Tuesday, September 26, 2017

That time of year again

First off I want to apologize for being MIA. There was a lot going on, not an excuse but rather an explanation.
Our closing date this year is Sunday October the 8th. I did manage to try to look up the precedent of a paper dress in the Gilded Age. I have not come up with any other instance of such then nor of this being the fashion. One would say quite the opposite is the case. I would like to bring to my readers the extravagant ball thrown by the Bradley-Martins at the Waldorf Hotel in NYC in 1897. The cost of said ball came in just under $10 million. The dresses, and jewels that accompanied them, were of the finest and richest variety. The Bayles masquerade, in 1876, was quite the opposite. But then that may have been the point. Mrs. Bayles also adds clippings from Harper's Weekly making it a very unique, interesting and political dress. A must see before we shutter our doors for the winter months - granted we open them again for the auction and Dickens Festival which I shall be covering!
There are just so many wonderful things to take in. We also have a nice display showing the Wilson sail loft. Wilson was the brilliant sail maker who made the sails for the famous boat the America. This was an uber-yacht designed to take-down the British competition. It was said after, and when the race became named the America's Cup, that a British nobleman bankrupted himself trying to build a yacht to be able to beat the America.
So there we have it the paper dress, a premier sail maker and so much more. Things that are so uniquely Port Jefferson. Not ones run of the mill town. Every tour someone tells me how surprised they are about all that went on in Port Jeff. Cars and horses, on and on. Not a sleepy Long Island town but a vibrant and rich community made up of passionate people that make our fair town the wonderful that we have today. I shall need to get some pictures taken and come back where I left off last year: The library. Until then I hope to see you soon at the museum! Don't forget this the last week!

Monday, June 19, 2017

The new Exhibit!

I want to apologize for my delay on posting this. I can insert a series of excuses which range from the end of a busy semester to a mother in the hospital. However, there is one excuse that will wash: I was waiting to get photographs of the exhibit to share!

For those of you in the loop this years exhibit celebrates the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Historical Society! There are a lot of cool things on display but I have decided, to prolong this presentation, to only talk about a few now and then add the others later. In historian speak that means I want to do some more research on one of the items and I have to read a book of etiquette from 1882. Regardless of that I vehemently urge all my readers to go out, grab your friends/family/frenimies/, run, don't walk, to experience the exhibit for oneself. Remember we are open Wednesday-Sunday from 12 pm - 4 pm. And while there stop in the consignment shop and browse awhile. Now that my sales pitch is over . . .


There is one item that is near and dear to me. As you know I am transcribing the 1866 diary of Sarah Brewster Hawkins. I went to the museum while the exhibit was being created - thanks to Laura Warren, Kathleen Cash and Beth Pranzo for creating a brilliant display, I know others helped but these three I know were involved and if I list all the amazing volunteers then this blog would be ten times longer! - I saw this:

An 1828 coverlet made by Sarah Brewster Hawkins. Not only that but for the first time I saw what she looked like! To read her words and know her in that way and then to see her. It struck me. A shiver ran down my spine, I felt that much closer to her. On it she had her name, from this picture one can see most of it, "Drowned Meadow" and the year. It is a massive coverlet which is why the picture only captures a portion of it. Of course one can always see it for oneself. Hint. Hint. I will also be giving a talk about Sarah's diary and the Platt Civil War letters at the museum on Sunday July 16th. The talk starts at 1 pm. If that is not enough off an incentive there will also be homemade cookies!

The other artifact that I wanted to talk about relates to the car the ONLY. I want to give credit to Robert Sisler and his wonderful book "Port Jefferson Area's First Century on Wheels: 1850's to 1950's." This great book is where I am getting my information from and all credit should go to Mr. Sisler. It is especially valuable because there is almost nothing online about this car.


The ONLY, only one cylinder, for only $700 and the only car one will need! They really went hog wild with getting the most mileage out of the name. Built in the Loper factory between 1909 and 1910 by Maurice Richard. There were two jets in a carburetor designed by Richard, one for low speed and one for high speed. It was ignited by a Bosch Magneto battery and a coil. It was able to reach 60 mph and got 30 miles a gallon. The idea was that in multiple cylinder cars the crankshaft was seen as the problem. Richard eliminated this by losing the crankshaft and adding two flywheels and thereby eliminating vibrations that were evident in other early automobiles.


The ONLY went onto distinction in 1919 by winning an event in its class in the Hill Climb Race an event the town had recently recreated on the steep hill leading to Belle Terre.
In 1914 Richard went onto build the Metropole, a four-cylinder roadster. For the record I love that name for a car and especially a car of that era. This car featured a high hood and no doors. Richard switched from one to four-cylinders because the one-cylinder car was not appealing to most and therefore only a handful of the ONLY's were made. It is said that there is an intact ONLY in existence. Sisler hints at an intact ONLY that has the annoying habit of blowing the Babbitt. However, I am not sure if he meant in 1910 or today.


The Metropole sold for $1,475. Got up to 75 mph and got 25 miles to the gallon. The market not being what t was he sold the factory to Finley Robertson Porter.

In the Loper factory the Maxim Tricar was being built. This was a three wheeled delivery van built by Carl Peters. One could own it for $475. It had a 96 inch wheel base. The tricar left when Porter bought the factory.

