Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog #89: Cart Crunch, I Knew It, Annoying Subway, etc.

1. Who’s at fault? I watched an old man driving a pickup truck that’s way too big for him. He was pulling into a handicapped parking spot. Either he didn’t see or didn’t care that there was a shopping cart sitting up against the curb. I saw it coming and waved my arms, but it was too late. The crunch was super loud as he sandwiched the cart against the curb. His bumper didn’t fall off, but it was definitely damaged. A mother and daughter got out of another car and pulled the cart away when he backed up. Of course, the man blamed whoever left the cart there for being lazy. So again, who is at fault? The lazy person who left their cart in a handicapped spot? Or the man who just plowed into it? I’d say maybe the guy should buy a smaller car so he can see, but what do I know?


2. I don’t know about you, but I find it disgusting when someone blows a snot rocket in a public place. I also find it disgusting when a woman does it. So when I stepped outside of the gym and saw a woman blowing a snot rocket on the sidewalk, you might say it was the worst of both worlds. Don’t worry, there will be no graphic details. I’ll leave that up to your imagination. All I’ll say is that when she turned around, she definitely looked like the type of person who would do such a thing. Just low class, no regard for others. It’s like, at least go behind the building to do that, since I’m sure you’re used to hiding behind buildings to do things anyway.


3. So I did a thing this week. I published my 10th book. In Their Footsteps: The Interesting People, Places, and Events of Cape Cod History. It is obviously a history anthology. It features 40 stories in chronological order. I had been working on this for many months in addition to several other projects. I even crafted a simple landing page for people to get more information and to order the book in either paperback or ebook form. I self-published it mostly because I didn’t want to wait 18 months for it to be published traditionally when all of the materials were done. That’s like making a fancy dinner but not being able to serve it for months. If people enjoy this book, I have enough material to make two more volumes, but I’ll have to wait a few months to see if the interest is there. I am stretched pretty thin as it is so I need to be certain before I spend another big chunk of time on a project. Here is the landing page, by the way: In Their Footsteps Book


4. Typically, when I drive to Walmart, it is low-hanging fruit as far as content for this blog. I tend to see several people or incidents that immediately get made into a note in my phone. You can imagine my disappointment when I drove nearly an hour to Walmart only to have *gasp* a normal experience. I even did 2 full laps around the entire store just in case I’d missed something. Nope. It was all normal. Now granted, there was a lady who had a giant labradoodle in the store for some reason. There was also a guy older than me with a bright purplish/blue haircut, but these are not the types of craziness I was hoping for. I wanted people rolling on the floor fighting over the last box of Velveeta, not people happily shopping and getting along. Weak.

So disappointed....

5. While driving back in sadness from my Walmart trip, I stopped at a place I hadn’t visited in over 10 years. The Waquoit Bay Reserve is in East Falmouth. It overlooks the bay, naturally, and has loads of scenic trails, a cool cemetery, and the visitors center is filled with educational material. I did a walk on my own and decided to take a few minutes to sit at a picnic table and enjoy the moment. While I was there, a group of people came out of the visitors center with an employee giving them some historical information. Once they went walking on the trails, the employee stopped and we chatted for a while. He used to work at Plimoth Plantation, so he had loads of info about the Pilgrims, etc, which I enjoyed. I also particularly enjoyed when he’d slip into Olde English to talk about certain topics from the 1600s. What I thought would be a quick hello ended up being closer to a half hour, and I loved every second. It was fitting and funny that when he was going back inside to close up, he said, ‘Sorry, as you can tell I hate talking about history.’ I smiled and said back, ‘And you can tell I obviously hate hearing about it.’ He gave me some stories that might make good future blog posts, but I need to research them first.

The boat house at Waquoit Bay

6. There’s nothing quite like the mini heart attack you get when you’re sound asleep and you hear a crashing sound in your room. I woke up and looked around in the dark and saw nothing. I figured it must have been a dream that was too real. Then it happened 2 more times. Finally, at 4am I got out of bed and stood in the dark in the middle of my room waiting for the sound again so I could figure out what it was. It turned out that the wind had picked up so much during the night that it was blowing my blinds, which then would crash into the window frame. At that point, I just closed my window and went back to bed. Of course, I was so wired from the noise that it took me forever to go back to sleep. I’d have almost been better off just staying up. Oh well, at least it wasn’t a killer waiting to jump me in my closet.


7. There was a bit of an ‘I knew it,’ moment when I went to get my haircut this week. I always go to the same place. The person who I prefer to cut my hair is someone I’ve known for years and who always does an excellent job. However, because he is so good at his job, you need to book an appointment, and he is often booked out for weeks. The last time I had no choice but to do a walk-in and have one of the others on staff do the cutting. This guy talks way too much, bragging about how good he is going to make you look. It’s off-putting. During the haircut, he left to go into the backroom a few times and seemed to not be paying as much attention as he should to a paying customer whose hair he was cutting. I left there feeling like I got ripped off. It wasn’t short enough, and it looked uneven in a few places. Flash forward to this week, and I was right. The barber told me he needed to even things out because it was a bit of a mess. It’s all fixed now and looks great, but that other guy is a big mouth hack, which is why I’m not giving names here.


