in the future. I followed Jane out to 202 West. Unfortunately, quickly after getting onto Route 202, I encountered heavy rain, which didn’t allow me to really take a good look around.  Like Route 101 earlier in the day, this was also a one lane (each way) 55 mile per hour road. Initially it was Route 202/Route 9, but then, Route 9 went west while Route 202 merged with Route 147 to go southwest. There was a fair amount of trucks on the route as they were not allowed to stay on Route 9. During breaks in the rain, the town of Antrim, seemed like a neat old mill town. 

I decided also to stop in Peterborough, one of my favorite towns. This ride took one hour from Concord, probably due to the heavy rains.  On my stop-over in Petersborough, I stopped at Aesop’s Table, which is part of the Toadstool Bookshop, one of my favorite places.  Feeling a little iced tea out, I decided to try a “Butterfly Lemonade” which was freshly squeezed lemonade with blue pea powder. It was a tad too tart for my liking.  An interesting note was that this cafe only uses paper straws! After a 21 minute break, I departed again in heavy rain on Route 202, turning east/southeast onto Routes 123/124. These rolling hilled road also was pretty high speed and I pulled over several times to allow a truck and a dump truck pass by me. After a nine minute break in Acton to pick up an ingredient for supper, Sage and I pulled into the garage at 4:00 p.m., and at 156.2 miles for the day.  The Tour 15 part of the trip was 88 miles in length and it rained a good majority of that leg.

It was really rewarding to actually step foot into one of the places that my Grandfather had visited.  I could picture a wooden lobby, with the desk clerk’s area, and probably an ornate staircase as I walked around the creaky CVS.  Following in the footsteps of my Grandfather in 1929 has allowed me to both experience the places he went to and to learn more about the man I never knew.

RESOURCES

https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/3c668d70-60a7-4275-9d2d-2162d080e449

https://www.concordmonitor.com/Downtown-Phenix-Hall-music-function-hall-renovation-19089746

https://www.concordnhchamber.com/UploadedFiles/Files/walking_tour_brochure_cover_250th.pdf

https://www.concordmonitor.com/Downtown-Phenix-Hall-music-function-hall-renovation-19089746

https://patch.com/new-hampshire/concord-nh/teens-present-haley-rae-martin-mural-project-gateway-concord

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stop One:  July 22, 2019  The Rice -Varick Hotel, Opposite Merrimack Park

From the information on the envelope, dated August 14, 1929, there was the hotel name, the fact that it was located across from Merrimack Park, and that it was located in Manchester New Hampshire.  From my grandfather’s writing, he described his time in Manchester as: (please note, I have tried to “translate” the cursive as best as I could. I also do not add any punctuation or fix any spelling)

“Manchester is quite a large city for there are many stores and the streets are wide. The only objections that I have to this city is to the cops, for they are quite hard on out of state cars!  If you park longer than an hour on the Main Street, they give you a tag, but as to date, I have been lucky enough to escape them? Knock on wood – here is my head! The theater last night was pretty fair “The Black Watch” and I got home at about eleven P.M. and today I worked.  W. Manchester (?) put in six large displays and am going to hold two over so that I probably will be back Friday evening but as to that I will not know until later tomorrow. This evening, I am going to read Cesar and after an hours reading, I believe that I will retire, for I am kind of tired tonight.  Tina dear, I have discovered a new type of window today, which I can put in much shorter time and it looks a whole lot prettier. It consists of a number of panels with these tubes running to the ceiling. It makes a very striking window I thought.

So, with these clues in mind, I set to find this hotel.  When I googled the name, the only thing I came up with was the Rice-Hamilton.  I googled Merrimack Park also to no avail. While Manchester sits on the Merrimack River, there was no mention of a designated park with that name.  So, I tried another clue. On the letterhead, it listed both the name of the hotel manager and of the hotel treasurer, Thomas Rice Varick. So, I googled his name (since that was the name of the hotel) and I finally uncovered the location and the history of this hotel. 

The Varicks were a wealthy and well-known Manchester family, mainly known for their hardware business.  This hotel was originally called the New Manchester Hotel and it was located at 32 Merrimack Street. It was purchased by the John Varick Company in 1927 and re-opened and renamed in 1928.   The family added , but that would not had been present when my Grandfather visited in 1929. The Hotel filed for bankruptcy in 1959. After that, it was used as a rooming house until it was destroyed by a fire on June 3, 1976.  Fifty people lost their home At this time, it was used as a rooming house to 50 people.  

The park across the street has another interesting story.  It is the first downtown park in Manchester and was initially called Park Square.  First called, it was called Park Square. Prior to the beginning of the Civil War (1859), the name was changed to Merrimack Park. A monument to honor those who fought in the Civil War was dedicated in 1879. In 1985, additional monuments were dedicated to those who fought in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, and the name of the park was changed to Veteran’s Park.  So, that solved the mystery to why I couldn’t find a park named Merrimack Park on today’s Google Maps.

In 1938, the population of Manchester was 76,834.  At that time, there were six hotels located in Manchester and at the Rice-Varick Hotel, there was a bus station.  Manchester was another city in New England that harness the water power from the Merrimack River to power mills along the river. At one point, the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company had 64 buildings and housing for workers. However in the 1920s and early 1930s,  this company had fallen into financial difficulties and closed in 1935. My grandfather might had been there to witness when the mills were the central focus of Manchester, but he also probably witnessed the demise of the northern mills as well. 

2019 Journey

Since there were no multi-laned highways in 1929, I wanted to base my trips on “by-ways” as much as possible. With Google Maps, you can check “avoid highways” as an option, which did provide me with some non crazy highway options.  But, luckily, one of my friends had a series of books, published by the Federal Writers’ Project in the mid to late 1930s, that contained a section titled “High Roads and Low Roads (Tours): Mile-by-Mile Description of the State’s Highways.  I am basing my “tours” to these locations on what was listed then as much as possible.

I was doing this tour of two New Hampshire locations in opposite order.  My Grandfather first visited Concord and then went to Manchester. I conducted the trip in a different order.

