NEW ENGLAND
LLL of New Eng-
land's charm and
thousands of useful
facts crammed into
one compact book.
22 maps, 40 illustra-
tions in gravure, up-
to-the-minute in-
formation on show-
places and play-
grounds, and a large
map showing foot
trails, bridle trails,
ski trails, camp sites,
beaches, etc. Here,
in short, is the key to
New England.
r*iw*wAu
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SK
AMERICAN GUIDE SERIES
HERE'S
NEW ENGLAND
A CONCISE, practical, colorful guide
to New England, prepared by the
Federal Writers' Project.
For convenient reference, * Here's
New England!' is divided [into
twenty-one recreational regions
covering all parts of the six New
England States. Each of these
chapters gives the atmosphere
and characteristics of the region,
followed by detailed descriptions
of the places of interest and things
to see and do.
The book is lavishly illustrated
in gravure, with twenty-one small
maps, and a large folding map in
color showing all the recreational
regions, camps and picnic sites,
public beaches, ski trails, etc.,
together with a descriptive list of
the historic houses and museums
throughout New England that are
open to the public.
From the collection of the
Z
n
m
o Prejinger
v Jjibrary
p
San Francisco, California
2006
PREVIEW OF NEW ENGLAND
The editors wish to make acknowledgment:
To W. Lincoln Hightonfor the pictures: Yacht 'Aloha,' Cli/ Walk, Sand-
wich Glass, Hill of Churches, Orleans, Highland Light, Lexington Green,
Wayside Inn, Chestnut Street, Salem, House of Seven Gables, Wentworth-
Gardner Mansion, Boothbay Harbor, Nickel s-Sortwell House, Crescent
Beach, Bar Harbor and Frenchman's Bay, Mount Chocorua, Granite
Quarry, Burke Hollow, and The Old Stone Shop;
To the Powers Studio for the picture of The Court of the Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum;
To the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the pictures of Marblehead Har-
bor, and the Connecticut Valley;
To Charles E. White for the pictures of In Old New Castle, Tuckerman Ra-
vine, the Little Studio, and the Toll Bridge;
To the Maine Development Commission for pictures of Moosehead, and the
Camp Site near Mount Katahdin;
To the Pole Studio for the pictures of King's Ravine and Wildcat Ski Trail;
To the Bodwell Studio for the picture of The Old Man of the Mountain;
To the White Mountain Studio for the picture. Plowed Highways;
To the Cutler Studio for the picture, French Wallpaper, Walpole;
To the Richardson Studio for the picture, Smuggler's Notch;
To the Lee Studio for the picture, Camel's Hump;
The picture of 'Connecticut Valley' Doorway is used through the courtesy of
Fletcher Steele.
OYSTER BOATS, CITY POINT, NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
See page 6
YACHT 'ALOHA/ NEWPORT HARBOR
See page 14
BATHING, SCARBOROUGH BEACH ON NARRAGANSETT BAY
See page 12
CLIFF WALK, NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND
See page 14
MMMICILGLIISS
CAPE COD S FAMOUS SANDWICH GLASS
See page 22
HILL OF CHURCHES, TRURO, CAPE COD
23
ORLEANS ON CAPE COD BAY
See page 22
HIGHLAND LIGHT, NORTH TRURO, CAPE COD
See page 23
wen
THE COURT OF THE ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM, BOSTON
See page 37
4H
" ' ' ^B!
LEXINGTON GREEN
See page 39
WAYSIDE INN, SUDBURY
See page 40
MARBLEHEAD HARBOR
See page 44
CHESTNUT ST., SALEM
See page 45
HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES, SALEM
See page 44
y.
m
WHIPPLE HOUSE, IPSWICH
See page 47
WENTWORTH-GARDNER MANSION, PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE
See page 49
IN OLD NEW CASTLE
See page 50
RIDING THE TIDE
BOOTHBAY HARBOR ON THE MAINE COAST
See page 60
AMERICAN GUIDE SERIES
HERE'S NEW
ENGLAND!
A GUIDE TO VACATIONLAND
Written and Compiled by Members of the Federal Writers' Project
of the Works Progress Administration in the New England States
SPONSORED BY THE NEW ENGLAND COUNCIL, BOSTON
Illustrated
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY - BOSTON
vEfie XUberfiibe $re* Cambrtbgr
1939
COPYRIGHT, IQ39, BY THE NEW ENGLAND COUNCIL
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE
THIS BOOK OR PARTS THEREOF IN ANY FORM
WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION
F. C. HARRINGTON, Administrator
MRS. FLORENCE KERR, Assistant Administrator
HENRY G. ALSBERG, Director of the Federal Writers' Project
CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
NEW ENGLAND GOVERNORS' CONFERENCE
\ftVEXGIAVD
tsnew (p
THE SIX NEW ENGLAND GOVERNORS
AN INVITATION
We, the Governors of the New England states, cordially invite you to visit
our New England for your this year's vacation.
Once you cross New England's threshold, you will find a new and delightful
way of life in \\hich the amenities of today are happily blended with the
mellow traditions of three hundred years.
Serene old cities, quiet elm-shaded villages, rocky coasts, sandy beaches,
friendly wooded mountains, crystal lakes and streams everywhere you will
be greeted with New England's warm hospitality.
May we expect you?
By Their Excellencies tfie governors of JVew England
Governor of Massachusetts and
Chairman of the New England
Governors' Conference
V Governor of Vermont
Governor of New Hampshire
and Secretary of the New Eng.
land Governors' Conference
Governor of Rhode Island
I.
Governor of Connecticut
CONTENTS
PREVIEW OF NEW ENGLAND Photographs opposite page i
INTRODUCING NEW ENGLAND i
ALONG THE CONNECTICUT SHORE 5
Coastal Villages and Whaling Towns
NARRAGANSETT BAY n
Clambakes and Regattas
BUZZARDS BAY AND THE ISLANDS 17
Whalers to Motor-Cruisers
CAPE COD 21
Salty Towns and Sand Dunes
PLYMOUTH AND THE SOUTH SHORE 27
Pilgrim Shades and Shrines
AROUND THE GOLDEN DOME 31
Boston and Thereabouts
CAPE ANN AND THE NORTH SHORE 43
From Witches to Captains Courageous
ALONG NEW HAMPSHIRE'S SEACOAST 49
Silvery Beaches and Storied Towns
CASCO BAY 55
Island-Studded Waters
BOOTHBAY HARBOR 59
Old Ships and New
THE PENOBSCOT 63
Salmon Runs and River Towns
BAR HARBOR 67
Luxury by the Sea
THE MAINE LAKES AND WOODS 71
Fishing and Hunting
VI
Contents
THE WHITE MOUNTAINS
A Coil of Shining Peaks
THE LAKES OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
Lochs Amid the Highlands
UP THE LOWER CONNECTICUT VALLEY
College Boys and Indians
THE MIDDLE CONNECTICUT VALLEY
Mountain Sentinels and River Bends
THROUGH THE GREEN MOUNTAINS
The Backbone of Vermont
THE NORTHEASTERN LAKES OF VERMONT
In the Woodlands
CHAMPLAIN VALLEY
The Arcadia of Vermont
THE BERKSHIRES
An Aerie of Hill Towns
CONNECTICUT'S WESTERN HIGHLANDS
Old Taverns by Modern Roads
INDEX
75
83
89
93
99
109
"3
117
121
LIST OF MAPS
Along the Connecticut Shore 4
Narragansett Bay 10
Buzzards Bay and the Islands 16
Cape Cod 20
Plymouth and the South Shore 26
Around the Golden Dome 30
Cape Ann and the North Shore 42
Along New Hampshire's Sea-
coast 48
Casco Bay 54
Boothbay Harbor 58
The Penobscot 62
Bar Harbor 66
The Maine Lakes 70
The White Mountains 74
The New Hampshire Lakes 82
The Lower Connecticut Valley 88
The Middle Connecticut Valley 92
The Green Mountains 98
Vermont Lakes 104
The Champlain Valley 1 08
The Berkshires 112
Connecticut's Western High-
lands 116
INTRODUCING NEW
ENGLAND
WITHIN small compass, New England offers extraordinary diversity of
landscape. The glacier sheets have left their traces everywhere: hum-
mocks, knobs, and depressions, scattered about irregularly without clear
hill and valley lines. A Yankee can hardly grow out of sight of the hills;
sometimes the mountains actually reach to the edge of salt water. Along
most of the coastline the sea has eaten its way into a land of diminutive
valleys and stony hillocks. Behind the outer headlands lie miles of
forest-lined reaches. A coast where land and sea meet in compromise
rather than in challenge, for few sectors outside of Maine can truly be
called 'stern and rockbound'; more common is the undulating line of
sand dunes that wind along the ocean's edge.
In this Guide to the great playground of New England we have made
most of the subdivisions somewhat arbitrarily. Although they have no
boundaries and no fixed lines of demarcation they do possess a distinct
character of their own. We would no more presume to set their exact
limits than revive a controversy about the landing-party at Plymouth
Rock.
The opening paragraphs of each of these sketches strive to communi-
cate something of the genius of the place, its pulse and personality.
After this dip into 'atmosphere' we move across each area in accordance
with a simple plan that enables you to take in as many sights as possible.
The various sections have been joined together to form a circular tour of
New England. It was easy enough to lead you along the whole length of
the coastline from New York to Bar Harbor, across the Maine woodlands
into the White Mountains and through the New Hampshire lakes. From
there on, we had to become somewhat more circuitous: up and down the
Connecticut Valley, through the Green Mountains, the northeastern lakes
of Vermont, across to the Champlain Valley, and then through to New
York by way of Berkshire and Connecticut's western highlands. Under
each heading we have indicated a few alternate routes into the heart of
the recreational area, so that you're by no means bound to our tour.
And if of necessity we have passed over many historic houses and
Here's New England!
alluring vistas you'll understand that the limited scope of our work has
forced us to these sins of omission. What you don't find here you'll
surely discover in the six separate Guides to the New England States
complete and full sized which we have published during the past two
years.
The maps we have inserted before each recreational area will direct
you over the highways of New England, among the finest in the country.
Mountain summits, secluded glens and lakes, wild forest land, isolated
coves, are now accessible to any motorist. Even in the winter you will
find the main roads open and well plowed. Winter sports have of late
taken the country by storm, and New England has multiplied the number
of ski trails and open slopes. Winter and summer, a land whose 'infinite
variety' you can never exhaust.
701PROV1DENCE TO PROVIDENCE,
__ RH_0_OE JS LAND _ _ .^
CONNECTICUT " ' \ctt
ALONG THE
CONNECTICUT SHORE
Coastal Villages and Whaling Towns
Conn. State line, 27 m. east of Columbus Circle, N.Y. City.
LONG crescents of white sand; sailboats in spanking breezes; deep-sea
fishing as well as plentifully stocked brooks and ponds; fairways and
putting greens; grass-grown breastworks, unchanged since their valiant
defenders fell, pierced by British bayonets you'll find them all along
the Connecticut shoreline. Fishermen dry their nets on gear-laden
wharves just as did their ancestors who sailed the uncharted Arctic in
search of whales. Landscaped estates spread about luxurious country
homes; hard by, simple white colonial houses are surrounded with lilacs,
syringas, and beds of tiger lilies. Yacht club burgees fly from islands
that once served as bases for patriotic whaleboat crews who preyed on the
Tories of Long Island. Connecticut, though nearly New York, is really
New England.
US 1 follows the old King's Highway. Eighteenth-century white
church spires upthrust through towering elms just off the road. Rambling
taverns serve modern travelers. Occasionally a milestone placed by
Benjamin Franklin, when he marked the post route in 1753, may be seen
half hidden by roadside shrubbery. Paul Revere, in Indian war paint,
spurred a horse over this route, carrying the news of the Boston Tea
Party. George Washington came up the highway to take command of
the Continental forces at Boston, and the white fleur-de-lys of France
floated over the brilliant uniforms and tricornes of Lafayette's men as
they marched to Yorktown.
Near the New York-Connecticut line, the weathered 'salt-box'
Thomas Lyon House (1670) is a fitting introduction to this historic
region. Along the Post Road through GREENWICH, however, are few
characteristics associated with New England; nor will you see from here
the extensive estates of New Yorkers which line the shore and extend
back into the hills. In the pasturelands to the north, these newcomers
periodically ride to hounds, much to the amusement of the native fox-
hunters who bag their game afoot.
Here's New England!
Through STAMFORD the Post Road crosses the industrial part of
town without a hint of the landscaped residential areas on Shippan
Point and inland. Stamford is distinctive as one of the few places of
record where Mrs. George Washington stopped for refreshment in 1775.
From the residential community of DARIEN, eastward to Fairneld,
a shore road, Conn. 136, follows the coastline past many summer homes
and estates. Although beaches on this route are restricted to residents,
the highway offers you excellent marine views as well as escape from the
heavy traffic of US 1.
In NOR WALK a century ago, the famous Norwalk pottery was
made; the town today has a thriving oyster business and a diversified
industry. The Norwalk Islands offshore abound in tales of pirates,
smugglers, and bootleggers. Nathan Hale, Connecticut's Revolutionary
War hero, set sail from Cedar Hammock Island to spy on the British
forces on Long Island. Captain Joseph Merrill found pirate gold on
Pilot Island, after three successive dreams had marked the spot. Out on
Goose Island, treasure hunters stripped away all vegetation; in 1895, the
same island was used by the Carnegie Institute for experimenting on
rats in the development of a yellow-fever serum. The Mormons tried to
establish a colony on Ram Island and failed; and on Chimons Island
meteorites may be seen on a hotel porch where they fell.
Artists have gathered at SILVERMINE, on the winding creek north of
Norwalk; writers congregate at WESTPORT, where 'peddler' boats
once carried on a busy trade with Manhattan and old wharves now rot
in the sun. In F AIRFIELD, the quiet village green, just one block south
of the Post Road, faces a tavern where Washington spent the night of
October 16, 1789. The town Sign Post, incidentally, is made of the stocks
and pillory where early culprits reflected on their misdemeanors.
Munition plants and machine-tool factories cover acres of BRIDGE-
PORT, where ammunition was produced in such quantities during the
World War that the city became known as 'the Ruhr of America.'
From the Marine Boulevard hi Seaside Park there are broad views across
the Sound to Long Island.
NEW HAVEN, widely known as the seat of Yale University, is also
one of the principal manufacturing cities of the State. The Post Road
crosses through the outlying industrial districts, skirting the impressive
i6-acre green and the University buildings.
Southeast of New Haven, on Conn. 143, a side road close to the shore,
is exclusive PINE ORCHARD, where some of the Sound's finest yachts
and sailing craft are anchored in the basin, sheltered by a pink granite
Along the Connecticut Shore
breakwater. Off STONY CREEK the shore waters are dotted with the
rocky archipelago of the Thimble Islands. From Money Island, where
Captain Kidd is said to have buried his treasure, a Negro once departed
with a sack so heavy that he scarcely could carry it. The tales grow
taller, but nobody has ever actually seen the gold. A Summer Playhouse
at Stony Creek provides excellent dramatic entertainment.
In BRANFORD, the trout-stocked Branford River is restricted to
women anglers. At short intervals along the main highway are many
roadside picnic areas maintained by the State Highway Department.
In GUILFORD, an early colonial village one- third of a mile south of
the Post Road, are preserved a larger number of authentic old houses
than you'll find in any other New England town. Nine different types of
'salt-box' design may be seen on Fair St. The Whitfield House (1639-40),
a State museum on Whitfield St., is one of the oldest stone houses hi the
United States.
Beside the highway, rustic stands advertise 'Guilford Clams' or 'Live
Lobsters and Fresh Fish.' Cheery, sun-tanned fisherfolk cater to the
passing trade and wrap up a purchase in yesterday's newspaper.
MADISON has numerous old houses and a large summer colony.
The Nathaniel Allis House (1739) is now a museum furnished as a dwelling
of its period.
At a rotary east of the village of Madison, a road leads south to Ham-
monasset State Park, a tract of 954 acres which includes a five-mile
crescent of white sand, the largest public beach in the State, and an
extensive trailer camping ground.
CLINTON, a quiet village one-half mile inward from its harbor, is a
haven for pleasure boats and trawlers.
The village of WESTBROOK was the birthplace of David Bushnell,
inventor of the submarine torpedo. Parts of his original model are on
display at the Bushnell House, now a museum.
OLD SAYBROOK, the one-time 'Land of Swords and Roses' at the
mouth of the Connecticut River, is the fourth oldest town in the State.
In the cemetery at the end of Main St. is the Tomb of Lady Fenwick
(d. 1648), the only titled personage to migrate to this outpost fortified by
Lion Gardiner for the aristocrats who supported Oliver Cromwell. After
the triumph of the Roundheads, these lords and ladies soon changed their
plans for establishing feudal estates in America.
Across the broad Connecticut River, on Conn. 156, just south from US
1, the elm-shaded village of OLD LYME slumbers beneath a towering
white church spire. Here, in former days, clipper ships sailed down the
8 Here's New England!
Lieutenant River, en route to the Pacific, returning with precious cargoes
and fabulous tales of exotic ports. Throughout the summer, the Lyme
Art Gallery, on US 1, exhibits the work of the local art colony.
EAST LYME is noted for its fine Devon cattle and old houses. At
NIANTIC, a seaside village south on Conn. 156, is the principal Summer
Camp of the Connecticut National Guard. From October to April the
Niantic River is dotted with scallop boats; entire families are engaged in
harvesting the crop and removing the shells before shipping them to
market. Eastward to the Thames River, a succession of beaches, south
of US 1, attract summer residents.
In the narrow streets of NEW LONDON, the olive-drab uniforms of
officers and men from the three Coast Artillery island posts offshore
mingle with the blue and white of navy men from the U.S. Submarine
Base upriver. Out in the harbor an occasional square-rigger lifts her
spars above squat motor-driven craft and the hulls of sail and steam
yachts. The waterfront itself furnishes an ample record of New London's
development: old forts on opposite banks of the river; the white, six-
sided lighthouse, first of its kind to aid mariners off the Connecticut coast;
ships' ways which have been replaced many times since shallops, sloops,
brigs, snows, barques, and brigantines slid down the ways; the clatter of
riveters at the Electric Boat Company, where submarines for the United
States Navy are built.
The Whaling Museum, in the Mariners' Savings Bank at 224 State St.,
houses an exhibit of more than 200 whaling relics, mural paintings, and
prints. The Grist Mill, on Mill St., established by John Winthrop, Jr.,
in 1650 and rebuilt hi 1742, has an overshot wheel which still churns
the waters of Brigg's Brook. The Shaw Mansion at 287 Bank St., head-
quarters for outfitting privateers and the thirteen ships of the Connecticut
Navy during the Revolutionary War, is also a museum today. The
United States Coast Guard Academy on Mohegan Ave. is the $2,500,000
'Annapolis of the Coast Guard Service.' Guides are furnished on applica-
tion to the sentry at the gate.
If by now you're ready to rest a bit, take a breathing spell at the
Connecticut Arboretum, on the Connecticut College campus, containing
300 varieties of trees and shrubs native to the State, and a hemlock
forest some 400 years old. Fort Trumbull, on East St., a huge masonry
structure on the grounds of Coast Guard Base 4, was erected in 1839 on
the site of a Revolutionary fort.
US 1 crosses the Thames on a steel bridge sufficiently high to permit
excellent views down the harbor and up the broad stream. At the
Along the Connecticut Shore
eastern end of the bridge, Conn. 12, following the east bank of the river
northward, offers you an interesting side trip to the U.S. Atlantic Sub-
marine Base. Here officers and seamen of the United States Navy receive
special training for submarine service. Both shops and laboratories are
open to the public. Note especially the large experimental tank for crews.
Southward from the eastern end of the Thames River bridge is the
village of GROTON, on the steep slopes of Groton Heights, dominated
by a Granite Shaft commemorating the sacrifice of militiamen who defied
two regiments of British regulars in 1781.
In Noank, Mystic, and Stonington, fishermen tend their lobster pots
and fish-pounds regardless of weather. They're old hands with the adze
and calking hammer, these men, equally adept at laying a keel or sailing
anything that will float. NOANK, on the western edge of Mystic Harbor,
is the home of swordfishmen, lobstermen, and boatbuilders. Wharves
are piled with miscellaneous gear, and at sunrise and sunset long lines
of motley fishing craft are tied up at the docks. Many of the boats are
equipped with a pulpit at one end of the flat bowsprit, where the sword-
fisherman stands as he hurls his harpoon. Tuna and swordfish, sometimes
weighing over 300 pounds, are caught within three miles of the shore;
bluefish, blackfish, porgies, and butterfish are taken in large quantities.
MYSTIC, formerly a shipbuilding port, now has a considerable sum-
mer population. Skippers of the sturdy little boats moored along the
Mystic River will take you out for a try at swordfishing or trolling for
tuna. From them you'll hear tales their grandfathers handed down: the ex-
ploits of the modified clipper ship 'Andrew Jackson/ launched in 1860,
which beat the famous 'Flying Cloud' in a thrilling race around the Horn
to 'Frisco; or, it may be the story of the feverish events attending the build-
ing, in 1 86 1 , of the ' Galena, ' the first ironclad warship laid down in America.
The Marine Historical Museum, an old wooden mill building on Conn. 169,
houses one of the finest collections of clipper-ship models in America.
At STONINGTON, the fishing fleet comes in with loads of bluefish,
swordfish, and haddock; summer residents cruise about in powerboats or
set sail on schooner and yawl; clam diggers swarm on the flats at low
tide. The Old Stone Lighthouse, at the end of Water St., is now a marine
museum. Many of the cannonballs which decorate Stonington's fence
posts and driveways are relics of 1814 when five British warships poured
an estimated 60 tons of metal into the town.
'They killed a cow; they killed a hen,
They killed three pigs within a pen,
They killed a horse, and pray what then?
That was not taking Stonington.' '
NARMGANSETT
BAY
NARRAGANSETT BAY
Clambakes and Regattas
US 1 ; Providence, 80 m. from New London.
SLASHING deep into Rhode Island, the smallest State, Narragansett
Bay reaches up to Providence like a pointing finger of the Atlantic.
Islands resembling grotesque marine animals stand guard over numerous
sub-bays beloved of yachtsmen. Notice Prudence Island on the map
a * whale of an island.' indeed. At the Bay's mouth is the exclusive sum-
mer resort of Newport. Along the southern shore stretches a chain of
smaller towns and villages, many of them watering-places in their own
right.
From Massachusetts came Roger Williams and the early settlers who
tilled the land and remained close to the banks of the Moshassuck.
Clinging to the Bay area became, for later generations, a good Rhode
Island habit. During the brief heyday of the Narragansett planters in
the late iyth century, when a 'landed aristocracy' occupied the acres of
present Washington County and lived in a manner comparable to that
of the later Virginia settlers, Narragansett Bay was the chief outlet for
produce, cattle, and horses, transported by ship to other coastal com-
munities and the West Indies. By 1700, Rhode Island seamen were
known and respected on both sides of the Atlantic, and Rhode Island
ships were used as a medium of exchange in trade with England. These
vessels formed the nucleus of the first American navy, and the first
commander of the fleet, Esek Hopkins, was a native of the State.
Narragansett Bay is still an important shipping channel for the ports
of Providence and Pawtucket, but from Napatree Point to Sakonnet
Point the summer colonies are Rhode Island's commercial mainstay.
The erosion of tides has fashioned countless broad beaches where the
ocean laps contentedly and the sun blazes with a tropical brilliance.
Throughout the year, steamers move between Providence and New
York City, but they're the least interesting of the varied craft in the Bay
waters. Excursion boats make trips between Providence, Newport, and
Block Island. During the racing season, events are held for nearly all
types of sailing boats. Many of the races are restricted to members of
Rhode Island's yacht clubs; others are open to all applicants.
12 Here's New England!
Fishing is a popular sport along the length of Rhode Island's 400 miles
of coastline. Getting a swofdfish, the battler of them all, is sport for a
professional, but you can try your luck at tuna, codfish, bluefish, and
haddock. The Division of Fish and Game encourages fresh-water fishing,
and in most of the stocked ponds and streams there are striped and white
perch, trout, pickerel, and bass.
US 1 cuts an easy diagonal across the State, deviating somewhat to
follow the south and west shores. From the Massachusetts State Line
on the north it runs directly into PAWTUCKET, thence into PROV-
IDENCE, the focal point for all main highways. If you follow Broad-
way into the center of Pawtucket instead of detouring at the double
traffic light you'll see the Old Slater Mill (1793), the 'cradle' of the
American textile industry. This frame structure' stands on the west
bank of the Pawtucket River, within a hundred feet of the pyramidal
stepped tower of the Pawtucket City Hall. As the highway enters
Providence, the dome of the State House and the lofty beacon of the
Industrial Trust Company Building accent the skyline.
The southwestern entrance to the State, via US 1, offers you a nautical
introduction. From WESTERLY, where the cranes of the granite
quarries can be seen on the near-by hills, the road bears southeast to
HAVERSHAM and then continues eastward in sight of the ocean and
the coastal salt ponds to WAKEFIELD and NARRAGANSETT. This
twenty-mile stretch brings to view many of the fine beaches that extend
almost without interval along the southern shore, from WATCH HILL
(directly south of Westerly) to POINT JUDITH (directly south of
Narragansett), known to mariners, with more fear than affection, as
'Point Jude.' Here a Coast Guard Station and Point Judith Light remain
in constant service. Nine miles offshore the green fields of Block Island
come down to meet the sea. On the Shore Road, north of Point Judith,
is the Scarborough State Beach.
NARRAGANSETT (known at this point as NARRAGANSETT
PIER) is distinguished by the enormous towers of the old Casino, which
seem to lack only a drawbridge and a moat. In the i8th century a planta-
tion society flourished here, and the region has never completely lost its
character. One of the best-preserved landmarks of the era is the Hannah
Robinson House (on old South Ferry Rd.). Near-by is the Birthplace of
Gilbert Stuart, colonial painter especially known for his many portraits of
George Washington.
The road continues through a pleasant countryside and brings you in
sight of the Island of Conanicut (Jamestown) across the Bay. Clusters of
Narragansett Bay 13
farms and summer residences are scattered over the island, which can be
reached by ferry from Newport.