8. In the weekly cuteness alert, I mentioned last week that my youngest niece, Sylvie, gave me a blade of grass to keep when I was waiting for her school bus. This week I got another gift. It was a random stick that she wanted me to keep. Knowing that she’s smart and will call me out on it if I say I kept it but threw it away, I brought it with me on my walk. I was 2 miles into my walk when I shot a quick video for social media showing me with the stick by the water. So I had proof I kept it...for a while. Once the video was over, I left the stick on a bench. Luckily, she won’t know about that until she reads this blog in the future. But who knows, I might be long dead by then, so I won’t have to feel bad.


9. This weekend, I took a drive out to an area of beach that we plan on using to shoot the short film called When Henry Met Henry, my directorial debut. It was location scouting so that the rest of the crew could get a feel for where we’d be without having to actually drive there. I lauded this beach for being very secluded during the off-season. I walked about 1/3 mile to the specific spot where we will film, which is a beautiful trail over the dunes that leads into the woods. There was nobody around, well, except for one couple. Do you want to guess where they ended up going? Yup, right up the same path where I was going. Out of the miles of open beach, the only other people I saw went to the exact same place as me. I ended up having to wait by the water until I figured they were deep into the woods. I still got the video I wanted, but I had to shake my head. We’ll be filming early in the morning, so hopefully there won’t be any onlookers. With my luck, there will end up being a crowd just in that one spot.


10. For me, having lived on Cape Cod for so long, it’s incredibly rare to find an area that I am not familiar with. As luck would have it, the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary was one such place. Now, I have been there before, once, over 10 years ago. However, when I was there, I didn’t do much walking. I just found the first clearing I could and got a photo of the sunset. This time, I hiked nearly a mile out to the ocean. It was incredibly isolated. Loads of chipmunks and squirrels couldn’t have cared less about me walking by. I made it out to a boardwalk for sunset photography. It was well worth the walk. The part that made perfect sense for my life was that as I was approaching the ocean, I spotted a couple coming my way, headed back to the parking lot. The woman was a patient at my job. So I only saw two people my entire time at this spot, and one of them knew me. For anyone else, it would seem like a wild coincidence. For me, it was like ‘of course.’

The sunset at Wellfleet Bay.

11. I don’t know why this irks me so much, but it does. I created an account for Subway a long, long time ago. I do enjoy me some Subway. The info I entered as a profile is all the same as today, except for the fact that I had an AOL email address because it was like 15 years ago. For the last however many years, I haven’t used that AOL email; I use a Gmail account. I changed my account info on every single site I had a profile with to reflect the change of email. Subway will not allow you to change your email. These people will let me change my actual name and my phone number, but not my email. Their stupid app says your email is ‘how we know it’s you.’ How do you know it’s me? How about my friggin’ name and phone number? When I try to sign in, they send a confirmation code to my AOL email. The issue is I never use that email, so when I go there AOL then sends me a confirmation code to my Gmail. It’s so stupid. I have never heard of a company not allowing you to change your email. Well, I did what I had to do and deleted my account and then created a new one using the Gmail address, so the joke's on them. Or it’s on me since I went through all of this trouble for a sub shop.

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - The Shocking End of the Sitzmark II/Cinema Lounge

Is it possible for a location to be cursed? Many times truth is stranger than fiction.

Cape Cod, Massachusetts, despite being still relatively low-key and laid back in the 2020s, has had its share of events in history that seem like they were ripped straight from popular television crime shows.

Fifty years ago a shocking crime rocked the Mid-Cape area. Those who were there will never forget. This is the story of the short life, and abrupt end of the Cinema Lounge, also known as Sitzmark II in West Harwich.

An article from Cape Codder newspaper about the fire.

The story of the Sitzmark II starts with owner Robert Fusco.

Fusco was born in Leominster, Massachusetts on April 20, 1942, and became a successful business owner at a young age. This began with his purchase of the Fairmont Cafe in Fitchburg, Massachusetts in 1967. At its peak, Fusco’s business enterprise included fifteen properties in Central Massachusetts as well as Cape Cod and Florida.

The Sitzmark restaurant and club first came to be in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Being a relatively short drive from Mount Wachusett it seemed appropriate to name the establishment Sitzmark as the word is defined as the impression a skier makes when falling into the snow backward.

As his business empire grew Fusco set his sights on Cape Cod. In late 1971 he found a perfect location for a second Sitzmark location on Route 28 on the Dennis Port/West Harwich line. Fusco leased 2.75 acres of land owned by Lillian Dowd.