In the 1938 High Roads and Low Roads tours, Tour 3: From Lowell to Second Connecticut Lake, would had probably been the route that my Grandfather would had probably done.  Route 3 or the Daniel Webster Highway did exist then. However, today’s Daniel Webster Highway is now a three or four lane road, so in the spirit of the fact that this type of highway did not exist back then, I will be taking an alternative route.  Part of this route will be Tour 17: From Portsmouth to Keene.  Starting backwards from home, I will get onto Route 119 in Littleton, connecting with Route 111 in Pepperell.  Before entering New Hampshire, I would get onto Route 122, following that north until Milford, which is where Tour 17 would begin.  From Milford, in 3 miles, I will travel through Amherst before heading to Bedford.  I would enter Manchester on the Granite Street Bridge, which is also part of Tour 17. Once I am over the bridge, I will head north on Elm Street (Route 3) and turn right onto Merrimack Street.  

TRIP NOTES

I left my house in Maynard at 6:31 a.m.  It was slightly cooler than it had been the previous three days and was partly sunny.  From Google Maps, it was projected to take about 1 hour, 26 minutes to reach my destination.  From my house, I took Route 27 to a series of backroads before ending up on Route 119 west in Littleton. My other “restriction” was not using my phone’s GPS.  I knew that Route 111 would be going off to the right at some point towards Nashua and I would be heading towards Route 122. The road turned off, and there was a sign saying to stay straight for Rt 122, but while I was on it, it seemed a lot longer than what I read about on my Google maps printout.  It was a pretty ride, with lots of farms and woods and finally, there was the turn for Route 122. This also took me through the very pretty town of Hollis, New Hampshire, where I had done a race before. It is described in the 1938 book on New Hampshire as, “an attractive rural village”, which I totally agree.  It seemed very colonial to me, which the book also confirmed that the area around the Common were built in the early 1700s. I also passed by Silver Lake State Park, which you couldn’t see what it looked like from the road.  

The tone of the ride started to change when I made a left turn onto Route 101A in Amherst.  No longer was this a scenic country road – it was multiple lanes in each direction and multiple businesses on each side of the road.  I missed the quick left turn onto Route 101 East, so needed to go down just a little bit to do a U-turn so that I could get onto the on-ramp leading to Route 101.  And if I thought Route 101A was busy, Route 101 was even more of a “highway” feel, with lots of commuters heading east towards Manchester. Suddenly, I needed to snap out of the nice 40 miles per hour road to reach a “cruising” speed of 60 miles per hour so that no commuter would be mad at my poking along.  There wasn’t a lot of opportunity to look around (one of the main issues with my no longer being the “co-pilot” and being the straight “pilot”), but I did see a winery on the eastbound side, which turns out to be LaBelle Winery in Amherst. Entering Bedford, I was still moving at a good rate and felt like I would beat the 86 minute time frame.  But, then I saw a sign – 7 minutes needed to go 2 miles. I could do the math and this meant things were going to really slow down for some reason. And very quickly, I found the reason: summer road work. Quickly two lanes merged into one lane (and with the folks who needed to merge of course waiting for the last moment to do that). The traffic just poked along for about 25 minutes.  Finally, the construction ended and I was hoping to make up some time. But, I also didn’t think about while I was going into Manchester for this little search, others were going into work. Manchester is now a city of over 111,000 people, has a large university, and lots of people heading there on a Monday morning.  

While sitting in traffic on the Granite Street Bridge, I noticed tons of mills to my left.  This included a museum sign to the Millyard Museum, which perhaps might be someplace fun to venture to the next time.  Finally Elm Street (aka Route 3) was there, I took the left and Merrimack Street was quickly on my right. There was on street parking, and remembering my Grandfather’s words about out of staters getting ticketed, I made sure that I went out and bought time for my space.  I arrived in Manchester at 8:06 a.m., so 95 minutes of travel and a total of 49.7 miles (including the little u-turn). To the right of where I parked was the park. I noticed a lot of homeless people camped out in the park, along with a huge yellow tent that I assumed was for performances.  I crossed the street to where the Rice-Varick Hotel was located. Towards the intersection of Elm and Merrimack was the Thirsty Moose Taproom, whose address was technically on Elm Street, but whose side door was situated on Merrimack Street. A long whitish gray three story building, called the Merrimack Commons sits at 20 Merrimack Street.  This building appears to house the New Hampshire Public Defenders Office as well as a lot of other law offices ( a courthouse is located across the street, next to the park

Then there is a small alley that had a metal fence and gateway, and next to that was a single story white building, 40 Merrimack Street that houses a Volvo dealer and then a multi story part of the same building that is a parking garage.  The number of this building was 40 – 56 Merrimack Street. So, no number 32 anywhere in site. No plaque that it existed. Nothing. And from the picture I found, it was a really large hotel, so I am wondering how Merrimack Street originally did look. It was somewhat disappointing not to see any remnant of this once hotel.  

My Grandfather mentioned going to the theater to see the movie “The Black Watch”.  So, I pulled up my GPS to see if any theaters were nearby. The Palace Theater on Hanover Street popped up.  It was a several blocks over from Merrimack Street. The Palace Theater is still an active theater with a variety of shows being done there.  I am not sure if this might had been the place where my Grandfather went, as according to research, in that timeframe, the Palace was doing mostly vaudeville acts, although, it changed to showing mostly movies from 1930 to 1960.  I had actually seen one of my friends perform there in the late 1970s. At one time, there were 22 active theaters in Manchester. There were two more within easy distance of the Rice-Varick Hotel – the Strand Theater at 20 Hanover Street, which is now a set of stores, and the Crown Theater at 97 Hanover Street. Both of these locations did show movies during that time frame.

I also went back and explored the park.  The Civil War Monument is very impressive.  There are four different military personnel at each corner.  The column rises 50 feet in the air and on top of that is an eight foot high statue of Victory.  There is an inscription to” the men of Manchester who gave their services to the war which preserved the Union of the States.”  There are four “cubes” dedicated to the men and women who served in World World I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

REFRESHMENT NOTES

After my class in Lowell, where I sampled iced teas from five different locations, I decided to continue that trend during these road trips.  The first stop, the Midtown Cafe at the Beacon was just a short stroll from Merrimack Street. There was outdoor seating on the sidewalk along with some pretty planters.  The cafe itself is part of a multi-purpose building. There seemed to be a lot of regulars as the staff was calling them by name. I ordered a regular iced tea (the only selection) and went outside to do some notes.  After a week of really good iced teas in Lowell, I was underwhelmed by this iced tea. There was a coffee-ish taste to it and I ended up throwing it out. Since I was going to try and find some of the theaters, I continued to walk north on Elm Street, and passed by Lala’s Hungarian Pastry shop.  Since I don’t walk by too many Hungarian bakeries, I decided to stop by and try out two little cookies, which were very tasty. After finding the Palace and Crown Theaters on Hanover Street, I kept walking east on Hanover Street, until I found the Restoration Cafe at 235 Hanover Street. This little cafe, housed in the former dorm for Sacred Heart Nursing Students, is based on the theme of apothecary elixirs and traveling snake oil salesmen.  There was a pretty outdoor courtyard, surrounded by lush scenery. There was a day and evening beverages menu. My iced tea was served in a beaker, which was a cool touch. Unfortunately, it still did not meet the Lowell Standard.  

