From Dave Brigham:
I recently explored parts of Beverly, a small city about 26 miles northeast of Boston along Massachusetts Bay. I had more time than I usually take for tromping around, so I was able to make photos in the late afternoon and into mid-evening. Most of the shots featured in this post were made before dusk; in my second post about the North Shore city, I will feature more shots taken as the sun was going down.
After parking on Cabot Street, I started my tour across from the stunning and historic First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church.
Built in 1770, this Greek Revival beauty -- I mean, look at that yellow paint job! -- was altered significantly in 1835, according to MACRIS. The church "was remodelled, the whole interior was removed, the steeple, with its gilded chanticleer, was severed from the main body; the eastern porch was taken away and the stout oak frame, which had borne the storms of more than sixty years was alone retained."
The "1667" seen on the facade references John Hale’s Puritan Church formed in that year, according to the church's web site.
On the opposite side of Cabot Street I spied a cool work of art on the exterior of Bonefish Harry's, which calls itself a seafood saloon.
What next caught my attention was the Odd Fellows Hall, a High Victorian Gothic knockout built in 1875.
Currently home to businesses including La Victoria Taqueria, Tartine Kitchen & Eatery and Bonny Breads, the hall was built by "S.F. Ober and Sons (Samuel F. Ober, S. Ellis Ober and John T. Ober) -- leading builders of the day," according to MACRIS. The masonry work was done by Augustus Williams, who constructed many public buildings and private residences.
While built for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, this hall was used in more recent years as a Masonic Temple. The building also held the executive offices of President William Howard Taft during the two summers (1909 and 1910) of his residence at what is now Lynch Park (overlooking the Bay) and another at what was known as Paramatta, located at 70 Corning Street, per MACRIS. Taft's name will come up again below.
When I first saw the sign below, I thought the cleaning business was shuttered, but I was wrong.
Both Sam's Cleaners and the adjacent and similar sounding Siam Delight Thai restaurant are open.
You can tell by the sign above that Sam's has been around for a while. A Dun & Bradstreet listing online indicates the business was founded in 1955.
Continuing south on Cabot Street, I saw the sign for a restaurant named for a long-running radio program from the first half of last century.
Fibber McGee's Bar and Grill seems like a decent place serving typical bar food. But the fact that it's named for "Fibber McGee and Molly," an NBC Radio show that was on the air from 1935 to 1959, well, I just find that funny. "It featured the misadventures of a working-class couple: habitual storyteller Fibber McGee and his sometimes terse but always loving wife Molly, living among their numerous neighbors and acquaintances in the community of Wistful Vista," according to Wikipedia. "As with radio comedies of the era, Fibber McGee and Molly featured an announcer, house band and vocal quartet for interludes."
I remember my parents talking once in a while about this program when I was a kid in the 1970s. Anyway, according to the establishment's web site, scenes from the movie "Manchester by the Sea" were filmed at the bar.
In the same building as Fibber McGee's -- the Pingree Block, which was built around the turn of last century -- is Soho Cats Luxury Feline Hotel.
This is the first time I've posted a photo here of such an establishment. I'm "feline" OK about that.
I doubled back after the cat hotel, and got a nice shot of three distinct, mid- to late-19th century buildings.
On the left is the Woodbury House, located on the corner of Vestry and Cabot streets. Currently home to Beverly Holistic Health, this Second Empire Mansard building dates to 1860, according to MACRIS. In the middle is 150-152 Cabot Street, which MACRIS lists only as being from the mid-19th century. Its tenant is El Jalisco Mexican Grill. On the right is 156 Cabot, which is known as the Peabody Building. Built in 1890-1, this Romanesque Revival building "is architecturally valuable as a largely intact example of Richardson-influenced design, and as part of one of Beverly's most important clusters of commercial buildings," per MACRIS.
The current tenant is Unpacked Living, which calls itself a sustainable market.
At 222 Cabot Street is the Rogers Building, currently home to a Rent-a-Center franchise, and previously occupied by a Family Dollar store.
Here's the story, from MACRIS: "First listed in the 1899-1900 Beverly directory, this building was called the Rogers Building. Early commercial tenants were clothing and dry goods stores and the Beverly Gas and Electric Co. By 1901 more of the building was rented, with additional hardware and variety stores on the ground level, and offices and a hall rented to organizations on upper floors. Two of these were the Order of United American Mechanics...and the Golden Star Council No. 22. The building evidently was built with at least one more floor than it now contains. In 1933 a fire destroyed the upper two floors; the building, rebuilt, was called the Dana Building. At that time many fraternal organizations used the building, professionals had upstairs offices, and on ground level tenants were a department store, drug store, bakery, and a variety store."