A mortgage of $135,000($1 million in 2024) was taken out to develop a new eating and drinking establishment Fusco appropriately named Sitzmark II.

The story of Sitzmark II cannot be told without diving a little deeper into the property upon which it stood. This is where the story truly gets strange.

Located at approximately 10 Route 28 in West Harwich the property saw a string of failed businesses before and after. Curse might be a strong word but the multitude of failures are difficult to ignore.

Lillian Dowd had been running a laundry service on the property beginning in 1949. Known as Cape Self Service Laundry it was a fairly straightforward business venture. She lived in a home next door, across from what is today the Noble House restaurant. Her neighbor on the property was a nightclub known as Cape Towne House. This establishment had been open since the early 1950s and was located inside a renovated barn.

In an eerie bit of foreshadowing a fire in April 1956 destroyed the barn. The owners were undeterred and rebuilt thanks partially to Dowd leasing them another chunk of her property. Throughout the 1960s the Cape Towne House was a success.

The success was fleeting and Cape Towne House ultimately failed after losing its liquor license in 1968. Dowd, sensing an opportunity, opened a dance hall for teenagers in the former nightclub. She christened it The Embers.

The Embers catered to teens at first. However, Dowd purchased her own liquor license so as to appeal to the older crowd as well. The work proved exhausting and Dowd gave up the liquor license in August 1969 choosing to stick with the teenage dances.

In the end, The Embers did not last long. Thus Dowd was willing to sell the land, and her laundry business when Robert Fusco came calling in late 1971.

Sitzmark II began operating in the summer of 1972. It was a club offering live music, dancing, and cocktails. However, it also offered a breakfast and lunch menu in an area called The Third Door.

An advertisement for Sitzmark II from 1972(Barnstable Patriot)

Despite being a restaurant as well, the nightlife got Fusco’s new establishment into trouble. The law stated any noise from the building needed to remain confined to the property. In its first season, Sitzmark II was routinely cited for noise complaints from neighbors as well as overcrowding.

Rock bands, orchestra, dinner theater, and more entertained patrons at Sitzmark II. Eventually, the loud music drew the ire of Harwich selectmen who shut it down in 1973.

Fusco had no choice but to acquiesce to the town. He changed the name of the establishment to Cinema Lounge entering 1974 while also eliminating the loud music from the schedule. However, a new act brought in would permanently change the direction of the business.

For the 1974 summer Fusco hired a drag show called ‘All That Glitters Is Not Girls’ run by Karl Huston. The show was a massive hit drawing in thousands of customers with many more having to be turned away. That success again put Cinema Lounge in the cross-hairs of Harwich selectmen and the nearby West Harwich Baptist Church whose prejudice deemed the shows risque.

The thinly veiled homophobia was hardly disguised by the politicians. The show was classified by them as burlesque/strip which they said was not a part of the entertainment license for Fusco’s club. A local politician was quoted in the Cape Cod Standard-Times referring to the members of the drag show with a homophobic slur.

Even a seemingly positive article about the show in a local newspaper in June 1974 was rife with ignorant verbiage. It stated that ‘The idea of eight men parading around dressed, and often undressed, as women is stomach-turning to most normal heterosexuals.’

The majority of the clientele at the All That Glitters shows were elderly people. Karl Huston stated that these people seemed to enjoy the show with nobody complaining.

The summer of 1974 was a battle between Fusco and Harwich. In August the Cinema Lounge had its liquor license suspended. It then had its entertainment license revoked due to the All That Glitters show being purportedly wrongly classified as a ‘dance band.’ Fusco estimated the club lost in the range of $20,000($126,700 in 2024) in two days when the club was shut down on August 9^th.

Bad press and closings took their toll on the business. Courts had already begun foreclosure proceedings against Cinema Lounge. Fusco was shocked by the level of fervor against his establishment. He stated at the time that Harwich was the only town in which he owned a business that he was subject to such harassment.

Huston and Fusco hired attorneys to sue the Town of Harwich for closing the show down. On August 21^st Harwich selectmen reinstated the liquor license and issued a revised entertainment license to Cinema Lounge. A tentative reopening was slated for August 23^rd. However, Fusco stated that even with the licenses reinstated the club’s time was drawing to a close. He had no idea how prophetic those words were.

Twenty-four hours later the Cinema Lounge was history.

The Cinema Lounge was destroyed.(Bing AI)

At roughly 11pm on August 22, 1974, a pair of nearly simultaneous explosions rocked the Cinema Lounge building. The explosions created a hole in the ground upon which the building crumbled and burned. It was virtually destroyed with the ensuing fire finishing the job. As the club was closed there was luckily nobody inside and nobody nearby was injured.

Calls flooded in from neighbors upon hearing the loud explosions. This was not a common occurrence on Cape Cod in the 1970s. The fire was so intense that there was not much the Harwich Fire Department could do upon arrival. Even as neighboring fire departments arrived it was difficult to get the blaze under control.

