USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > Some annals of Nahant, Massachusetts > Part 7
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The numerous lands he had acquired, scattered all over town, passed by inheritance to a group so widely spread in residence that a corporation was formed to facilitate the pass-
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ing of titles as the land was sold. This is the Nahant Land Company, still owners of more vacant land than any others, in spite of considerable sales. This company is often named as a real estate trust, so long has it functioned, while essentially it is only an estate to be settled.
Tudor is said to have named three things he wished to do, all of which came to pass, - to ship ice to the Indies; to have six children; and to make trees grow on Nahant. The results of Tudor's great ice enterprise seem to have been all he could have hoped. He came to eminence as a merchant, with Tudor Wharf over in Charlestown, and a Tudor building on Court Street, in Boston, located where Young's Hotel served the public for so many years until it closed in 1927. He obtained exclusive privileges for ice cutting on ponds around Boston. One of these was Walden Pond, made famous by Thoreau. Another was Wenham Lake, and mention may be found of this in Kipling's "Second Jungle Book." Here, in the story entitled "The Undertakers," the Adjutant Bird tells how a sailor on a great boat unloading white stuff threw him a piece. Never had he felt such excessive cold, and when his spasm was over there was nothing at all left of the food. "The adjutant had done his very best to describe his feelings after swallowing a seven pound lump of Wenham Lake ice, off an American ice ship, in the days before Calcutta made her ice by machinery." In "Walden" Thoreau writes, "Thus it appears that the sweltering inhabitants of Charleston and New Orleans, of Madras and Bombay and Calcutta, drink at my well." The "Ice King" was the most famous of the Tudor ice ships, and is pictured herein. A return cargo was found of East Indies products, though American cotton goods had destroyed a former trade in Indian equivalents. The homeward trip, says Morrison in "Maritime History of Massachusetts," was not so cool as the outbound voyage, and there were other discomforts. It is said that on the arrival of a vessel it was not uncommon to see a pack of terrified dogs running up State Street, in Boston, pursued by an army of Calcutta cockroaches.
CHAPTER VI
HOTELS
IN these first fifty years after 1800, hotels played so large a part in Nahant life that a large space must be given to them. The residents of the town, probably all of them, took boarders or furnished meals long prior to 1800 as they did long after- wards. People now living came to Nahant and boarded, fifty years ago or so, in the old Johnson Homestead across the street from the present Town Hall. But none of these houses was built as a hotel. The first building constructed as such was the one at Bass Point, built and run by Joseph Johnson and Nathan Silsbee from 1803 or earlier until sold for a private residence in 1840. It was burned a year or two after building and was promptly rebuilt, as told elsewhere.
An advertisement of this hotel in 1802 seems up to date in its claims for perfections, and its light frankness seems also in keeping with good present-day practice:
Joseph Johnson informs the public in general and the valetudi- narians and sportsmen in particular, that he has reopened a House of Entertainment on the most delightful, pleasant, airy and healthy spot on Nahant, where he will be found ready furnished with every good thing to cheer the heart, to brace the frame, or to pamper the appetite. His house is commodious and neat, in the vicinity of the best fishing and boating on the peninsula; and he keeps a neat sailboat always afloat for the accommodation of his friends. To the other inducements he adds his respectful invita- tion; and while he will attend his guests with delight, he assures them that every favour shall be remembered with gratitude.
Friend to pastime, foe to care, Come, enjoy our sports and fare. Come, and stay a week or so; But if uneasy, haste to go.
The "Log Cabin" of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" Times Replaced by present home of Arthur S. Johnson
Steamboat "Ulysses" at Tudor Wharf, 1870
Foreground, stone boat with stone for rebuilding wharf, sunk in September gale, 1869
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HOTELS
It has been argued that the use of the word "reopened" in this notice means opened after rebuilding, and that therefore it was built and burned before 1802. Lewis specifically men- tions this fire as in 1803, however, and gives the exact time, even to the hour of the day, with some details about the escape of the occupants. It would seem that such details must have come from some authentic source to Lewis, and that Johnson's use of "reopened" referred to some hotel elsewhere and was an attempt to attract old patrons. In later days this building was known as the "Old Castle" and was said to be haunted, perhaps by the ghosts of revellers. It was taken down in 1903, when the late Edward E. Strout built his home a few rods away.