In 1915 Porter, with the Loper factory, created a car that he wanted to be the best, the FRP "with its block made of vanadium steel double heat-treated, shafts and gears were of nickel steel double heat-treated, and the manifold and other engine parts were of bronze." (Sisler). It achieved thee speed of 80 mph with four forward speeds and one in reverse. It cost $5000 for all that and then another $5000 for the coachwork. The top car of the time only cost $7500. Only building 36 cars by 1917 the FRP was no more. We have a plate of this automobile at the museum.

I want to thank Mr. Sisler again and remind all that the information about the cars in this blog comes from his informative book.

For now that is all. I hope it encourages my readers to stop in. If not then stay tuned as I tweak the research and prepare to blow your socks off!

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Last Season Events & Onto a New Season

I apologize for the gap in my posts. There really is no excuse but let me attempt one anyway. I have three actually. One, laziness, pure and simple. Two, my  duties as a professor have kept me busy - along with working on a new diary to transcribe. Three, my health has been poor since about December and the energy to do these has been non-existent.
Excuses aside welcome back! First and foremost opening day for the museum will be Saturday May 27, 2017, the hours of 12-4 pm per usual. From that date forward we will be open those hours from Wednesday through Sunday until October 8th. We usually close the Sunday before our annual auction which is on the following Saturday. That brings me to the point of this post - two of the three final events we had last season: The "Best of the Wurst" and our annual auction.
I will admit my bias towards the "Best of the Wurst." It is a more intimate affair than our annual dinner and this past year (November 17, 2016) was its second - I do not see it ending any time soon, well, at least not without a small historical society riot! This is the brain child of Christine Spanbauer and Barbara Schroeder. Not only do these amazing ladies organize it all they also do a good portion of the cooking. I would also like to note the amazing amount of help that is given to make this event the night that it is. There are too many names to list here - that and if I accidentally omit anyone then I will be in the dog house - but from cooking to cleaning up to organizing to storing the food days before the list of volunteers is great. I believe that everyone on the historical society board contributes. This is the main reason that I love being a part of this society - the people. I have not met a greater group of people in my life.
Sappiness aside what exactly is this? For $30 - $35 (for some reason the price is escaping me) you get a meal which is your choice of three kinds of wursts, sauerkraut, caramelized onions, roasted potatoes, baked beans, string beans, red cabbage, pickled beets, salad, rye and pumpernickel bread and pretzels. All homemade save the breads - if I am wrong on that I apologize - and the pretzels. One also has a choice of beer, wine or soda. An array of desserts that are too many to recount - again all homemade - and coffee. I blame this event for my pre-Thanksgiving weight gain. But I also parked about ten blocks away so I could walk some off. In addition to all this amazing food 20 gift baskets are raffled off. Your beloved author has yet to win one. Not winning aside it is a brilliant event.


This event, for me, epitomizes what we are trying to do with this society. This is community at its best.                                                                                                                                                   
The next event actually took place October 15, 2016 and this was the 29th annual country auction, my first (I usually work on Saturdays). Worst case scenario it is a fun day. Best case scenario it is a fun day and you won some brilliant antiques! We had a really good day for this event - sometimes it rains and sometimes its quite cold but this past year was close to perfect. Every year we usually have a wide variety of items to be auctioned - I am still sad that I did not win a 1930's radio a few years back. The year before last I won a scythe and my other win was a beautiful Secretary's desk. This year was heavier on the furniture. 


Aside from the furniture we auctioned jewelry, clocks, china, toys, art and as always dinosaur fossils! Attendance surpassed 100 as the auctioneers got to their business. The highest bid was $1,050 for a pair of paintings. This is another event - ok pretty much at all of our events - where the amount of volunteers is overwhelming. Volunteers worked the refreshment stand, sold the heck out of the 2017 calendar and helped auction winners pack their cars. There was also a 50/50 raffle and a Downton Abbey quilt raffled off. By the by, the calendar is still available if one calls the society at (631) 473 - 2665. You may also get your calendar at the Port Jefferson library or from Barbara S. (631) 473 - 2980. The cost is $10. 





In the end another amazing event and a great day in Port Jeff! Our final "event" was during the Dickens Festival. Our great shop was open as well as the house displaying our Victorian Christmas. The annual dinner was in February and that brings us up to date! Fret not, there is plenty to come. 
My next post I will talk about the theme for the museum 2017 - The 50th Anniversary of the Greater Port Jefferson Historical Society. There is also the upcoming Antiques and Garden Weekend at the Village Center (April 29 & 30). We do not run this event but we are there and it kicks off our season nicely. I will also discuss the work I am doing, the clock museum, the shop and continue where I left off in my house tour. Until then do not forget to check out all the other amazing local historical societies and the various events that they have. Speaking of which I will be giving a lecture on my book I Now Take Up My Pen on April 17, 2017, 7 pm at the Miller Place - Mt. Sinai Historical Society. Contact the MP-MS Historical Society for ticket information. Again this book is the collection of Civil War letters between the Platt brothers. The book will also be available for purchase. I am looking forward to it and hope to see some of you there!