Immediately the circumstances surrounding the fire made it appear suspicious. Investigators noted there were no combustible materials stored in the building. The explosions and overall ferocity of the fire made arson the main theory.

Shortly after the fire Fusco and everyone associated with the Cinema Lounge were cleared of any involvement. Arson investigators suspected the fire was set by a professional. Someone entered the premises unbeknownst to the owners and placed the explosives that destroyed the building. It was referred to as ‘revenge arson.’ But who wanted revenge?

Who was behind the 'revenge arson' of the Cinema Lounge?(Bing AI)

Although a suspect was never officially named authorities stated that they knew exactly who it was. He was purported to be an underworld journeyman criminal. This suspect was connected to other horrific crimes like more arson and even murder. However, he would never be brought to justice. Only a short while after being suspected in the Cinema Lounge fire the man was himself murdered.

The question does still remain though. If it was ‘revenge arson’ who wanted revenge on Cinema Lounge and Robert Fusco?

In the aftermath of the destruction of the Cinema Lounge Fusco sold the land and moved on. This included a stint managing the Compass Lounge in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts.

The property remained vacant for years. At one point in 1984 chatter got loud about Burger King buying the property but it was shouted down by locals.

In a final surreal irony in March 1987 Lillian Dowd’s home on the eastern edge of the property was gutted by fire. Dowd had a cooking accident but still, it was yet another fire on that property. Cursed is a strong word but it is at least a series of interesting circumstances.

Where Sitzmark II/Cinema Lounge once stood in West Harwich.

Today the property on the Dennis/Harwich line is nondescript. It is home to the Harwich Antiques Center as well as a strip mall with a Domino’s Pizza. Virtually nothing remains of that short time when Robert Fusco ran the Sitzmark II and then Cinema Lounge.

The story when read sounds like something out of a movie. Multiple fires, battles with the town, and a final explosive fire set by an underworld criminal. No, it was not Hollywood, it was Cape Cod in the 1970s.

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - The West Barnstable Brick Company

    

The remains of the West Barnstable Brick Company

    Sandy Neck in West Barnstable is a hugely popular and important barrier beach and ecosystem on Cape Cod. It is 3,800 acres of pristine beauty frequented by countless thousands of locals and visitors alike year round. The north side is the well known beach with the south side being just as important as it is home to West Barnstable’s Great Marsh which extends all the way down to Route 6A. It is here, close to the Old King's Highway, where huge blue clay deposits were plentiful. For this reason the southern area of Great Marsh would become home to several aspiring businesses which took advantage of said clay. The most famous of which was the legendary West Barnstable Brick Company. This is its story.

The history of the West Barnstable Brick Company dates back to 1876. It was in February of 1876 that Levi Goodspeed purchased twenty acres of land along the Great Marsh. The land was part of the estate of Henry Fish. Goodspeed’s purchase was bisected by the railroad track, and just over a mile from the West Barnstable railroad depot. This prime real estate, sitting atop large clay deposits, was to be used for a new brick-making business.

The West Barnstable Brick Company(Whelden Library)

Levi Goodspeed was a well respected man on Cape Cod at the time. In the decades leading up to the creation of West Barnstable Brick Goodspeed had been a Selectman, member of the House of Representatives, and finally Sheriff of Barnstable County.

Goodspeed brought aboard Benjamin and Charles Crocker to form the management of the West Barnstable Brick Company. Ads for their bricks first began appearing in the local newspapers in July 1878.

The company started small, inundating the local newspapers with those advertisements about their product. Slowly they gained a foothold, even being contracted to supply the bricks for a new jail in Barnstable in December 1878. Its first decade saw the fledgling company struggling to make inroads on Cape Cod. The growing pains of the company were only exacerbated with the sudden death of Levi Goodspeed in November 1879. It appeared as though the West Barnstable Brick Company might be destined to fail.

That changed when the company was bought in 1888 by Abel Makepeace the Cape’s resident ‘cranberry king.’ He added more machinery and more workers, many from Portugal and Finland, allowing the production levels to increase.

West Barnstable bricks were used to rebuild the Cape Cod Exchange building in Harwich, the new town offices in West Barnstable, the new Training School in Hyannis, as well as Our Lady of Hope church. The actual physical bricks were of the highest quality due to the arduous process of creating them. It included breaking up the clay and removing pebbles and other debris from it before shaping the bricks and pouring them into perfectly level molds.

Working at the West Barnstable Brick Company(Whelden Library)

The entire factory was essentially self-sustaining. The clay was collected on the property while the finished bricks were shipped out via the railroad tracks that ran through the property. The only thing that needed to be shipped in was the wood for the kiln used to dry the bricks.

Under the ownership of Makepeace the West Barnstable Brick Company became one of the giants of Cape Cod business. By the 1920’s it was reported that the factory could produce more than 100,000 bricks per day and more than thirty million per year. They were widely popular not only on Cape Cod but throughout the state of Massachusetts and even further.