At WICKFORD the road turns left at the Post Office; but the high-
lights of this hardy old town will be almost completely missed unless you
detour to the right at the Post Office and drive down Main St. This
thoroughfare once led to one of New England's busiest harbors, whence
merchantmen sailed away with papers and money and goods and, if
necessary, letters of marque and a mounted gun or two. Conservative
and steadfast, the Wickford merchants, shipwrights, innkeepers, and
sailors built residences that admirably reflected their own personalities
solid, unostentatious and possessed of an innate grace not always ap-
parent on first glance. Few of the genuinely old-time spots in New Eng-
land have escaped the ravages of faulty restoration so completely as
Wickford's Main St. The Immanuel Case House and the Old Narragansett
Church are particularly worth a visit. Today, as the home of the Wickford
oyster, the town thrives on the shellfish industry.
Just west of Wickford on R.I. 2 is the South County Museum, housing
a complete collection of implements used here in domestic industry during
the 1 7th and i8th centuries. The collection is remarkable for its looms,
spinning wheels, and other appurtenances in the early manufacture of
textiles. Certain of these methods are being revived today, and through-
out the region flax may be seen growing in the fields again.
US 1 swings north from Wickford, passing Goddard Memorial Park.
This wooded and landscaped area, maintained by the State, offers ample
facilities for picnicking and swimming.
At EAST GREENWICH is the Kent County Court House, one of
Rhode Island's many excellent examples of iSth-century architecture.
The building was one of the five former meeting-places of the General
Assembly.
PROVIDENCE, whose skyline is set off by the marble dome and
tourelles of the State House and the lofty tower of the Industrial Trust
Company Building, was founded by Roger Williams in 1636, the original
settlement of the State of Rhode Island. The actual center of the city
has moved only a few hundred feet from the first nucleus on the banks of
the Moshassuck River. The State House (1901) can be reached via Smith
St. or Francis St.; the First Baptist Meeting House (1775), a superb
structure of its period, stands on North Main St. at the foot of Water-
man St. Up College Hill is Brown University, founded in 1764 and moved
to Providence in 1770. On Power St., overlooking Benefit St., is the
John Brown House (1786) one of New England's most famous Colonial
14 Here's New England!
residences, built at a time when commercial prosperity had reached a
new peak. The Rhode Island School of Design, flanking College Hill
opposite the Court House, has an outstanding Museum of Art. On the
opposite side of the city is Roger Williams Park, with well-kept green-
swards, lagoons, and flower gardens.
The thirty-five-mile route from Providence to NEWPORT foUows
R.1. 103 and R.I. 114, the two highways joining in EAST PROVIDENCE.
The road passes through BARRINGTON, a shellfishing center, through
WARREN, once a thriving seaport, later a textile town, and now, like
its neighbor, a shellfishing headquarters, and thence to BRISTOL, one
of the wealthiest and best known of early Rhode Island seaports. Al-
though relatively idle today, it preserves monuments of its past in the
mansions of Hope St. : Linden Place, the Bradford House, and the Howe-
Churchill-Diman House. In the yards of the Herreshojf Manufacturing
Company have been built most of the sloops successful in defending the
' America's' Cup.
Mt. Hope Bridge, commanding a superb view of land and water for
many miles, connects the mainland with the Island. Here the country-
side is characterized by broad farms, gray, mellow old Gothic houses,
and fences of flat fieldstone.
If you've ever dreamt you dwelt hi marble halls, then NEWPORT, on
the actual Island of Rhode Island, is your place. Ocean Drive and the
avenues in the upper part of the city will give you a view of Newport's
palaces; the Casino Theatre with its Broadway plays and players is a
good cure for your New York nostalgia. Engineers on vacation can
probably get permission to visit the United States Naval Torpedo
Station, a seventh wonder of the world's perfect machine shops. Travelers
looking for atmosphere can find it in every back street, as well as in
Washington Square, which is dominated by the Old Colony House (1739),
where several governments have met. Students of architecture should
see the extant works of Peter Harrison: the Redwood Library, the Touro
Synagogue, and the Brick Market. And finally, Newport has stimulating
sea breezes, and beaches that demand no waiting for tides. The city is
celebrating the three hundredth anniversary of its founding in the sum-
mer of 1939.
BUZZARDS BAY AND THE
ISLANDS
Whalers to Motor-Cruisers
US 6; New Bedford, 32 m. from Newport.
ACROSS Vineyard Sound two ancient salty rivals face each other: New
Bedford and Nantucket, once the leading whaling ports of the world.
' Thar she blows! ' That was the cry that spelled wealth and fame for
both of them, when for a century and a half Buzzards Bay was the world
center of a golden industry.
The Bay itself is only half tamed. Dark islands rise up from its depths,
the last strongholds of a primitive wilderness. Flung across it, the
ELIZABETH ISLANDS form a slender archipelago. East of them jut
the bold headlands of Martha's Vineyard, 'a land of old towns, new
cottages, high cliffs, white sails, green fairways, salt water, wild fowl,
and the steady pull of an ocean breeze.* And out beyond the Vineyard
lies the Island of Nantucket, with its 'little gray town in the sea.'
NEW BEDFORD is now a textile city. But the Museum of the Old
Dartmouth Historical Society and the Bourne Whaling Museum on Johnny
Cake Hill perpetuate the nautical tradition in a display of large and
small ships' models, harpoons, whaling guns, knives, mammoth kettles,
and 'scrimshaw' knicknacks carved from whale's teeth and bone, the
work of whalemen in their leisure moments.
The steamer from New Bedford crosses the Bay, making its first call
at WOODS HOLE. Then it slides through the Channel across Vineyard
Sound and calls at OAK BLUFFS, Martha's Vineyard, a crowded sum-
mer restort. Gingerbread 'Swiss' cottages are snuggled together under
the shadow of the Methodist Tabernacle; the town has been the scene of
summer camp-meetings since 1835 and is still going strong.
EDGARTOWN, to the south, once a most prosperous home-port
for the Vineyard whalers, is an up-and-coming summer colony. The
Thomas Cooke House (1766) is the headquarters of the Dukes County
Historical Society. The Public Library on Water St. displays a collection
of paintings and etchings by well-known Martha's Vineyard artists, and
some noteworthy bronze statuary.
18 Here's New England!
Along the Takemmy Trail lies the 44oo-acre State Forest. To the south
a fenced cairn, an Indian Memorial to the Reverend Thomas Mayhew, the
first proprietor of the island, commemorates the devotion of his red-
skinned converts.
WEST TISBURY boasts that every wildflower known to eastern
Massachusetts has been found in its Tea Lane section, a treasure house
for botanists.
GAY HEAD, the southwestern tip of the Island, has since 1711 been
reserved largely for descendants of the Indians. Below the lighthouse
which marks its bold promontory, the Gay Head Cliffs drop sheer to a
narrow beach. By all means charter a small boat, sail out into the sunset,
and look back at the cliffs, which display strata of vari-colored clay, red,
blue, orange, white, gray-green, tawny, black.
From Indian Hill on the northwest shore, Martha's Vineyard appears
as wild and unspoiled as when Bartholomew Gosnold landed here in 1602.
South and east as far as eye can reach stretches a level plain of scrub
forest. Not a village, hardly a cleared patch that might be an isolated
farm. Westward the barren hills roll away, broken only by rocky out-
croppings and tree-filled ravines. Northward lies the blue Sound with
the Elizabeth Islands discernible on the horizon.
The deceptive impression of wildness, however, is quickly corrected
as you descend into VINEYARD HAVEN, a popular summer resort on
the harbor.
NANTUCKET is gay all summer with vacation throngs, yet it has
somehow preserved the simplicity of an earlier day in its cobble-stoned
streets, its comfortable square white houses and gray-weathered cottages,
its open moors swept by salt breezes, its stately trees. There's still mean-
ing to the Indian name Canopache the Place of Peace. In the town you
should visit the Art Gallery, crammed with the work of famous summer
residents; the Whaling Museum, once a factory for the production of
sperm candles, now a memorial to the great whaling days; the Jethro
Coffin House (1686), with its brickwork horseshoe on the great chimney
to keep the witches from popping down it; the Maria Mitchell House,
birthplace of the famous astronomer and discoverer of the Maria Mitchell
comet, and the near-by Observatory and Scientific Library, the Old Mill on
the Hill, where, if the wind is due west, the miller may grind some corn-
meal for you while you wait; the Friends' Meeting House with its hard
benches, bare floor, and candles in iron holders on the walls.
At SIASCONSET better known to Nantucket-lovers as 'Sconset
notice the blue shutters on many of the cottages. Tradition has it that
Buzzards Bay and the Islands 19
in the past this hue was reserved by unwritten law for captains* and first
mates' houses only. Altar Rock, one of ' Saul's Hills/ though only slightly
more than 100 feet in altitude, is the highest point on the Island, an ideal
spot of a summer morning from which to gaze lazily out over the moors,
white beaches, and surf-bordered blue.
A TL
ELLFLEET
CAPE COD
Scale in Miles
CAPE COD
Salty Towns and Sand Dunes
US 6, Mass. 28; Bourne 30 m. from New Bedford, 55 m. from Boston.
'THE bare and bended arm of Massachusetts' that's what Thoreau,
who made a walking trip from Orleans to Province town in 1849, called
this strange ridge of sand that encloses the southern waters of Massa-
chusetts Bay. Orleans is the elbow, Truro the wrist, Provincetown the
hand a hand arrested in a friendly gesture of beckoning.
An interesting day's drive? About 150 miles of changing scenery from
the Canal to Race Point and back again. Roll along down by US 6.
That shows you the true Cape. Miles of bare, shifting dunes. Square
miles of salt marshes with glimpses of blue water beyond. Acres of
cranberry bog, ruddy toward autumn. Knolls of scrub pine. Neat
villages, tidy farmhouses, dignified white-clapboarded mansions built
for sea-captains. Triangular village greens, quiet old burying grounds,
steepled churches.
Coming back, leave US 6 just beyond the old Orleans Inn Bear left
and follow the great loop of Mass. 28 along the contour of the South Shore.
Here you will see the Cape tamed and grown sophisticated. The lazy surf
breaks on half-hidden sandbars. There are great summer estates and
fashionable hotels, landscaped lawns, country clubs, and exclusive com-
munities. Motoring past, you will be captivated by the little Cape Cod
cottages: the one-and-a-half story, hugging the earth as if for warmth, a
massive chimney always centrally placed; the ' half-a-cape ' with chimney
at one end, built in hope that the other half could be added to make a
whole hi better days.
Here are miles of sand beaches, some well populated, many of them so
lonely that you can have a square mile or two quite to yourself. Still
water on calm days on the bay side, surf at all times on the ocean side,
in some places within easy walking distance of each other.
'Up-Cape' toward the base, the sporting life is high: yacht-racing,
motor- and surf-boating, golf, tennis, squash, horseback riding, skiing
on pine needles all very smart in sport clothes of precisely the right
casualness. 'Down-Cape' existence is simpler; you swim and sun-bathe,
dig clams, fish, hike or ride through the woods, dress as you like, carry
your own bag if you golf.
22 Here's New England!
Cape Cod is really an island now, cut off by the Cape Cod Canal,
one of the country's key waterways, a ditch eight miles long, 500 feet
wide, thirty-two feet deep, winding along between high dunes from
Buzzards Bay to Cape Cod Bay. If you come by motor you will cross
one of two impressive bridges, both of them high enough to permit the
largest freighter, coasting steamer, or schooner to pass beneath without
need of any draw. The Canal was first talked of in Governor Winthrop's
day, was actually projected by George Washington, but not built until a
hundred and fifty years later. Opened to traffic in 1914, it has since been
spanned by magnificent bridges, widened, deepened, and bordered by
landscaped slopes and highways.
At BOURNE (on the south bank of the Canal) is a clever reconstruction
of the ancient Dutch structure known as the Aptuxet Trading Post, where
the Pilgrims used to meet the Dutch fur- traders from Manhattan.
Crossing by the Sagamore (northern) bridge into SANDWICH, you
should visit the Museum and see its collection of Sandwich glass.
BARNSTABLE has a larger population than any other Cape town.
There are two good specimens of early Cape architecture here, the
Sturgis Library (1645) and the Coach House (1640).
Rolling on down-Cape by US 6 you will pass under the Cathedral Elms
of YARMOUTH a mile and a half of highway under a Gothic arch
of green. Notice too, the Skippers 1 Homes some fifty of them proudly
lining this avenue, wrapped in ipth-century dignity and especially the
Thatcher House, whose huge chimney bears the date 1680.
You're bound to go to DENNIS for two things, the Cape Cod Play-
house, and the Cape Cinema with its mural by Rockwell Kent. Climb the
Stone Tower on Scargo Hill south of the village if you wish one of the
finest views hereabout.
In BREWSTER and ORLEANS are a number of old houses the
Crosby Cottage-Mansion, Captain Kendrick's House about which cling
romantic stories of their seagoing builders. Between the two towns there
is a State camping ground, the Roland C. Nickerson Park.
At EASTHAM Nauset Light and Seth Knowle's Old Windmill will
perform in their respective ways for visitors.
WELLFLEET is haunted ground; you may already have read about
the Sea- Witch of Billingsgate with her black cat and her gray goat and
her red-heeled shoes, and about poor Goody Halle tt, Black Bellamy's
sweetheart. As you enter town, notice the dory 'setting' high and dry
in the first fork on the left, spilling over all summer long with its cargo of
petunias and marigolds. It is one of several ' Joseph's Gardens' on the
Cape Cod 23
Cape, so named from the pathetic story of a humble pastor who wanted
a dory ' to take his ease in on the sea ' and of a storm that set his dory high
ashore and filled it with uprooted rosebushes.
As you approach TRURO the Hill of Churches rises up before you
with its three spired meeting houses (one of them the Town Hall), set
high above the village, 'to be nearer to God and as a landmark for
fishermen. '
At North Truro, Depot Rd. runs straight across the Cape at one of its
narrowest parts. It ends on the ocean side at Highland Light, one of the
most important beacons on the Atlantic Coast, though not as important
now as it was before radio. The 66-foot white lighthouse sits high on the
Clay Pounds, from which you may look out to sea with the knowledge
that there is nothing between you and Spain but the smoke of a trawler
on the horizon.
Running westward, Depot Rd. passes a tiny park on the brink of a
pond, where a Bronze Tablet on a boulder records for sentimental vistors
the fact that a Pilgrim scouting party led by Captain Myles Standish
spent here their first night on American soil.
At the end of the road the Old Bayberry Candle Place, a Cape institu-
tion, all summer long attracts crowds who come to see Cape Cod girls dip
the fragrant green candles by hand in the old-fashioned manner. From
its rude porch there opens out an unsurpassed view of Cape Cod Bay,
which here resembles a shallow bowl between Long Point on the west
and the jutting headland of Pamet on the south.
Beyond Truro and at the Tip of the Cape lies one of the oldest of
towns, a huddle of small houses and shops, roofs and doors of every color,
dooryard gardens gay from June to October with petunias, marigolds,
madonna lilies, scarlet poppies, blue delphinium. PROVINCETOWN is
an amazing hybrid. The Pilgrims left it something. Lawless fishermen
and freebooters set their stamp on it. Young Portuguese, shipping on
American whalers to escape military duty and poverty, have since con-
quered it. Add the artist colony and you have an aggregate of extraor-
dinary contradictions.
Dominating Provincetown, atop its highest dune, the Pilgrim Monu-
ment pierces the sky. 'Way up along,' at the end of Commercial St., is
the First Landing-Place of the Pilgrims. The ruins of Eugene O'Neill's
House, a mecca for literary pilgrims, lie on the outer beach near the
Peaked Hill Coast Guard Station at the end of Snail Road. The Church of
St. Mary of the Harbor (Episcopal) is adorned with the works of painters,
sculptors, and craftsmen widely known beyond the confines of Province-
24 Here's New England!
town. Number 473 Commercial St. is the Home of Donald B. MacMillan,
explorer with Peary at the discovery of the North Pole. The Historical
Museum on ' Front Street ' has a fine Arctic exhibit loaned by Commander
MacMillan, and a rare collection of authentic Sandwich glass.
Out beyond the town lie the vast, uninhabited Province Lands that
take your breath with their strangeness, their fantastic upswirl of shifting
sands bound tenuously by patches of deep-rooted beach grass, bayberry
and beach plum and huckleberry, dwarf pine and oak. And at the end of
the highway are a Lighthouse, a Coastguard Station, a few drab cottages, a
wild beach with the skeleton of a wrecked rum-runner alternately half-
buried by the winter gales and dug up again by their clawing fingers.
Returning by the South Shore (Mass. 28 from Orleans), you pass the
Radio Corporation of America Marine Station in CHATHAM. At
CHATHAM CENTER, in the Congregational Church, are the Wight
Murals which made a stir because Alice Wight represented Christ as a
rugged fisherman in a blue shirt and dungarees preaching from a Cape Cod
dory. Her ' Church Supper ' is composed of portraits of living parishioners
and townsfolk.
At HARWICH is a famous old Cape Cod Windmill, similar to the
one Henry Ford bought and carried away against furious local opposi-
tion.
In SOUTH YARMOUTH, Indian Memorial Drive leads to the pond
on whose sloping shore are buried the last of the Yarmouth ' Praying
Indians.* HYANNIS, the trading center of the Cape, has many smart
shops.
On COTUIT BAY are the Oyster Sheds, flat-bottomed boats, and
odoriferous shell-heaps that mark the headquarters of the famous oyster
industry.
At MASHPEE live the last of the Cape Indians, now a mixed race,
eking out an existence by small farming and cranberry picking. The Old
Indian Church, never closed, is the oldest church on the Cape.
FALMOUTH HEIGHTS, topped by summer cottages, rises boldly
above Vineyard Sound. Follow the shore road to WOODS HOLE;
clustered on the waterfront are the U.S. Lighthouse Service, with its yard
full of mammoth buoys in dry dock; the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, where
you may learn how the ocean is stocked with fish; the Oceanographic
Institute, from which you will emerge with a deal of scientific information
about tides and currents; and the Clapp Marine Biological Laboratory,
with a most interesting museum of local marine flora and fauna. The
picturesque Swordfishing Fleet ties up at the Nantucket Steamer docks.
Cape Cod
Beyond from little Nobska Light, you can look across the narrowest part
of the Sound to Martha's Vineyard.
Back to FALMOUTH, and then on Mass. 28 to the mainland by the
Bourne Bridge, across which you should crawl at a footpace to get a truly
thrilling view, north and south, of the Canal.
PLYMOUTH
AIND THE
SOUTH SHORE
PLYMOUTH AND THE
SOUTH SHORE
Pilgrim Shades and Shrines
Mass. 3; Plymouth, 20 m. from Bourne, 36 m. from Boston.
BETWEEN Boston and the Cape Cod Canal lies the South Shore, a
sixty-five-mile strip of white sand beaches and rolling country with salt
marsh and cranberry bog in the hollows and white pine crowning the
knolls. Overlooking the ocean are widely spaced summer resorts, large,
solid 'cottages/ comfortable bungalows, well-groomed estates. The
Shore Drive (Mass. 3A) parallels the coastline, and as you follow it you'll
get alternate glimpses of placid meadows and groves, sandy or pebbly
beaches. The inland towns along the way form a patchwork landscape of
lawns, shade trees, truck gardens, strawberry patches, flower farms, and
nurseries. Dexterous Portuguese 'pickers' strip the bogs each year of
carloads of firm, red cranberries. Tourist signs blossom out with the
first leaves. The South Shore supports itself in diverse ways, but one
thing its people have in common the contented knowledge that they
tread on hallowed ground, walking literally in the steps of their fore-
fathers. They live in a region to which the rest of the nation makes
patriotic pilgrimage.
QUINCY is famed for granite and distinguished citizens. At its
entrance a large signboard announces in foot-high letters: 'BIRTH-
PLACE OF JOHN ADAMS AND JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ' to which
an unknown hand has added in a charcoal scrawl the enigmatic post-
script: l and Joe Robinson' You may visit the distinguished birthplaces
(except Joe Robinson's). The John Adams Home is a little red farm-
house enclosed by a rail fence with a turnstile. Within are a steep, winding
stair, a huge central chimney and mammoth fireplace, hand-hewn beams,
and a secret chamber. The John Quincy Adams Birthplace, a red salt-
box of much the same structure, stands next door. The Vassal- Adams
Mansion, later residence of the two Presidents, is a fine type of Georgian
Colonial, white-clapboarded, with brick ends and five chimneys. The
Colonel Josiah Quincy House, a square yellow dwelling with white block
quoins and pillared portico, was originally the home of a gentleman
farmer, later that of a president of Harvard College. The Dorothy Quincy
28 Here's New England!
House, a spacious hip-roofed mansion, was the birthplace and home of
the spirited young woman who became the wife of John Hancock. The
Granite Quarry furnished the stone for Bunker Hill Monument and for
much of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Boston.
From the bridge over Fore River you can see the huge Shipbuilding
Plant of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation.
At 32 Copeland St. is the Cooperative Market, founded by the Finns of
Quincy twenty-five years ago, and now in the public eye as a practical
example of a movement encouraged by many social economists.
HINGHAM preserves its early flavor of dignity, substance, and
simplicity. The walls of the Old Garrison House are filled with a mixture
of clay and straw bound in bales to repel musket balls. The Old Ordinary
(tavern) houses the Hingham Historical Society's collection of antique
furniture and Americana. The Old Ship Church is the storm center of a
perennial controversy. Is it so called because at one time all its pillars
were sea-captains? Or because the ship carpenters who built it put a
lookout on its roof?
NANTASKET BEACH, to the east, a narrow sandbar some three
miles long, shares honors with Revere as ' Boston's Coney Island.'
At COHASSET, the most elegant of Boston's South Shore summer
resorts, is St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, designed by Cram, Goodhue,
and Ferguson in perpendicular Gothic, with fine stained-glass windows
and a carillon of fifty-one bells. Offshore is Minors Light, a granite tower
114 feet high, built in 1860 after the preceding iron structure with its
keepers was swept away in a storm.
In SCITUATE you may see the Well made famous by a native, Samuel
Woodworth, in the once popular song, 'The Old Oaken Bucket.'
'DANIEL WEBSTER'S CHOICE OF A HOME WHY NOT
YOURS?' So inquires the town of MARSHFIELD on a huge sign by
the highway. There is a State Pheasant Farm here where you may see
these slender, proudly burnished birds at all stages of their development.
The Old Winslow House (1699) has the usual huge fireplaces and the not-
so-usual secret chamber.
DUXBURY was America's first summer resort. Away back in 1627
or thereabouts, Myles Standish, John Alden, Jonathan Brewster, Thomas
Prence, and then- families, upon formally giving their written promise to
return to Plymouth in the fall, were permitted to repair to its pleasant
beach-bordered fields during the warm months. Duxbury, still the
South Shore summer resort of First Families, has passed down its plots of
ground and beach and its old houses from father to son. The stamp of Pil-
grim ancestry has never been erased. Standish graves dominate the Old Bury-
Plymouth and the South Shore 29
ing Ground', the Standish Monument crowns the summit of Captain's Hill.
At KINGSTON, really a suburb of Plymouth, the Bradford House
(1674) will show you windows with the old diamond-shaped panes, a
Dutch oven, a rack for hooking rugs, and a well with a ' sweep.'
Plymouth Rock is a lodestone which every year draws thousands of
latter-day pilgrim feet to PLYMOUTH. Did Mary Chilton really leap
from the 'Mayflower's' shallop onto the small gray boulder now en-
shrined beneath a granite canopy at the steep foot of Cole's Hill?
It is more convincing to picture a stalwart male Pilgrim, bare-legged
below the breeches, toting pretty Mary across the wet flats and setting
her down high and dry on the beach. But realism fades before the legend.
Plymouth's interest is definitely historic, centering about old houses,
museums, monuments, and tablets. The Tabitha Flasket House (1722?)
was the home of an early dame school. The Richard Sparrow House
(1640) and the John Howland House (1666) are sympathetic restorations.
The Kendall Holmes House (1666) is little changed. Honors in the battle
of antiquity probably go to the William Crowe House (1664), with an
original section reputed to be the oldest non-restored house still standing.
The Antiquarian House is comparatively youthful (1809); a child's
playroom in the attic has an exhibit of 19th-century toys. In the William
Harlow House (1677) the Plymouth Antiquarian Society keeps open
house during the summer, re-enacting for visitors the early domestic life
of the settlers. Pilgrim Hall is the repository of the official relics of the
town's early days and a number of well-known historic paintings.
Cole Hill was the scene of the secret burials of the first-year victims of
exposure and hunger. Over the graves was planted corn that the Indians
might not know how many members the little band had lost. Yet the
' savages ' were the forlorn newcomers' best friends and without their aid
all might have perished, a fact commemorated by an imposing Statue of
Massasoit.
Brewster Gardens are the setting for a Statue of the Pilgrim Maid and
the Ship Anne Memorial. The Pilgrim Mother Fountain, corner of North
and Water Sts., recalls the time-honored comment of the wag who, view-
ing it, remarked: 'Sure they should have a memorial. They had to stand
all the hardships the Pilgrim Fathers did and in addition they had to
stand the Pilgrim Fathers.'
From Allerton St. rises the National Monument to the Forefathers, 81
feet high, the lifted hand of its central figure, Faith, pointing heavenward.
Over toward CARVER, one of the peaceful inland villages, is the Myles
Standish State Forest (1916), covering 8000 acres and offering picnic and
camping areas with fireplaces and tables on the banks of three small ponds.
AROUND
THE GOLDEN
OME
Scale in Miles
AROUND THE GOLDEN
DOME
Boston and Thereabouts
US 1 ; Boston, 215 m. from New York.
BOSTON is the nub of New^England: a prominent seaport and railroad
depot, an industrial center and a seat of education and the arts, com-
bining diversified pursuits in a queer shuffle of tradition and modernity.
Its citizens, too, are hard nuts to crack. In the colonial era they rocked the
Cradle of Liberty until the infant responded by overturning His Majesty's
applecart. Later generations produced men whose statesmanship and
legal brilliance guided the nation through its stormy youth; novelists and
poets who contributed their genius to a 'Golden Age' of letters; adven-
turers who scoured the seas in fleet clipper ships graceful as birds. Out of
marshland and pasture slopes, the Yankee's flinty business sense created
a commanding metropolis, powerful in commerce as it was advanced in
thought. The same crooked streets that had echoed to Sam Adams'
seditious demands for independence heard Wendell Phillips and William
Lloyd Garrison espouse the cause of Negro liberation.