Samuel Breed was designated "Inn Keeper" in an old deed of 1738, and if he was an inn keeper his house was an inn. This means that what is now the Whitney Homestead reaches farthest back among Nahant hotels. It was not, however, built as a hotel, and in 1817 the last Breed moved to Lynn and Jesse Rice took over the property. A wing was added in 1820 or a little earlier, which made it certainly a building for hotel purposes primarily. This was the easterly end for a dining room with sleeping rooms above.
June 13, 1821, the old "Columbian Centinel" carries this advertisement:
Jesse Rice would inform his friends and the public that he has lately made an addition to this house of a large hall and sleeping chambers, so that he will be able to give better accommodations to parties than he has heretofore, and will have large accommodations for boarders. He assures the public that no pains shall be spared on his part to give perfect satisfaction to all who may honor him with their company.
This hotel was called the "Rice House," and is the one mentioned by Hawthorne and other writers of this period. Rice started the first line of public conveyances between Nahant and Lynn.
Then there was the Nahant House built by Cornelius Cool- idge about 1820, later owned by George Peabody and lately
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SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
by Dudley B. Fay. Albert Whitney came to Nahant to keep this hotel, and in 1840 Jesse Rice, whose daughter Whitney married, sold the Rice House to his son-in-law.
In the meantime one of the four Hood houses mentioned elsewhere had been built about 1819 and kept as a public house until 1826 by Richard Hood. Then it was sold to Charles Bradbury, who sold to Jesse Rice in 1840. Rice kept this as a hotel until 1861. It was said that during its early years many English officers came here for entertainment, more or less disguised as civilians. This is the house, still often known as the Rice House, setting close to the street line, on Nahant Road across from the head of Wharf Street.
Whitney kept "Whitney's Hotel" until 1883. He built the long wing on the westerly end of the building in 1859. An advertisement in the "Lynn Mirror" of June, 1841, is of
WHITNEY, FORMERLY RICE HOTEL, NAHANT
This long established and well known house, having been recently repaired and newly painted throughout under the immediate direc- tion of the subscriber, is now open for the reception of permanent and transient guests. It is delightfully situated upon one of the most pleasant retreats of Nahant. Every exertion will be made to merit the favor of the public. Patronage respectfully solicited. Meals 50 to 75 cents.
JUNE 16, 1841.
A. WHITNEY.
N.B. - Parties can be accommodated with a yacht of eighteen tons, with all fishing apparatus.
After closing from 1883 to 1896 it was reopened by a daughter of Whitney as a boarding house, and was called the "Whitney Homestead," under which title it is still operated by members of the family.
The Nahant House, which Whitney gave up in 1840, was soon sold to George Peabody and remodelled into a private house.
Then should be mentioned the Joseph Johnson house on Nahant Road, which bore a modest sign "J. Johnson." It
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HOTELS
was built early in the century, 1801 to 1803. It cared for both permanent and transient guests. When Joseph Johnson died, in 1854, his son Edmund B. Johnson kept the house as a hotel or boarding house until 1867.
But nearly all these early houses catered to summer visitors. Dexter Stetson, who bought the Abner Hood, Jr., place, now a part of the Upham estate, took boarders. The Artemus Murdock house, now the house of the "Edgehill" group nearest Nahant Road, was another. The Jonathan Johnson house, or Mrs. Ann Johnson's, as it was later called, was where the post office block now stands. This was moved to the corner of Willow Road and Wharf Street, and lost its identity in the larger construction now known as the "Rock- ledge." The Bulfinch house on the corner of Nahant Road and Ocean Street, now owned by Philip Young, was another. The Tudor Homestead, now the Nahant Club, was at one time kept as a boarding house by Mrs. A. E. Robinson, who later bought the Murdock property and developed the exten- sive "Edgehill" buildings. The "Trooper" Johnson Home- stead, later the home of Caleb Johnson and his son, C. Hervey Johnson, now the Sigourney estate, was at one time rented to Frederick Rouillard of Boston, once of the well-known old Julien House at the corner of Congress and Milk Streets. Later on Nahant he kept a small place near by and served fish dinners. The oldest part of Hotel Tudor was a small cottage on the corner of Nahant Road and Summer Street, just westerly from the Francis Johnson house, later Mrs. S. J. Melvin's and now E. J. Hutchinson's. It was owned by Samuel Perkins and occupied by his family until 1842. Be- tween 1842 and 1854 Mrs. William Cary owned and occupied this house, which had become familiarly known as the Aunt Sam Perkins house. Perkins was a brother of Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins, who is mentioned elsewhere. In 1854 Frederic Tudor bought it and moved it to Willow Road, where he enlarged and rebuilt it. It was used as a private house, occupied for several years by Dr. Dix, and then as a summer hotel known as the Hood Cottage, so named because
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SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
it stood on land formerly owned by the Hoods. Still later it was bought by William Catto, who remodelled it in 1893 and opened it as the "Hotel Tudor."