I headed back to my car, well in advance of my parking expiring.  While many parts of Manchester still looked like it may had in 1929, I was disappointed that on Merrimack Street, there was no evidence of that once grand hotel where my Grandfather had stayed.

 

Resources: 

• http://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2015/02/06/john-b-varick-co-new-englands-largest-hardware-business-in-1915/ 
• https://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2014/05/23/manchester-new-hampshire-veterans-park/
• https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=ff6646933877433080e6850e0eecdc23

 

July 11, 1929  letter:

Wednesday evening.  Tina Dear – Well dear, the whole darn crew blew into town including Jordan … Maine man and also Hoffman, the crew’s boss.  It seems like old times to be speaking to someone you know. After supper, the whole crowd decided to take a ride across the border.  You know, the Canadien border is just three miles from this town, well we all packed into three cars and drove across the border in search of beer.  Finally after awhile, we located a place and had a pint bottle a piece. It cost us twenty five cents per bottle and you know that I am fond of beer.  I would not take more than one bottle for I do not want to make a habit of it while I am up this way. I drove over seventy-five miles to-day and did a days work beside.  Well honey, here it is Wenesday and tomorrow I am going to work this town and Friday morning leave for Presque Isle where I will stay until Monday morning. The crew are leaving for Presque Isle tomorrow morning and tonight will be the last time that I will see them this month.  The boys are all writing to their sweethearts so you see we all have a sweetheart. I have read that Gus Sonnenberg beat Lewis last night. I guess the old boy certainly is a champion in all respects. I will probably be in Presque Isle when this letter reaches you, and in your next letter address it to this:  Presque Isle House, Presque Isle Me. If the letters do not reach me while I am on the go, I have left forwarding addresses right along, so sooner or later the letters will reach me. I have bought for you a little souvenir from Patten Maine today and you will have it when I reach Boston. The boys are all closing with their letters and I suppose that I will be the last one, but I do not care what they do, it is what I do that concerns me mostly, does it not?  I believe that I ought to join the boys and have a chat with them before retiring. Please do not believe that I am in a hurry to close this missive, but I feel that I should go over and talk with them for they will be lead to believe that I am getting high hat. With the same amount of love, Joe

 

July 12, 1929  letter

7:15 standard time, Thursday evening

I have just completed my dinner and feel a great deal better for it.  Well Tina dea, I have not received your mail to-day and I believe it will follow me to Presque Isle for I know myself that when I am on the move, that is beginning this week, it will be quite hard to catch me from now on but I will endeavor to give you any hotels before time.  The Luxury crew have left this town this morning and I am here alone this evening, for I will leave this hotel Friday morning and work my way further north until I hit Presque Isle Friday night there. I will stay until Monday morning. Tina dear, do you realize that this is the second week and only two more weeks to go, say honey, I am getting impatient to see you.  I have worked like a Trojan all day, took only fifteen minutes for lunch and went at it again. I put in six displays, now that’s two more than I ordinarily put in and the odd part of it is that four were large drug stores and the other two were tobacco jobs (?) with large windows, to top this off, the temperature was between 90º and 95º all afternoon. I would not mind the heat if it wasn’t that I had to wash the inside glass in every store that I put a display into.   I believe you have received my address of the hotel at Presque Isle and if you write there I will receive it Monday morning. I will try to give you my exact stopping places next week. How are Paul and Frank these days, still bachelors? Keep them that way. Send my regards to all your folks and tell them please I was asking for them. I am going to write a letter home, make my reports and then retire. I have another seventy mile drive tomorrow. Lonely, Joe

When originally planning my County trip, I thought my first stop would be Houlton, since that would be the logical order and the first place I would hit after a long drive from home.  I went onto Trip Advisor and there were a few choices of places to stay. However, my plans shifted when I found out the Northeastland in Presque Isle was on the same site of the Presque Isle House, I decided to head to Presque Isle and use that hotel as home base for two nights and hit Houlton on my journey southward.  When I entered Houlton after a long and desolate ride on Sunday, I saw the little square, but quickly got onto Route One, knowing I had about another 50 minutes of my ride. Route 95 also passes through Houlton on the way to New Brunswick and I saw the hotel I was originally planning on staying at, right at the intersection of these two thoroughfares.  Looking at the hotel, I was glad I hadn’t ended up staying there, so I quickly drove past on my way to Presque Isle and planned on returning on my trip southward on Tuesday.

I had already made up my mind to take Route 95 back south for a part of the way on Tuesday.  My initial plans were to get up, have breakfast and get moving southward down Route One to Houlton, spend no more than 30 minutes and get on the road by 9:00 a.m..  However, those plans went quickly astray when breakfast took much longer than anticipated. Then, a slew of road work on Route One put me further behind, and I also decided to stop and get gas (and a Dunky Ice Tea).  So, it was 9:00 a.m. when I turned into Market Square in Houlton. And when I pulled into the diagonal parking in the square, I knew this wasn’t going to be a quick “get out of the car, place the picture, read the letter, and get back into the car” type of stop.