Old dwellings, mellow with historic associations, are wedged between
modern business blocks. Narrow streets lead to narrower lanes, often still
paved with uneven cobblestones, and a quarter seemingly drab may un-
expectedly afford rare glimpses into a romantic bygone period. Beacon
Hill abounds in out-of-the-way places of antique charm. And close by the
golden-domed State House are the impressive residences and Federal
mansions of Mount Vernon St.
But 'Old Boston' the Boston Towne of Puritan divines and rebels,
of sea-captains and blue-bloods is today merely a nucleus of the larger
city. From the Custom House Tower may be seen the sprawling chain of
suburbs that enclose the original community. Dorchester, Milton, Rox-
bury, Brighton, Cambridge, Charlestown, Newton, Watertown, and
Brookline, many of them independent townships but all contributing to
the social and business life of the metropolis, constitute a vast residential
ring whose population far outnumbers that of Boston proper. Across the
Charles River Basin is Cambridge, site of many industries and the home
32 Here's New England!
of Harvard University. Northwest of Boston are historic Concord and
Lexington where colonial Minutemen withstood British fire at the out-
break of the Revolution.
For the visitor who must budget his time and his money there are
a bewildering number of things to see, things to do. One part history to
two parts of the contemporary scene is a sensible recipe for the Boston
cocktail. The only aftereffects will be perhaps a wistful desire for more
for another ride on the swan boats, another night at the Pops, another
helping of real baked beans and brown bread, or the sea foods for which
the Hub is famous.
FOOT TOUR 1 THE OLD CITY
Standing on the corner of Park and Tremont Sts., you are at one of
Boston's busiest intersections. To the left is the green expanse of Boston
Common, with its crazy-quilt pattern of walks laid out by the cows of
early settlers. The Common has had a colorful history; in the Puritan era
it was the scene of floggings and hangings, while later generations flocked
to its grassy slopes for meetings and military reviews. Park St. ascends
briefly to Beacon St. and the State House, its original Bulfinch front of
brick flanked by two massive marble wings. The spectacular display in
the Hall of Flags is well worth the brief climb. Retracing, you'll be once
again at Park and Tremont Sts. in the shadow of the Park Street Church
(1809), on 'Brimstone Corner.' Proud, resolute, and quite in the Boston
spirit is the graceful tower of this edifice. A few steps along Tremont St.
will bring you to the Old Granary Burying Ground, adjoining the church,
where are buried John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Robert Treat Paine,
Paul Revere, nine early governors of the Commonwealth, and the vic-
tims of the Boston Massacre.
Cross Tremont St. and continue past Tremont Temple to School St.
The Parker House, a modern hotel occupying the corner, was renowned in
the i Qth century for its brilliant Saturday Club, a gathering-place for New
England's literary celebrities. On the opposite corner is King's Chapel
(1754) and the King's Chapel Burial Ground (1630). The Chapel, de-
signed by Peter Harrison, ranks with the finest surviving examples of
colonial architecture. As the first Episcopal Church in New England and
the first Unitarian Church in America it encountered stiff opposition from
the Puritan gentry. In the adjacent burial ground, Boston's oldest, lie
Governor Winthrop, John Cotton, and Mary Chilton Winslow.
Around the Golden Dome 33
School St. runs east to Washington St., and whoever runs east with it
gets an excellent view of the Old South Meeting House (1729), which di-
vides honors with Faneuil Hall as a scene of Revolutionary patriotism.
Sam Adams was but one of many firebrands who raised the ' Old South's '
roof with invective against the British Crown. When the participants in
the Boston Tea Party gathered for the great event, it was no more than
fitting that the line of march should begin here. During the siege of Bos-
ton, the British converted the interior into a riding school ; since that time
the building has undergone many restorations.
Swinging back north on Washington St. through Newspaper Row
brings you to State St. and the Old State House (1713). From its low
wooden balcony momentous proclamations were handed down to citizens
the Repeal of the Stamp Act, the Declaration of Independence, and
finally the glad news of Continental victory.
Not to be missed is a brass arrow at 30 State St. pointing to a cobble-
stone circle which marks the Site of the Boston Massacre. Here, on March
5, 1770, the first blood of the Revolution was shed when British soldiers,
flustered by taunts and catcalls, opened fire upon their hecklers.
You can return across Washington St. and follow Court St. toward
Scollay Square. Dwight L. Moody ' was converted to God in a shoe store
nearby ' so reads a tablet on the building opposite the City Hall An-
nex. The Annex stands on the Site of the Old Courthouse where the notori-
ous Captain Kidd was tried, or so it is claimed.
The narrow alley beside the pipe shop is not an alley at all, but Franklin
Avenue, quite typical of old Boston's thoroughfares 'where a good-sized
cow 's apt to get herself stuck/ If you follow the Avenue across Cornhill,
famous for its second-hand bookstores, you'll descend into Brattle St.
by way of a flight of old stone steps.
Turn right on Brattle St. into Dock Square for a good view of Faneuil
Hall, 'the Cradle of Liberty,' completed in 1742 from designs by John
Smibert, destroyed by fire twenty years later, and rebuilt in time to house
many significant public meetings when feeling against King George ran
high. Overtures to Revolution, these gatherings clarion-voiced pa-
triots lashing their audiences into a fury, while disgusted Tories stamped
out with shouts of 'treason!' Familiar to every Bostonian is the grass-
hopper weathervane on the building's steeple.
Dock Square is the gateway to the North End, a quarter largely inhabited
by Italians, as colorful and clamorous as it is congested. Of a Saturday
night, the market district stretching north and east of the Square is a
fiesta of foodstuffs and jostling shoppers.
34 Here's New England!
North St. branches off to the left behind Faneuil Hall, and by following
it you'll hit North Square and Paid Revere' s House (1677). The four-room
structure, typical of New England's 17th-century architecture, is open
daily from 10 to 4 (admission 25fi. Within are many fine old pieces of
furniture, two enormous fireplaces, and a number of Revere's etchings and
manuscript letters.
Turn left from North Square into Prince St. ; continue across Hanover
St. into the most exotic and crowded thoroughfare of them all, Salem
St. If you are still thinking about Paul Revere's House you'll derive
added enjoyment from the Old North Church (1723) at 193 Salem St.
Notice the pews, bearing brass plates inscribed with the names of their
iSth-century owners; a number of these are still in the possession of de-
scendants. The present steeple was designed by Bulfinch in 1808 to re-
place the earlier one by William Price. And, as every schoolboy will tell
you, it was from the Old North's steeple that the signal was flashed to
send Revere on his midnight ride. 'One if by land and two if by sea '
Opposite the Church is Hull St., ascending to the Copp's Hill Burying
Ground, where many of Boston's early residents are interred. You may en-
ter the enclosure through an iron gate on the Hull St. side and stroll the
paths running between groups of weatherbeaten tombstones. The in-
scriptions are anything but cheerful, quite in the Puritan vein of doleful
reflections upon man's mortality.
Not the least of Copp's Hill's attractions is the view of Boston Harbor
and the environs. Directly opposite is EAST BOSTON, with its fine air-
port and huge docks for transatlantic shipping. CHARLESTOWN lies
to the northwest, and is reached by surface car or the ' El' from the North
Station. That lofty granite obelisk piercing the sky is Bunker Hill Monu-
ment, Charlestown's pride. It is situated on Breed's Hill, off City Square,
marking the site of the engagement between British and Continentals on
June 17, 1775. The Charlestown Navy Yard rates a place in your itinerary,
both for its contemporary aspects and for a trip aboard the U.S. Frigate
'Constitution' ('Old Ironsides').
An excellent return to Boston Common, your starting point, is by way
of the waterfront. Retrace to the Old North Church and proceed north
on Salem St. to Charter St.; turn left here and follow Charter St. into
Hanover St. Hanover St. runs north into Commercial St. near Constitu-
tion Wharf, where 'Old Ironsides' was launched in 1797. Commercial
St., running south, branches off to the right and Atlantic Ave. begins. Of
all the wharves on the waterfront, T Wharf, at 178 Atlantic Ave., is the
most fascinating. As the center of the 'little man's fishing industry,' it
Around the Golden Dome
35
retains much of the glamour lost by large-scale methods. The Latin
fishermen, as colorful in speech and dress as their gaudily painted trawlers,
are something to see, and you'll enjoy having a sea dinner in one of the
wharf's several small restaurants. From Rowe's Wharf, further south,
ferryboats cross the harbor to East Boston, connecting with the Narrow
Gauge Railroad for Revere, Winthrop, and Lynn. Nantasket Beach
steamers, offering a pleasant cruise among the islands of Boston Harbor,
sail hourly from here during the summer months.
Just below Rowe's Wharf, Northern Ave. branches left from Atlantic
Ave. across Fort Point Channel and into SOUTH BOSTON. You might
vii.it the Boston Fish Pier (Pier 6 on Northern Ave.), largest of its kind in
the world, for contrast with the more romantic atmosphere on T Wharf.
Nor is the Fish Pier South Boston's sole bid for your interest. Castle
Island, centered by the massive stone walls of Fort Independence-, the
Boston Aquarium and the City Point Bathing Beach, all located at South
Boston's northeastern edge, are favorite haunts for sightseers. From the
Park Street Subway it's but a short ride on the City Point streetcar.
Continuing down Atlantic Ave., you'll reach the South Station. Sum-
mer St. runs west from here, experiencing a seasonal change and becom-
ing Winter St. as it crosses Washington St. between three of Boston's
major department stores. Follow the brief stretch of Winter St. and you
emerge onto Tremont St., facing Boston Common and the Park Street
Church.
FOOT TOUR 2 BEACON HILL AND THE BACK BAY
From the State House, Beacon St. follows the slope of Beacon Hill
down to Charles St. in a line of austere 19th-century residences. To the
rear of these stretches the 'Hill' itself, a fanciful clutter of mansions,
studios, lodging-houses, and tenements. A good way to enter this strong-
hold of Brahmins and Bohemians is through that wing of the State House
directly opposite Park St. You emerge into the spacious square that
marks the beginning of Mt. Vernon Street, 'the only civilized street in
America,' according to Henry James.
Turn left from the State House steps and follow Mt. Vernon St. under
the Annex and across Joy St. Here commences the procession of stately
homes set off by fenced-in lawns and shaded by patriarchal trees. At 57
lived Charles Francis Adams, Sr., Minister to Britain during the Civil
36 Here's New England!
War and father of Henry Adams, distinguished historian. William El-
lery Channing resided at 83, and at 85 is the Sears House, designed by Bui-
finch.
Halfway down the Hill a surprise awaits you as Mt. Vernon St. opens
into Louisburg Square, tranquil and detached as though it were miles re-
moved from the roaring traffic of Charles St. It might well be a fashion-
able quarter of iSth-century London, so sedate and quietly prosperous are
the brick dwellings facing its miniature fenced-in green. Walk the length
of the Square and back, taking care not to trip on the cobblestones, and
you'll have absorbed more of the Hill's peculiar charm than a wagonload
of guide books could convey to you. Then proceed straight ahead across
Mt. Vernon St. down Willow St., a typical old Boston lane from which
Acorn St. branches off to the right. Acorn St. is even narrower than its
parent, seeming at first glance little more than an alley. If you follow
through to West Cedar St., however, you'll better understand the pre-
mium that Beacon Hill realtors set on quaintness.
Now left on West Cedar St. into Chestnut Street, worth strolling for a
glimpse of its beautiful and immaculately kept doorways. At the foot of
the Hill, Chestnut crosses Charles St. into what is technically the Back
Bay, but in spirit and appearance more an extension of 'Boston's great
hump/ This continuation of Chestnut St. opens on the Esplanade, which
borders the Charles River Basin. Here, in surroundings that are a tri-
umph of landscape architecture, members of the Boston Symphony Or-
chestra present a series of free outdoor concerts on summer evenings.
Continue left from Chestnut St. on Embankment Rd. to Beacon St. ;
left again and cross Beacon to Arlington Street, bordering the western side
of the Public Garden. The formal beauty of this garden attracts crowds
of sightseers, particularly when the spring tulips are in bloom. Don't
miss the opportunity to ride in the swan boats that compete in grace with
the live swans inhabiting the shallow lake. And if the swan boats are too
tame for you, there are rowboats for hire. Notice the statues fronting on
the Boylston St. side, and the most famous statue of all, the equestrian
bronze of George Washington which faces Arlington St. at the be-
ginning of Commonwealth Avenue. The Avenue, incidentally, is Boston's
most fashionable thoroughfare.
Turn right from Arlington Street into Boylston Street, and stroll along
to Copley Square. The Square is a model of architectural elegance, cen-
tered by a triangular green which affords a fine view of the Boston Public
Library (1895). This handsome Italian Renaissance structure, designed
by Charles Follen McKim, houses one of the largest collections of books in
Around the Golden Dome
37
the world. In addition to visiting its delightful interior court, an adapta-
tion of the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome, you should see the fine wall
paintings by Abbey, Sargent, and Puvis de Chavannes on the upper
floors. Facing west of Copley Square near the Copley Plaza Hotel is
Trinity Church (1877), the triumph of Henry Hobson Richardson's
architectural style; in the church grounds is Saint-Gaudens' Statue of
Phillips Brooks. On Boylston St., to the rear of the Library, is Boston
University, ranking among the largest universities in the United States.
Huntington Avenue begins at Copley Square, running southwest past
many buildings of civic and cultural importance. By taking a Hunting-
ton Ave. streetcar at the Square, you'll save yourself considerable time
and effort, for from here on the Back Bay becomes less compact for the
sightseer.
Near the junction of Huntington and Massachusetts Ave. are two in-
stitutions of note. The Christian Science Church (1904) is the Mother
Church of Mrs. Eddy's organization. Buildings of an associated nature
surround it, creating a veritable 'city' widely visited by members of the
Faith. Symphony Hall (1900), home of the internationally acclaimed
Boston Symphony Orchestra, is also the scene of the unique ' Pops'
concerts during the spring months. Further south on Huntington Ave.
are the New England Conservatory of Music, Northeastern University, and
the Museum of Fine Arts (open daily except Monday; admission free).
Be sure to take in the Museum's magnificent collection of Oriental art,
virtually unequaled in scope and rarity; the American wing contains a
wealth of colonial silver and fascinating period furnishings.
The rear of the Museum opens on the Fenway, a pleasant parkway
through which Muddy Brook winds snake-like, spanned by numerous
picturesque bridges. Fronting on the Fenway, to the west of the Museum
of Fine Arts, is Boston's most extraordinary show spot, the Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum. 'Mrs. Jack Gardner's Venetian Palace' is just
that, a real Venetian palace, and its priceless collection of art is as bril-
liant and unorthodox as was Mrs. Jack Gardner herself. Simmons College
is just beyond on the Fenway.
Before taking the streetcar back to Park St., you might continue south
past the ' Palace ' to the impressive marble buildings of the Harvard Medi-
cal School, reached by proceeding along the Avenue Louis Pasteur. From
the Medical Center, Longwood Ave. runs east to Huntington Ave. and
the car line.
38 Here's New England!
MOTOR TOUR CAMBRIDGE AND POINTS NORTHWEST
CAMBRIDGE is a 'college town/ for within its limits are Radcliffe
College, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technol-
ogy. Cambridge residents, however, are inclined to regard these centers
of higher learning as foreign settlements. Harvard in particular is some-
thing of a Vatican within the Cambridge Rome.
From the Park Street Subway, the rapid transit crosses the Charles
River to Harvard Square. To reach the Square by motor, proceed down
Beacon St. to Massachusetts Ave.; swing right and follow the Avenue
across Harvard Bridge into Cambridge. On your right are the neoclassic
buildings of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, grouped around a
U-shaped square. A beautiful view of Beacon Hill, with the golden dome
of the State House, is afforded from the bridge.
Follow Massachusetts Ave. through Central Square into Harvard
Square. Here you'll encounter students of all nationalities and with all
manner of sartorial eccentricities. Battered felt hats, soiled white shoes,
baggy trousers, and sport coats comprise the orthodox undergraduate
regalia. No less eye-filling in their way are the faculty members, for
Harvard sets its own standards in fashion as in weightier matters.
You may wish to stop and acquaint yourself with more of Harvard than
meets the eye from the Square; in that case, follow Massachusetts Ave.
east and enter the Harvard Yard by the McKean Gate. Of American col-
lege campuses, none is more charming and mellow than 'the Yard/ The
Widener Library, on the south side, contains a world-famous collection of
books and manuscripts, including a Treasure Room devoted to rare edi-
tions. University Hall, designed by Charles Bulfinch in 1813, is one of the
Yard's most attractive buildings; Massachusetts Hall, directly opposite,
is the oldest of all the Harvard structures, having been erected in 1720.
Leaving the Yard by the southeast gate, turn left on Quincy St. The Fogg
Art Museum (open weekdays, 9-5) houses a fine art collection, among
which are a number of superb Italian primitives. Notice Memorial Hall,
a monstrous red-brick structure in Victorian Gothic style, as you turn
right from Quincy St. into Kirkland St. Three other museums of repute
are the Germanic Museum, at the corner of Divinity Ave. and Kirkland
St., the Semitic Museum near-by, and the University Museum, renowned
for its glass flowers.
Retrace to Harvard Square and follow Boylston St. south to the Larz
Around the Golden Dome
39
Anderson Bridge] turn left onto Memorial Drive. Here the University
presents its most pictorial aspect, for the Charles River borders its rim
like an Old World moat. Students saunter in groups over the Weeks
Bridge, spanning the river below the Larz Anderson Bridge, and gather
to watch the Harvard oarsmen at practice, studies in flawless symmetry.
Across the Charles, looking much like a separate institution of learning,
is the School of Business Administration, close by Soldier's Field and the
massive Stadium, where the seasonal football games are held; along
Memorial Drive are ivied college houses.
Back to Harvard Square again, and before leaving this neighborhood
you should visit the peaceful Common, just northwest of the Square past
the First Parish Church (1833), the Old Town Burying Ground (1636), and
Christ Church (1761). Drive up Garden St. to Mason St. and you'll be
at the Site of the Washington Elm, under which Washington assumed com-
mand of the Continental Army in 1775.
Cut through Mason Street to Brattle Street, the street of ancestral elms
and handsome residences. You might proceed west on Brattle St. to the
Craigie-Longfellow House (1759), home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
In colonial times this house was one of seven that made up "Tory Row,'
and when its owner fled to Boston in 1774 it became the headquarters of
General Washington. In Washington's private chamber, later used as a
study by the young Longfellow, were written 'The Psalm of Life' and
'The Wreck of the Hesperus.'
From Harvard Square, follow Mass. 2A (Massachusetts Ave.) through
ARLINGTON, to LEXINGTON, where on April 19, 1775, farmers
aroused by Revere's midnight ride assembled to prevent General Gage
from confiscating stores of ammunition at near-by Concord. Visit the
Lexington Battle Ground, 'Birthplace of American Liberty,' for it was
here that the valiant Minutemen clashed with superior British troops.
Marking the triangular Green is H. H. Kitson's familiar Minuteman
Statue.
Route 2A continues on to CONCORD, rich in literary and historical
lore. Of course you'll make a bee-line for the Battleground, off Monument
St., near a concrete reproduction of the original wooden Bridge that
spanned the Concord River. Here, on April 19, Concord Minutemen
fired 'the shot heard round the world.' The Minuteman, Daniel Chester
French's famous statue, guards the site of the momentous skirmish, and
near-by you'll find a Monument marking the graves of British soldiers.
Concord in the i9th century was a center of intellectual activity, and
' Concord Transcendentalism ' was as familiar to Emerson's contempora-
40 Here's New England!
ries as are Concord grapes to the housewife of today. Emerson was the
sage of the movement, but closely associated with him were Hawthorne,
William Ellery Channing, Margaret Fuller, Thoreau, and Amos Broiison
Alcott. The Emerson House, at Lexington Rd. and the Cambridge Turn-
pike, preserves many of the original furnishings and portraits. Near-by
is the Antiquarian House, a museum of interest for its several fine period
rooms. Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Channing, and the Alcotts are
all buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery on Bedford Rd.
From Concord take Mass. 126 to WAYLAND; turn right on US 20
for The Wayside Inn (1686), immortalized by Longfellow in his ' Tales of a
Wayside Inn' and a famous hostelry in colonial times. The landmark
is furnished with many rare antiques and objects of historical interest.
Mass. 27 from Wayland will take you to NATICK, site of one of
the Reverend John Eliot's Indian Praying Towns. Then continuing
eastward by Mass. 135 on your return trip to Boston, you will pass
the extensive grounds of Wellesley College.
CAPE ANN
AND THE
NORTH SHORE
L. 1 1 L
Scafe in Miles
CAPE ANN AND THE
NORTH SHORE
From Witches to Captains Courageous
US 1, Mass. 1A, 129, 127, 121, 1A; Cape Ann, 38 m. from Boston.
YOUR speedometer will show only 40 miles when you drive from Boston
to Rockport on the tip of Cape Ann, but you would travel several hundred
miles if, like the map-maker's pencil point, you traced each cove and
promontory. And you might travel a thousand miles or more without
ever finding anything at once so varied, so full of historical memories, so
rich in natural beauty, as this short strip of rugged coastline.
As briny as barnacles on a ship's keel are the coastal towns and
villages of the North Shore, a region of safe harbors guarded by rocky
headlands. Slim, sleek-hulled yachts ride at anchor where once
schooners tied up to unload cargoes from the Indies and the Orient.
When towns and formal estates leave space, fields and lingering woods
slope down close to the shore. On the interior moorlands, wild roses
perfume the air; in the fall the red of swamp alder glows above gray
bayberries. Salt marshes stretch for miles, throwing into high relief
against their tawny flatness the white brilliance of sand dunes along
Ipswich Bay.
Mass. 1 A will be your route out of Boston. After it has led you through
REVERE BEACH Boston's Coney Island and industrial LYNN,
you'd better desert it for Mass. 129, which leads to the two-mile stretch of
Lynn Beach, whose public bathhouses are jammed on Sundays and holi-
days. Right by a long causeway lie the two high, rocky islands of NA-
HANT. The numerous beaches of adjacent SWAMPSCOTT rim the
town, divided from Lynn Beach and from each other by outcroppings of
granite.
If you have stuck to Mass. 1A, you will pass, on Paradise Road, the
Mary Baker Eddy House, where the founder of Christian Science gave her
first demonstrations of healing, and the 17th-century Humphrey House,
interesting as the home of John Humphrey of the Dorchester Adventurers,
and later of the freethinking Lady Deborah Moody.
MARBLEHEAD you surely must not forego, whatever your choice of
44 Here's New England!
road has been. Mass. 129 will bring you to it from Swampscott, or if you
neglected your first chance to leave 1A, depart from it now where it again
connects with 129 as you enter Salem, and swing back to the curious old
town. A jumble of shingled roofs silvered by centuries of salt wind, of
lanes and byways angling down to the harbor. Take a little time to wan-
der, preferably afoot, through the crooked streets of the old quarter.
Washington St., for first choice, where Willard's Spirit of '76 hangs in
Abbot Hall, and pre-Revolutionary houses shoulder each other. Among
the best examples of its period anywhere is the Jeremiah Lee Mansion
(1768), notable especially for its elaborate interior woodwork. Just
around the corner on Hooper St. is the 'King' Hooper Mansion (1745),
home of a Tory merchant prince. The Old Town House (1727) was for
years the meeting-place of turbulent Marblehead patriots. St. Michael's
(1714) is the oldest Episcopal Church in New England. Don't neglect to
climb to the top of Old Burial Hill, both for its outlook over town and har-
bor and for its Revolutionary gravestones.
It's easy to lose yourself in history as you look down from Old Burial
Hill, unless the sight of the ocean changes your retrospective mood to one
of lively anticipation. Well it may, for Marblehead is the yachting center
of the New England seaboard, and rivaled only by Long Island and Nar-
ragansett in the East. In the secure harbor, protected from the open sea
by Marblehead Neck, there is a continual movement of sail and throb of
engines.
Beyond Marblehead lies SALEM that grew in a century and a half
from a handful of huts to a seaport of world renown. The myriad islands
of the East Indies were as familiar to her captains as Baker's Island or
Great Misery off the Salem shore. There are no more deep-water ships in
Salem Harbor, but as a legend of seafaring the city is immortal. Na-
thaniel Hawthorne's Salem, the city of witches, of China trade, of stately
houses that embody the ultimate artistic achievement of their times.
There is even an excellent replica of the settlement of the Puritans
(Pioneer Village, Forest River Park off Lafayette St.). Hawthorne's
Salem was near the waterfront, where the granite finger of Derby Wharf
beckoned the tall ships home. Almost within a stone's throw are the
Old Custom House, where, desperate with boredom, he entered endless
figures in his ledgers, and the House of Seven Gables on Turner St., which
may or may not have been the one he described, but is well worth a visit
anyway. Next to the Custom House is the Richard Derby House (1762),
the oldest brick house in Salem.
When in the early i8th century Salem ships began to bring home
Cape Ann and the North Shore 45
riches, captains and merchants deserted the waterfront, first for Essex
and Federal Streets and then for Chestnut Street and Washington Square.
Here they built rambling gambrel-roofed dwellings and, later, square
Federalist houses many designed by the woodcarver and architectural
genius, Samuel Mclntire, and enriched with the exquisite detail of which
he was a master. No visit to Salem would be complete without several
hours spent in the treasure houses of the past, the Essex Institute and the
Peabody Museum, almost opposite each other on Essex St. The Institute
maintains several distinguished houses, among them the lyth-century
Ward House on the grounds and the Mclntire-designed Pingree House
(1810) next door. Besides its notable library, the Institute displays colo-
nial portraits and has reassembled several rooms of period furniture.
The Peabody Museum ship model collection is unequaled, and there are
cases full of East Indian relics and whaling and navigation implements.
Another museum, the Ropes Memorial on Essex St. (1719), is a delightful
gambrel-roofed dwelling housing rare collections of china and glass.
Leaving Salem you cross the bridge into BEVERLY, and turn right
to the waterfront on Mass. 127, the famous North Shore Drive. This
serpentine highway commands caution, and most fortunately, for it leads
through country that deserves a leisurely survey. The height of fashion
and expense are the elaborate villas of PRIDE'S CROSSING and BEV-
ERLY FARMS; occasional stables need but interior remodeling to serve
as manor houses. And all this splendor is placed in a natural setting of
rolling hills, satin-smooth lawns, and intermittent flashes of ocean. Be-
tween estates lie strips of beach, most of them sacrosanct. MANCHES-
TER'S Singing Beach, to which the Town Fathers will admit you on their
own conditions, gives forth a musical crunch. Through fashionable MAG-
NOLIA, with its little 'Fifth Avenue,' the Drive continues on to Glouces-
ter, in the granite armpit of Cape Ann.