In October 1925 the business would change hands after nearly forty years when it was purchased by Thomas Arden. He enlarged the factory as well as adding electric lights and a telephone. The company would receive another boost when the one and only automobile king Henry Ford paid a visit as he was interested in the brick making process. On October 14, 1926 Ford stopped by the factory. He wanted to buy a pair of antique engines however Arden gave them to him as a gift despite his objections. Ford would set things square by sending a brand new tractor to Arden a short time later.

The decaying facade of the West Barnstable Brick Factory in 2022.

However as high as the company was riding its demise had actually been set in motion. Unhappy with the fact that brick sizes were not uniform President Herbert Hoover created a universal size for the creation of bricks in 1928. The problem with this was that West Barnstable Brick was an eighth of an inch too large and so new equipment needed to be bought. This meant that the company needed to raise prices to cover costs.

This was only the beginning of the trouble. The October 1929 Stock Market Crash ushered in the Great Depression. This immediately slowed down the need for new buildings. Higher prices to cover costs combined with lower demand for the product forced West Barnstable Brick to cease operations in the fall of 1930.

All was not lost though. Arden, the directors, and stockholders were all meeting and trying to figure out how to get the business up and running again. The venerable brick company remained closed throughout 1931. In September 1931 it appeared as though a new day was dawning. All of the surplus West Barnstable bricks had been sold, and new orders were coming in. Arden and his staff cleaned and oiled the machinery, inspected the boilers, and prepped the clay pits to resume production.

Despite battling bankruptcy plans were in place for the West Barnstable Brick Company to rise from the ashes. By 1932 it had been over fifty years that the rich blue clay had been collected to make millions of high quality bricks. Arden wanted to know just how much clay, and therefore how many years, West Barnstable Brick Company had remaining in its current location. At some point during 1932 a test hole was drilled. This determined that there was roughly fifty years worth of clay remaining. This should have put Arden at ease. Unfortunately though the test hole struck water. This created an artesian well that flooded the clay pits.

The flooded clay pits were the death knell for the company. West Barnstable Brick Company did not immediately close though. Attempts were made to figure out a way to keep going. The remainder of 1932 and into 1933 were a holding pattern. However the Great Depression did not relent. West Barnstable Brick was no more.

In the spring of 1933 West Barnstable Brick Company was sold at auction to the First National Bank of Yarmouth. In the years after the factory was stripped with parts sold off to other Cape Cod businesses while the remaining brick load would be used up. Today all the remains is part of the broken down facade of the building located a few hundred yards off of Route 6A, not far from Our Lady of Hope.

Nature has reclaimed the area where the West Barnstable Brick Company once stood.

It took more than thirty years for a new business to open on the former West Barnstable Brick property. Florence Ungerman opened The Wind-Ship Shop in July 1967 on Route 6A. The area of the property north of the railroad tracks however remained untouched. Over the nearly ninety years since the brick factory closed down nature has been reclaiming what was not removed.

Today the Orenda Wildlife Trust owns the former West Barnstable Brick Company property. It is a part of conservation land. The factory remains are overgrown and highly difficult to get to. The artesian well created a pond in addition to flooding the clay pits. There are nature trails leading behind the Orenda property but a trip to the brick factory remains in not advised.

For more than half a century the West Barnstable Brick Company was truly a giant among Cape Cod businesses. It bridged the gap from man power to steam power to electric power. Its legacy can still be felt today as authentic bricks created by the company are collector’s items and many of the buildings which used the bricks still stand.

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Previous Blog Posts:

Cape Cod History - The Buried Treasure of Mabel Simpkins-Agassiz

Cape Cod History - Charles Megathlin's Drug Store

Be sure to check out my website: Christopher Setterlund.com

Zazzle Store: Cape Cod Living

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Shirdan's Country Kitchen of Hyannis

    Times change. Places come and they go. Sometimes even those that stuck around for decades and left a positive impression on the community can become lost to history. This is the case with Shirdan’s Restaurant. It was a popular eatery for nearly three decades. Yet at times it can feel as though it never existed. This is a little trip down memory lane with the story of Shirdan’s Restaurant and its Country Kitchen.

    Even a half a century ago the area surrounding the Barnstable Airport was one of the busiest on all of Cape Cod. Thousands of people circled the Airport Rotary daily. It seemed a fairly safe idea that any businesses that opened in that area would see some modicum of success. The greater the business, the greater the success.

    From the beginning Shirdan’s Restaurant was indeed a success. It was a true partnership between Shirley and Dan Shaughnessey. The husband and wife partners opened Shirdan’s at the Airport Rotary in 1968. This restaurant venture was not a passing fancy, especially for Shirley. In fact Shirley’s parents, Margaret and Al Barabe, owned Margaret and Al’s Restaurant in the same building from 1956-1968. Shirdan’s name was a nod to Shirley’s parents’ choice of business name. Margaret also went on to work at Shirdan’s.