When reading the American Guide Series, “Maine A Guide Down East” written by the Workers of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of Maine months before this trip, I was surprised to find that Houlton was featured in a segment titled “Seaports and River Towns”.  There were just seven of these listed, and since I had never heard of Houlton prior to this project, I was curious how it “made the cut” into this book. In the section about Houlton, Houlton is described as “Attractive and tree-shaded, Houlton combines the qualities of an old-fashioned country town with those of a modern city.  The seat of Aroostook County, one of the richest potato-raising regions in the United States, and focal point of the northernmost part of Maine that is actively developing its assets as a recreation area, Houlton has become a large commercial center.  Yet, in spite of the heavy traffic of motor trucks and automobiles over its smooth pavement, Market Square, the spacious heart of the town’s business district, retains an atmosphere reminiscent of creaking wagon wheels and patient horses tethered to sidewalk hitching posts.” (p.150)

And as I stepped out of Sage, that was exactly the picture I had in my mind.  Market Square was the home of many shops and businesses. Along with banks, there was a movie theater (The Temple), numerous antique shops, a candy shop, an old fashioned arcade, a Salvation Army store, cafes, and a Farm Store Co-op.  People were out and about on this nice summer day. You could picture in your mind a scene of people, horses and shops. I was enthralled very quickly and it only got better.

My Grandfather had stayed at the Snell House, and true to what I had been finding with the other hotels, it no longer existed.  From research on the Maine Memory Network, a photo of the hotel taken in 1900, proclaimed it to be the best hotel in Houlton at that time.  The interesting thing is that the picture was taken from across the street at White’s shop and the photo is credited to E.B. White. Initially, I thought this might be the same E.B. White of Charlotte’s Web fame, but in fact, there was another E.B. White who had a shop, diagonally across from the Snell House, and who was also an amateur photographer (https://houltonmuseum.wixsite.com/acham/edward-b-white-collection).   In a 1920s postcard from the same source, the hotel also features stables for guests to park their horses. 

I reached out to the Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum to learn more about the Snell House and spoke with Sandy, whose husband is the president of the organization.  She kindly sent me an email with an advertisement from the Snell House (https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/4f308d_11d8aadaea794c4f9f38379971f2e4be.pdf).  In this advertisement, it said that the hotel had 100 rooms, and none of the rooms had a bad view “Every room opens to the sunlight”, which was unusual for the timeframe.  It was still unclear to me about what happened to the hotel. I reached out to Leigh, and he wrote back to me that the “Snell House fell out of favor after the opening of a more ‘modern’ hotel (Northland) in 1930.  By 1940, the site was a movie theater (Houlton Theater). The Snell House was torn down prior to 1940 and the Houlton Theater in the early ‘60s.” From the Maine Memory Network, I did find a picture of the Northland Hotel and it certainly did look more modern than the Snell House did (https://www.mainememory.net/artifact/22609) .  I also found information on the Houlton Theater and found out that it opened in 1941, had seats for 862 people and was torn down in the late 1950s.  (http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/50070) And then, to answer my question about what is currently there now, it is just a parking lot. It is interesting that the Temple Theater, which opened in 1919, is only a few buildings down from this site, and it is still in operation.(Yay for independent movie theaters!)

When I googled the Snell Hotel, I did find a story in “The County” newspaper about a tour of Houlton’s historical artifacts (https://thecounty.me/2017/08/17/news/business-news/rotarians-take-a-walk-through-history/) .  This included information about the Ensign Animal Fountain, which was originally located in front of the Snell House on Market Square.  However, this statue, composed of granite from Vinalhaven, is no longer operational and no longer sits in the same location, as it has been moved to the intersection of Water and Court Street..  But is was there when my Grandfather visited Houlton, so I wanted to try and find this as well when I visited Houlton.

Since I knew the site of the Snell House was now a parking space, it was quite easy to identify where it was since it was the only empty spot in the square.  I walked over to the unremarkable location and looked around. There, something to the left of the parking lot caught my eye. Along a winding path, there was a  beautiful bridge that stretched over a river. Excitedly, I made my way down towards the path. And on the right, was a storyboard sign that told the story about how Market Square has been formed and re-formed by fires.  And on this storyboard, was also information about the Snell House. I kept walking and reading the storyboard signs about different historical aspects of Houlton – its early history, the industrial history, and its educational history.  On the Gateway Crossing Bridge, the Meduxnekeag River flowed gently underneath.

On the other side of the bridge, I spotted a picnic area and restrooms. I learned that this Riverfront Park had been completed in three phases, (https://thecounty.me/2019/07/23/living/arts/new-wilderness-trail-highlights-riverfront-park-phase-iii/) and it was recently just completed.  On the other side, there is a 3-mile trail that parallels the river.  Along the path, there are also storyboards, telling more about the ecological history of the river.   This was not the first footbridge over the Meduxnekeag River; on Maine Memory Network, I also found a photo of one that existed as early as 1890 (https://www.mainememory.net/artifact/13353).

I went back to the side closer to where the Snell House was located and sat on one of the many benches to do my picture taking and video of what my Grandfather said in his letter.  It was a beautiful blue sky and many others walked down the path and over the bridge. It was peaceful as I tried to imagine my Grandfather in this spot.  Now, he got to share the view with both me and my Grandmother.

After leaving the Riverfront Park area, I walked back up to Market Square to see if I could find the moved fountain. And a quick block up, there it was.  It certainly was not as elaborate as it probably once was, and it was no longer functional as a fountain, but, it was surrounded by beautiful flowers and still looked rather majestic on its new corner.  

I was rather conflicted about knowing I had 300 miles to travel that day, but also wanting to soak in a little more of Houlton.  So, I walked around Market Square and down the Main Street. There was an interesting candy shoppe, just opening for the day; what was advertised as a unique arcade, and then an interesting building, called the Vault, which appeared to be an old bank and the building was now for sale.  There were several cafes, which I wish I had time to try out while I was there. I then came upon the The Country Co-Op and Farm Store Cafe, which I knew I just needed to check out. Along with a lot of Maine produced, organic food products, there was the ability to order breakfast and lunch, the ability to sit at a table and work on a lap-top, and the ability to look at local artisans’ goods.  As I went upstairs, there was a beautiful small sunflower rug that caught my eye. And to the right of those rugs, were vintage pictures of Houlton. And to the right of that display, sat a picture of the Snell House, with a large parade passing by it. I knew that it needed to come home with me, as a souvenir of my visit to this wonderfully vibrant town. But, I couldn’t get myself to get into Sage just yet, so I went to a few of the antique stores to check out if they had anything about the Snell House.  In both of these locations, Houlton residents sat talking to one another. Nothing from the Snell House, but lots of interesting artifacts and people. Finally, much later than expected, I made my way back over to Sage and started her up. I was wondering if Houlton was this vibrant when my Grandfather visited. I knew he wasn’t able to get a beer there, due to Prohibition, but if the town looked like it did in 2019, I think there would be a lot to do and see. I am glad that I ended my County Tour here in Houlton.  The history, the attention to appreciating the natural resources and the people, were all top notch.  It was a wonderful ending to this recreated road trip. 