GLOUCESTER is one American city where tradition has continued
unbroken for three centuries. Established as a fishing station only three
years after the 'Mayflower' landed in Plymouth, it is still among the
great fishing ports of the world. The first thing you'll notice as you cross
Blynman Bridge into the city is the pungent odor a blend of fish and
tar and good salt air. To the right lies the harbor, called by Champlain
'le beau port.' The Esplanade is dominated by the bronze Gloucester
Fisherman, a vigorous symbol of the men who go down to the sea in ships.
Each year the people of Gloucester lay wreaths at his feet in tribute to
sailing men who never came back to shore.
The wharves along the famous waterfront begin at 'the Fort,' just
46 Here's New England!
beyond the Harbor Esplanade, where the Italian fishermen crowd to-
gether. Their brightly painted craft, diesel-powered now, lend a Mediter-
ranean splash of color. On the hill in the center of town cluster the houses
of the Portuguese fisherfolk. Carillon chimes ring out from the squat
twin towers of their Church of Our Lady of Good Voyage; in a niche above
its portals stands an image of the Virgin cradling a ship in her arms.
All the way around the crescent of the Inner Harbor (where the Gorton
Pew Company will let you see a modern fish-packing plant in action) and
along the peninsula of Rocky Neck, are sail lofts, nested dories, nets
drying, vessels discharging their slithery haul; you'll hear the shriek of
blocks and the squeak of tholepins. And you may trip over an artist
anywhere even at exclusive Eastern Point or on the theoretically
private boulders of Bass Rocks, for there's scarcely an American painter
who has not at some time set up his easel in Gloucester.
ROCKPORT, at the end of Cape Ann, is the ideal of what an old New
England seaport should be. There's a whole chain of fishing villages
groups of cottages clinging to windswept granite. Then the town proper
streets of neat white houses, an ancient cemetery in the shadow of the
meeting house, salt-bitten fish houses along the tiny harbor, and from
every rise of ground views of the Atlantic. Rockport is land's end, sur-
rounded by water on three sides. Artists frequent the place, share
Bearskin Neck with the lobstermen, put one bit of the harborside on
canvas so often that in art circles it is facetiously known as 'Motif No. i.'
The coves along the northern shore of the Cape were once fishing ports
and later centers for shipping Rockport granite. The industry is almost
dead now, and abandoned quarry pools and rusting derricks are every-
where. From the Lanesville shore and the quiet summer resort of
ANNISQUAM you can look across Ipswich Bay to the Sand Dunes of
the West Gloucester and Ipswich beaches.
Inland from Annisquam is the deserted village of Dogtown, a moorland
of fantastically tumbled boulders, and among them more than forty cellar
holes. A prosperous settlement in 1650, it gradually fell upon lean days
and became the abode of hags and witches, outcasts, and unsavory char-
acters. There are legends of Dogtown, sinister tales that suit their wild
and lonely setting.
Completing the circuit around the Cape, you inevitably return to the
Harbor and the one road to the mainland. Just past Blynman Bridge,
Mass. 121 branches to the right, offering you an alternate route toward
your reunion with 1A. WEST GLOUCESTER has been comparatively
little developed as a summer resort, although there are cottages and
Cape Ann and the North Shore 47
camps along its tidal rivers, and the dunes of Wingaersheek Beach, at the
mouth of the Annisquam, are increasingly crowded on Sundays. In
ESSEX, the causeway is lined with restaurants and the odor of field
clams is heavy on the air. The Shipyards, established in 1668, still turn
out sound craft. Entering IPSWICH, you will connect with Mass. 1A
before you reach the town proper. Continuing north, you come upon the
South Green, a long, tree-shaded plot overlooked by old white dwellings
and graceful South Church. Argilla Rd. departs from the green to Ipswich
Beach, an unspoiled stretch of dunes and level sand. Neighboring the
South Church are the Whipple House (c. 1640), one of the finest examples
extant of 17th-century construction, and the John Heard House, built by
the father of that Augustine Heard who plied the China trade and, to the
gaping admiration of seafarers, took his vessel over a bar on her beam ends.
Through the towns of ROWLEY and OLD NEWBURY, the road
enters NEWBURYPORT, whose 'ships all in motion once whitened the
ocean/ and whose High Street houses are a staunch monument to the
shipwrights who built them for captains and merchant-owners. The
cornice of the Gushing House (1808) has exceptional merit; the Pettingell-
Fowler House (1792) exhibits an historical and marine collection; in the
ornate Jackson-Dexter House (1771) lived 'Lord' Timothy Dexter, famous
for his eccentricities. At the end of the mall is the grim Old County Jail
(1744). High St. (Mass. 1A) connects in the center of town with 'the
Turnpike' (US 1), which runs to Boston straight as the crow flies.
PORTSMOUTH
i
/
NORTH HAMPTOM
i
VE HARBOR
ITTLG BOAR'S
HEAD
AMPTON
BEACH
w
<*/
lo/
ALONG
NEW HAMPSHIRE'S
SEACOAST
10
i '
Scale in Mfle>s
ALONG NEW HAMPSHIRE S
SEACOAST
Silvery Beaches and Storied Towns
US 1, N.H. 1A; Portsmouth, 20 m. from Newburyport, Mass.
NEW HAMPSHIRE'S eighteen miles of shoreline are a tiny keystone
wedged into the arch of the North Atlantic Coast. You can drive from
the Massachusetts line to the mouth of the tideswept Piscataqua in a
half hour over the Lafayette Road (US 1) through the marshes. It's
longer by way of the Ocean Boulevard (N.H. 1A), skirting the sea, for
you will stop many times to watch the waves dashing in from the Isles
of Shoals and the surf curling over the rocks of Rye.
Wherever you go along the shore, around Great Bay, up the Piscat-
aqua River, or among the tidewater streams you can't get away from
the sea, for the whole region is as filled with the murmur of the waves as
the conch you held to your ear when a child. A salty tang mingles with
the scent of the apple blossoms in the great orchards of Hampton Falls.
Sea fogs roll over the hills and veil the tree canopies of Exeter.
The city of PORTSMOUTH grew up from the sea. The Georgian
houses lining the narrow streets were built by prosperous merchants and
shipowners, but the warehouses are deserted now and the ship stocks are
rotting. Over yonder at the river's mouth men are building submarines
instead of Yankee clippers.
Walk along Portsmouth's waterfront, once known as Strawberry Bank.
It's little changed since the days of the West India trade. The crooked
streets around Puddle Dock follow the paths of the sea-captains. The
doorways on many of the houses were carved by ship carpenters.
Some of the iSth-century mansions, like the Weniworth-Gardner House
(1760) on Mechanic St., and the Mo/at-Ladd House (1763) on Market
St., with its four chimneys and terraced gardens, are open to the public.
So are the John Paul Jones House (1758), corner of Middle and State
Sts., headquarters of the Portsmouth Historical Society, and the Warner
House (1718), the oldest brick house in the city. Descendants of the
original owners live in the stately Peirce Mansion on Haymarket Square
and in the Governor John Langdon House, Pleasant St., one of the most
50 Here's New England!
beautiful hip-roofed houses in New England. The doors of these and
other mansions, filled with treasures from London, Paris, and the Orient,
are closed, but you might be lucky and pull into Portsmouth on the day in
August when old houses are open to visitors, entrance fees being turned
over to charitable organizations.
Signs everywhere direct you to points of interest. Ivy-covered Saint
John's Church overlooking the river; the Athenaeum in Market Square,
noted for its fine collection of ships' models; the City Library, built in the
Bulfinch tradition. Open in the summer is the old Nutter House on Court
St., home of a sea-captain where Thomas Bailey Aldrich's 'Bad Boy'
played his tricks. You can see the very kitchen window through which
the pony lapped up Miss Abby's custard pies!
The Portsmouth Navy Yard? Take US 1 across the Piscataqua, and
you'll be in Maine. The Yard is actually on that side of the line, located
on an island in the sheltered waters of the upper harbor. It's a sub-
marine base of the eastern Atlantic coast, but it has its tradition of peace,
too, for here in 1905 the treaty ending the Russo-Japanese War was
signed, with Theodore Roosevelt acting as intermediary. The Navy
Yard keeps open house on his birthday, October 27. To reach the Yard
you pass through KITTERY, one of Maine's oldest towns. Include a
visit to KITTERY POINT, where there are two distinguished early
houses, the Lady Pepperell House and the Sparhawk House, and partly
ruined Fort McClary.
Strangely enough there is three times as much shoreline around Ports-
mouth as there is on the New Hampshire coast proper. The Piscataqua
coils and backtracks, and the shore loops and scallops until there are at
least forty miles of land edging Great and Little Harbors. From the
Three Bridges which connect Portsmouth with Newcastle, you'll see
white-sailed pleasure boats darting in and out between the wooded islands
or moving to anchorage near the Portsmouth Yacht Club. NEWCASTLE
is like a transplanted English fishing town. The streets follow the fisher-
men's footsteps and always end at the water's edge. The salt-box houses
are surrounded by bright gardens; many of them are summer homes, gay
with awnings and sun parasols. There's a gravestone at the corner of the
foundation of the Meeting House. At Fort Constitution the patriots pulled
down the King's colors and captured the powder later used at the Battle
of Bunker Hill. Wentworth-by-the-Sea, the largest summer hotel in the
region, overlooks Little Harbor and Sagamore Creek and the Benning
Wentworth Mansion across the waters.
If you want more islands, there they are out on the horizon, windswept
Along New Hampshire's Seacoast 51
and wave-pounded as when Basque fishermen dried cod on the blue trap
rock three centuries ago. It's like taking a sea trip to visit the ISLES OF
SHOALS, where the roving eye of White Island Lighthouse flashes its
warning of dangerous reefs and jagged rocks. The steamer from Ports-
mouth takes you to Star Island, owned by the Unitarian and Congrega-
tional Church Conferences. You visit the stone chapel. You bask in the
sun on the rocks, listening to the rumble of the surf, the cheep of sand-
pipers, the scream of a sea gull.
For swimming, the long sands of Hampton, State-owned, and the
shorter stretches of Rye. The cliffs above Wallis Sands for rock-climbing.
Boating in Old Rye Harbor. The fishing's on a par with the best any-
where. For dancing there are swing orchestras all up and down the coast.
Piney back roads beyond the marshes and the rose-lined lanes of New-
castle make excellent bridle trails. There are the Seacoast Music Festival
at Little Boar's Head, and the Farragut Players at Rye. Food? Famous
seacoast cooks, and no tomatoes in the clam chowder.
You can roll into the region from Massachusetts over US 1, the direct
route from Boston to Portland. As the Lafayette Road, it enters SEA-
BROOK. Passing greenhouses and bright fields of gladioli, it continues
through HAMPTON FALLS, home of Meshech Weare, first governor of
the State; then it cuts across the marshes ' pranked with purple iris' into
HAMPTON VILLAGE. Notice the hedge-encircled General Moulton
House, a private home, at the corner of Drake Road. People say the
general sold his soul to the devil for a bootful of gold and then cut out the
toe of the boot! Drive east from the village and see Meeting-House Green,
the old Ring Swamp of the early settlers. Near-by was the hut of Goody
Cole, a witch who was legally exonerated of all guilt at Hampton's Ter-
centenary Celebration in 1938.
Returning to the main highway, you go to NORTH HAMPTON with
its late 17th-century houses, very square and broad, with gigantic central
chimney stacks. But if it's apple-blossom time, turn west at Lamie's
Tavern and visit the orchards of Applecrest Farm, one of the largest apple
farms in New England. Beyond it is EXETER, site of Phillips-Exeter
Academy, that home of 'stew'd cats' made famous by Judge Shute's
'Plupy.' The Reverend John Wheelwright's old town was the first State
capital. It is full of mansions, many of them now owned by the Academy.
Drive by the Old Garrison House (c. 1650) on Water St., and arrange a
visit to the Ladd-Gilman House, comer of Water St. and Governor's
Lane, long associated with one of the State's most influential families.
You can continue your journey past tilled hillsides sloping toward the
52 Here's New England!
meadows of Great Bay. The highway (N.H. 108) which crosses the
Lottery Bridge is a link between Exeter and DURHAM on the Oyster
River, where blood-curdling whoops of Indians often rent the air in
colonial days. Now the warwhoops have a different timbre when students
of the University of New Hampshire take possession of the town from
September to June.
A highway swings southeast to Portsmouth by way of the new Alexan-
der Scammel Bridge. But if you wish to visit Dover, the second New
Hampshire town to be settled, go straight beyond Durham on N.H. 108
for five miles. As you enter the city, you'll notice the mills on the Cocheco
River, for DOVER is the center of a large industrial area. The Dam
Garrison, in the grounds of the Woodman Institute, built of logs in 1675,
withstood many an Indian attack. Dover is a gateway to all of New
Hampshire's playgrounds; trunk highways lead directly from it to the
lakes, the mountains, and the sea.
If you follow down the Piscataqua and cross the Sullivan Toll Bridge
at Dover Point you will come into Portsmouth by way of Christian Shore,
where on Northwest Ave. is the weathered Richard Jackson House (1664),
the oldest house in the city. Then you wind through the narrow streets
of the business section, and turning at the City Library, skirt Haymarket
Square to reach the street leading to N.H. 1A, the Ocean Boulevard.
This highway passes by the road to Odiorne's Point, where the first
pioneers put up a truck house and engaged in offshore fishing. Five miles
out of the city it coils along the high cliffs guarding Wallis Sands, Ports-
mouth's own beach. Then it curves through the marshes around Rye
Harbor, and on by the fine estates of Little Boar's Head to the sands of
Hampton Beach. Here the Boulevard is lined with tourist homes,
summer cottages, and amusement places maintained by the Village
Precinct. Below are the Hampton Beach State Reservation, and the new
State Bath-house. And here, at the mouth of the Hampton River, l 'twixt
white sea-waves and sand-hills brown,' you leave New Hampshire's sea-
coast.
THBAY
H _HAR80R
PORT
fBailey Id.
y
CAS CO BAY
20
Scale in Miles
CASCO BAY
Island-Studded Waters
US 1; Portland, 50 m. from Portsmouth, N.H.
US 1 is the direct route from Boston to Portland. But if you have time
and want to get a feeling for the polished shores of Maine, in contrast
with the rugged shores further east, follow Me. 1 from Kittery, through
fashionable YORK HARBOR, along York Beach, and on to OGUNQUIT,
an artists' retreat. Just beyond WELLS you'll detour again on Me. 9
to KENNEBUNK BEACH, the birthplace and home of the author
Kenneth Roberts, and to KENNEBUNKPORT, the 'ArundeP of his
novel. Margaret Deland and Booth Tarkington spend their summers
here. CAPE PORPOISE has long been a favorite with authors and
artists, as has BIDDEFORD POOL. Back on US 1 are the twin cities
of BIDDEFORD and SACO, separated by the Saco River. Detour from
Saco on Me. 9 to the State's longest stretch of sand, 14 miles of it.
Known as OLD ORCHARD BEACH, it is a gay resort, with diversions
for every taste. Thence on to Portland and Casco Bay.
'Bay of the Calendar Isles' has long been the poet's description of
crescent-shaped Casco Bay, stretching from the rocky tip of Cape
Elizabeth on the south to snub-nosed Bald Head on the northern Phipps-
burg peninsula. The island-studded sweep of some 200 square miles is
said to have once been the mouth of a great river. But that was ages
before Captain John Smith landed here, one of the first ' tourists' to
behold the sandy beaches and coves where the Atlantic pounds between
jutting points of land.
Standing on one of the headlands, you can gaze seaward over the net-
cobwebbed wharves of tiny villages. Fishing smacks ply homeward at
dusk through the myriad islands. Walking through the old Yankee shore
towns, you mark the white spires against the sky and the elm-lined ave-
nues between rows of stately houses.
The Casco Bay islands lie in three ranges, natural windbreaks for
roadways that lead to safe deep-water anchorages. Steamers, ferries,
and small motor and sail craft follow the channels that weave in among
scattered islands. Although any native of the Bay region will tell you
that there are 365 of them, one for every day in the year, by official count
56 Here's New England!
there are actually no more than 222 'big enough for a man to get out and
stand on.' But this means forgetting the stray rocks and reefs, shoals,
and 'knobs' so numerous that the eastern end of the bay is considered
one of the most difficult sections of the Maine coast to navigate.
Although there are excellent golf courses and miles of bridle paths
along the pine-bordered shores, bathing, boating, and fishing are the
favorite warm-weather pastimes. Deep-sea fishing, especially for tuna, or
'horse mackerel,' is the exciting sport. The islands, providing almost
continuous shelter for small sailing vessels, have long been a gathering
place for yachtsmen.
Swinging off US 1 on the mainland, just south of Portland, you'll
follow a curving road over Cape Elizabeth, on whose broad headland are
located many beautiful estates of old Portland families.
Near the residential community of SOUTH PORTLAND is Fort Preble,
named for Commodore Preble, often called the ' Father of the American
Navy.*
The oldest regular United States Army regiment, the United States
Fifth Infantry, has been stationed at Fort Williams at CAPE COTTAGE
since 1922. Within the fortification is Portland Head Light, established
in 1791 by order of George Washington.
PORTLAND, Maine's largest city, straddles a narrow neck of land at
the head of Casco Bay. Holding the economic and commercial key to a
vast territory extending north and east to the Canadian border, the city
dominates far more than the Bay region. Of special interest is the col-
lection of Maine flora and fauna in the Portland Society of Natural History,
24 Elm St. The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 190 Cumberland
Ave., is the seat of the bishopric and mother church of the entire Catholic
diocese of Maine. More than a score of wharves and the Maine State
Pier lie along the Portland Waterfront. Literary people will take in the
Wadsworth-Long fellow House, 487 Congress St., the dignified childhood
home of the poet.
Most of Casco Bay's islands may be reached by ferry or small boat from
Portland or other towns along the mainland coast. A regular steamer trip
from Portland winds through 44 miles of sheltered waters, stopping at
nine of the islands. Indian names alternate with good Yankee ones such
as 'Junk of Pork/ 'Brown Cow,' and 'Pound of Tea.' On Hog Island
is formidable-looking Fort Gorges, which has not been garrisoned for many
years. House Island, near-by, also has its abandoned harbor defense,
Fort Scammell. Rising in the background is the seamed granite shore of
Cushing Island. Peak's Island, farther seaward, is more densely populated
Casco Bay 57
than any other in the bay. Its woodland trails, cultivated fields, and
ledged shores are colored with a history dating back to the early ship-
building days of Falmouth.
The Diamonds, Little and Great, are connected by a sandbar which is
submerged at high tide. On Great Diamond is Fort McKinley, a sub-post
of Portland's harbor defenses.
Long Island has excellent roads, shady paths, pine groves, and open
fields. If you want to seek out wild flowers, delicate ferns and mosses, or
gather luscious native berries, both Little and Great Chebeague will suit
your taste. Great Chebeague teems with legends of pirate lore and
buried treasure.
On Cliff Island, marked by ferocious saw-toothed reefs, is Keiffs
Garden, reputed burying ground of sailors whose bodies were washed
ashore from shipwrecks caused by the false signals of an islander.
FALMOUTH FORESIDE on US 1 has a residential section of many
fine estates, a favorite summer resort. YARMOUTH, bordering a deep
cove, was once an important shipbuilding center. A few miles beyond, on
a side road to the left, lies the Desert oj Maine, 300 acres of farmland taken
over by desert sands, through which the tops of live trees struggle up as
bushes. In 1878 FREEPORT witnessed the launching of the 'John A.
Briggs/ one of the largest wooden vessels built on the Maine coast.
Near-by are the ruins of picturesque Casco Castle.
BRUNSWICK is famous as the seat of Bowdoin College, which numbers
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Admiral Peary among its illustrious graduates.
Harriet Beecher Stowe lived in the Stowe House on Federal St. while
writing 'Uncle Tom's Cabin/
The elongated township of HARPSWELL occupies a peninsula which
terminates in several large islands including Orr's and Bailey's. Mrs.
Stowe, you may remember, described this region in her story called 'The
Pearl of Orr's Island.' The peninsula at South Harpswell is very narrow,
and its summer homes huddle sheep-like on a barren rock. Great Island, or
Sebascodegan, separated from the mainland by a channel of rushing tides,
is the 'Lost Paradise' of Robert P. Tristram Coffin, poet and novelist.
BOOTHBAY HARBOR
Old Ships and New
US 1, Me. 27, 129, 130; Boothbay Harbor, 59 m. from Portland.
TALL masts etched against a mackerel sky. Rotting hulks left high and
dry on sand flats. A lone fisherman rowing his net-laden skiff past the
sharp prow of a yacht. Green lobsters heaped on wharves whose piles
are a brighter green. Great combers breaking over blunted rocks, and
quiet coves with stretches of sand washed by gentle tides. This is the
Boothbay Harbor region, where the sea and the green fields blend into a
background for living.
The area, approximately 15 miles long and 15 miles deep, is inter-
laced by the waters of three rivers that empty into narrow, irregular
bays. Navigable channels cut far inland. Narrow side roads open into
neat little settlements at the water's edge.
State-of-Mainers will tell you that pirates, after days of looting and
burning in southern waters, sailed north to rest and carouse in the
security of these cool down-east harbors. The infamous Dixie Bull,
ranking with Captain Kidd as the scourge of Maine waters, kept right
on looting, however, probably feeling that there is no rest for the wicked.
You'll find that BATH on US 1, home port of the once famous Sewall
' Steel Fleet,' is still a bustling shipbuilding center. Dominant in Bath's
industrial and social life are the Bath Iron Works. The Davenport Memorial
Building, Front St., houses municipal offices, and you'll probably find it
worth while to go through the Davenport Memorial Museum, both for its
ship paintings and for the original half -models from which were built the
famous merchantmen and vessels launched from Maine shipyards.
The town of WISCASSET, also on US 1, is said to be the scene of
Eugene O'Neill's 'Mourning "Becomes Electra.' It's an enchanting place,
whose old homes are now occupied largely by artists and writers. You
should visit the Nickels-Sortwell House (1807-08) at Main and Fort Sts.,
a massive three-story structure with a one-story entrance portico, Corin-
thian pilasters, and a long central Palladian window in the second story.
The Abiel Wood House (1812), at High and Lee Sts., is almost a duplicate
of the Nickels-Sortwell House. The Lincoln County Courthouse (1824), on
the Common, once resounded to the florid oratory of Daniel Webster,
60 Here's New England!
and is the oldest building in which court is still held in Maine. The
Tucker Mansion (1807), at the east end of High St., is said to be a copy of
a castle in Dunbar, Scotland. Patience Tucker Stapleton, daughter of a
skipper and author of ' Trailing Yew' and other stories, lived here in her
youth.
On the bank of the Sheepscot River in NORTH EDGECOMB (Me.
27), the Marie Antoinette House was prepared by Captain Clough for the
ill-fated French queen who hoped to escape to America or so you may
believe if you take your local legends unsalted. Less than half a mile off
the main road stands the black, square- timbered Block House (1808-
1809), known as Fort Edgecomb.
The village of BOOTHBAY HARBOR is the heart of this coastal area.
A year-round village of leisurely living, it gives over its streets to 'sum-
mer people ' in the warmer days. Artists set up their easels before some
choice composition. During the vacation season the harbor is astir with
small sailboats and outboard motorboats slipping between mahogany
and brass-trimmed yachts at anchor. Down-east coasting schooners,
prematurely mourned by lovers of the sea, are once again sailing into this
port. The Commonwealth Art Colony just north from Spruce Point is near
an old Indian Trail. Close to the Harbor is the little Boothbay Playhouse.
On McKown's Point, west of the village, is the United States Fish
Hatchery and Aquarium. Further out, green Southport Island, a popular
summer center, especially at WEST SOUTHPORT on the Sheepscot
side, seems a part of the mainland, while Mouse, Capital, Squirrel, and
Damariscove Islands string out toward the open sea.
On the western shore of Linnekin Bay, in EAST BOOTHBAY, stand
shipyards with a country-wide reputation for pleasure and work boats.
Here, its wheel still turning, is the old Hodgdon Tide Mill, which after
more than a century of service is used for sawing lumber.
At DAMARISCOTTA (US 1) are Indian middens, Heaps of Oyster
and Clam Shells which form a cliff six to twenty-five feet above high-water
line. Christmas Cove, on Me. 129, was given that name by Captain John
Smith when he landed here on Christmas Day, 1614. He called it an
'excellent good Harbor/ and no visitor today questions his judgment.
NEW HARBOR (Me. 130), on the Pemaquid Peninsula, is a compact
fishing and summer-resort settlement. Along the wharves are upturned
dories, lobster pots, drying nets, fish stages, and sundry appurtenances.
New Harbor possesses added distinction as the home of Samoset, the
'good' Indian who in March, 1621, startled the Pilgrims at Plymouth by
appearing among them with the greeting, 'Much welcome, Englishmen.'
Boothbay Harbor 61
The sachem had learned the language from Englishmen engaged in fishing
off Monhegan. At PEMAQUID BEACH, a fishing and trading settle-
ment was established as early as 1600. Ghosts, they say, haunt the
200-year-old cellars and sunken paved streets around the reproduction
of the Tower of Fort William Henry. The Fort, built in 1692, stood on
the site of Shurt's Fort (1630) and Fort Charles (1677). As Fort William
Henry, it was destroyed in 1696, and was succeeded in 1729 by Fort
Frederick, which in turn was destroyed by local residents during the
Revolution. The great rocky foundation of Fort William Henry remains
to this day.
From Pemaquid Point, where the surf growls almost continuously and
circling gulls fill the air with their lonesome cries, you may see the dark
loaf of Monhegan Island, nine miles at sea, which natives claim was a
stopping place for adventuresome Norsemen. Fish first attracted settlers
to this isolated spot, and fishing is still the main occupation of the little
village, although lobsters are the chief Hake.' Artists, led by Rockwell
Kent, have for years come to spend their summers depicting the wildness
of rock and sea. High on the center of the island, Monhegan Island Light
sends its beam across these treacherous waters.