Continuing north on Cabot Street, just past Church Street, is the local YMCA, which provides yet another presidential connection, as well as a chance to talk about its great sign.
"On August 31,1910, the cornerstone for the YMCA was set in place by the President of the United States — William Howard Taft. President Taft, who was spending his second summer here in Beverly, had earlier made the first unsolicited contribution of $100.00 to the building fund," according to MACRIS.
As for the great lighted sign, it's original, and older than I would've guessed, per MACRIS. "The original sign...still exists, projecting out over the sidewalk from the south end of the façade, anchored at the top and bottom and extending approximately from the top of the second floor to the top of the first floor between the southernmost window bay and the corner quoins....Below the 'A,' at the bottom of the sign, is the Federal Electric Co. 1903 patent mark."
Cool!
Just to the north of the YMCA is St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church, one third of the Beverly Catholic Collaborative.
I was fighting the setting sun, so didn't manage to capture the entire brick-and-brownstone building, which is quite impressive. Built in 1908, this house of worship replaced a prior church building that burned down in 1896, per MACRIS.
"The parish of St. Mary's Star of the Sea was created in 1870 as a mission church of the Immaculate Conception Church of Salem," MACRIS continues.
Next up - a record store!
I'm always happy to see a record store, be it a holdover from the 1960s or 1970s or a relatively new one, which is what Soundtracks appears to be. The shop's founder goes by DJ 7L, and is a member of Czarface, a multimedia joint featuring lyricist and comic book artist Esoteric and Inspectah Deck of Wu-Tang Clan. Hey, he's famous!
A short distance away, on Knowlton Street, I spied a nice mural.
A quick search turned up a place at this address called The Backrooms Guild, but it seems to be defunct.
After shooting the mural, I looked up to where Knowlton crosses Dane Street, and my jaw just about dropped.
My photos don't do this place justice. As I was snapping away, a car drove by and a woman called out, "Isn't it beautiful?" Indeed, despite being a little rough around the edges, the Dane Street Congregational Church is quite the stunner. "The original Dane Street church was a large frame building with porches on either end. In 1832, the first meetinghouse was destroyed by fire, and the parishioners immediately built this building in the Greek and Gothic Revival styles, which work very well together in this design," according to this post at Buildings of New England. "The church expanded in 1896 and constructed a two-story addition on the side with a bowed façade covered with flushboard siding, full height pilasters, heavily molded arched windows, and a roof balustrade."
I returned to the church after the sun had gone down, and found it even more enchanting.
The building is currently occupied by Anchor Bay Church.
Next door to the church is another gorgeous building, this one a former house of worship that is currently home to the city's municipal inspections department.
From MACRIS: the building "was originally built at 248 1⁄2 Cabot Street for the First Baptist Church in Beverly to use as a chapel. The building was completed in 1863....The Church vacated the building a few years later upon completion of their new Meeting House, and the Town of Beverly then used the building as a High School until 1875....In March, 1876, the Town meeting voted to allow the Beverly Light Infantry Company, an organization of veterans of the War of 1812, to use the building for an Armory. From that time until the 1930s, other veterans’ groups utilized the building, in particular the John H. Chipman Post 89, Grand Army of the Republic. As a result of that use, the building is known as the GAR Building.
"In 1941 Beverly...decided to move the GAR Hall from Cabot Street to its current location at 8 Dane Street, land that was owned by the Massachusetts Department Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. In 1960, the Massachusetts Department Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War sold the land to the City of Beverly for $4,800, with provisions that it would always be known as the GAR Hall, that relics and memorabilia of the GAR would be exhibited in the building or elsewhere, and that the Massachusetts Department Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War could continue to use the building for two nights each month."
The building was used by the city's recreation department for a time, before the inspection department took over.
As I continued north on Cabot Street, I snuck a peak down Charnock Street and boy oh boy am I glad I did!
Painted on a building that is part of Montserrat College of Art's campus, this work by Erik Lomen, an alumi of the school, "depicts Willie Alexander's dream of Gloucester poets Charles Olson and Vincent Ferrini 'shooting poems and words like bullets at one another on a beach,'" according to this Flickr page featuring a photo of the work.
Olson was born in Worcester, Mass., in 1910, but he eventually made his home in Gloucester, about 15 miles away from Beverly. He published several volumes of poems and was a professor at Black Mountain College, the State University of New York at Buffalo and the University of Connecticut over the years.
As for Ferrini, he was born in Saugus, Mass., in 1913 and moved to Gloucester in 1948. He, too, published several volumes of poems. "Ferrini’s presence loomed large on the Gloucester literary scene," according to this profile at the Sawyer Free Library web site. "He had a precarious relationship with Charles Olson, one that had a mixture of respect, competition, and criticism. Many important contemporary literary figures, such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Robert Creeley, came to Gloucester to visit both authors."