Tina dear – Well dear, I suppose you are wondering how I got to this hotel so early during business hours, well I’ll tell you, I made my first call this morning at seven-thirty, you see I practically slept all day and all all night yesterday and was up at six this morning.  I will wait for the mail tomorrow morning and head for Fort Kent, my address there will be The Arcadia Hotel, Fort Kent, Me. Please address the next mail to the above address. Tonight I am going to make out my reports, pack my bag, write a letter to Babe Fonry, the fellow you have heard me speak about, and retire for tomorrow.  Just the same, Joe

My Grandfather had stayed at the Presque Isle House while he visited Presque Isle in 1929 (and he also did in 1930 as well).  However, when I started to learn about the different hotels, I found out very little about this particular location.  Since I couldn’t find a lot,  I reached out to the Presque Isle Historical Society, since I wasn’t able to find out a lot on Google.  From my first email correspondence with Kim, she replied: “It burned down around 1900, was torn down in 1930 and would have been where the Northeastland Hotel stands today. The Northeastland opened in 1931.”  I then went onto the Northeastland site and found the following information:  “Part of what distinguishes the Northeastland Hotel from other area hotels is its vibrant and rich history. Formerly known as the Presque Isle House, in 1931 the building was dismantled by hand, stick by stick. It was then replaced with the brick structure that you see today and re-opened in 1932.”  Excitedly, I booked a room there for two nights to serve as my home base of sorts.  When I called for a reservation, I told the desk clerk about my trip and she provided me with Kim’s name as an expert.  I thought that was funny since I had already received one email from her.

So, I wrote back to her after finding out the information from the hotel’s website and asked her why the hotel was dismantled.  To me, the mystery about what happened deepened when she wrote back to me that “The presque isle house hotel had burned down in 1900 and the remnants were never cleaned up. What was left was finally torn down and carted away in 1930  to make room for building the northeastland.”.  I then took a picture of both the letterhead and the envelope that I had and sent it to her.  She wrote back: “That is a puzzle as I have never heard of anyone staying there.  Will have to do some research.”. After a while, I heard back from her again saying, “I wonder if he could have been using old stationery OR if he wasn’t actually at the Presque Isle House Hotel (aka Presque Isle Hotel) as the letterhead simply says Presque Isle House.  The hotel was definitely destroyed in January 1900. I have never heard of anyone operating another boarding house with similar name, so I would need to do extensive research. See attached January 11, 1900 newspaper saying hotel destroyed by fire, photo of hotel, photo of hotel after fire in January 1900.”  These are the pictures that I received from her.

So, there was definitely a mystery about was this indeed the place referenced in his letter?  I went into my 1930s letters and found four more letters written from the Presque Isle House in 1930.  It didn’t make sense to me that a burnt out building would be left standing for 30 plus years before being taken down. From the Maine Memory Network, I found a 1900 photo of the Presque Isle House with the following description:  “The Presque Isle House on the East side of Main Street was torn down in 1930-31 to make room for the new Northeastland Hotel which opened in 1932.” So, heading up to my “home base”, I was hoping to find out a little more about this mystery.

After my long day of travel, I was excited to just get to this hotel as I figured it would be a close as possible to staying at a place that my Grandfather stayed in.  I knew it was in the downtown area of Presque Isle, so I figured it would be fun to be able to easily explore the downtown.  Finally, I passed the hotel, took a right, and pulled into the parking lot behind the hotel.  I knew from reading reviews on Trip Advisor that this hotel would not be like the chain hotels.  And from the moment I entered the lobby, I knew it would be a different experience.  The hotel clerk was extremely friendly, in fact, the total opposite of what I experienced in Baltimore the week before (the person didn’t even ask me if I had a good stay when I was checking out).  We talked about my journey up to Presque Isle and the purpose of my trip.  She found it fascinating.  She then gave me my key.  Yes, a real key, not one of the key cards that you get at most other places.  Yes, this was going to be a unique experience for sure.

 

The next morning, after a restless night’s sleep (I think too much iced tea the day before!),  I headed down to the cafe.  I could tell there, that the customers were a combination of hotel guests and town residents.  I was eavesdropping on an older woman and a my age male who were discussing a variety of topics.  The woman, who told him she was 91, talked about how all her kids were “Down State”.  The discussion focused on how the kids don’t have the interest in farming so they leave for other jobs in other sections of the state.  Parents are left here to age in place with the help of “good neighbors.”  The conversation ended with a discussion of different animals who eat their crops and how the man had recently observed the raccoons washing freshwater clams in  a local stream.  I thought about how the kids left the area and when Ben was sworn in down in Portland.  A lot of the people there were from really northern Maine or New Hampshire, so that was interesting in that perhaps maybe the military was another option for young people who live in this area.

After breakfast, I described to the new desk clerk, my project and asked her if she knew anything about the history of the hotel since there was a discrepancy between the hotel burning down in 1900 and the Northeastland opening up in 1932.  Her name was Amanda and she was really interested in the question and said that she did have information on the history.  She went to her computer, pulled up a document and printed it out for me.

I excitedly scanned it over and was excited to learn that the original hotel had been built in the 1840s.  The original hotel was then built onto, creating a more elaborate hotel.  It seems like there was a huge fire in downtown Presque Isle in 1884, that destroyed a lot of the area, including the Presque Isle Hotel.  That was rebuilt and called the Presque Isle House.  This burnt down again in 1900 (confirming what I had found out earlier), but then, the next sentences helped solve the mystery in my mind.  “Another wooden structure was again erected.  After a series of ownerships, the hotel came under the ownership of the PI Bank and soon was purchased by a group of local men comprising the P.I. Hotel Company.  In 1930, the company made the decision to raze the old and construct a new brick hotel which would better serve the times.  This hotel officially opened its doors in June of 1932.” (excerpted from Forgotten Times: A Walk Through History by Richard A Graves III.). In addition to this information, there was also a picture of the Presque Isle House in 1915.  Bingo!  Now the story made sense!  Now, I will have to go through the other boxes of my Grandfather’s letters to see if he ever stayed at the Northeastland.