For your return to US 1 from New Harbor, by all means drive over a
few miles of unpaved road along the shores of Muscongus Bay, then pick
up Me. 32, which joins US 1 near WALDOBORO, a fishing community
and popular summer center.
OLD TOWN
i
WINTERPORT
FRANKFORT
ttt.WaU0.Jfc.
PROSPECT
Matinicus
IslancJTJ
THE
PENOBSCOT
10
Scale in Miles
THE PENOBSCOT
Salmon Runs and River Towns
US 1, Me. 15, 175; Bangor, 108 m. from Boothbay Harbor, 78 m. from Waldo-
boro, 144 m. from Portland.
COILING its silvery length toward the sea, the Penobscot, greatest of
Maine rivers, rolls placidly through an area steeped in tradition. The
steamers that plied a route between the river towns and Boston have gone
the way of the schooners and sloops and full-rigged ships which weighed
anchor in Bangor Harbor. They have vanished with the fifty sawmills
that once lined the river 12 miles north to Old Town. Only the great
pulp mills still bring a few ships to waters that in the mid-igth century
teemed with vessels from ports of the seven seas.
Many brooks and streams, alive with trout, pour into the broad river.
At Bangor you'll find the only place in the country where within a city's
limits sea salmon may be caught as they fight the rapids on their way up-
stream to spawning grounds farther north.
Around Bangor rolls rich farmland. There are country stores with
barrels and jars, and pot-bellied stoves for winter days. The near-by
Grange Hall is the scene of country suppers, fragrant with the smell of
steaming beans, juicy roasts, and flaky pies.
Should you come up from Rockland by US 1 along the shores of
Penobscot Bay, you'll pass through the town of CAMDEN, an artists'
haven and summer resort. Sprawling on the western shore where the
river empties into Penobscot Bay is BELFAST, its houses rising in tiers
above a busy harbor. The sea is within view from nearly every street.
The old Blaisdell House, on High St., has a fine Ionic-columned portico;
the dentiled cornice of the Ben Field House, also on High St., has long been
praised by architects. Visible in Penobscot Bay is Isleboro, a long, low,
tree-clad island that has become a favorite resort center.
Near SEARSPORT is Stephenson Tavern, with a weU-sweep in its front
yard and a sign so weathered that its lettering stands out a quarter of an
inch. Lincoln Colcord, writer of sea stories, made his home in Searsport.
Here is located the Penobscot Marine Museum.
STOCKTON SPRINGS, once home port of many ships, now has sev-
eral fish canneries. By traveling over a side road from PROSPECT you
64 Here's New England!
reach the gray ramparts of Fort Knox, a massive granite structure com-
manding the Penobscot River. A short distance away is the Waldo-
Hancock Bridge which spans the river to Bucksport.
At the head of navigation 23 miles inland from the bay lies BANGOR,
the capital of a vanished lumber kingdom. Lumber barons, whose for-
tunes came from the great pine logs floated downriver to Bangor booms,
built mansions that crown the city's low hills; but 'Hell's Half Acre/
where strapping lumberjacks and river drivers caroused and fought, is
now given over to many second-hand stores and wholesale houses. The
Peirce Memorial, on Harlow St., a bronze by Charles Tefft, represents
three brawny river drivers, equipped with peavies and canthooks, break-
ing a log jam. The Samuel Veazie House, Broadway and York Sts., is
typical of the lumber barons' homes. The design of the Boutelle House,
157 Broadway, is attributed to Charles Bulfinch. Near Grotto Cascade
Park, State St. and Summit Ave., is the famous Bangor Salmon Pool,
known the world over for its excellent fishing and for the custom of pre-
senting the season's first salmon to the President of the United States.
Come down the river by Me. 15 on the east side. BUCKSPORT is a
paper town producing hundreds of tons of newsprint a day. The Jed
Prouty Tavern, Main and Federal Sts., was once a famous stop-over place
on the stage route between Bangor and Castine.
To look at CASTINE today, a quiet resort on a peninsula jutting out
into the Bay, you would never think that a trio of nations struggled 200
years for its possession. More than 100 markers at various points indicate
the residents' pride in their eventful background. The Wilson Museum,
Perkins St., contains anthropological and geological collections. Fort
Madison and Fort George are relics of the repeated military occupations of
this historic old town.
Lying in Penobscot Bay, and reached by steamer from Rockland, are
the islands of NORTH HAVEN, a fashionable area with a number of
fine summer estates; VINALHAVEN, from whose granite quarries
came the 5o-foot monoliths of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in
New York City; and hour-glass-shaped DEER ISLE, about 12 miles
in length. Deer Isle boatmen have manned yachts in international
races. The waters of ISLE AU HAUT, administrative headquarters
of a township of the same name, have been the scene of many ship-
wrecks.
BAR
HARBOR
BAR HARBOR
Luxury by the Sea
US 1, Me. 3, 102; Bar Harbor, 47 m. from Bangor.
'L'ISLE DES MONTS DESERTS' was the name Samuel Champlain
bestowed in 1604 upon this rocky, wooded expanse of eighteen mountains
and twenty-six lakes.
Long the summer capital of Society, Bar Harbor, with its adjoining
resorts, has all the accoutrements of great wealth. Rambling houses
are set amid acres of landscaped grounds. Motor yachts, with pennants
flying, lie at anchor in the hill-guarded harbors, while out in the open
water tall-masted sailing craft tack before brisk winds. Cabanas and
beach clubs are gay with sophisticated throngs. Polo is played on close-
cropped turf, and tennis against a background of mountains and lakes.
The 15,000 acres of Acadia National Park encompass lakes and moun-
tains, seascapes and deep valleys, and cross broad Frenchman's Bay to
include Schoodic Point. So skillfully engineered is the Summit Road in its
climb from the valley to the windswept plateau that the grade is hardly
noticeable. From the summit of Cadillac Mountain there is a magnificent
view of lakes, serrated shore, and the islands below. In a deeply wooded
section of the park is the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory for
cancer research. Among the archeological exhibits of the Abbe Museum
you will find relics of the mysterious Red Paint People who roamed this
section long before the Indians.
You may gather the impression that Bar Harbor covers all of Mount
Desert Island. Actually there are four townships, though BAR HAR-
BOR, on the north, overshadows the rest. Squadrons of yachts and
pleasure craft are moored beside grim battleships. Uniformed men come
ashore on leave, and at costly evening parties many of the season's most
publicized debutantes are launched. The social center is the Bar Harbor
Club, on the Harbor, which was established by six of the leading hotels.
In the Casino, on Cottage St., the Mount Desert Players present Greek,
Shakespearean, and modern drama. The Building of Arts, outside the
village, with massive columns and friezes depicting the Muses, has a
terraced amphitheater where recitals by well-known musicians are given
during the summer season.
68 Here's New England!
Along the western shoreline of Somes Sound lies SOUTHWEST
HARBOR, principal community in the township of the same name.
Southwest was the first summer resort on Mount Desert Island, and much
of its original charm has been retained. Many of the homes of the farmer-
fishermen who live here all the year were built facing the sea. The town
may lack the glamour of Bar Harbor, but this only brings into greater
relief its quaintness and serenity. Ask a townsman to take you to Ship
Harbor, where you will learn of the wrecking in 1740 of the schooner
' Grand Design,' with its cargo of passengers from northern Ireland.
TR.EMONT, a township occupying the southern end of the island,
borders Bluehill Bay, across which you can see the Bluehill Peninsula,
locale of Mary Ellen Chase's novel, 'Mary Peters.' Strung along Tre-
mont's irregular shoreline are several small fishing communities where
lobster pots are piled high and every home boasts a fishing boat or work-
ing dory. In the northern part of the township is Seal Cove Pond, an
odd-shaped body of clear water which reflects the pine-clad heights of
Western and Bernard Mountains.
Occupying the central and mountainous section of the Island is Mount
Desert Township, whose several resort centers are almost as well known
as Bar Harbor. Perched high on a mountainside, overlooking SEAL
HARBOR, is The Eyrie, summer home of the John D. Rockefeller, Jr.,
family. In ASTICOU is Thuya Lodge, which houses a small museum and
a reading room with many books of interest to the naturalist. From the
lodge there is a broad view of the inlets of the shore and the Cranberry
Isles. NORTHEAST HARBOR is known the length and breadth of the
Atlantic for its fleet of yachts of every class. Visit the Neighborhood
House, built with the aid of summer residents, and maintained through
the proceeds of an annual vaudeville performance, dancing, theatricals,
and other amusements; or gather with the summer residents and villagers
for their famous 'Sunday Evening Club,' singing old hymns, listening to
some guest speaker, and enjoying good music.
THE
MAINE LAKES
THE MAINE LAKES
AND WOODS
Fishing and Hunting
Me. 15 for Moosehead Lake; Greenville, 75 m. from Bangor. Me. 100 and 27
for Belgrade Lakes] Belgrade Lakes, 84 m. from Portland. US 302 for Sebago
Lake. North Windham, 17 m. from Portland. Me. 3 and 4 for Rangeley
Lakes; Rangeley Lakes, 125 m. from Portland.
EAST and north along the Canadian border from New Hampshire
stretches Maine's great expanse of lake-spattered forest. The Rangeley
Region, famed for its well-stocked waters and abundant game; Sebago,
since time began the home of the land-locked salmo sebago, gamiest of
fighting fish; the Belgrades, with their fine cottages and summer hotels;
and Moosehead second largest of northeastern fresh-water lakes.
Maine's fishing is as varied as its lakes. Big, husky Atlantic, chinook
and landlocked salmon; brown, rainbow, lake or brook trout; small-
mouthed bass and white and yellow perch; cusk, and a dozen other species.
Fly fishing is popular, especially in the quicker waters during the early
season. Deep-water trolling yields better results in the warmer summer
months. Winter fishing is sport too, for ' frost fishing/ as ice fishing is
called in Maine, is popular on inland and tidal waters. Salmon, trout,
pickerel, smelts, and cusk are chief among the winter varieties.
For the equipment you'll need, it's best to consult a registered guide.
You can get a 3-day non-resident fishing license for $1.65, a 30-day license
for $3.15, or a season license for $5.15. Then, with a good rod and reel,
your favorite flies and lure, an ample creel, you may fish to the limit of
the law. Try Mooselookmeguntic or the Richardsons of the Rangeley
Lakes for trout for the Rangeleys are the natural home of the fighting
trout. Slightly northeast is the Dead River Region, known for its ice-cold
waters fed by mountain springs, where even on sultry days trout will give
an honest fight.
In Sebago and near-by Long Pond you'll find landlocked salmon. Pro-
pagating in great numbers and growing rapidly, these splendid fighters
rise best in September and the early months of the year. Hard hitters at
fly or bait, salmo sebago give a stiff battle until landed.
The Belgrades strike a happy medium good fishing without the
72 Here's New England!
discomforts of the wilderness. For bass, cast a line into Great Pond,
Long Pond, or any of a dozen near-by bodies of water. Only recently has
generous stocking made these lakes excellent grounds for trout and salmon.
The sport is good here from the time the ice goes out until well into the
summer.
The Moosehead Region is Maine's chief sporting center, the gateway to
a vast area of almost unbroken wild land extending to the Canadian
border. To this day many of the waters have not yet been explored by
fishermen. Salmon, togue, and square-tailed trout are awaiting your lure
in Kokadjo, Jo Mary, Lobster, and a hundred other lakes beside the broad
waters of Moosehead itself. Northeast lies the Allagash Region, where ten
ponds on the headwaters of Nigger Brook, which flows into the Allagash,
provide the best location for squaretails in Maine. Togue will bite well
into August in Musquash Lake, and trout fishing is good throughout most
of the season on the smaller tributaries of the Allagash.
The Fish River Region, covering nearly 100 square miles, offers perhaps
the best salmon fishing in the State. Salmon weighing 18 pounds have
been taken from these waters. If you like bass, you'll enjoy Palfrey,
Spednic, and Seboeis Lakes.
More than 75 per cent of Maine's total area is forest, and much of it is
wild land. Moose, monarch of the woods, have become so plentiful in
some counties that occasionally an open season of a few days is declared.
Wardens estimate the deer population of Maine as between 100,000 and
125,000. Commonly found near cleared land, tote roads, and abandoned
lumber camps, deer are best hunted soon after a light fall of snow when
the snapping twigs are muffled. Perhaps you'd rather shoot bear than
deer for it takes a skilled hunter to stalk and bring down these crafty
beasts. All counties have an open season on them.
Small-game hunting is popular in Maine. Bobcats with a bounty
on them are plentiful, and the number of foxes is increasing. Raccoons
are hunted in nearly every county; Maine 'coons often weigh 30 pounds
in contrast to their southern cousins, which are considered large if they
reach 20. Do you delight in the sorrowful tones of a rabbit hound on the
chase? Maine rabbits keep to the surface and do not 'hole in' like the
smaller species found in other states.
If duck shooting is your choice, go to Merrymeeting Bay, considered
one of the best grounds along the Atlantic Coast. Here the Kennebec
and Androscoggin meet, and the ducks drop down from the blue in
great flocks. Woodcock, as you know, are a test for any bird dog. Flush
the blackberry tangles in the central part of the State for native wood-
The Main Lakes and Woods 73
cock. Not long ago there were grouse covers near every Maine city;
today, protected by law, partridge shooting becomes better as you pro-
gress north.
One of the gathering places for sportsmen of the Sebago Region is
WHITE'S BRIDGE, in North Windham, 18 miles northwest of Portland
on US 302. Here, on a pointed cove of Sebago Lake, are several sporting
camps and the mooring places for many lake cruisers and motorboats.
Visible in the lake is Raymond Cape, where Frye's Leap, a high cliff, is
marked by colorful paintings said to have been made by Indians. Near-
by is Pulpit Rock, beneath which is a cave where Nathaniel Haw-
thorne wrote the first chapters of 'The Scarlet Letter/
BELGRADE LAKES, a lake resort settlement in the midst of the
Belgrade Lakes Region, is 84 miles north of Portland on Me. 100 and 27.
GREENVILLE, on Me. 15 some seventy miles from Bangor, nestling
at the foot of Moosehead Lake, is the sporting center for the southern
antler of the Moosehead region. Fishing, hunting, mountain climbing,
and canoeing are the sports featured by this settlement, which forms a
starting point and supply base. In Moosehead Lake lie the 2200 wooded
acres of Deer Isle and the sprawling expanse of Sugar Island. Rising
above the waters of the lake, on the eastern shore, is Mt. Kineo, with its
abrupt and flinty peak. Toward the northeast looms Mt. Katahdin,
about whose slopes winds one end of the Appalachian Trail. Of the view
over the lake-strewn forestland from the summit of Katahdin, Thoreau
wrote: 'The surrounding world looked as if a huge mirror had been shat-
tered, and glittering bits thrown on the grass/
RANGELEY LAKES, 120 miles from Portland on Me. 3 and 4, within
sight of Rangeley Lake, lies in the heart of a forest region that has, within a
radius of 10 miles, forty trout and salmon-filled lakes and ponds. In the
distance are the peaks of Mt. Pisgah and Mt. Sisk. At the northwestern
end of Rangeley Lake is OQUOSSOC, where there is a fish hatchery for
breeding trout and salmon, which are released annually to replenish the
Rangeley Lakes. Further along is HAINES LANDING, which has
steamboat service with other settlements on Mooselookmeguntic Lake.
CRAY/FORD HOUSE
m
ORTH
IVOODSTOCK
Mt.kankamalfu
OODSTOCK
>t WATER VILLE
VALLE
THE
WHITE
MOUNTAINS
NICKELS-SORTWELL HOUSE, WISCASSET, MAINE
59
CRESCENT BEACH, MOUNT DESERT ISLAND
See page 67
BAR HARBOR AND FRENCHMAN'S BAY, FROM CADILLAC MOUNTAIN
See page 67
MORNING PADDLE ON MOOSEHEAD, MOUNT KINEO IN THE BACKGROUND
See page 73
CAMP SITE NEAR MOUNT KATAHDIN
See page 73
KING'S RAVINE FROM MOUNT ADAMS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE'S PRESIDENTIAL RANGE
See page 75
THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN, FRANCONIA NOTCH
See page 76
CLOSE-UP OF THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN
See page 76
PLOWED HIGHWAYS
See page 75
TUCKERMAN RAVINE ON MOUNT WASHINGTON
See page 76
ON WILDCAT SKI TRAIL
See page 76
MOUNT CHOCORUA
See page 78
XT--
CONNECTICUT VALLEY, NEAR NORTHAMPTON
See page go
FRENCH WALLPAPER, WALPOLE, NEW HAMPSHIRE
See page 95
PERGOLA OF LITTLE STUDIO, CORNISH, NEW HAMPSHIRE
See page 95
.
SMUGGLER'S NOTCH, MT. MANSFIELD, VERMONT
See page 102
TOLL BRIDGE BETWEEN CORNISH, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND WINDSOR, VERMONT
See page 95
CAMEL'S HUMP (LION COUCHANT), FROM BOLTON GORGE
See page 102
GRANITE QUARRY
See page 103
BURKE HOLLOW
5e page 107
I
THE OLD STONE SHOP, WALLINGFORD, VERMONT
See page in
'CONNECTICUT VALLEY' DOORWAY, MISSION HOUSE, STOCKBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
See page 114
THE WHITE MOUNTAINS
A Coil of Shining Peaks
US 2, 302, N.H. 16, US 3; Gorham, N.H., 140 m. from Rangeley.
CONSIDERABLE territory was ruffled up to raise the White Mountains
over a mile above the sea. The mountain coils, castellated ridges, deep
notches, and jagged peaks north of the lake country cover a total
area of about 1270 square miles. Some of the earthfolds and rockwaves
stretch over the Maine State line, but most of them are in New Hampshire.
To the north, out of a rock wall 13 miles long, rising from 5000 to
6000 feet above the sea, is Mt. Washington, a 'mountain sitting on
mountains ' highest peak in all New England. North of Mt. Washing-
ton the peaks of Clay, Jefferson, Adams, and Madison scallop the skyline
in one great ridge. To the southwest are Monroe, Franklin, Pleasant,
Jackson, and Webster.
The summit of Mt. Washington may be reached by numerous ap-
proaches: trails for ambitious foot-climbers; a toll road for motorists;
and a cogwheel railway for those who prefer a leisurely method of reach-
ing the summit. Once there, it's up to you how long you'll stay. Many
visitors remain overnight at the Summit House, on a chance of seeing a
sunset or a glorious sunrise. Some stay a week and a few have remained
all summer.
The view from the summit includes Owl's Head in Vermont and, over
across the Green Mountains, the distant Adirondacks. Down near the
Massachusetts line is Mt. Monadnock. To the southeast, on a clear day,
you'll see the Atlantic Ocean, but much closer are the countless lakes and
ponds of Maine and New Hampshire. 'The second greatest show on
earth!' cried the world's greatest showman, P. T. Barnum, as he gazed
about him from the mountain top.
Not so long ago, the gateways to the mountains were closed in winter.
Now they are flung wide open and great rotary plows keep the highways
free from drifts. Miles of ski trails cover the slopes the Eastern Slopes
in the Conway district, for example, with its neighborhood ski club, its
ski school directed by the famous Hannes Schneider, and its ski-mobile.
Then there's the State-owned Aerial Passenger Tramway in the Franconia
Notch, which, since its opening in 1938, has carried 150,000 people to the
76 Here's New England!
top of Cannon Mountain. It connects with ski trails above the snow line,
including the famous 'Richard Taft.' Berlin has the new 65-meter ski
jump, built by the National Youth Administration and sponsored by the
city and the Nansen Ski Club, first ski club organized in the United
States. And there's Tuckerman Ravine, the huge snow bowl on the side
of Mount Washington, which to some people means 'New Hampshire/
for here in the spring months every winter sportsman in New England
tries the late skiing over the headwall.
There are winter carnivals galore. Wonalancet offers instruction in
sledge-dog driving. In fact, there's something for everybody during
every month of the year. Visit the sugar camps in March or take an
autumn tour when the maples are in their glory. You can fish for speckled
trout and hunt the white-tailed deer in season, and there are fine hunting
and fishing camps and guides on the north country lakes. Naturalists
will seek out the Nature Garden and Nature School at Lost River; the
Alpine flora and Alpine butterflies on Mt. Washington; the birds in the
larches of the Easton Valley. Playgoers will take in the Barnstormers at
Tamworth, the Forty-Niners at Whitefield. White Lake in Tamworth
and Moose Brook Park in Gorham are favorite spots for swimming. And
over 300 miles of Appalachian Mountain Club trails, with huts and
shelters along them, make mountain climbing a pleasure in the White
Mountain region.
The largest area of public lands in the east is the White Mountain
National Forest of 708,374 acres, maintained for timber production,
conservation of wild life, and watershed protection. But there are also
roadside camps like the Rocky Gorge on the Swift River Road in Conway,
and Greeley Forest Camp at Greeley Pond among the primeval spruces
near Mt. Kancamagus. In the wild, deep Crawford Notch surrounded by
steep mountains stand the Willey Camps on the site of the little tavern
where members of the Willey family perished in a great slide in the
summer of 1826. From their tragedy, Nathaniel Hawthorne conceived his
story, 'The Ambitious Guest/ This awe-inspiring spot is part of the
Crawford Notch State Reservation.
Hawthorne knew this mountain region as well as every schoolboy
today knows his tale of the ' Great Stone Face.' The cliffs which form the
Old Man of the Mountains' tremendous profile hang 1200 feet above
Profile Lake, the 'Old Man's Washbowl,' easily seen as you drive through
Franconia Notch in the State Reservation. It is said that the 'Old Man'
receives more visitors yearly than any other scenic attraction in New
England.
The White Mountains 77
South of the Franconia Notch Reservation is the Flume Reservation,
with woodland paths and a private toll road leading across the picturesque
Covered Bridge to the entrance of the Flume Gorge. This fissure some 700
feet in length is flanked by high perpendicular walls in the side of Mt. Flume.
Five miles northwest of North Woodstock in Kinsman Notch (N.H.
112), you will find the Lost River Reservation, owned by the Society for the
Protection of New Hampshire Forests. Be sure to visit the weird caverns
formed by the 'lost' Moosilauke Branch, and the Nature Garden, con-
taining over 300 native plants.
Lost River is right on the great Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Mt.
Katahdin in Maine. The trail enters the White Mountains by way of
the Dartmouth Outing Club Trail from Hanover, and crosses Mt.
Moosilauke, the Franconia Ridge, the Presidential, the Carter-Moriah
Range, and the principal summits of the Mahoosac Range into Maine.
Since you can't possibly cover the entire White Mountain region, try
cutting through the mountains by way of the highway following the Saco
River in from Maine (US 302). Entering New Hampshire at CONWAY
CENTER, you cross JoeVs Covered Bridge, with ships' knees reinforcing
its roof.
You come into the winter sports center at NORTH CONWAY, on
the wide intervales of the Saco River. Across the stream you will see
the Moats, North, Middle, and South, with White Horse Ledge and
Cathedral Ledge just above their base. INTERVALE has a superb view
of Mt. Washington and the other Presidentials.
When you reach the junction of roads at GLEN, continue on US 302.
At BARTLETT, you begin to go steadily upgrade toward the Crawford
Notch, discovered in 1771 by Timothy Nash, who, while hunting a moose,
climbed a tree to try to get a glimpse of his quarry, and saw the defile
through the forest.
You enter the Crawford Notch Reservation about 3 miles or so beyond
Notchland. Soon you begin the steep climb through the notch. Waterfalls
tumble over the high cliffs to your right, and below is a deep ravine,
one of the wildest scenes in all the White Mountains. The bare summit
of Mt. Willard overhangs the Notch, and you come out around the ledge
of the Elephant Head to Saco Lake where the river rises.
Turn on the road opposite the Crawford House and drive 6 miles through
the woods to MARSH-FIELD at the base of Mt. Washington, where
the funny little cars of the Cogwheel Railway 'clinking like a beetle
and sputtering smoke and steam as only goblin caterpillars might' -
begin their ascent over the trestle of Jacob's Ladder to the Summit.
78 Here's New England!
After returning from 'New England's Roof/ go back to BRETTON
WOODS (US 302), passing by the Upper Falls of the Ammonoosuc
and the rear of the Mount Washington Hotel. Now you follow the
Ammonoosuc River, which has tumbled down from the Lakes of the Clouds
in the greatest fall of any river east of the Rocky Mountains.
At TWIN MOUNTAINS, you should bear west and climb the hill
to BETHLEHEM STREET, with its famous mountain views and 30
hotels. From here you descend to LITTLETON, center of a large
recreational area, including FRANCONIA, nestling under the wing of
Mt. Lafayette and SUGAR HILL with hotels and summer homes over-
looking the Franconia Mountains. Still following down the Ammonoo-
suc, you go through LISBON and BATH, and at WOODSVILLE, a
village in the large township of HAVERHILL, you can cross the Con-
necticut River into Vermont.
A detour of rare charm can be taken from the Marsh-Field Station
road, up through Jefferson Notch, on to JEFFERSON, and then by N.H.
115 to TWIN MOUNTAINS.
If you decide to go riding across New Hampshire lengthways, as Carl
Sandburg did when he visited Robert Frost, you can come up the eastern
side of the State from DOVER by N.H. 16. You pass through the Lake
Osssipee region to PEQUAWKET. Mt. Chocorua, visible from here, is a
perennial favorite of mountain climbers.
Entering the CONWAYS you continue to GLEN and then on N.H.
(notice the 16 Covered Bridge) to JACKSON, the entrance to Pinkham
Notch, through which flows the Ellis River. Visit Glen Ellis Falls, where
rustic paths and stairways border cascades to the main falls which
tumble 65 feet into a pool.
In Tuckerman Ravine, two and a half miles by foot-trail from the
Pinkham Notch Camp of the Appalachian Mountain Club, you will be
surprised to find early June flowers in August at the headwall. At the
watershed of the Notch is the entrance to the Mount Washington Toll
Road, opposite the Glen House, where you will get a thrilling view of the
five highest peaks in the mountains.
The highway drops with the Peabody River by the Dolly Copp Forest
Camp with its fine view of the gargoyle on Imp Mountain. Today the
spot where the pioneer farm of the Copps stood is marked. Dolly, on
their golden wedding anniversary, coined a sentence which has since
become a mountain classic. 'Hayes/ she said, 'is well enough, but fifty
years is long enough to live with any man!' And so the couple divided
their household goods and parted.