Mention should be made of the "Bay View House," still standing close to the streets at the northerly corner of Willow Road and Summer Street. It was opened as a hotel about 1869, and was, though remodelled, the ell of the Dexter Stet- son house, formerly owned by Abner Hood, Jr. Thomas Demster was one of the first proprietors, afterwards the first manager of the Bass Point House.
But the hotel which overshadowed all of these and made them minor matters was, of course, the great Nahant Hotel on East Point, the district formerly known as the Ram Pas- ture. Mention has been made of Colonel Thomas H. Perkins, and that he and William Paine were the signers of an invita- tion to those interested in this hotel project to meet in Boston in September, 1821. The notice appeared in the "Columbian Centinel" for September 15. In June, 1823, the house was opened and the following notice appeared in Boston papers. It seems to follow the perfervid description method which has been noted in other excerpts:
This magnificent establishment is now open for the reception of visitors to the most delightful spot on the American Coast for health or pleasure. It is impossible to select a residence which combines so many natural and artificial advantages.
Located in the bosom of the ocean, the air is salubrious and inviting; while the spacious bay, continually presenting the fleets of commerce, with the hills, verdant plains, islands, villages and country seats, extending from the heights of Scituate to the penin- sula of Cape Ann, form a panorama unrivalled in any country.
The numerous projecing cliffs afford excellent sites for the angler, from whence even old Izaak Walton would have thrown his line with pleasure, and looked abroad upon the wilderness of water "in moral contemplation wrapt."
The hotel is capacious and fitted up with every convenience, where the superintendent, Captain James Magee, so distinguished for his gentlemanly deportment and kind disposition, is most assiduous to make every one happy and comfortable. There are floating, hot, cold and shower salt water baths, billiard rooms,
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HOTELS
bowling alleys, a beautiful marine hippodrome which twice in twenty-four hours is laved and rolled smooth by the waves of the ocean; and numerous interesting walks for health, exercise and amusement. In truth, Nahant is the chosen domain of youthful Hygeia, the pleasant summer residence of the invalid and of all those who seek enjoyment or require relaxation from the cares of business life; whether they flee from the sultry clime of the South, or the "Stir of the great Babels" of commerce, there they can be at ease and keep cool.
Captain Magee was a relative of Mrs. Perkins, and a curious reference is made to him in an account owned by the Nahant Church, which says: "He commanded a little steamer called the 'Tom Thumb,' which I believe ran to Chelsea and perhaps to Nahant. T. H. Perkins, Sr., is sponser for this: On one occasion he was on board the 'Thumb,' when Magee, in a loud voice, putting his head into the little companionway that led to the engine, cried, 'Mr. Engineer, how many inches on the Thumb?' 'Two and a half, sir,' replies the engineer. 'Then give her another stick of wood, Mr. Engineer.'" What makes this anecdote curious is that there seems to have been no "Tom Thumb," certainly not among the early steamers, while Tom Thumb, the dwarf for whom it might be assumed the craft was named, was a very diminutive little man in the Court of King Arthur. It seems doubtful if any of these crafts seemed small at the time, and therefore skepticism arises as to the name, the time and the boat.
The following year a further account adds to the description :
The hotel itself is a large stone edifice, containing seventy cham- bers, in a number of which are recesses for beds.
:
There is a dining room fifty feet in length and of sufficient size to accommodate one hundred and twenty-four persons at table; be- sides these there are several private parlors and a capacious stable, a handsome bathing house for warm and cold baths, a machine of peculiar construction for bathing in the open sea, excellent boats for sailing and fishing.