I enjoyed walking around Presque Isle and dining at some of the local dining establishments and shops.  Some of the brick buildings appeared to have been around for a long time, perhaps even when my Grandfather visited. The University of Maine also has a campus in Presque Isle and I took a walk up through the campus.  It was on top of a hill and the view from the fields was gorgeous.  The people in Presque Isle were friendly and laid back,  It was a taste of a simpler life and perhaps one like it was 90 years ago when my Grandfather visited here in Presque Isle.

 

 

 

Today, I set off to see the spots in Edmundston, New Brunswick and Fort Kent Maine that my Grandfather had stayed at.  I knew going into these spots that neither place still existed, but I was excited to see the towns that he had visited.  What I wasn’t expecting, though, was the incredible scenery along Route One and Route 161 that I got to experience today.  While there was construction for the first ten miles of my route today, which was a tad stressful, I was just amazed by the big rolling “hills”, the fields of multiple shades of green, and the brilliant blue sky with puffy white clouds  Finally in Cyr, I pulled off to the side to take a picture, which does not do this beauty justice whatsoever.  The amber grain whistled in the light wind as I looked over the green fields and hills that framed this area.  I think this is my one regret of the trip – that since I am the driver and only person in the car, I can’t easily take pictures.  And I am not even sure my photos would adequately capture the beauty of this part of the country.  While the rides today, were again pretty desolate in spots, the natural beauty was simply amazing.  There were so many shades of green – from the green of the pine trees, to the green and white flowers of the potato plants, and to some sort of crop that was kind of lime green, it was all stunning.  The bigness of the sky was something that also took my breath away.  Whether it was vistas from each side of the road, or when I traveled up to the top of a big hill, it just took my breath away.

The other surprising thing was the steeples that I could see from miles away.  I found this interesting because in one of my Grandfather’s letters, he wrote: You have asked me whether or not I had been to church since I had left, well no dear for these towns that I had stopped at had no Catholic church, so I had stayed at the hotel.  And these steeples that I saw, where not just simple steeples.  They were majestic in so many ways and I didn’t even get a photo of all of them. I had found out from the 1937 Maine Guide Book, that Fort Kent is described as a town having “simple one and two-story buildings that are overtopped by the spire of the Roman Catholic church.  Most of the population speaks a provincial French and being strongly religious, observes the church feasts and fasts faithfully.” (p.248).  In the same book, Grand Isle is described as “a village that, like other small ones in this area, is notable for the ornateness of its church.”  The St. David’s Church in St. David was also beautiful, as was St Luke’s in Frenchville before getting to the magnificent St. Luke’s Church in Fort Kent.  Not directly on Route One, but over the river in Canada was the immense and spectacular Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.  This area of the world is predominantly Catholic, so I found it interesting that my Grandfather had written that there were no Catholic Churches when there were many and they really stood out.  Interestingly, in Presque Isle, the Catholic Church is not as spectacular as the other spots.

The other surprises of the day was the lack of food choices in either Fort Kent or Edmundston.  I was excited to grab a tea and a treat from a French Bakery and eat it in the beautiful City Hall Square Park (the site of the New Royal Hotel until 1985).  But to my dismay, there was nothing open.  One little bakery was completely closed and for sale, and another one said it was open on Mondays, but the door was locked.  I was thirsty and luckily found a pizza place open that I could buy a bottle of water.  In Fort Kent, I knew that a “ploye” was a product that was traditional to the area.  At the closed bakery in Edmundston, they had ployes on the window.  Ployes are a French-Acadian buckwheat type of product, and during Fort Kent’s 150th anniversary, they are having a Ploye Festival.  So, when I got to Fort Kent, I first looked for a bakery to no avail.  I went to Rock’s Family Diner with the hope that maybe they had a ploye.  They had something called a Poutine, which sounded French to me.  I asked about the ploye and the waitress told me that no, there was nowhere in Fort Kent to get a ploye. She told me that Dolly’s in Madawaska (20 miles south on Route One) served them and that there was going to be a Ploye Festival as part of the 150th Fort Kent Anniversary, including making the World’s largest ploye.  Since there was no ploye to be had, I decided to ask and try the poutine.  Poutine is a dish that includes french fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy. It originated in the Canadian province of Quebec.  So, out with my chicken burger ( a fried version, not quite what I expected, was a mass of French fries smothered in gravy and cheese.  I did eat several, but it was too rich for my liking.

Another big surprise is how fast people drive up here.  I am not sure why us in Massachusetts always get the bum rap for being aggressive drivers.  There was a construction zone with a 25 miles per hour speed limit.  People were flying by me at about 60.  On the rolling hills, again, it was a speedway.  I wanted to relish the view and pulled over multiple times to let others fly by.

So, that’s an overview of Day 2.  I had no issues with customs (although the U.S. side was tougher than the Canadien side.  I am sure the U.S. Customs Officer was underwhelmed with the search of my trunk (a bag of social studies books).  I will be off to Houston tomorrow morning and then on to see some friends in Milton NH (and taking the highway for a part of the way!).  I will leave you with a few excerpts from my Grandfather’s letters

 

From Fort Kent:  Tuesday Evening:

This will probably reach you Thursday and I will have left for the Eastern part of the State.  From my window, I can see Canada and also the first bridge heading there. The boys in this hotel are all feeling happy tonight, I believe it must be some sort of heavy water they must have drank; I have not as yet.  Just the same old Joe

(There were two letters in this envelope.  One was written while in Canada and the next one was written in Caribou and mailed in Caribou.) 

Thursday evening:  Tina dear – Here I am in Canada for the night, not for pleasure either, but for strictly business.  Tina dear, this noon I received both of your wonderful letters that you had written Monday and Tuesday, you will never realize how happy and contented they made me feel.  I waited in Fort Kent for your letters and also my check until twelve thirty. Your Tuesday’s letter came in the first mail but my check was still missing so I thought I would wait until one thirty for the next mail and there was your letter of Monday and also my check.  Mind you I had not done a bit of work as yet and I had a thirty-five mile drive with a day and a half work to do, in a half day. Well I just got through, it is now after nine, so you see I had to work like the devil, with my clothes just sticking to my body from perspiration.  O do not believe that I had ever worked so fast in all my born days – came into a store, put in a display, and hurry right to my next stop. I am just exhausted and can hardly see straight. I am going to get up at six a.m. tomorrow and work my way to Caribou for Friday night. 135 miles. 