The White Mountains 79
At GORHAM, on the Androscoggin River, you continue north on
N.H. 16 into BERLIN, the only north country city. You keep up the
Androscoggin through miles of wild land to ERROL, entrance to the
Magalloway-Aziscoos country. Now bear northwest on N.H. 26 along
Clear Stream to dramatic Dixville Notch, under Mt. Sanguinari, named
for the bronze and crimson tints that play on the rocks at sunset. Climb
Table Rock if you want a good look across the border into Canada.
Alongside the Mohawk River N.H. 26 leads to COLEBROOK under
the shadow of Vermont's Mt. Monadnock. Taking US 3 you can follow
the Connecticut River to PITTSBURG, New Hampshire's largest and
northernmost township, and pass the three Connecticut Lakes, a great
region for fishing and hunting, and so on to the Canadian line. Going
south through Colebrook's main street on US 3 you'll see the 'upper
Cohass intervales' between NORTH STRATFORD and LANCASTER,
where Rogers' Rangers, returning home from the sack of St. Francis,
made the terrible journey described by Kenneth Roberts in 'Northwest
Passage.' You'll like the stately main street of Lancaster, the county
seat of Coos County, and you'll also enjoy the panorama of mountains
and lakes as you swing around Mt. Prospect to the high ridge above
WHITEFIELD, a popular recreational village.
Coming back on US 3 to TWIN MOUNTAINS again, you swing south-
west and upgrade until you're virtually surrounded by Bald Mountain,
Artist Bluff, and Eagle Cliff. It's not their height that makes them im-
pressive, for none of the trio are peaks; but they are rocky and steep and
amazingly near to you. Right in the midst of them, the waters of Echo
Lake, aptly named, reflect the cliffs.
Continuing south, you come to the Valley Station of the Aerial Passenger
Tramway. Leave your car in the ample parking-place while you glide
up the side of Cannon Mountain in the cars suspended on steel cables,
forty feet above the tree- tops. From the Mountain Station, 2022 feet
above the Valley Station, you'll get one more superlative mountain view.
At the Franconia Notch Reservation, you'll spend a long time looking
up at the Old Man of the Mountains and noting how the features change
whenever you shift your position.
US 3 follows down the infant Pemigewasset River by a great pot-hole,
The Basin, to the Flume Tea House, where you may enter the Flume
Gorge, either by way of the footpaths or by bus.
Again returning to the highway (US 3) you pass another rocky profile,
Indian Head on Mt. Pemigewasset. NORTH WOODSTOCK is the
gateway to Kinsman Notch and the Mt. Moosilauke region, with a
8o Here's New England!
highway (N.H. 112) turning west and passing by the entrance to Lost
River Reservation.
US 3 continues down the Pemigewasset Valley and on to Concord and
Boston. On your way you will be richly rewarded by a detour from
WEST CAMPTON eastward on the Waterville Valley Road to the
mountain-encircled summer and winter resort of WATERVILLE
VALLEY.
THE LAKES OF NEW
HAMPSHIRE
Lochs Amid the Highlands
US 3, N.H. 11, 25, 107, 28; Laconia, 55 m. from Franconia Notch, 100 m.
from Boston, 65 m. from Portsmouth.
THE glacial ice sheet of 25,000 years ago worked wonders for this State.
After softening down the mass of mountain peaks it ground its way over
the lowland and left hundreds of basins to form the lakes of New Hamp-
shire. Green forests walled them in. There are now miles upon miles of
wooded shores; roads between pines, maples, and birches; sloping grassy
hillsides strewn with buttercups and Queen Anne's lace; pasture pools
with white and yellow waterlilies.
The shaggy slopes of the Belknap and Ossipee Mountains frame Lake
Winnipesaukee. Beyond, the bald cone of Chocorua, the 'blueblack
toppling wave ' of Paugus, lofty Passaconaway, and the ledges of White-
face form a drop-curtain for Squam. To the east is Ossipee. To the west
lies Newfound Lake, against a background of blue hills, guarded by Mount
Cardigan. Lake Mascoma is about 40 miles distant, almost on the Con-
necticut River; and to the southeast, at the apex of an equilateral tri-
angle, the ' Wild Goose Water ' which Yankee tongues have changed from
the Indians' 'Soo-ni-pe' to 'Sunapee.'
Lake Winnipesaukee is the greatest of them all. Even its name was
spelled in 132 different ways until the State Legislature set the present
form. Deep bays, narrow inlets, and long peninsulas fashion a shoreline
of almost 200 miles. For good measure throw in over 270 islands.
Like everyone else you will select a favorite view. It may include one of
Winnipesaukee's trademarks wooded Rattlesnake Island, Merry-
meeting Bay, Copple Crown near Wolfeboro, the lighthouse on Spindle
Point, and the ' Necks ' first and second on the northwest shore.
Again you may choose more intimate scenes of white birches reflected on
the water or a little cottage hidden among the trees on an island's rocky
shore.
There is excellent fishing throughout the region both in the lakes and
the ponds, which are kept well stocked by the State. Winnipesaukee,
84 Here's New England!
Winnisquam, Squam, Newfound, Sunapee, Ossipee are favorites with ex-
perienced fishermen for their lake trout, landlocked salmon, rainbow trout,
black bass. Sunapee has the aureolus (golden) trout, once exclusive to
this body of water. Those who prefer a gun to a rod go out after an oc-
casional deer, especially hi Ossipee township.
The State maintains fine reservations in the Lakes district: you can
bathe at Endicott Park at the Weirs, picnic and bathe at Lake Went-
worth and Wellington Beach on Newfound Lake, and camp at the
White Lake Camp Ground near West Ossipee.
There are mountain trails on Sunapee, Kearsarge, Cardigan, Belknap,
and Chocorua and the neighboring summits of the Sandwich Range.
Snowbound and ice-covered in winter, this region nevertheless refuses to
hibernate. Winter brings skiing, skating, and fishing through the ice.
Iceboats tilt at a perilous angle, their sails swollen by mountain blasts.
Horses race on the ice, and native sledge dogs take part in annual derbies.
There are ski-trails and nursery slopes on all the hillsides, especially in
Plymouth, with a ski-chair ropeway, ski-jump, slalom course, and a ski-
tramway at the Belknap Mountain Recreation Center.
The best route from the south is US 3, which follows in large part the
valley of the mighty Merrimack to CONCORD, the State Capital, 75
miles north of Boston.
Take N.H. 9 west from Concord, then N.H. 103, and wind in and out
with the little Warner River to its source near Lake Sunapee, by the twin-
topped mountain of the same name, whose base meets its waters. Numer-
ous large settlements and extensive summer estates occupy the shores.
At MT. SUNAPEE you can take an unnumbered but paved road to
SUNAPEE HARBOR, and then continue on N.H. 11, which will give
you a good look at the Lake. NEW LONDON has one of the best situa-
tions in the State. Mt. Kearsarge stands out conspicuously. The highway
continues to the city of FRANKLIN, within whose limits is the Birth-
place of Daniel Webster.
From Franklin take N.H. 3A past highland views of the Pemigewas-
set Valley through BRISTOL, an especially industrious place in the
summer, to Newfound Lake. Over to the west and almost overshadowing
the lake, towers Mt. Cardigan, popular for hiking in summer and skiing in
winter.
Instead of returning to Franklin and through the junior college town of
TILTON, your road map will show you a short cut from Bristol on N.H.
104 through the town of NEW HAMPTON, and then on an unnumbered
but good road across to LACONIA. Most of Laconia is so surrounded by
The Lakes of New Hampshire 85
water that it is naturally known as the ' City of the Lakes/ Three of them
are linked by the Winnipesaukee River to form its western border, Paugus,
Opeechee, and Winnisquam. In the summer the city is a trading center for
the whole central lake region of vacationists. In the winter, snow trains
from Boston pull in with hundreds of enthusiasts; international sled-dog
races start and finish in its main street. A few miles east of Laconia is the
Belknap Mountain Recreation Center in Gilford, devoted to winter sports.
Continue on US 3 around the cabin-lined shores of Lake Paugus to THE
WEIRS, the most important port on Lake Winnipesaukee. The yo-year-
old side-wheeler * Mount Washington' steams away like an old dowager
to make her round of the lake. Speed boats flash up to the piers. Sea-
planes rise and alight. Races culminate in a regatta in August. Under a
granite canopy is one of the oldest authentic monuments in New Eng-
land, Endicott Rock, on which in 1652 surveyors for Governor John Endi-
cott marked the northern boundary claimed by the Massachusetts Bay
Colony.
Continue up the hill from The Weirs on US 3; from the top you capture
the full sweep of Winnipesaukee.
Ride down a steep hill past tiny Lake Waukewan to your left into MER-
EDITH, noted as a linen-manufacturing center and a resort town.
Stop at a parking-place some six and a half miles beyond Meredith for a
memorable vista of Squam Lake, backed by the rugged peak of Mt.
Chocorua, and the lower, tower-topped Red Hill. From HOLDERNESS
you can make a circular trip of the lake.
By taking a 6o-mile motor tour from Meredith (N.H. 25) on your re-
turn trip, you can get a good idea of the towns around Lake Winnipesau-
kee. CENTER HARBOR has a commanding view of the lake and the
mountain ranges Ossipee, Alton, and Belknap surrounding it on the
east and south. At MOULTONBOROUGH CORNER, a 5-mile detour
will take you to CENTER SANDWICH, delightfully situated in a high-
land bowl. Sandwich Industries was the nucleus of the League of New
Hampshire Arts and Crafts. From Moultonborough take N.H. 107
through MELVIN VILLAGE, under massive Mt. Shaw, to WOLFE-
BORO, the busiest port on the eastern side of the lake. A few miles east
of Wolfeboro on N.H. 28 is little Lake Wentworth. There are two State
parks here, the Wentworth Beach Reservation for picnicking and bathing,
and the Governor Wentworth Reservation. You can still see the well and
cellar-hole of Governor John's summer mansion, which he built in 1768,
thus starting the vogue for summer homes in New Hampshire.
From Wolfeboro continue south by N.H. 28, around the lower end of
86 Here's New England!
the lake at ALTON BAY, and on by N.H. 11 through summer-cottage
settlements along the south shore to Laconia again.
Another popular highway from the south is N.H. 16 from Portsmouth,
which brings you up through the Whittier country. It passes the entering
road to Ossipee Lake, with its pine-fringed ledges and promontories, and
its western shores dotted with cottages. CHOCORUA is a tourist
center. Four miles west of it is TAMWORTH, once the summer home
of President Cleveland. A gem of New Hampshire waters is Lake Cho-
corua, two miles north of Chocorua Village. The soft reflection of Mt.
Chocorua lies upon its waters.
These do not begin to be all of New Hampshire's lakes and ponds, for
every town in the State except Temple and Plaistow is blessed with at
least one.
TOV^MOHAWK. TRAIL TO BRATTLE&ORO TO/Jf KE E N E
NORTHFJELD
BERNARD5TON
CHARLEMONT
NORTHAMPT
Mt.Tom.
! I . 1 CO M w F r T 77", <T~ "^
G R AN BYO WINDSOR
WINSTEO I LOGICS
THE LOWER
CONNECTICUT
VALLEY
'o^
UP THE LOWER
CONNECTICUT VALLEY
College Boys and Indians
Conn. 9, US 5; Old Saybrook, 110 m. from New York.
BROAD pastorals, once the scene of Indian massacres, college towns, and
two of New England's most progressive municipalities are ranged along
the lower Connecticut Valley. The best road for comfort is Conn. 9 from
Old Saybrook to Hartford, and US. 5 from there to Greenfield. The Con-
necticut River, New England's largest stream, is the unifying channel of
the whole region, and tidewater runs all the way up to Hartford.
OLD SAYBROOK, lying among salt marshes near the mouth of the
river and penetrated by numerous tidal inlets, was once a fishing village
known for its immense daily catch of shad. Yale College was originally
situated here.
Not far up the river MIDDLETOWN, an industrial city active long
ago in West Indian shipping, still preserves an air of academic dignity as
the seat of Wesleyan University.
HARTFORD is the capital of Connecticut, and owing to the great
3ize of the home offices of its national insurance firms, the city looks
quite metropolitan. Mark Twain's House and Library are a shrine for
Tom Sawyer devotees. Trinity College, the leading Episcopal school of
New England, has an English Collegiate Gothic chapel reminiscent of Ox-
ford University. The Old State House, designed in 1796 by Bulfinch, has
an architectural harmony more admired by some than the impressive
capitol.
North of Hartford the first extensive view of the State's tobacco fields
opens out before you. The canal and locks at WINDSOR LOCKS re-
mind you that river navigation was once of importance here.
SPRJNGFIELD, just across the Massachusetts line, is a rival of Hart-
ford in size and culture. Other New England cities envy the Municipal
Plaza, with its twin courthouse and auditorium in the Corinthian style,
and its 3oo-foot Campanile, commanding an extensive view of the river
valley. Forest Park has a July display of lotus and rare waterlilies. At
the WEST SPRINGFIELD fair grounds is Storrowtown, a colonial vil-
9O Here's New England!
lage reassembled from original structures brought here from all over New
England.
From West Springfield US 5 is the best route to follow up through the
valley. At HOLYOKE, a center of paper manufacture, there is a choice of
two routes to Northampton. By continuing along US 5 you pass Mt. Tom,
a i2oo-foot elevation whose summit is reached by a motor road winding
through a public reservation of woodland. The second route crosses to
the east bank of the Connecticut and presently reaches SOUTH HAD-
LEY, where Mt. Holyoke College is set in a spaciously landscaped campus.
The road continues north to HADLEY, and from here you can recross
the river to Northampton.
Two distinctions mark NORTHAMPTON, for this small city of many
parks and trees is both the seat of Smith College and the former Home of
Calvin Coolidge. At Smith, Mandell Quadrangle rivals in opulence the new
quadrangles in the English manner at Harvard and Yale.
There is an attractive side tour you take from Northampton up into
the highlands of the Valley, a 35-mile trip on Mass. 9, 112, and 116. Af-
ter HAYDENVELLE, where buttons are manufactured, you rise rapidly
to GOSHEN, over a thousand feet higher than Northampton. Near
Goshen is the old Whale Inn. The D.A.R. State Forest is a good place for
picnicking, and Highland Lake for boating, fishing, and bathing. At
LITHIA take Mass. 112, passing Mountain Rest, an extensive summer re-
sort for the families of missionaries. At the junction take Mass. 116, con-
tinuing on to ASHFIELD, another little hill town, famous for its apple
orchards. Great Pond has picnic grounds and bathing. After passing Mt.
Owen, the highway follows South River, over which is a Covered Bridge.
In CONWAY is the memorial Marshall Field Library with a good
historical collection. Both Ashfield and Conway are much favored by
artists and writers. The highway continues to South Deerfield.
Seven miles away from Northampton, across the river on Mass. 9, is
AMHERST, rich in literary and academic associations. Amherst College
has a mellow, small campus typical of those New England schools which
limit their size. Near-by is the Home of Emily Dickinson, the distinguished
poet. Within Amherst boundaries, on Mass. 116, is the Massachusetts
Agricultural College, better known to its alumni as 'Aggie/ Dominating
SUNDERLAND is Mt. Toby (alt. 1275), from whose summit there is
a choice view up and down the river. A mile and a half north of Sun-
derland on Mass. 63 is Taylor Park, privately owned but open.
DEERFIELD lies a few miles north of the junction of Mass. 116 with
US 5 at SOUTH DEERFIELD, across the Connecticut River. Almost
Up the Lower Connecticut Valley
completely burned by Indians in 1675 and again in 1704, it was rebuilt on
simple, sturdy lines. A mile-long street of aged houses, an arch of tall
elms, a church, a school or two, and nothing more. Old Deerfield is
unique and dreamlike, ghost-haunted; it went to sleep over two hundred
years ago. A study in arrested motion. None of its rare houses is open to
the public, although a reproduction of the Indian House admits visitors.
In GREENFIELD, a sizeable industrial town just above Deerfield,
the Potter House (private}, corner of Main and High Sts., which has been
described as an Ionic-columned Greek temple, shows the extremes to
which the Greek Revival was sometimes carried.
From Greenfield you may follow the valley up into Vermont on US 5,
or into New Hampshire by Mass. 10 from BERNARDSTON through
NORTHFIELD, a quiet rural community. Here is located Dwight L.
Moody's Northfield Seminary for young women. Mt. Hermon School
for boys is in the adjoining town of GILL.
THE
MIDDLE
CONNECTICUT
VALLEY
WHITE RIVERA
WOODS! OL*.
o
WEST
WANZ
ATTLE80RO\S
NEW HAMPSHIRE
MASSACHUSETTS^ EusACMusTr r-3
NORTHFIELO
THE MIDDLE
CONNECTICUT VALLEY
Mountain Sentinels and River Bends
N.H. 10, 12, US 5; Keene, 90 m. from Boston; Brattleboro, 200 m. from New
York.
ROBERT FROST put it tersely when he wrote:
New Hampshire raises the Connecticut
In a trout hatchery near Canada,
But soon divides it with Vermont.
By law New Hampshire owns over 200 miles of the 'long river of
pines/ but shares the stream with its 'yokefellow' Vermont. Flowing on
through Massachusetts and Connecticut the river becomes the only four-
State stream in New England. From the little 'cats' bows' of the north
country down through the mile-wide oxbows between Haverhill and New-
bury, the Connecticut loops and curves to unwind again in the broad
reaches below White River Junction. In places it flows under high pali-
sades and terraced banks, emerging between wide intervales fringed by
hills. The lower end of the valley is guarded by two isolated mountain
sentinels: Ascutney in Vermont on the north, Grand Monadnock in New
Hampshire on the south.
Two main routes from the south approach this part of the valley, US 5
on the Vermont side, and Mass.-N.H. 10 on the New Hampshire.
Drive up by N.H. 10 from Bernardston, Massachusetts, on US 5. This
will bring you into the historic Indian country around HINSDALE. The
first settlers paddled up the Connecticut in long canoes. While they were
'diggin' in' along the meadows they fought it out with the Redmen. In-
dians hunted settlers! Settlers hunted wolves! And away off in Ports-
mouth sat Benning Wentworth, Royal Governor of the Province, giving
away big bites of the land to his intimates. The Reverend Eleazar Whee-
lock,
'With a Gradus ad Parnassum, a Bible and a drum,
And five hundred gallons of New England rum/
brought his Indian boys into the wilderness to start the school which later
became Dartmouth College. Then you'll follow the Ashuelot River
94 Here's New England!
through WINCHESTER, Major General Leonard Wood's birthplace,
and WEST SWANZEY, where the author of the popular play 'The Old
Homestead' lived in the Denman Thompson Home. There's a fine speci-
men of a Covered Bridge in the village. As you approach Keene you can't
miss volcano-like Grand Monadnock, the glory of this part of the valley.
The city of KEENE, with a wide elm-shaded main street, is the home
of a State Normal School, and the trading center for the large recreational
region.
From Keene you can take a 45-mile trip around the base of Monadnock.
Go south on N.H. 12 to TROY; from here you get one of the best views of
Grand Monadnock. (We don't wish to distract you too much, but fine old
FITZWILLIAM, the mountain-laurel town, lies 4 miles south of Troy;
its village Church is a gem of early architecture.) From Troy take a paved
road directly east to the mountain. A Toll Road from this highway leads
to the Halfway House on the mountain's western slope. Follow the White
Arrow foot trail from the hotel and after a mile of climbing you'll find
yourself 3165 feet above the sea on the summit, personified by Emerson:
Every morn I lift my head,
See New England underspread
South from Saint Lawrence to the Sound,
From Katskill east to the sea-bound.
Monadnock is the mountain of artists, who love to put on canvas its
varied and everchanging hues. The whole region is a workshop for the
landscape painter. The mountain is crossed by excellent trails for hikers.
It's a center for festivals and carnivals that start with the apple blossoms
in May and continue through the Winter Carnivals in January and Febru-
ary. In June the mountain laurel is in full bloom, and in July and August
many of the surrounding towns are gay with Old Home Day celebrations.
JAFFREY, a popular summer resort, suns itself on the southern slope
of the mountain; near-by the Monadnock Reservation has a public picnick-
ing and camping site. At EAST JAFFREY, turn north on US 202 along
the banks of the Contoocook River to PETERBOROUGH, probably bet-
ter known than any other New Hampshire town, especially because of the
MacDowell Colony. Here in a 6oo-acre retreat writers, musicians, and
other artists can 'work out their dreams unmolested,' as did its founder,
the eminent musical composer, Edward MacDowell.
From Peterborough take N.H. 101 westward up over the hills to DUB-
LIN; then down from the heights through MARLBOROUGH to Keene.
Twelve miles west of the city on N.H. 9 is Lake Spojford, with a large sum-
mer colony.
The Middle Connecticut Valley
95
To follow the Connecticut River take N.H. 12 from Keene. The next
town to welcome you is stately WALPOLE, its many houses overlooking
the river and the lower mountains of Vermont. The wild Rapids at Bel-
lows Falls give you some idea of the vast power of this usually slow and
placid river. CHARLESTOWN, a frontier town during the colonial wars,
is on the site of old 'Fort Number Four,' the northernmost of a line built
to protect the Valley from the French and Indians. CLAREMONT, New
Hampshire's largest town, is another 'crossroads corner.'
From Claremont, N.H. 12 continues along the Connecticut. A detour
from the highway on a country road to the east will take you to the town
of CROYDON, one third of which is covered by the Blue Mountain
Forest Park. In it is the Corbin Game Preserve, where range buffalo, deer,
moose, elk, wild boar, Himalayan goat, and antelope.
On the main highway is the scattered village of CORNISH, one of
New Hampshire's most exclusive summer resorts, with a Covered Toll
Bridge across the Connecticut River. Art lovers all come to the
Saint-Gaudens Memorial, embracing the former home, the two studios,
and the burial place of the sculptor who came up into the Valley to find
a model for his statue, 'The Standing Lincoln.'
Tiny PLAINFIELD has a back drop painted by the artist Maxfield
Parrish in its simple Town Hall. Five miles east of Plainfield is the Meri-
den Bird Sanctuary, 32 acres of ideal woodland.
Your next stop will be at HANOVER, and Dartmouth College. Walk
around the College Green, in front of the stately white structures of the Old
Row. Don't leave Hanover without visiting the stately Baker Memorial
Library, with its many treasures, including the much discussed Orozco
Frescoes, painted by the Mexican artist Jose Clemente Orozco. Hanover
is always recreation-minded, and especially so during the Dartmouth
Winter Carnival.
From Hanover cross over the Connecticut to the Vermont side and your
first stop will be NORWICH, a village of old frame houses and picket-
fenced lawns where Norwich University was founded in 1820.
Turn south on US 5 to WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, where rivers,
highways, and railroads converge. The Junction is the railway station
for WOODSTOCK (US 4), a summer resort and winter sports center at-
tracting a fashionable crowd. The First Ski Tow in the country was op-
erated here. On the way to Woodstock the road passes over a high bridge
above Queechee Gorge, one of Vermont's outstanding natural spectacles.
In HARTLAND, still on US 5, the Community Fair Horse Show in
August features the finest mounts in the State. WINDSOR, on terraces
96 Here's New England!
above the Connecticut, has figured vitally in the State's history. In the
Old Constitution House (1777) the constitution of Vermont was drawn and
adopted.
To the south now stands out the summit of Mi. Ascutney (alt. 3320).
Just south of ASCUTNEYVILLE a country road to the right will lead
to a surfaced parkway through the Ascutney State Forest Park to the Sad-
dle. You can stop and picnic here, and then hike up the additional 500
feet to the top of the peak. Below, trailing off into the distance are lower
hills and valleys; among them little white villages and miles of green
meadows, and through it all the bends and sweeps of the Connecticut.
A few miles from the main highway on Vt. 10 is SPRINGFIELD, a
manufacturing center, where a bridge on the main street crosses the roar-
ing cascades of the Black River.
North of Bellows Falls is the mouth of the Williams River, named for
the minister who in 1704 preached to a party of whites captured by In-
dians, the first Protestant sermon delivered on Vermont soil.
BELLOWS FALLS, a dairy and industrial center, lies on a series of
sharply cut river terraces. On the New Hampshire side of the Connecti-
cut a craggy bulk of rock, M t. Kilburn, is a background for the mill smoke
and a sounding-board for locomotive whistles. Hetty Green, wealthy
woman financier, lived here for many years and left a reputation that
grew more from eccentricity than purse-pinching.
Long, one-streeted WESTMINSTER was the scene of the 'West-
minster Massacre,' March 13, 1775, in which only one man lost his life
but hundreds gamed a cause a foreglimpse, if not the first engagement,
of the Revolution. Still further south you will come to PUTNEY, and
perhaps recall with surprise that the Noyes Community once tried to
establish itself here.
BRATTLEBORO, Vermont's southeastern entrance to the Connecti-
cut Valley, has a crowded brick business section, offset by attractive
terraced outskirts. The Site of Fort Dummer, first permanent white settle-
ment in the State (1724), is near-by. Of many products turned out here
the Estey Organ, once the center of family gatherings throughout the na-
tion, is the best known. From the Brattleboro Ski Jump the ace jumpers
of the country soar through the frosty air each winter.
V ^/PHILIPS BURS / iAA^Jf
_.(P_ _. ft .lilLL C _/ MfMPH*fM*Off\ I
THE
GREEN
MOUNTAINS
THROUGH THE GREEN
MOUNTAINS
The Backbone of Vermont
US 7, 4, 2, Vt. 9, 100; Bennington, 43 m. from Brattleboro, 175 m. from New
York, 145 m. from Boston.
THE countryside on the western edges of Vermont is a rich farmland
crisscrossed with well-watered valleys. But up and down the backbone
of the State, 160 miles long, lies a region of quite another character, the
Green Mountain country the ridgepole of Vermont.
These upper valleys have some of the best examples of 'continuous'
architecture: the house, the sheds, the workshops, the barns, and the silo
are all pieced together so that in winter (this country is in the i2o-inch
snowbelt) a man can go from parlor to cowbarn without having to shovel
a path. On the ridges and sidehills are clumps of maples; scattered in
among the trees the weatherstained boards of unpainted sugar-houses, a
delight to the artist's eye. Beside mountain streams buzz rude sawmills;
clean stacks of lumber and piles of yellow sawdust litter their yards.
The sharp spire of a little church pierces the blue haze of the hilltops.