    Shirdan’s Restaurant was by all accounts a classic, comfort food, New England establishment. It served breakfast, lunch, and dinner in a casual, family-friendly atmosphere. There were seafood choices like fish and chips, fried clams, and baked stuffed shrimp. In addition there were also classic comfort foods like sheppards pie, meatloaf, chicken pie, chicken croquettes, and prime rib on Friday’s.

    Throughout the 1970’s Shirdan’s delighted countless customers at their Airport Rotary location. When opportunity arose to expand the Shaughnessey’s jumped on it. In March 1979 they purchased Marshview Farms Restaurant from Ed and Alice Taylor for $112,000($426,000 in 2021). The restaurant was located on a quieter stretch of Rt. 132 in Hyannis. Shirley and Dan renamed it Shirdan’s Country Kitchen and had it open in time for the summer of 1979.

    The next several years saw success on two fronts for Shirley and Dan. Not only did the couple run a pair of popular restaurants but Shirley Shaughnessey also was an important figure in Hyannis town affairs. She would eventually become president of the Hyannis Chamber of Commerce during the early 1980’s.

    Despite Shirley’s connections to the town there were issues that she could not overcome. Changes to the leasing agreements of the Enoch Cobb Lot of property in 1982, the area also included Mitchell’s Steak House and the VFW, had the Shaughnessey’s considering their options. Eventually the Shaughnessey’s agreed to pay a higher rent but the writing was on the wall.

    While the VFW ended up purchasing their share of the property Shirdan’s went a different route. After Labor Day in 1983 Shirdan’s Restaurant was closed and the lease given up. Shirley said that she felt it would be easier to keep business under one roof. Nantucket Sound, the stereo store, moved into the spot from the Cape Cod Mall and still exists there as of 2021. All was not lost though as the Rt. 132 location was expanded. Shirdan’s Country Kitchen remained a popular destination.

The Nantucket Sound location where the original Shirdan's once stood.(Google Maps)

    In April 1985 Shirdan’s Country Kitchen was sold to John Kaye. He reassured customers that no changes would be made to the restaurant. A big change did come though when Kaye opened a second Shirdan’s in West Yarmouth on Rt. 28. For a time both locations were successful. However two problems crept up as the 1980’s turned to the 1990’s. One was the uncertainty of the seasonal nature of Cape Cod. A subpar summer could spell doom for places that depended on tourists. The second problem was the influx of larger chain restaurants.

    These problems came to a head in the mid-1990’s. First the West Yarmouth location of Shirdan’s closed sometime after the summer of 1995. It was sold at auction in July 1996 and turned into a Burger King(now Dunkin’). The Rt. 132 location hung on through the summer of 1996. It was that October when John Kaye decided to close. He stated that the encroaching chain restaurants, specifically Old Country Buffet in the neighboring Festival Plaza, had eroded Shirdan’s business to the point that staying open was no longer financially feasible. Incredibly the Hyannis area was reported to be the second-most saturated restaurant market in the country at the time, trailing only Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It made it nearly impossible for local spots at the time to thrive.

    The Hyannis Shirdan’s building remained standing until 2005 when it was finally demolished. Even before then the landscape surrounding it was changing. In 1999 Bearse’s Way was expanded to cut through the former property. This paved the way for the Stop & Shop location that stands in that area.

    The Airport Rotary and Rt. 132 look far different today than even during the time of Shirdan’s. Despite only being gone for a quarter-century there are times when it feels as though successful businesses like Shirdan’s have been lost to history. Both Dan and Shirley Shaughnessey have since passed away and the three former Shirdan’s locations have either been demolished or repurposed by another business. The Shirdan’s name will remain alive in the memories of those locals who sat at its tables during its nearly three decades of serving delicious comfort food to Cape Cod.

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Previous Blog Posts:

Cape Cod History - The Blue Tavern of Barnstable Village

Cape Cod History - Yarmouth's Hidden Dance Hall

Be sure to check out my website: Christopher Setterlund.com

Zazzle Store: Cape Cod Living

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - How Mashnee Island Became A Village

    Off the coast of Bourne is a peninsula capped off by a fist-shaped land mass dotted with homes containing spectacular views. Along Mashnee Road it is a mile-long drive over a sandy causeway that leads you to this land mass. Surprisingly despite being connected rather apparently to the mainland this land mass at the end of the causeway is referred to as Mashnee Island. How can this be? Simple, because for the majority of its existence Mashnee was in fact an island. Here is the story of just how Mashnee Island lost its island status.

The causeway leading to Mashnee on the far left.

    Mashnee Island had been a 50-acre island populated by the Wampanoag Native Americans in Cape Cod's formative years. Richard Bourne, of whom the town is named, befriended the Natives on the island in the 17th century. They then allowed the Plymouth Colony the right to graze sheep, and protect them from a large local wolf population, on Mashnee. Farmers eventually gave up due to an infestation of disease carrying ticks during the early 18th century.