This notice is signed by Durant & Johnson, who managed the house until 1827. J. L. Homer, writing in 1848, says:
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SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
The original cost of the land, hotel and outbuildings was about $60,000, which was divided into shares of $100 each. It was car- ried on several years after its completion, with very little advantage to its proprietors, however, by the late James Magee, Esq., a gentle- man of fine epicurean taste, and by Messrs. Johnson & Durand. In 1825, the original stockholders being a little sick of their bargain, having never received a dividend upon their investment, the hotel was sold at public auction, at the depreciated price of $14,000. The purchasers were Colonel Thomas H. Perkins and Dr. Edward H. Robbins, who enlarged its dimensions considerably by adding to it the easterly wing, which is now used as the principal dining room for the lodgers. This improvement cost several thousand dollars. Messrs. Perkins and Robbins sold the hotel again, in 1842, to its present proprietor, Mr. Drew, for $25,000. This gentleman made a great bargain. Owing to a combination of circumstances, it is now valued at more than double that sum.
After Messrs. Perkins and Robbins became the purchasers of the hotel it was carried on several years for their account by different individuals, none of whom succeeded so well as the proprietors ex- pected they would, with perhaps one exception. In 1833 Mr. R. W. Holman, now of the United States Hotel, became the agent of the proprietors, for whom he acted until about 1840, driving a moder- ately prosperous business at all times. During one season under his management, I am informed, the hotel cleared about $6,000 in three months, - a pretty fair business, this. Mr. Holman was succeeded in the agency of the proprietors by Mr. Drew, who, in 1842, as I have before stated, became sole proprietor of the establishment, and since that time has been blessed with a run of prosperity which must have been highly flattering to his feelings and grateful to his purse. The present season has been successful beyond any previous one.
One of Drew's advertisements says that "an extensive gar- den has been laid out, and many other improvements for the pleasure of visitors. Parents are informed that a school for children will be kept on the premises." A letter written in August, 1848, and published in Homer's pamphlet of 1848, shows that some backbiting was going on, perhaps from jeal- ousy at Drew's success. The letter takes pains to say that it does not allude to persons who follow the same business in Nahant, "for so far as Nahant is concerned they mind their own affairs; but there is a class of people who, having no
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HOTELS
business of their own to attend to, busy themselves in instruct- ing persons far more competent than themselves." It would seem that no generation is free from the busybody. The greatest howls are howls for the other fellow's piece of cake.
In 1852 Drew sold to Rand & Sons of the old Sagamore House in Lynn. One reference says it was sold to a group of Lynn people. They enlarged it again until it reached the form presented by the large lithograph pictures of it. These were advertising material, and many are in existence. The Nahant Public Library has two, and one hangs on the walls of the Maolis Club house. Some years ago a roll containing thirty or forty of these was found in Lynn, and they were dispersed to as many people. In 1854 Paran Stevens, the most noted hotel man of the times, was its manager, with J. E. P. Stevens. It was remodelled again, but not enlarged, in 1855. It was lighted by gas, then unusual for a country place, and it is said to have represented a total investment of well over $300,000. Telegraph wires connected it with the world, so says a contemporary writing, but it is doubtful how much of the world was reached. Morse's invention was first used over short distances about 1835, and yet it was 1858 before any regular and useful telegraphic service was set up between Lynn and Boston. Steam heating was installed in the hotel in 1859, to enable a longer season, which was so advertised. Much of the patronage was from the South and from Canada. The slavery agitation grew violent and war was imminent and patronage fell away. The management apparently used every effort to make 1859 a successful season, but it was the last season the house was opened. Gilmore's band, the most famous military band, perhaps, that this country has had, was engaged. A concert program for August 29, 1857, by an Englishman, George Henry Russell, shows the "Celebrated Songs of That Period." He sang "Life on the Ocean Wave," "The Gambler's Wife," "The Song of the Shirt," "The Newfoundland Dog," "The Ship on Fire" and "Cheer, Boys, Cheer." The house closed on October 1, 1859. The end was reached.
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SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
In the summer of 1861 the furnishings and fittings were sold at auction. Many things thus found their way to scat- tered ownership about Nahant, as well as to a wider field. In its later years it was known commonly both as the Nahant Hotel and the Nahant House. The original Nahant House, already mentioned, had passed to private ownership and occupancy, and no distinction was longer necessary. The hotel was burned on September 12, 1861, and is described as a magnificent sight in its destruction, visible, because of its commanding position, far out to sea and for many miles along the coast. The ruins, which were notably of the older stone part of the original building, were left standing for many years. Photographs of them are extant, as in the Nahant Public Library, and an old Prang chromo dated 1867 shows them.