Through a covered bridge comes your first view of the village, with well-
kept clapboard houses, the old-fashioned country store, a mill all
grouped around a tree-shaded Common, true to the early New England
pattern.
Most of the region is open to the motorcar, but if you want exercise, go
hiking through the Green Mountains. One of Vermont's prides is the
famous Long Trail, a pathway through the wilderness, skirting the tops of
the mountains from the Massachusetts line to the Canadian border.
Shelters and camps are situated along the way. Spread over this moun-
tain country is a network of back roads, inviting to those bent upon pene-
trating leisurely into the depths of the region.
For lovers of the saddle, riding trails wind over the uplands. There are
bright mountain streams to fish in, and spring-fed lakes for swimming.
And there are wilderness depths for the hunter to prowl through. In the
southwestern section of the State, you will find excellent golf courses and
tennis courts, pleasant tea rooms, and smart drinking places.
loo Here's New England!
Entering Vermont at POWNAL on US 7 you drive along a towering
mountain waU to BENNINGTON, where Ethan Allen and the Green
Mountain Boys once quaffed their rum at the Catamount Tavern. OLD
BENNINGTON, an attractive 18th-century village, was left on the high-
lands when the town rushed downhill to meet the railroad and igth-cen-
tury progress. The First Congregational Church (1806), is one of the State's
finest; in the Old Burying Ground sleep the fallen heroes of the battle of
Bennington. The Parson Dewey House (1763) is the oldest in Vermont;
the General David Robinson House (1795) one f the most elaborate. You
can climb 300 feet to the top of the Bennington Battle Monument if your
wind is good and you appreciate a hard-won view. The Historical Museum
is crowded with mementoes of Vermont's stirring history. Bennington
College features experimental education.
At the edge of the mountains US 7 rolls northward along a gracious val-
ley to ARLINGTON, home of Dorothy Canfield Fisher and Sarah Cleg-
horn. MANCHESTER is the most elegant summer and winter resort this
rural State can boast. DORSET, an immaculate white-painted village,
is an art center of repute. But these communities, while enjoying the true
Green Mountain backdrop, are really more typical of fashionable resorts
in other States than of Vermont.
To get into the real mountains from Bennington, climb eastward on Vt.
9, the Molly Stark Trail. From the heights, unbroken forests stretch
north and south, a carpet of green in summer, a tapestry of mellow color
in the fall. Turning north on Vt. 8 from WILMINGTON you enter the
depths of the Green Mountain National Forest, a wild mountain-lake re-
gion.
After clambering over Vt. 8 for miles you'll drop abruptly into a sort
of Lorna Doone country called the West River Valley. To the southeast
is NEWFANE, with its handsome Windham County Courthouse (1825)
in the style of the Greek Revival. Northeast along the valley the road
winds into a section where summer people have revived sleepy villages
and refurbished old houses. Some of the best samples are at WESTON, a
hill village noted for its restored inn, now the Farrar Mansur Museum, the
Vermont Guild of Old Time Crafts and Industries, and the Weston Play-
house, a little white-columned summer theater. Near-by are a public
bathing beach at Hapgood Pond and a woodland picnic area at Greendale
Forest Camp.
Continue on to LUDLOW, a manufacturing town on the Black River,
where Vt. 100 swings northward, following in a general way the course of
the Old Crown Point Military Road and skirting a chain of resort lakes
Through the Green Mountains 101
Rescue, Echo, and Amherst, named for Lord Jeffrey Amherst, under whose
direction the military road was built in 1759. In a house adjoining a coun-
try store in the remote hilltop village of PLYMOUTH, Calvin Coolidge
was born and there he took the oath of office for the Presidency. Camping
and picnicking facilities in the Coolidge State Park are convenient for those
who visit ' Silent CaPs ' birthplace and grave.
Northwest of Plymouth looms a cluster of high mountains, popular
with climbers in summer, skiers in winter: Smith, Shrewsbury, Killington
(alt. 4241), second loftiest in the State, Pico Peak and Blue Ridge the
very center of Vermont's Backbone.
At WEST BRIDGEWATER you come to US 4 and can take a side
trip to RUTLAND, perhaps the liveliest and most modern city in Ver-
mont, with its prosperity rooted in the marble industry. Rutland is a
good place to shop, eat, and drink. To the traveler, fresh from the tran-
quillity of the mountain wilds, the stores, restaurants, bars, hotels, movies,
and bright lights of Rutland are a gratifying change. A few miles west of
Rutland on US 4 is gay Lake Bomoseen, dotted with small craft and the
square-bottomed boats of patient fishermen. Hugh piles of waste rock
and dark quarry openings point the way to the slate district of FAIR
HAVEN and POULTNEY. North of Rutland is PROCTOR, with an
elaborate Marble Exhibit that fascinates thousands every year.
Back on US 4 to the wilderness and the mountains! Pick up Vt. 100
at the junction and continue northward through NORTH SHERBURNE
and STOCKBRIDGE to ROCHESTER. The mountain wall stands on
the west, where Carmel, Bloodroot, Corporation, and Horrid rear their
heads.
North of ROCHESTER is the narrow mountain valley called Gran-
mile Gulf, twisting its way through the Green Mountain country. Hun-
dreds of peaks on the horizon: Monastery, Kirby, Battell, the Presidential
group culminating with Lincoln; then Ellen, Stark, and Ethan Allen. You
can picnic at State Parks along the route at Gifford Woods, Texas Falls,
and by the cascade of Granville Falls.
To the west are three skyline cross-routes: the Goshen Gore Road (Vt.
115) through Brandon Gap to BRANDON, birthplace of Stephen Doug-
las, and thence to mountain-guarded Lake Dunmore, popular summer re-
sort; the Hancock to Middlebury road (Vt. 125) through MUdlebury Gap
and BREAD LOAF; and the Warren to Bristol route through Lincoln
Gap, steepest of the three, as it wends its way over Lincoln Mountain.
All good stiff climbs in low gear, they are rewarding enough if you have a
feeling for the deep woods. This is the Rowland Robinson country, where
102 Here's New England!
Vermont's beloved folk-author found his Uncle Lisha, Sam Lovell, and
Grand'ther Hill.
Below WATERBURY (Vt. 100), noted now for the Little River Pro-
ject, largest flood control earth dam in the country, rises Vermont's most
arrogant mountain, Camel's Hump, or Le Lion Couchant (alt. 4083).
North of Waterbury and the scenic Winooski Valley, still on Vt. 100,
you will come upon STOWE, a tranquil country village in the summer
swarming with colorfully clad skiers throughout the winter months. The
slopes on the broad noble heights of Mt. Mansfield (alt. 4393), highest in
the State, have made this one of the important winter sports areas in the
East. The Nose Dive is a nationally famous ski run. A toll road leads to
the summit of the mountain. Between Stowe and Cambridge on Vt. 108
is Smuggler's Notch, a high rock canyon that served as a smuggler's
rendezvous during the War of 1812. Don't miss Bingham Falls or the
Big Spring.
Back on Vt. 100 and still bearing north to EDEN you will see the
white gash of an asbestos mine high on the side of Belmdere Mountain.
You are now in Vermont's northern reaches, dominated by the stately
cone of Jay Peak (alt. 3861), sentinel over the Canadian border.
Returning on Vt. 100 to the central part of the State to MORRIS-
VILLE, you may stop to swim and fish at Lake Elmore State Park, and
then continue on an unnumbered road past the mammoth earthen Wrights-
mile Dam, which, along with the dam at East Barre, saved the Winooski
Valley towns during the floods of 1936 and 1938.
MONTPELIER, hemmed into the Winooski Valley in the heart of
Vermont, is the Capital and symbol of a State of valley towns. Only at
noon and at four o'clock when the State and insurance offices enliven the
streets with clerks and stenographers only then does Montpelier re-
semble a city. Its real demeanor is marked by small-town quiet and re-
serve. Among the many landmarks are the granite State House with its
fine Doric portico; the Supreme Court Building, which houses the State
Library and the Historical Society Museum; the National Life Building',
the Wood Gallery of Art', the Admiral Dewey Birthplace-, Vermont Junior
College; Bethany Congregational Church', and Hubbard Park.
Southwest of Montpelier is NORTHFIELD and Norwich University
(1820), second oldest military school in the country; below Northfield,
the cool woodlands of Northfield Gulf.
BARRE, southeastern neighbor of the Capital and her eternal rival,
is famous for granite, excellent Italian foods, also wines and grappa.
The Granite Sheds stretch along the river flats. The vast open quarries
Through the Green Mountains 103
of Websterville and Graniteville are located on Millstone Hill, a solid mass
of granite looming above the city.
A fit conclusion to this long and mountainous tour is the southward trip
from Barre by Vt. 14. Enjoy on your way the cool-shaded depths of
Williamstown Gulf, a narrow pass through steep forested walls, refreshing
on even the hottest summer day.
THE NORTHEASTERN
LAKES OF VERMONT
In the Woodlands
US 5, Vt. 102, 105, 114, 12; White River Junction, 40 m. from Barre.
THE northeastern corner of Vermont is a land of primitive appeal, a re-
gion of villages and farms scattered over a broken terrain ridged with
green hills, cut with sharp valleys, and splashed with lakes. There are
lakeshore dance halls and excellent equipment for winter sports: skiing,
skating, horse-racing on village streets or across the frozen lakes.
Entering the region from the south, follow US 5 along the Connecticut
Valley to WHITE RIVER JUNCTION. As you drive northward Lake
Fairlee, on Vt. 113 from ELY, and Lake Morey, near FAIRLEE, are set
in basins among low hills near the Connecticut River. Morey, rather well
developed and fashionable, has facilities for water sports, golf, tennis, and
riding. It is said that Samuel Morey, who claimed to have invented a
steamboat fourteen years before Fulton's ' Clermont,' became embittered
by lack of public recognition and sank his last boat here.
In the very heart of the Coos Country, beloved of the Abnaki Indians,
lies NEWBURY, with a rich heritage of iSth-century landmarks and his-
torical traditions. The town gains from its location in the Oxbow Mead-
ows, one of the broadest and richest expanses of meadowland in northern
New England. Those interested in early American architecture will find
visits to the Congregational Church (1794), the Isaac Bayley House (1790),
and the Colonel Johnson House (1775) rewarding.
West of WELLS RIVER off US 302, the commercial center of Newbury
township, are Lund Pond and Groton Pond in Groton State Forest. This
largest of Vermont's parks offers camp and picnic sites, shelters, a com-
munity house, a lookout tower, and good fishing grounds.
To the north is Caledonia County, settled largely by Scottish immi-
grants from Glasgow, whose descendants still cling to their Covenanter
background. Near WEST BARNET is Harvey Pond, in a framework of
rolling hills which gives it the appearance of a Scottish loch. Northwest
of Barnet lies PEACHAM, secluded summer retreat of educators and in-
tellectuals, where Thaddeus Stevens, most vehement of Abolitionists,
106 Here's New England!
spent his boyhood years. The Congregational Church has the pleasing
symmetry of iSth-century houses of worship.
ST. JOHNSBURY, gateway between the White and Green Moun-
tains, is the jumping-off place for the real lake-and-woods country of the
northeastern corner. The town is a center for famous Vermont maple
sugar. Residential Main St., extending along a level plateau, is flanked
by churches, handsome homes, St. Johnsbury Academy, and the Roman-
esque Museum of Natural Science. West of St. Johnsbury on US 2 is Joe's
Pond, a popular summer spot with cottages, boating, swimming, and
dancing, patronized mainly by local people.
East and north from St. Johnsbury, US 2 and Vt. 102 swing along the
upper Connecticut Valley into sparsely settled Essex County, a true
haven for those a-hunting or a-fishing bent. Here you'll find acres of
dense woodland, precious to lumber dealers, and miles of scraggly second-
growth timber. Near Vt. 102, Maidstone Lake, buried in the wilderness,
has lake trout and landlocked salmon for sportsmen who really enjoy
roughing it. North of Maidstone are the Brunswick Mineral Springs,
each one different in mineral content and taste. The White Mountains of
New Hampshire in the distant east form a background of singular
strength and character for the calm flow of the Connecticut River.
From BLOOMFIELD, Vt. 105 follows the Nulhegan River westward
to ISLAND POND, birthplace of Rudy Vallee, first of the crooners.
North from Island Pond, Vt. 114, the exciting 'Roller Coaster Road,' rises
and dips in breath-taking swoops toward the fishing grounds of Lake
Norton, with its fantastic jigsaw shoreline, and the wild and remote Averill
Lakes and Lake Wallis, near the Canadian line. Here landlocked salmon
and several species of lake trout afford some of the best still-water fishing
in Vermont. Accommodations are available in season and guides may be
obtained. Back from the wooded shores stretch hilly forests where deer
abound for fall shooting.
West of Island Pond on Vt. 105 are Echo, Seymour, and Salem Lakes,
a wild and undeveloped trio that lure the angler as well as the sight-seer.
The entire back country is one of wilderness lakes and streams, rude little
sawmill settlements, hunting camps, and lonely farms squatting on rock-
strewn land.
DERBY is spread on a broad plateau where the Saint Francis Indians
once camped and hunted, and here you can take a 4-mile side trip to
DERBY LINE and the Canadian border. In Prohibition days, the roads
of this section smoked beneath the racing cars of reckless bootleggers and
grim-faced officers.
The Northeastern Lakes of Vermont 107
From Derby, US 5 winds downward to NEWPORT, the Border City,
located at the southern end of Lake Memphremagog. This long irregular
sheet of water stretches into Canada between headlands and massed
mountains. Overshadowing the lake stands the rugged bulk of OwVs
Head. The steamer trip from Newport to Magog, Quebec, is well worth
your time. Although once a busy lumber center, Newport is now more
of a summer resort and ' trading post ' for Orleans County.
Following US 5 south you will reach BARTON and Crystal Lake,
walled on one side by a rocky ridge. In August, Barton is the scene of the
colorful Orleans County Fair. About 8 miles east of Barton, Willoughby
Lake lies between its granite-faced mountain sentinels, Pisgah and Hor.
Spectacular vistas greet the eye as one mounts the lookouts above Pis-
gah's craggy cliffs.
South of Barton, US 5 leads through Willoughby State Forest to West
Burke and BURKE HOLLOW, where the prim Old Union Meeting House
(1825) stands out above the rustic scene. Burke Mountain rises cone-
shaped on the east; a paved automobile road climbs to its summit. The
lookout tower here commands a vast panorama of the lake-and-hills
country. Every watery pocket in the irregular surface seems to mirror
the sun. Slopes are patchworked with farm clearings; the valley settle-
ments resemble a cluster of toy villages. Further south are LYNDON-
VILLE, situated on the banks of the placid Passumpsic River, and LYN-
DON CENTER, seat of Lyndon Institute.
Taking Vt. 12 from Barton, continue southward toward the central
part of the State. In GREENSBORO is Caspian Lake, lying at a high
altitude on breezy uplands. The exclusive summer colony here includes
many college professors. To the northwest is the white-painted summit
village of CRAFTSBURY COMMON. To the south Vt. 12 leads through
HARD WICK, once a booming granite center, and now mainly a trading
center in summer. WOODBURY township is an appropriate terminal
for your trip, for there are 28 lakes and ponds within its bounds. Wood-
bury Lake, situated along the highway, has a popular summer colony.
THE
CHAMPLAIN
VALLEY
CHAMPLAIN VALLEY
The Arcadia of Vermont
US 2, 7; Burlington, 40 m. from Montpelier, 300 m. from New York, 230 m. from
Boston.
CHAMPLAIN VALLEY, the dairy of New England, embraces some
2000 square miles of fertile stream-watered farmland. Eastward, the roll-
ing plains slope to the foothills of the Green Mountains; westward, they
merge with the flatlands along the lakeshore. Gazing at a Champlain
sunset from the glass-enclosed observation tower of Mt. Philo you will be
entranced by the brilliant coloring of the islands and the distant Adiron-
dacks peaks in profile against a flaming horizon.
Samuel Champlain discovered the great Lake in 1609; and for more
than two centuries thereafter the region was the center of a bitter struggle.
These waters knew the glide of Indian canoes and those of Rogers'
Rangers; they mingled with the human blood shed in fierce naval battles
of the Revolution and the War of 1812. Over them floated the first crude
lumber rafts for Gideon King, the 'Admiral of the Lake.' In the booming
forties the waters churned under huge cargoes. Today Lake Cham-
plain's blue breast is ruffled only by the prows of sailboats, canoes, fish-
ing-boats, and a few ferries plying between the Adirondack resorts and the
Vermont side.
Along the 8o-mile shore of St. Albans Bay there are beaches for every
mood: motor- and sailboating, canoeing, yachting, fishing, swimming,
golfing, tennis. There are any number of paths rambling along ledges
overlooking the water. And always in the background the Adirondacks
cutting jaggedly at the sky.
Starting down from ALBURG on US 2, in the island region of the north,
notice the Stone House (1823), characteristic of the century-old structures
scattered throughout the county.
Near ISLE LA MOTTE STATION in Burying Ground Point the Me-
morial Tablet honors the soldiers of the Revolution. You should visit the
Shrine of St. Ann, a diminutive chapel and its sacred image in a shelter of
pines; and the Site of Fort Ste. Anne, where in 1666 Captain de La Motte
and his French soldiers built a fort for protection against the Mohawks.
It was the first white settlement in the State, though only a temporary
no Here's New England!
one. Here somber-clad Jesuits celebrated the first Mass in Vermont. Off
the western shore of this island, Benedict Arnold anchored his fleet before
fighting the battle of Valcour Island (1776); and in 1814 the British fleet
left this haven for the battle of Plattsburg. Jutting through rich pasture
land is the Coral Reef, said to be the oldest in the world, and traceable for
almost a mile. The Carrying Place, where the Island narrows to a slender
neck, received its name from the hide-and-seek tactics of old-time smug-
glers, who used small boats which they could easily carry across the nar-
row strip, leaving the revenue officers on the other side cursing over their
large, heavy craft.
Near SOUTH HERO is the Site of the Ebenezer Allen Tavern, which
once entertained Prince Edward of England.
On the mainland, across the Sand Bar Bridge are the Sand Bar State
Forest Park, with bathing and camping facilities, and the State Game Re-
fuge, a wild-fowl sanctuary.
Moving north on US 7, through a country more rugged and broken,
you'll reach GEORGIA CENTER, where patriotic Georgia farmers
raised a barricade against the contrabanders of 1812.
Just south of ST. ALBANS, you'll drive over the Johnnycake Hill of
Frances Frost's poems. A view of the city in its amphitheater formed by
Green Mountain foothills, with the Lake washing its lower fields, prompted
Henry Ward Beecher to eulogize: 'A place in the midst of a greater va-
riety of scenic beauty than any other I can remember in America.'
The Saint Francis Indians occupied SWANTON before the coming of the
white man. During the Deerfield Massacre they stole the Deerfield bell
and used it in their chapel, built in 1700 under Jesuit guidance. On the
banks of the Missisquoi is the Burial Ground of this old Saint Francis tribe.
HIGHGATE SPRINGS is a little summer settlement. S axe's Monu-
ment marks the site of the birthplace of John Godfrey Saxe (1816-87), one
of Vermont's outstanding poets.
On the frontier, beyond a countryside gray with rock protrusions and
ragged vegetation, stands the United States Custom-house where as many
as 2300 cars have been cleared in one day. The Canadian and American
custom-houses are close together, and fortifications are conspicuous by
their absence.
Return south on US 7 and continue past its junction with US 2 for
about 4 miles to the Lake Shore Drive to Malletls Bay, popular Cham-
plain summer resort.
BURLINGTON, the Queen City, is the home of the Champlain Trans-
portation Company (1826), said to be one of the oldest steamship lines in
Champlain Valley 1 1 1
the world. St. Joseph's Church has a cock surmounting its cross atop the
church. The weathervane in this position, a symbol of the denial of Saint
Peter, is rare in the United States. Battery Park, a government camp
ground for some 4000 men during the War of 1812, offers a noteworthy
view of harbor and lake. Ethan Allen Park was once a part of Ethan Al-
len's farm; the Green Mountain Boy died here. At the University of Ver-
mont see the Robert Hull Fleming Museum with the finest collection of
Vermont Indian relics extant; the towered Old Mill, a recitation building
whose cornerstone Lafayette laid in 1825; the Ira Allen Chapel, and the
Billings Library. Queen City Park, a summer colony, was once an out-
standing Spiritualist Camp Ground. Mediums from all over the world
appeared in its Temple. Today only a short series of August meetings
keep briefly alive the old atmosphere.
In SHELBURNE, on US 7, a village centered around its Co-operative
Creamery, is the Episcopal Church, a miniature English abbey in local red
sandstone. In Shelburne Harbor you can see the hull of the old 'Philadel-
phia/ sunk off Valcour Island by the British during the War of 1812.
Cedar Beach and Thompson's Point are summer colonies in CHAR-
LOTTE. From the tower of Mt. Philo in the Mt. Philo State Forest Park
you get our favorite view of the New York Adirondacks, the Lake, and
the Valley all the way to the Green Mountains.
On the banks of Otter Creek in VERGENNES was constructed Mac-
donough's flagship ' Saratoga ' and his flotilla. West of Vergennes is But-
ton Bay, where Benedict Arnold fired his battered ships and let them burn
under flying colors rather than yield them to the British. At low water the
rotted hulks are still visible. Near BASIN HARBOR, a Champlain re-
sort, is the site of Old Fort Cassin, named for the French lieutenant who
blockaded the English and prevented them from sailing upstream to
destroy Macdonough's fleet under construction at Vergennes.
At the Sheldon Art Museum in MIDDLEBURY, you'll see a restoration
of a Middlebury College student's room in the early igth-century a
faithful reproduction, even to the rum bottle. BREAD LOAF, nine
miles east of Middlebury, is a unique settlement, a summer school con-
ducted by Middlebury College, where prospective writers are brought
into contact with prominent literary people. Perhaps you've read of the
Southerner who, after being captured by the First Vermont Cavalry in
the Civil War, remarked: 'It was your hawses that done licked us. They
don't know how to quit.' The United States Morgan Farm near Middle-
bury still breeds these mounts.
US 7 drops southward through WALLINGFORD to the Berkshire
country in Massachusetts.
THE
BERkSHIRES
THE BERKSHIRES
An Aerie of Hill Towns
US 7; Pittsfield, 35 m. from Bennington, 145 m. from New York, 140 m. from
Boston.
NORTH and south along the Massachusetts border lie the rugged
Taconics, a rampart against the western sky. Rising from the Connecti-
cut Valley to the east, the Hoosac Range with its flat-topped tableland,
shallow valleys, and small hilltop towns parallels the Taconics. Between
the ranges curves the Berkshire Valley, divided midway by a narrow
ridge from which the Hoosic River flows northwest to join the Hudson,
while the Housatonic jogs south to meet the sea. To the north, the high-
lands push close together, forming a rude, mountainous bulk between
Vermont and Massachusetts. On the south along the Connecticut-
Massachusetts border, the mountains open gracefully to allow the river,
the railroad, and the highway spacious passage.
Greylock is the outstanding peak of the Berkshire landscape. One
great uplifted mass, surrounded by lesser summits, 6 miles east to west, it
lies in the northern Berkshire Valley about equidistant from the Hoosacs
and the Taconics. As the mountains of the world go, the Berkshires are
not imposing. But there are high peaks and broad meadows, wild moun-
tain cascades and placid mill streams, quiet towns and bustling mill
villages.
Berkshire hill towns follow pretty much the same pattern scattered
farmhouses, a white church, a neat graveyard, a school with wood piled
near the door. This is a land of church suppers, square dances in the
Town Hall, and socials at the Grange. It is the natural habitat of that
famous New England institution, the Ladies' Aid Society with its flash-
ing needles and sprightly tongues. And that other famous New England
institution, the Town Meeting, here achieves its apogee, national and
State issues coming distinctly second to local affairs.
Four motor trails cross Berkshire County east and west. The Mohawk
Trail (Mass. 2) was from ancient times the main east-west pathway
across the Berkshires, the old trail used by fur-traders and by painted In-
dian warriors faring forth to plunder and burn the villages in the Con-
necticut Valley. Gentler in its landscaping, the Berkshire Trail (Mass. 9)
U4 Here's New England!
curves over Windsor Mountain. US 20 climbs out of the Connecticut
Valley in a series of giant steps which give it the descriptive Biblical name
of Jacob's Ladder. From Westfield through the southern tier of Berkshire
towns, the Knox Trail (Mass. 17) winds across the Hoosacs following the
old * Great Road' along which, in 1776, General Henry Knox and his Con-
tinental troops marched to the relief of Boston.
Twenty-five State Forests, covering over 80,000 acres, constitute a vast
recreational area, with streams and ponds well-stocked for fishing, plenti-
ful game in season, picnic spots, foot trails and bridle paths, caves to be
explored, gorges and lookouts, ski trails and open slopes.
US 7, as scenic as any of the more picturesquely named 'trails,' runs
north and south through the heart of Berkshire. Just west of SHEF-
FIELD, with its elm-arched main street and placid homes, rises the dome
of Mt. Everett (alt. 2624), with Jug End, a winter-sport development, to
the north.
At GREAT BARRINGTON, 'the Southern Gateway to the Berk-
shires,' is the William Cullen Bryant House, occupied by the poet at the
time of his marriage.
At STOCKBRIDGE, a town so well groomed that it has been called
'Berkshire in formal dress,' is the Stockbridge Mission House to which
Jonathan Edwards, the brimstone-tongued preacher exiled from North-
ampton, came as a missionary in 1751. The Berkshire Playhouse is an
important Summer Theater. At Tanglewood (Mass. 183) during the an-
nual Berkshire Music Festival, music lovers assemble to listen to per-
formances by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and guest artists. The
Festival's huge music shed, seating 9000, shelters the concert crowds.
Just for good measure, you will be shown here the Site of the Cottage where
Hawthorne wrote ' The House of the Seven Gables ' and ' Tanglewood Tales. '
In LENOX, a concrete symbol of the town's former literary and social
glory, is The Mount, once the home of Edith Wharton, novelist, friend and
often hostess to Henry James. The designer of The Church on the Hill is
unknown a pity, for it is one of the most noteworthy church buildings
in the State, 'graceful without effort, solid and substantial without
stolidity or dullness.'