    It was home eventually to a large salt works beginning around the turn of the 19th century however a hurricane in 1835 destroyed it. In the latter half of the 19th century the island became a haven for summer parties, clambakes, and picnics by townspeople looking for an escape from the mainland. It even began to attract people from outside of New England. In 1870 a New York-based yacht club purchased the island with the intention of building a summer home there.

    The idea of a canal through Cape Cod had first been broached by Myles Standish in the 17th century. Even as early as the mid-19th century there were serious talks about a canal cutting through the Cape near Sandwich and Bourne. Back then there were even discussions of having it be built with convict labor. It took another several decades but the Cape Cod Canal would eventually become a reality.

    As the 20th century dawned the canal became a foregone conclusion. The only stumbling block was finding the financial capital to pay for such a monumental project. The massive Cape Cod Canal project was financed by August Belmont Jr. and his Boston, New York, and Cape Cod Canal Company. Belmont was a wealthy financier, heading up his late-father's August Belmont & Co. banking house. He had already financed the New York city subway and with ancestral connections to Cape Cod he felt inspired to back the creation of the Cape Cod Canal.

Dredge work being done on the Cape Cod Canal.(Historic Society of Old Yarmouth)

    With both the money and workers secured the first shovelful of dirt occurred June 22, 1909 when Belmont scooped a little dirt into a tin can using a Tiffany shovel. The waters of Buzzards Bay and Cape Cod Bay finally came together when the final shovelful of dirt was taken out July 4, 1914. Upon its debut the new canal stretched nearly eight miles in length, one hundred feet in width, and fifteen feet deep. The Rose Standish was the first ship through on July 29, 1914 with the canal officially opened to limited traffic on July 30th. There would though still be some construction going on into 1916. Belmont maintained ownership of the canal until his death in 1924. Ironically he died the day before the U.S. Senate recommended that the government purchase the canal.

    After the completion of the canal Mashnee Island saw more vessel traffic around it. In 1923 the entire island was purchased by Michael Murray of Newtonville. He created Camp Keewaydin, a sailing camp for boys ages 6-16. There were 22 buildings and the camp would be attended by 60-100 boys each summer.

    In the 1930's the Cape Cod Canal got some much-needed restructuring thanks to $26 million ($529.75 million in 2021) from President Franklin Roosevelt's 'New Deal.' Beginning in September 1933 the waterway was eventually increased in size to 540 feet wide and 32-feet deep. With this added size came an issue, that of the dredge spoils. Four million cubic yards of material was scooped from the canal and needed some place to go. Before the widening was even finished it was decided where they would end up. The dredge spoils would form a man-made dike connecting Mashnee Island and nearby Hog Island to the mainland.

A postcard shortly after the dike was finished.(Boston Public Library)

    In June 1936 work began on the dike. Part of the project including shaving away part of Hog Island. It only took roughly eight months for the dike to be finished and in February 1937 Mashnee Island was an island in name only. This also rerouted the traffic from the Cape Cod Canal to the outer side of Mashnee. At the outset of World War II in 1941 Camp Keewaydin was closed to make room for military personnel to be stationed there. Once the war ended Mashnee itself was changed.

    In 1947 Stephen Days partnered with island owner Michael Murray. Days built a series of cottages on half of the island available for summer rental. He also has a large recreation complex built complete with a small piano bar and a saltwater pool. This new concept was known as Mashnee Village. Until 1990 Mashnee was both a residential community and summer resort.

    Today Mashnee is mainly a private, tight-knit, community of around 30 families. There are only homes out there. The final public building, The Quahog Republic bar and restaurant, left Mashnee in October 2009, relocating to Falmouth. Those who inhabit the 100-plus homes don't mind though. They are blessed with spectacular panoramic views of Bourne, Wareham, and much of Buzzards Bay.

The view from Mashnee looking toward Bourne.

    Those old enough to remember the days when Mashnee was an island are few and far between now. For generations it has been seen as only a mile-long causeway from Bourne. Though now a quiet throwback to old Cape Cod neighborhoods Mashnee has a history as long and rich as the Cape itself. From the Wampanoag Tribe, to sheep grazing, from saltworks and sailing clubs, from the Cape Cod Canal to World War II and beyond, Mashnee has been through it all and yet still remains relatively off the map and off the beaten path.

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In Their Footsteps: New England History - Brant Point Lighthouse, Nantucket

    It is one of the most recognizable lighthouses. It is located on one of the most popular vacation destinations in America. It is the second oldest light station in the United States. Shifting sands necessitated its move. Despite last nearly three centuries this light station's story has been far from stable. It is Brant Point Lighthouse located on Nantucket island and here is some of its history.