And what of Willie Alexander? Born in 1943 in Philadelphia, the singer/songwriter/keyboardist has been based in Gloucester for quite some time, and is a Boston music scene legend. From Wikipedia: "He played with the Lost, the Bagatelle and the Grass Menagerie, before becoming a member of the Velvet Underground in late 1971, joining fellow Grass Menagerie alumni Doug Yule and Walter Powers and replacing Sterling Morrison, who had gone off to pursue an academic career.
"With the Velvet Underground, Alexander toured England, Scotland and the Netherlands in support of then-current album Loaded. After completing the tour on November 21, 1971, in Groningen, the band planned to start recording a new album, but band manager Steve Sesnick sent all of the band but Yule home, presumably to retain maximum control of the product (the resulting album was Squeeze, released in 1973) and effectively ending Alexander's time with the band. After leaving the Velvet Underground, he enjoyed a checkered career, both solo and with his Boom Boom Band, that lasts to this day. In-between, Alexander teamed up with Powers to tour France in 1982 for French punk record label New Rose Records."
He is featured in "Polis Is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place," a documentary directed by Henry Ferrini, the nephew of Vincent Ferrini.
(I love the VW bug front end tacked onto the building.)
I looped around on Cabot Street once I hit Elliott Street, where I saw the nice sign for Super Sub Shop.
The sandwich shop has been in business since 1970.
Ambling south now, I really dug, well, everything about the side of Pilgrim Church: the handmade cross, the unintentional two-tone paint job that nicely offsets the "JESUS LIVES" sign, the simple sign for the congregation, the air conditioning unit seemingly holding it all together.
According to MACRIS, this building at 300 Cabot Street is known historically as Hatch and Mitchell's Grocery Store, and dates to 1876.
Another, more traditional church, sits across Cabot Street, at the corner of Dane Street.
Living Faith United Methodist Church dates to 1920. I dig the yellow doors.
Next up is the showpiece of the cental commercial district: The Cabot.
A gem of a place, the theater "opened on December 8, 1920 as a dream palace for vaudeville and silent movies and it was hailed as 'the most impressive auditorium of its size east of New York,'" per the Cabot's web site. "Known then as The Ware Theater, it shared a distinguished architectural pedigree, designed by the architects of Boston’s Athenaeum and Olympia Theater and Dorchester’s Strand Theater."
The theater "was closed in 1950 for safety reasons following the discovery of a sagging roof beam," according to Cinema Treasures. "It was rectified and reopened on October 15, 1965 and renamed Cabot Theatre." The theater "has been open almost continuously, and was only closed briefly in the 1970’s before the Le Grande David magic troupe bought and refurbished the theatre for their magic shows. The famous magic troupe continued showing a large mixture of films to compliment the stage acts. It was closed in spring of 2014. In November 2014 the building was sold and re-opened in February 2015 as a performing arts center."
I have been here once, to see Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" fame. It's a great place to see comedy, live music and movies. And there are amazing murals on the exterior.
Down Judson Street, past the rear of the theater, is Herman A. Spear Post 331 of the American Legion.
I'll just about always make a photo of a fraternal organization, social club or veterans organization building. I like the way the light hit this building, especially on the bricked-up windows.
One block south, at the corner of Cabot and Pond streets, is The Cabot Lodge, a boutique hotel with a clever name.
Housed in a circa-1897 Victorian Eclectic building, the hotel seeks to capture "the coastal nostalgia of New England’s Clipper Ships and their trade routes through the West Indies," according to its web site. The decor mixes Caribbean and colonial American influences. As for the building, it is known historically as thte Marston and Sturtevant Grocers Building. In subsequent years, 278 Cabot Street was an auto supply store and then, in 1979, became home to Brown’s Bicycles. "The second and third residential stories mainly housed local musicians who formed their own community, Brown Town," according to the hotel's web site.
As for the name, the Cabot family is known as one of the "first families" of Boston, who rose to become successful merchants "operating a fleet of privateers carrying opium, rum, and slaves," per Wikipedia. The Lodges, a family that produced many well-known politicians, merchants and poets in Massachusetts, and the Cabots were part of the Boston Brahmin class of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Perhaps the best known member of these clans is Henry Cabot Lodge, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts whose father was John Ellerton Lodge and mother was Anna Cabot.
To wrap up this post, I'm featuring murals on the side of Worthy Girl, a consignment shop "full of fresh styles, the latest trends, and your favorite brands," according to its web site.
I haven't been able to determine who painted these works of art.
After shooting the murals, I continued south to a bench looking across Cabot Street at the Universalist Church that kicked off this post. I still had time, so I checked Google Maps, headed west on Federal Street and...well, you'll have to check back for the next Beverly installment to see what I found.
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