Friday evening.  Tina dear, the first page was as far as I got last night, for my eyes were so sore I thought I would rest them, that was necessary as I fell asleep and did not wake up until six a.m. this morning when I had to get dressed, have breakfast and wait for the fellow on the American side to come for me, to take me across the river to my car.  You see I have a commercial vehicle and that means a bit of trouble and red tape to take it across the line, so I had a garage man take me across in his car. I was going along at about fifteen miles per hour when my steering post snapped by the steering wheel and the car went out of control. Well, I applied my brakes, thank goodness that there was not anybody on the road or I would have driven into them.  This was about one p.m. and I had already had completed my days work and going to start on a part of tomorrow’s, well it was just five p.m. when I was ready to start on my journey to Caribou. It is ten p.m now and I am quite drowsy again for tomorrow. I am going to clean up Caribou and start Sunday for Calais, which is another hundred and eighty miles from this town. Getting nearer to home, aren’t I dear?  You have asked me whether or not I had been to church since I had left, well no dear for these towns that I had stopped at had no Catholic church, so I had stayed at the hotel. Well Tina dear, I will bid you good night until tomorrow. Love, Joe

 

Today, I set off to retrace my Grandfather’s journey into what is now called “The County” plus Edmundston, New Brunswick.  For me, it was as much a journey for me, as it was to retrace his steps as a traveling tobacco salesman.  For me, it was the first time I have really undertaken a solo trip.  While, I spent one night alone in Newburyport before my doctoral defense, this was really going to push myself out of my comfort zone.  I think the longest I have ever driven by myself was a couple of hours, so undertaking these set of road trips this summer was a way for me to become more comfortable with being solo on the road.

I had carefully planned out my trip, since I would be using “back roads” like my Grandfather did in 1929 (there was no Route 95 and if you know me well, you know that highways are another thing for me to get used to doing).  I have AAA design a Trip Tik but I did not like all the turns, and without a navigator, it would be extremely difficult to figure out.  During my trip up to New Hampshire, I had decided that it was really difficult to read Google Maps while driving, so I knew that I would need to use my phone’s GPS.  I designed a trip on Google Maps, staying on certain routes, even if it meant that the trip was a little longer.  I would travel Route 27 to Route 225, into Westford and Depot Road to Route 3-A North to Route 111 to Route 125 to Route 202 to Route 1A to Route 2 to Route 2A to Route 1, where the hotel was located.  Sounded simple in theory…. My first little mess-up was actually in Rochester, New Hampshire, a place where I had spent 27 years visiting.  I righted myself and was happily on Route 202, where I thought I would stay until just south of Bangor.  My GPS kept trying to get me to go different ways, (which I had downloaded my map onto my phone and I was surprised it was trying to deviate from my plan).  After fighting with the GPS, I thought everything was okay until somehow, I veered off Route 202 and the GPS had me going up Route 201/100/11.  I felt sure that it was also still 202, until it had me take this really backroad for 5 miles.  It was there that I began to understand the loneliness of a traveling salesman in 1929.  I went for miles without seeing anyone or anything.  At one point, I pulled over to look at the “real” map I had and realized that my GPS had won, that this was similar to what the Trip Tik said to do, so I decided to stay the course, because it seemed like a legitimate route.

However, while it was a legitimate route, I was surprised at how desolate these roads were.  I had originally thought of filling up in Bangor, but this route would take me nowhere near Bangor.  It was just miles and miles of big sky and open cornfields.  While, I still had a lot of gas, I was a little concerned that there may be even less civilization as I got further along.  So, when I happened upon the little crossroads of Pittsfield, I pulled over at the gas station/general store.  Not knowing when I might happen upon another place, I decided to refuel there and to eat the sandwich I had packed.

Another secret is that I am a princess when it comes to pumping gas.  Just last week, my dear friend Johanna gave me a lesson.  I remembered her words – take off the gas cap, swipe the card, select the gas type and put the nozzle in the gas tank.  Except when I put it in, it didn’t work.  She told me if it didn’t work, jiggle it a bit.  Nothing.  Nervously, I asked the woman pumping gas at the next pump if she was having any problems.   “No,” she replied.  I then said to her that I had never pumped gas on my own, I had driven from Massachusetts  and would she help me.  She came right over and my mistake was I hadn’t pushed up a thing on the tank.  She told me she was from Massachusetts as well and I asked her where.  “Hudson” she said.  I told her me too.  I asked her name….Jennifer….how coincidental was that I thought.  I asked her if she graduated from Hudson High and she had – one year earlier than my sister Jennifer.  I felt this was a very good omen, so I thanked her, finished filling my tank, ate my sandwich and kept moving.

As I was driving past endless corn fields, woods, potato fields, big sky, and little else, I thought of the words from one of my Grandfather’s letters:

Tuesday evening.  Tina Dear: Here I am at the top of my journey and let me tell you something that to-day I had the worse luck of any one person imaginable.  I waited until ten thirty for the mail to come in, expecting to hear from you, well it did not come to my utmost disappointment, second in order to make up for the lost time I started to drive to beat Hades, well I was traveling along about finally when I struck soft road, I skidded around, went into a ditch about three feet deep and was marooned there for fully four hours before I could get her out.  I had to walk about two miles before I came to a farm house where I borrowed a shovel, walked back and began working. Well I had to make a wood in the ditch and what a job that was, why I do not believe that I had worked any harder for over three years, finally I got out, it was after three and I hadn’t eaten a bit since breakfast, I certainly was very hungry, tired and dusty – all the roads are dirt through Northern Maine.  I got started and about ten minutes from Fort Kent, there is a mountain climb, well I got to about three quarters of the way, when my chariot bucked and stalled, and began rolling down the hill, well, I edged the car over to an embankment and left it there. I looked at my gas and there was just about half a gallon, that was great I thought, well, I waited beside my car until a car came along and asked him for a lift to a gas station, he drove me for about three miles until we came to one, he then went on his way and I got a container filled it with gas and started walking towards my car, after about a half mile and a fellow came along and gave me a lift.  I filled my tank and thought that I would get started, well I stepped on my self-starter but there was no response. “Great” I said. I began cranking the darn thing and it kicked, tore the flesh of my hand, so that it was bleeding quite freely before I stopped it. I then cranked for awhile with my left hand and it turned over and began humming. I climbed in and drove over the hill and what a ride it was downhill, I must have gone over fifty-five miles per just coasting. It was just six-thirty when I pulled into Fort Kent, no work done, tired, hungry and worst of all, blue; great combination is it not? ……This will probably reach you Thursday and I will have left for the Eastern part of the State.  From my window, I can see Canada and also the first bridge heading there. The boys in this hotel are all feeling happy tonight, I believe it must be some sort of heavy water they must have drank; I have not as yet. Just the same old Joe

