I have no memories of ever wanting to be a historian.* Just happened. I have been interested in old houses for as long as I can remember. Mostly I never gave a thought to who built them or the families that lived there. I toured a lot of historic buildings and listened to the guides’ prepared remarks. But I was mainly interested in the structure and its contents.
It was the effort to save Woodside and then the creation of the first Maplewood history book in 2008 that changed my focus. It was shortly after that when I began to post material on the internet that this job really opened up for me. The internet eventually became not just the outlet for this material but also the source. I am regularly gobsmacked by the quantity and quality of the material that continues to arrive on my electronic doorstep as well as my concrete one.
This position is mainly a feel-good one for the community. But occasionally being an advocate for historic preservation, I’ll take a position that not everyone is happy with. Such as the preservation of Woodside. We won that one. The preservation of the stone staircases on either side of the original Maplewood Pool building, now our library, is another. We won that too. I joined with many other folks in both of those cases.
We lost a few as well. The stunning cabinetry of the Harper’s Pharmacy. Lost due to a disagreeable chapter director of the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club of all groups. Damn. I haven’t given them a dime since.
We also lost the Maplewood Cyclone, the giant dust collector on the Maplewood Mill. In other wealthier communities, this wouldn’t have been a fringe issue but it was in ours. Its companion chimney was preserved. That’s good.
Now, after many years at this job, my unscientific opinion is that human history is full of slightly more positive events than negative ones. We are making gains even though at times it doesn’t seem like we are. There are those, who must be resisted, that constantly try to drag us backwards.
Ask yourself, my readers, if my research revealed negative information about your family, would you want to know? One woman thought it important to know that an ancestor had been an alcoholic. Would you want to know that? How about a murderer? Or a spouse abuser? Or arrested for anything? In prison? Would you want to know if a relative had taken their own life? These are the sorts of things I have uncovered. Mostly I say nothing about them but sometimes I feel like I should tell my contact person the information in private. What do you think?
Or would you want to know if any of the sad incidents that I have mentioned occurred in your home prior to your ownership? To date, I can’t remember ever having passed on that sort of information.
I hope a lot of you respond because these are questions that I face now and then. The information seems important but are we better off not knowing it?
There is much more in the works from the Emma Beauvais Thomas Grumley trove. I should have another post ready soon.
Stay healthy. Please wear your masks.
Doug Houser January17, 2022
*Some of you may think this should read “an” historian. If so, my guess is you’re probably as old as me. I’ve seen evidence in the New York Times that this is changing. I have read nothing specifically about it but my feeling is use “an” when the “h” is silent.
Many things like the cyclone are no longer a working part necessary for the running of the business, as sad as that is, it would need at least a yearly inspection for safety and soundness in order to be insured. Taking it down and donating it would have been the best choice, but may have been more expensive than taking it apart before bringing it down, I hate being practical, its absolutely no fun. Were the Harper cabinets donated, or sold? Sierra Club should have known better, shame on them.
Mary, You are correct. There is a practical side to consider which, by the way, is no fun. We would have to take a City Museum approach to something like the Cyclone. My friend, Larry Giles, who we lost this past year, would have welcomed the Cyclone into his collection at the National Building Arts Center in Sauget. We would have had to deliver it. To me it was most valuable in its original location.
As for the Harper cabinets, I see pieces of them scattered throughout the businesses in the Cape-Harper buildings. Perhaps if none are taken from that couple of buildings, someday there may be a tenant who would be hip enough and respectful enough of our history to reassemble them? One can hope. As always, thanks for your input.
Gary here Doug, thank you for your good and deep thoughts much needed in these recent years of global problems, upset and malevolent politicians who care more for their personal power than the well being of earth and our nation. In response to the questions you posed I will relate two stories. The first involves a large cache of letters that mysteriously appeared the night before the morning of my mother’s death. Also were a number of articles from her young years, years I knew little of. The letters were from a soldier of WWII times whom she met on a train returning from Washington state. He had been given 3 days leave to get to Philadelphia to attend his mother’s funeral. Joseph Ricelli was much smitten with Mom and wrote regularly to her throughout the course of the war. They were really interesting as one soldier’s history of the war he fought moving up the Pacific island chain. He proposed to Mom, however there was a difficulty in that he already had a fiance via an arranged marriage back in Philadelphia. We had just gotten a computer. I didn’t even know how to turn it on, but was told everything known was contained in electron ether, so I decided to try to locate the Ricelli family as the letters may be important to them. To my amazement the computer found them. I telephoned telling them of the letters and they were very excited about them. I did tell them they would have to exercise judgment about showing them to his wife (Joe had passed away) because of the romantic portions of the letters. They chose not to show them to her and I think this was a wise decision. The next story concerns the neighbors who lived across the street from me. They were a mixed race couple with children. Some months after moving in, the husband beckoned me and met me in the middle of the street. He looked carefully around as if to see no one was listening in. Drawing closer he asked in a low voice if I knew if anything unusual had ever occurred in his house. I asked why he asked and he told me mystical events were taking place in the home. Upon getting into bed at night something, or someone, sat on the edge of their bed startling them, yet no one was seen. This had happened several times. (As an aside, I think our near area is a hot spot for the paranormal which I won’t go into.) So I told him that I would have never told him if he hadn’t asked as I didn’t want them to have any odious feelings about their home, but yes, there had been a sad event in the house. The family previously living there had taken in a young man who was abandoned by his family who were relatives of theirs. They found him in the 3rd floor attic having blown off the top of his head with a shotgun in his mouth. The telling of this immediately gave Ron, the husband, great relief. There is more to both stories, but hope this helps you in your ponderings.
t
when i was about 12 or 13 , i had a hand crank 8 mm movie projector . I went into Harpers drug and photo and bought a couple of old 8 mm movie from them . I think i still have one .1946 world series. A few weeks after i purchased the films ,i went back to buy more. The clerk went ballistic and let me know they were not to be sold.
Larry
That seems rather curious, Larry. Perhaps they were the personal property of the owner? Did you return them?
As one who has been involved, and has some family members much more deeply involved, in ancestry research, we occasionally have found some less than savory information regarding distant relatives. Personally, I want to know it all…good, bad and ugly…but some things I don’t share with anyone outside the family. Perhaps, knowing the individuals who provide you with info, you could tactfully ask them how much they want to be told. My guess is they would want it all, unless they seem particularly sensitive or more inclined to be offended or disturbed by negative discoveries. And some might prefer to know but not have all of it published.
Well put, Ralf. Thanks for this.
Comments are closed.