The billiard hall of this famous outfit still remains, the most easterly building on the estate of the late Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who used it in recent years for a book storage room. It is a dignified, well-proportioned little building, rank- ing among the older structures of Nahant. Another part of this hotel group, not burned, was moved to Short Beach, where it now stands, owned by J. C. Shaughnessy, and long the home of his father. It is the first house eastward from the beach on the shore side of Nahant Road. It is said that this was the private quarters of the proprietor, Paran Stevens, and there is a little gusto in the explanation that here Mrs. Paran Stevens lived, in this simple cottage, because she afterwards became such a social lion - or lioness.
This seems to be the story of the great hotel, the greatest of its time, and of the general hotel business on Nahant during a long period. Bass Point is newer, and has a chapter to itself, as likewise the Maolis House which was closely associated with the Maolis Gardens.
A little pamphlet entitled "Letters from Nahant," dated 1848, and with no author named, says, "It is now over twenty years since the erection of the Hotel, which took place in 1820, and from that time Nahant has grown to be one of the most
Henry Cabot Lodge Public Library Trustee
Joseph T. Wilson Elected over one hundred times
Edmund B. Johnson Town Treasurer
Walter Johnson Highway Surveyor
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HOTELS
celebrated watering places in the country." "A night's sleep at Nahant, in hot weather, is a luxury nowhere else to be enjoyed; if ice is a luxury at Canton, so is a bed at Drews, of a hot August night. To be appreciated it must be enjoyed; no one can describe its invigorating influence."
An editorial in the Lynn "Mirror" of July 16, 1835, reads:
Nahant, if we may judge from the carriages which daily pass over the beach, continues to be the favorite resort for pleasure and comfort. The fresh, cool breezes after the still sultry days passed in the city are very refreshing. The advantages of sport in fishing and gunning, the romantic and rural appearance of the place, and the excellence of the public houses will continue to make this a fa- vorite retreat. We made an excursion there last week with a party of friends and found the place alive, with ladies galloping on horse- back; fishing and shooting in whatever direction we turned our eyes. We called at the house of our friend Rice, a hotel, one of the oldest in the place, which for neatness, stillness, convenience, pleasant- ness and abundance of good fare, and, what is important in these days of pressure, reasonable of charge, we should recommend to the patronage of our friends and the public.
An advertisement in the Lynn "Mirror" of September 23, 1826, says that a coach will run from the Nahant Hotel twice a day, at 8 A.M. and 3 P.M., connecting with coaches for Boston, Salem, etc. Fare, fifty cents each way. The times of running were changed to suit the tides, as access over the beach was difficult at any time near high tide. Another advertisement of the same year is for a fisherman for the Nahant Hotel. "Robin Adair" was a favorite ballad of the time, and the Lynn "Mirror" of April 28, 1827, quotes a parody from the "Evening Gazette" on the purchase of the hotel by Perkins and Robbins:
Who bought Nahant Hotel? Robbins, I hear. Pray, will it turn out well? Oh, never fear. Will all the mirth and glee That we were wont to see Be all revived by thee, Robbins, my dear?
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SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
Without a steamboat nought Comes off Nahant. This has he also bought, So I have learnt. Hot, cold, seasick or so Down we'll for ninepence go; Budge not by land or sea, Robbins, I sha'n't.
But now thou art cold to me East winds prevail. Yet soon shall verdure be O'er hill and dale. Then will grasshoppers sing, Then will thy chowder bring Crowds. Oh! - this is the thing, Robbins, all hail!
This effusion would not find a place in any anthology, except, perhaps, of worst poetry, if the "Sweet Singer of Michigan" had not pre-empted all that space. The various excerpts are given to show the times. Another paper in 1827 says:
On Saturday last six hundred persons left Nahant for Boston; we are glad to find that visitors at this pleasant retreat are again becom- ing frequent. On Monday nearly three hundred people dined at the Nahant Hotel and were excellently well accommodated. One com- pany, composed principally of members of musical choirs of several societies of the city, to the number of nearly two hundred, dined at tables extending the entire length of the three piazzas. Among the visitors at the Hotel this season are numbers of our southern friends, and if we may be pardoned for introducing the name of a lady, we should mention that Mrs. Randolph, the daughter of the venerable Thomas Jefferson, was one of them.
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