Brant Point Lighthouse

    Nantucket in the 18th century was one of the busiest whaling ports in the world. The amount of vessels in and around the harbor entering the 1740's eventually led to talk of a light station being constructed. Light stations were a new concept in the mid-18th century. In fact the only American light station at that time was Boston Light in Boston Harbor. The responsibility of raising the appropriate funds for such an endeavor fell to the same sea captains for whom the light station would protect. After approval at a town meeting on January 24, 1746 several captains raised 200 pounds ($274 in 1746 or $15,000 in 2021) for the materials and the hiring of three men to do the work.

    The spot chosen for the light station was Brant Point. It had gotten the name for the Arctic shorebird that had set up nests there, although the numbers of birds at the point had dwindled since the whaling industry began flourishing. It was a natural location also due to the fact that several shipbuilding yards were in that vicinity.

    A diminutive wooden lighthouse, resembling a tripod, was first lit in 1746. The lantern at the top was lit using the plentiful whale-oil on the island. This oil though, along with the crude lantern construction, likely was the cause of the fire that burned down the lighthouse in 1758. The lighthouse had proven to be very helpful and a second tower, also made of wood, was built in the same location immediately after the first's demise.

    Brant Point's second lighthouse stood until March 9, 1774. It was during a terrible storm that the wooden beacon was completely destroyed. A third tower was erected immediately after at great cost to Nantucket. This was remedied by a tax levied against any vessel larger than 15 tons. Approved by the Massachusetts General Court on August 1, 1774 this was a 6 shilling (Approx. $35 in 2021) tax against any such vessel entering or leaving but only for the first time each year. This tax solved the problem, and although the tax was paid to the Massachusetts colony the control of the lighthouse stayed in the hands of the locals on Nantucket.

Brant Point Light with the old one behind it showing the changing shoreline.

    During the time of the American Revolution Brant Point lighthouse was barely ever lighted and fell into great disrepair. In 1783 Massachusetts appointed Stephen Hussey to a committee to restore the lighthouse, the cheaper the better. 1786 saw the third tower burn to the ground. The replacement, and fourth on the site, was the most basic yet, a lantern affixed atop a pair of spars. The light was so dim that sailors called it 'bug light' since it reminded them of a firefly. This lasted barely two years and was blown down some time in 1788.

    Undeterred a fifth lighthouse was constructed, this time by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It was ceded to the Federal Government in 1795. During the War of 1812 Brant Point Light was dimmed. Another whaling boom in the 1820's coupled with the deterioration of the fifth tower made it necessary for yet another lighthouse to be constructed. In 1825 the lighthouse was condemned, torn down, and replaced by a new lantern atop of the keeper's house.

    Lighthouse five was no without its problems. The lantern was reported to rarely be cleaned, leading to it smoking at times. In 1843 reports said the keeper's house cellar routinely flooded, this was troublesome as the oil was stored there. Water damaged the lantern as well causing it to become rusty. Despite its dilapidated condition the fifth Brant Point Lighthouse lasted until 1856.

    The sixth-time was the charm. A 47-foot tall brick tower and a brick keeper's house were built and the tower first lit on December 10, 1856. Ironically it was nothing to do with the lighthouse itself that necessitated a new tower being built. It was the shifting sands of the harbor itself which accreted over time. In 1900 a red lantern beacon was affixed to the current end of Brant Point. This lantern was 600-feet from the actual Brant Point Lighthouse.

The former Brant Point Light built in 1856.

    Lighthouse seven, the current beacon standing today, was first lit January 31, 1901. At 26-feet tall it is the lowest lantern focal point of any lighthouse in New England. The former lighthouse had its lantern removed and still stands to this day. Brant Point Lighthouse has since become one of the most recognizable and photographed beacons in the world. Anyone who has entered Nantucket Harbor via boat in the last century-plus has gazed upon it. A replica was built in Mystic, Connecticut in the summer of 1966.

The Mystic, CT replica

    Despite lasting for 120 years currently there have been troubles at Brant Point, mainly dealing with the unpredictable weather that New England is prone to. Soon after being built 500 tons of stone was laid around the lighthouse to create a barrier from the sea. The lantern's white light was changed to red in 1933 to help avoid confusion with surrounding house lights. In 1983 the entire Brant Point complex was renovated by the Coast Guard. The Perfect Storm of 1991 caused some damage necessitating repairs and occasionally extreme high tides can surround the lighthouse with water. However the rather diminutive beacon still stands strong welcoming visitors and locals home to Nantucket.

    The second-oldest light station in America, with seven beacons to its name, Brant Point finally has seen stability over the last century. If traveling to Nantucket from Hyannis via ferry one can have a nice bit of symmetry. Inside Hyannis Harbor sits Hyannis Harbor Lighthouse, a nearly identical twin of Brant Point. In a bit of irony though Hyannis Harbor Light is actually older than the current Brant Point having been built in 1849 despite being far less well known.

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