PITTSFIELD is the Big City of Berkshire, with a tranquil look of
general comfort and prosperous culture in its elm-shaded streets, sub-
stantial dignified residences, and smooth lawns. The Berkshire Athe-
naeum houses a library; the Museum of Natural History and Art contains a
'mineral room' in which ultraviolet rays are used to accentuate the beau-
ties of its collection. Holmesdale, the former residence of Oliver Wendell
The Berkshires 115
Holmes, is neighbor to Arrowhead, the home of Herman Melville, where
1 Moby Dick ' came into being. Anyone who has a scientific interest may
visit the General Electric Plant and view many marvels of electrical research.
The Pittsfield State Forest lies partly in Pittsfield and partly in the
drowsy towns of HANCOCK and LANESBOROUGH. Skyline Trail,
one of some 16 good trails which traverse the forest, follows an ancient
Indian hunting path along the crest of this section of the Taconics. On
the western edge of the forest is Berry Pond, the most elevated natural
body of water in the State. A few miles north of Lanesborough, a coun-
try road leaves the main highway and rambles through the mountains.
East out of Pittsfield, Mass. 9 leads through DALTON, an industrial
town grown up around the Crane Paper Mills, which have manufactured
currency paper for the Federal Government since 1846. The Crane
Museum has a complete collection of exhibits showing the history and
progress of the paper industry. Between Dalton and the dwindling vil-
lage of WINDSOR, just off the highway, the Falls of Wahconah Brook
leap down 80 feet in a triple cascade.
Just north of Dalton on Mass. 8 is the prim town of CHESHIRE,
once actually the home of a local brand of Cheshire Cheese. The Cole
House here is worth visiting if only for the example of the ' Christian* door,
so called because its eight panels form a double cross guaranteed to keep
out witches.
In any tour of Berkshire County you circle around Greylock (alt. 3505),
that hoary peak of the Hoosacs, easy to identify by the granite shaft on
its summit. On a clear day your view from the top of the Memorial Tower,
105 feet high, embraces the White Mountains to the northeast and Long
Island Sound on the south. Below you the Thunderbolt, a famous ski run,
one of the trickiest courses east of the Rocky Mountains, catapults into
the valley 1800 feet below.
Just short of the Vermont State line, at the junction of US 7 and the
Mohawk Trail, in a pleasant valley among encircling hills lies WIL-
LIAMSTOWN, home of Williams, 'the Gentlemen's College.' The odd
Haystack Monument on the campus claims to mark the birthplace of the
American foreign missionary movement in 1806.
East from Williamstown at the foot of Greylock, crowded in between
two mountains, lies NORTH ADAMS, a busy city near the western por-
tal of the Hoosac Tunnel.
The Mohawk Trail (Mass. 2) passes over its crest at FLORIDA, where
Western Summit (alt. 2020) discloses Mt. Greylock in all its majesty.
From Whitcomb Summit (alt. 21 10) there is a bird's-eye view of four states,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York.
CONNECT/ CUrt""
stack Mt.
RFOLK
EORGETOWN
CANNONDALE
BRIDGEPOR
CONNECTICUT'S
WESTERN
HIGHLANDS
CONNECTICUT'S WESTERN
HIGHLANDS
Old Taverns by Modern Roads
US 7; Canaan, 33 m. from Pittsfield, Mass., 115 m. from New York.
ON BOTH sides of the Housatonic Valley, from the seaboard to the
2355-foot heights of the Taconic Range in Connecticut's northwestern
corner, extends a region of heavily wooded uplands, interlaced with
excellent highways. In the valleys, tidy villages have grown up beside
the streams; and on the hillsides, communities have developed around
the sites of old taverns or toll-gates. This countryside, within an hour's
drive of New York City, has altered but little since the Revolutionary
War; the villages have retained much of their independence and their
stubborn resistance to change.
In the southwestern corner, hunt and country clubs cater to owners of
rural estates, but aside from these you'll discover ample opportunities
for recreation on every hand. A dozen state forests, 27 state parks, and
more than 70 roadside picnic areas with tables and well-kept lawns, are
scattered through the western counties.
Leaving US 1, the Ethan Allen Highway (US 7) threads through the
outskirts of industrial NOR WALK and continues to WILTON, where
roads branch off to the right and left into the estate country.
At CANNONDALE, north of Wilton Center, mill sites on the banks
of the Norwalk River show where power was generated to turn the wheels
of colonial industry. Millstones today retain a certain utility value as
tables, benches, and terrace steps in country gardens.
GEORGETOWN, with its screen-cloth mills and homes of the Finn
shop-hands, sprawls on both sides of the highway. Roads east climb the
rolling hills where Mark Twain spent his last days at Stormfield. The
twin blockhouses at the gate of the Putnam Memorial Camp Ground,
further ahead, mark the edge of a State Reservation where General
Israel Putnam suffered with his starving troops through the critical winter
of 1778-79. In the park are a Monument, a Colonial Museum, and rows
of stone heaps that were formerly the chimneys of soldiers' huts. North
of the reservation, on the west side of Conn. 53, stands the Mark Twain
n8 Here's New England!
Library, built by Samuel L. Clemens but endowed by Andrew Carnegie.
Passing roadside acres planted with nursery stock, US 7 curves to an
intersection with Conn. 35, the Ridgefield Road. Southwesterly on
Conn. 35 is the hilltop village of RIDGEFIELD, whose inhabitants
fought a stiff battle with the British in 1777.
US 7 passes the Danbury Fair Grounds, after a tortuous passage
through a valley flanked by the ridges of Wooster Mountain State Park.
Here, one of New England's most popular country fairs goes on parade
annually in the first week of October.
DANBURY, the 'Hat City,' is also a rural trading center and supply
point for the Lake Candlewood region. The broad main street is western
Connecticut's busiest market place. All roads north enter the Big Basin
Country, where 6ooo-acre Lake Candlewood extends fully 15 miles to the
Rocky River Dam. Squantz Pond State Park, located on the lake, has a
bathing beach, pavilions, picnic and camping facilities, and fishing in
season. In the 969 acres of Pootatuck State Forest, bridle paths, hiking
trails, and nature-study areas have been built by the Civilian Conserva-
tion Corps.
East of Danbury, US 6 or US 202 will bring you to the hilltop village
of NEWTOWN, a Tory stronghold during the Revolutionary War. High-
ways east enter the Lake Zoar Area, where for 10 miles the Housatonic
River flows still and deep above the Stevenson Dam at old Zoar Bridge.
NEW MILFORD, north of Danbury, stands at a gateway through the
hills where Conn. 25 leads northward and then east to Bantam Lake.
LITCHFIELD, perched on the hilltops at the edge of the Naugatuck
Valley, is a tranquil community of shaded streets and old houses remote
from the 'Brass Belt/
North of New Milford, US 7 shoulders its way through a narrow gorge
just wide enough for the highway and the Housatonic River. The cross-
roads village of KENT is known principally for Kent School, Father Sill's
famous educational institution. Macedonia Brook State Park and the
lively Kent Falls, flowing over marble ledges in Kent Falls State Park,
are highlights of this region. East and west of Kent are secluded farms,
summer camps, small woodland ponds, and thousands of acres of forest
traversed by hiking trails, plainly marked for the novice. The New
York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad runs a special train into Kent
Village, where a barn dance and husking bee has proven an autumn
attraction as fascinating to cosmopolites as it is beneficial to the local
church and the Grange members who provide the transients with food
and accommodations.
Connecticut's Western Highlands 119
CORNWALL is a township of numerous art and literary groups
dedicated to a 'return to primitive simplicity. 7 The Housatonic State
Forest stretches from the river to the mountaintops, and the Housatonic
Meadows State Park, embracing an area of 940 stream-side acres, boasts
some of the best trout waters in the State.
East of Cornwall, on Conn. 4, is Mohawk Mountain, 1680 feet above
sea level, where the Mohawk Tower affords views of the Taconics, the
Berkshires, and the Catskills.
A few miles north of Lime Rock Station on US 7, a highway (Conn.
126) leads easterly to a junction with an unnumbered paved road to
Music Mountain, where members of the Jacques Gordon Musical Foun-
dation present week-end concerts throughout the summer and early
autumn.
At Lime Rock Station, Conn. 112 bears westward from US 7, and
enters a region overshadowed by the Taconic Range, highest land in
Connecticut. LIME ROCK, watered by a lively trout stream, began its
community life as an iron-manufacturing village, and still has many
abandoned furnaces and shops to prove it. In LAKEVILLE, on US 44,
northeast of the intersection with Conn. 112, is the best lake-trout fishing
in southern New England. Wononskopomuc and Wononpakook, deep,
spring-fed lakes in Lakeville's back yard, have been famous for chunky
'lakers' since the first white men set up iron forges on their shores. To
the northeast, US 44 passes the rusty, brush-grown cliff above the
Davis Ore Beds and enters SALISBURY. The town 'proprietors' are
justly proud of their Town Hall, remodeled from a church of 1749, and
the granite Library Building equipped with a set of musical chimes.
From Salisbury Town Hall, a country road ascends into the fastnesses
of Mt. Riga, Bear Mountain, Lion's Head, and the blue Taconics. Follow-
ing the course of a mountain brook, this same road eventually arrives at
the 23oo-foot level marked by an old iron furnace at the dam of Forge
Pond. Here, during an early Connecticut munitions boom, iron for guns,
chains, and anchors was smelted from ore carried up the mountain on
pack animals; but today, the furnace and slag dumps are the sole visual
reminders of former prosperity. Hidden in the surrounding woods are a
desolate graveyard, a number of circular charcoal-pit sites, and the
stones of house foundations. On Mt. Riga's lower slopes are the shacks
and log cabins of the 'Raggies,' Salisbury's stranded population. These
people stayed on after the furnaces cooled and the iron-ore pits filled with
water.
TACONIC, north of US 44, is situated near Twin Lakes, where in 1936
I2O Here's New England!
great schools of sockeye salmon, native to waters of Alaska and the
Rockies, suddenly made their appearance. How these fish came to Twin
Lakes is a mystery, but the natives have long known of their existence.
Taconic also has the vast estates of old iron masters, model farms, lime-
stone caverns, furnace sites, and a wealth of folk tales and legends.
US 44 continues to CANAAN, a junction with US 7. Here US 44
swings eastward to the Blackberry River Valley, offering good trout fishing
in State-leased waters. At NORFOLK are broad country estates, wild
hill country, winter sports, and observation towers at Haystack Mountain
and Dennis Hill.
THE END
Acadia National Park, 67
Aerial Passenger Tramway, 75, 79
Alburg, 109
Amherst (Mass.), 90; College, 90
Annisquam, 46
Appalachian Trail, the, 73, 77
Arlington (Mass.), 39; (Vt.), 100
Ascutneyville, 96
Ashfield (Mass.), 90
Asticou, 68
Bailey's Island, 57
Bangor, 63, 64
Bar Harbor, i, 67, 68
Barnstable, 22
Barre (Vt.), 102
Barrington (R.I.), 14
Bartlett (N.H.), 77
Barton, 107
Bass Rocks, 46
Bath (Maine), 59; (N.H.), 78
Belfast. 63
Belgrade Lakes, 71, 73
Bellows Falls, 95, 96
Bennington, 100; College, too
Berkshire Region, the, i, in, 113
Berlin (N.H.), 76, 79
Bethlehem (Street), 78
Beverly, 45
Biddeford-Saco, 55; Pool, 55
Block Island, n, 12
Blue Hill Peninsula, 68
Boothbay Harbor, 59
Boston, 31
Bourne, 22, 25
Brandon, 100; Gap, 101
Branford, 7
Brattleboro, 96
Bread Loaf, 100, in
Bretton Woods, 78
Brewster, 22
Bridgeport, 6
Bristol (N.H.), 84; (R.I.), 14
Brunswick (Maine), 57
Bucksport, 64
Burke Hollow, 107
Burlington (Vt.), no
Buzzards Bay, 17, 22
Cambridge (Mass.), 38; (Vt.), 102
Camden, 63
Canaan (Conn.), 120
Cannondale, 117
Cape Ann, 43, 45, 46
Cape Cod, 21
Cape Elizabeth, 55, 56
Cape Porpoise, 55
Carver, 29
Casco Bay, 55
Castine, 64
Center Harbor, 85
Center Sandwich, 85
Champlain Valley, i, 109
Charlestown (Mass.), 34J (N.H.),
95
Charlotte, in
Chatham, 24; Center, 24
Chebeague Islands, 57
Cheshire (Mass.), 115
Chocorua, 86
Claremont, 95
Clinton (Conn.), 7
Cohasset, 28
Colebrook (N.H.), 79
Conanicut, Island of, 12
Concord (Mass.), 39
Concord (N.H.), 80, 84
Connecticut River, 7, 79, 105
Conway (N.H.), 75, 76, 77;
(Mass.), 90 '
Conway Center (N.H.),
Cornish (N.H.), 95
77
INDEX
Cornwall' (Conn.), 119
Cotuit Bay, 24
Crawford Notch, 76, 77
Craftsbury Common, 107
Croydon, 95
Pal ton, 115 -^
Damariscotta, 60
Danbury (Conn.), 118
Darien, 6
Deer Isle (Maine), 64
Deerfield, 90
Dennis, 22
Derby (yt.), 106
Derby Line (Vt.), 106, 107
Desert of Maine, 57
Diamond Islands, 57
Dixville Notch, 79
Dorset, 100
Dover, (N.H.), 52, 78
Dublin, 94
Durham (N.H.), 52
Duxbury, 28
East Boothbay, 60
East Greenwich, 13
East Lyme, 8
Eastham, 22
Edgartown, 17
Errol, 79
Essex (Mass.), 47
Exeter, 49, 51
Fairfield (Conn.), 6
Fairlee, 105
Falmouth (Mass.), 25; Heights,
24
Falmouth Foreside (Maine), 57
Fitzwilliam, 94
Florida (Mass.), 115
Flume Gorge, the, 77, 79
Franconia, 78; Notch, 76, 79
Franklin (N.H.), 84
Freeport, 57
Gay Head, 18
Georgetown (Conn.), 117
Georgia Center, no
Gill, 91
Glen, 77, 78
Gloucester (Mass.), 45, 46
Gorham (N.H.), 76, 79
Goshen (Mass.), 90
Granville Gulf, 101
Great Barrington, 114
Greenfield (Mass.), 89, 91
Green Mountains, i, 75, 99, 109
Greensboro, 107
Greenville (Maine), 73
Greenwich, 5
Groton (Conn.), 9
Guilford (Conn.), 7
Hadley, 90
Hampton, 51; Beach, 51, 52
Hampton Falls, 49, 51
Hancock (Mass.), 115
Hanover, (N.H.), 77, 95
Harpswell. 57
Hartford (Conn.), 89
Hartland (Vt.), 95
Harwich, 24
Haversham, 12
Haydenville, 90
Highgate Springs, no
Hingham, 28
Hinsdale, 93
Holderness, 85
Holyoke, 90
Hyannis, 24
Intervale, 77
Island Pond, 106
Isleboro, 63
Isle la Motte, 109
Isles of Shoals, 49, 51
Jackson, (N.H.), 78
Jaff rey, 94
Jamestown, 12
Jefferson (N.H.), 78; Notch, 78
Keene, 94
Kennebunk Beach, 55
Kennebunkport, 55
Kent (Conn.), 118
Kingston (Mass.), 29
Kinsman Notch, 77
Kittery, 50, 55; Point, 50
Laconia, 84, 86
LAKES, Amherst, 101; Averill,
106; Bantam, 118; Bomoseen,
101; Belgrade, fi, 73; Candle-
wo9d, 118; Caspian, 107; Cham-
plain, 107; Chocorua, 86; Con-
necticut, 79; Dunmore, 101;
Echo (N.H.), 79; Echo (Vt.),
101, 106; Elmore, 102; Fairlee,
105; Groton, 105; Lakes of the
Clouds, 78; Maidstone, 106;
Mascoma, 83; Memphremagog,
107; Moosehead, 71, 73; Moose-
lookmeguntic, 71, 73; Morey,
105; Musquash, 72; Newfound,
83, 84; Norton, 106; Ossipee,
83, 84, 86; Profile, 76; Rangeley;
71, 73; Rescue, 101; Richard-
son, 71; Saco, 77; Sebago, 71,
73; Seboeis, 72; Spedmc, 72;
Spofford, 94; Squam, 83, 84, 85,
Sunapee, 83, 84; Twin (Conn.);
119; Wallis, 106; Wentworth,
84, 85; Willoughby, 107; Winni-
pesaukee, 83, 85; Winnisquam,
84, 85; Wononpakook, 119;
Wononskopomuc, 119; Zoar,
118
Lakeville (Conn.), 119
Lancaster (N.H.), 79
Lanesborough, 115
Lenox, 114
Lexington (Mass.), 39
Lime Rock, 119
Lincoln Gap, 101
Lisbon, 78
Litchfield, 118
Little Boar's Head, 51, 52
Littleton (N.H.), 78
Lost River Reservation, 76, 77, 80
Ludlow (Vt.), 100
Lyndonville, 107
Lynn, 43
MacDowell Colony, 94
Madison (Conn.), 7
Magnolia, 45
Manchester (Mass.), 45; (Vt.), 100
Marblehead, 43
Marsh-Field, 77
Marshfield (Mass.), 28
Martha's Vineyard, 17, 25
Melvin Village, 85
Meredith, 85
Meriden (N.H.), 95
Middlebury (Vt.), in
Middlebury Gap, 101
Middletown (Conn.), 89
Mohawk Trail, the, 113, 115
Monhegan Island, 61
Montpelier, 102
Morrisville, 102
Mount Desert Island, 67
122
Index
MOUNTAINS, Adams, 75 ; As-
cutney, 93, 96; Belvidere, 102;
Berkshire, 113; Burke, 107;
Cadillac, 67; Camel's Hump,
102; Cannon, 76, 79; Cardigan,
83, 84; Carmel (Vt.), 101;
Carter-Moriah, 77; Chocorua,
83, 84, 85; Clay, 75! Ellen, 101;
Ethan Allen, 101; Everett
(Mass.), 114; Flume, 77; Fran-
conia, 78; Franklin, 75; Grey-
lock, 113, 115; Haystack
(Conn.), 120; Hoosac, 113; Hor,
107; Imp, 78; Jay Peak, 102;
Jackson, 75; Jefferson, 75;
Kancamagus, 77; Katahdin, 73,
77; Kearsage, 84; Kilburn, 96;
Killington Peak, 101; Kineo,
73; Lafayette, 78; Lincoln
(Vt.), 101; Madison, 75; Mans-
field, 102; Moat, 77; Mohawk,
119; Monadnock (Vt.), 79;
Monadnock (Grand Monad-
nock). 75, 03, 94; Monroe, 75;
Moosilauke, 77, 79; Music, 119;
Ossipee, 83, 85; Owl's Head, 75;
Passaconaway, 83; Paugus, 83;
Pemigewasset, 79; Philo, 109,
in; Pico, 101; Pisgah (Maine),
73; Pisgah (Vt.), 107; Pleasant,
75; Profile (see Cannon); Pros-
pect, 79; Riga, 119; Sandwich,
84; Sanguinari, 79; Shaw, 85;
Shrewsbury, 101; Smith, 101;
Stark, 101; Sunapee, 84; Ta-
conic, 113, 117, 119; Washing-
ton, 75, 76, 77; Webster, 75;
Whiteface, 83; Willard, 77
Mystic (Conn.), 9
Nahant, 43
Nantasket Beach, 28, 35
Nantucket, 17, 18, 24
Narragansett, 12; Pier, 12
Narragansett Bay, n
Natick, 40
New Bedford, 17
Newburyport, 47
New Castle, 50, 51
Newfane, 100
New Hampton, 84
New Harbor, 60
New Haven, 6
New London (Conn.), 8; (N.H.),
84
New Milford, 118
Newport (R.t), 14; (Vt.), 107
Newton, 118
Niantic, 8
Noank, 9
Norfolk (Conn.), 120
North Adams, 115
Northampton (Mass.), 90
Northeast Harbor, 68
North Edgecomb, 60
Northfield Gulf, 102
Northfield (Vt.), 102; (Mass.), 91
North Con way, 77
North Hampton, 51
North Haven, (Maine), 64
North Sherburne, 101
North Stratford, (N.H.), 79
North Windham, 73
North Woodstock (N.H.), 77, 79
Notchland, 77
Oak Bluffs, 17
Ogunquit, 55
Old Lyme, 7
Old Man of the Mountains, 76, 79
Old Orchard Beach, 55
Old Saybrook, 7, 89
Orleans (Mass.), 21, 22
Orr's Island, 58
Pawtucket, n, 12
Peacham, 105
Peak's Island, 56
Pemaquid Beach, 61; Point, 61
Penobscot River Region, 63
Peterborough, 94
Pine Orchard, 6
Pinkham Notch, 78
Pittsburg (N.H.), 79
Pittsfield (Mass.), 114
Plainfield (N.H.), 95
Plymouth (Mass.), 27, 29
Plymouth (N.H.), 84; (Vt.), 101
Point Judith, 12
Portland (Maine), 55, 56
Portsmouth (N.H.), 49, 50, 52
Pownal, 100
Proctor, 101
Prospect (Maine), 63
Providence (R.I.), u, 12, 13
Provincetown, 21, 23
Putney, 96
aueechee Gorge, 95
uincy, 27
Revere Beach, 43
Rhode Island, n
Ridgefield, 118
RIVERS, Ammonoosuc, 78; An-
droscoggin. 73, 79; Branford,
7; Charles, 36, 39; Connecticut,
7, 79, 90, 93, 95, 105; Hampton,
52; Housatomc, 113, 118; Ken-
nebec, 72; Merrimack, 84;
Missisquoi, no; Mystic, 9;
Naugatuck, 118; Otter Creek,
in; Passumpsic, 107; Pemige-
wasset, 79; Penobscot, 63; Pis-
cataqua, 49, 50; Saco, 55, 77;
Thames, 8, p: Winnipesaukee,
85; Winooski, 102.
Rockland (Maine), 63, 64
Rockport (Mass.), 46
Rowley, 47
Rutland (Vt.), 101
Rye (N.H.), 49, 51; Harbor, 51, 52
St. Albans, no
St. Albans Bay, 109
Saint-Gaudens Memorial, 95
St. Johnsbury, 106
Salem (Mass.), 44
Salisbury (Conn.), 119
Sandwich (Mass.), 22
Scituate, 28
'Sconset (See Siasconset)
Seabrook, 51
Seal Harbor, 68
Searsport, 63
Sheffield (Mass.), 114
Shelburne (Vt.), in
Siasconset, 18
Silvermine, 6
Smuggler's Notch, 102
South Hadley, 90
South Hero, no
Southport Island, 60
Southwest Harbor, 68
Springfield (Mass.), 89; (Vt.), 96
Stockbridge (Mass.), 114; (Vt.),
101
Stockton Springs, 63
Stonington (Conn.), 9
Stony Creek, 7
Storrowtown, 89
Stowe (Vt.), 102
Sugar Hill, 78
SUMMER THEATERS, Bar
Harbor, 67; Boothbay Harbor,
60; Dennis, 22; Newport (R.I.),
14; Rye (N.H.), 51 ; Stock-
bridge, 114; Stony Creek, 7;
Tamworth, 76; Weston (Vt.),
100; Whitefield (N.H.), 76
Also at: Bantam Lake (Conn.),
Branford (Conn.), Brattleboro,
Chatham (Mass.), Clinton
(Conn.), Conway (N.H.), Dor-
set (Vt.), East Jaffrey, Fran-
conia, Gloucester (Mass.), Guil-
ford (Conn.), Harrison (Maine),
Keene, Kennebunkport, Lake-
wood (Maine), Madison
(Conn.), Manchester (N.H.),
New London (N.H.), North-
. ampton (Mass.), Notchland,
Ogunquit, Peterborough, Po-
land Springs, Provincetown,
Ridgefield (Conn.), Westport
(Conn.).
Sunapee Harbor, 84
Sunderland, 90
Swampscott, 43
Swan ton, no
Taconic, 119
Tamworth, 76, 86
Tanglewood, 114
Tilton, 84
Tremont (Maine), 68
Troy (N.H.), 94
Truro, 21, 23
Tuckerman Ravine, 76, 78
Twin Mountains (Village), 78, 79
Vergennes, in
Vinalhaven, 64
Vineyard Haven, 18
Vineyard Sound, 17
Wallingford (Vt.), in
Walpole (N.H.), 95
Warren (R.I.), 14
Watch Hill, 12
Waterville Valley, 80
Wayside Inn, the, 40
Weirs, The, 84, 85
Wellfleet, 22
West Barnet, 105
Westbrook (Conn.), 7
Westerly (R.I.), 12
Westminster (Vt.), 96
Weston (Vt.), 100
West Ossipee, 84
Westport (Conn.), 6
West Tisbury, 18
West Swanzey, 94
White Mountains, i, 75
White River Junction, 93, 95, 105
Whitefield (N.H.), 76
Wickford, 13
Williamstown Gulf, 103
Williamstown (Mass.), 115
Wilmington (Vt.), 100
Winchester (N.H.), 94
Windsor (Mass.), 115; (Vt), 95
Windsor Locks, 89
Wiscasset, 59
Wolfeboro, 83, 85
Wonalancet, 76
Woodbury. 107
Woods Hole, 17, 24
Woodstock (Vt.), 95
Yarmouth (Maine), 57; (Mass.), 22
York Beach, 55; Harbor, 55
American Guide Series
THE NEW ENGLAND
GUIDES
THESE six guide books to Maine,
New Hampshire, Vermont, Massa-
chusetts, Rhode Island, and Connec-
ticut tell you what to do, what to see,
where to go, and how to reach every
corner of New England.
Touring with these volumes, you
can easily find every point of historic
interest and scenic beauty, the old
houses, the ski trails, the trout
streams, etc., together with all you
want to know about each city, town,
and village in any one of the six New
England states.
But more than mere guides, these
books are encyclopedias of informa-
tion on the history, geology, art,
architecture, transportation, indus-
try, and wild life of each state. The
United States Government, through
the Writers' Project of the Works
Progress Administration, spent much
time and effort in preparing the
books, and state officials, in each
case, have sponsored and recom-
mended them.
Each of the six volumes contains
nearly one hundred beautiful pic-
tures and many maps in full color
and black and white.
.j this book inter-
ests you, you should
also see the six New
England Guide
Books (Maine, New
Hampshire, Ver-
mont, Massachu-
setts, Rhode Island,
Connecticut), which
are indispensable
for anyone who
wants to know New
England from the
inside.