As I kept driving towards Presque Isle, I thought about how hard it must had been to travel in 1929.  My Grandfather talked about the dirt roads, about walking a long way to get help, and about long days on the road.  I kept thinking about why his letters talked about how lonely he was on the road and how he lived for her letters to arrive at his next  destination.  His job must had been made more difficult by the difficulties of travel in that time period.  No GPS, no AAA, no car radios to keep one entertained.

And I guess it was only fitting that when I finally picked up a rock station (versus country and religious), that this song came on:

 

I think I have turned a page in the journey to push myself out of my comfort zone.

And on the way back, I will push myself again and go back part of the way on Route 95.

 

 

This is a story that I have long been trying to figure out how to write about.  Several years back, my brother decided to hold a yard sale of sorts since when my mom moved into assisted living, he ended up with lots of stuff.  And for me, having to pack up a house several years earlier, I did not want to have more stuff.  So, as I circled the table in my brother’s basement, there was really nothing that I really wanted.  I spied two mixing bowls that I remember using to bake with my Grandmother, so I did grab something to help take a few things off my brother’s load.

But there was one other thing that caught my eye.  There was an old box sitting there.  Curiously, I opened the musty box to find a box of envelopes.  They were all addressed to my grandmother.  I asked my mother and she said her father had written them all.  I opened one and could not read most of the cursive.  Interesting, but they weren’t interesting enough for me to bring them home with me.  I took my bowls and was happy the I didn’t come home with more stuff that would sit in my cellar.

However, on the ride home and over the next several days, I kept thinking about those letters.  While my grandmother, Artena, had played a big role in my life, I never knew my grandfather Joseph as he died ten years before I was born.  Perhaps these letters would provide me with a glimpse of who he was.  So, with that in mind, I called my brother and said I would take the letters.  At the next family gathering, he handed me the musty box.

At first, I just tried to read the letters.  The cursive handwriting was really difficult for me to decipher.  I noticed that all the letters were written on hotel letterhead, which was interesting.  From what I could decipher, a lot of the letters were about how much my grandfather was missing my grandmother.  I almost felt like I was intruding into their relationship.  The only thing I thought about doing was ordering the letters into smaller boxes by years, so I did that.  The letters ran from 1929 to 1940. And then, they sat on the top shelf of my closet of my office.

Over the next year, I kept thinking what to do with these letters.  On the last time I saw my Aunt Betsy before she died, she thought I should write a book.  I asked her if she knew what my grandfather did.  Betsy thought he sold alcohol but that didn’t make sense to me since some of the years was during Prohibition.  So, still, I didn’t know what to do with these letters.  So, in the closet they sat.

I thought maybe I could make some sort of collage with the letters.  Maybe do something with maps.  I wasn’t sure about the story aspect – in some of the letters he called my grandmother “Tee” and signed the letter “Davey”.  That might make a good title, but I was’t sure there was enough substance to write a whole story.  I thought about doing something with the hotels.  I looked up a few and found that they either didn’t exist anymore or I couldn’t find anything about them.  So, in the closet they sat.

Fast forward to April 2019.  I was recovering from bunion surgery, so I got to spend a lot of quality time on the couch.  This couch time allowed me to contemplate lots of different things.  I missed doing some type of research.  Not being associated with a higher education facility any longer, I felt like I was not going to be able to do the scholarly research that I had done with my doctoral studies.  The second main item that I thought about was what to do for a vacation this year.  Since being divorced, my vacations have mainly involved (and I am not complaining, I love these!) spending time with the boys at their new locations or with friends who live out of state.  For my upcoming milestone birthday, I had thought about doing the Camino de Santiago in Spain.  I felt like I needed to start to push myself to do some different things by myself.  What could I do for this coming summer to push myself out of my comfort zone a tad.  And the third main topic of thinking centered on those darn letters.  Finally, I had an epiphany moment.  It was 2019.  The first set of letters between my grandfather and my grandmother were in 1929, 90 years ago.  I hobbled upstairs and grabbed that box off the closet shelf and looked at where he traveled that year.  Providence, New Bedford, Fall River, Houlton, Presque Isle, Edmunston, Fort Kent, Concord, Manchester, Springfield, Pittsfield, North Adams, Wilmington, Greenfield, Gardner, Fitchburg were the addresses on the envelopes.  I thought to myself, how about if I visited these places to see where my grandfather traveled 90 years ago.  And hence, my recreated 1929 road trip story was born.

I tried testing out the idea on my friends and colleagues.  At dinner one night with my friends, when I told them about this idea, my friend Karen, a librarian, excitedly told me that she had a collection of books that might help with this trip.  During the Depression, the Federal Writers Project wrote a book about each state.  I thought this was cool but once I opened it up, I found it was even cooler because in the book, there were descriptions of various “tours” all over the state.  Since in 1929, there were no big interstate highways like we have now, I had already decided that these trips would be done on “by-ways” versus “highways” (which also were much better suited to my style).  And these books provided great actual routes that I could use.  Another friend thought this might be a great article for regional magazines.  Everyone I told about this project thought it sounded really cool.  I kept reading the letters over and over again and got better at deciphering the cursive.   I found a “travel log” that provided me with the name of the company that my grandfather worked for.  Turns out it was a Richmond Virginia based tobacco company. Research doesn’t need to involve qualitative and quantitative measures.  I could research about the towns, the hotels, the routes, about the life of salesmen during the Depression.  I put together four different road trips, ranging from two day trips to one overnight trip to a multi-day trip and got the dates on the calendar.

So, tomorrow the quest begins.  The quest to do a little research.  The quest to push myself out of my comfort zone.  The quest to retrace my grandfather’s footsteps from 90 years ago.

You will be able to follow my travels on this blog as well as on Facebook and on Instagram – 1929roadtrips