This is the second installment of a two-part series on the Great Fire of 1900 and the prospects of such a blaze taking place today. In August, local fire officials kept an anxious eye on Hurricane Erin as it moved north along the East Coast. Most predictions had the storm staying steering clear of New […]
Author Archives: Dave Kindy - Independent Correspondent
Posted inHistory & Architecture
Half of Plymouth was consumed by flames 125 years ago this week
Alfred R. Turner Jr. rowed like he had never rowed before. Pulling desperately on the oars of his rowboat, the wealthy industrialist from Newark, N.J., watched as a 30-foot wall of fire engulfed his spacious summer home on the shores of Little Long Pond. Driven by a 70 mile-per-hour gale 125 years ago, the massive […]
Posted inCulture
Museum mystery: How did a disembodied head end up in a historic Pilgrim Hall mural?
For 145 years, a disembodied head has stared at visitors to Pilgrim Hall Museum. No, it wasn’t a spectral visage or a floating face from another dimension. It was Mayflower passenger and eventual Plymouth Colony governor Edward Winslow popping up in a painting he wasn’t supposed to be in. Renovations at the 201-year-old downtown museum […]
Posted inCulture
‘Pedaling Preacher’ preps for Alaska adventure
When the pastor of Plymouth’s Church of the Pilgrimage, an avid cyclist, announced he was going to participate in a charity ride, parishioner Julie Witherew remembered thinking: “He’s biking where?” Alaska. That’s where the Pedaling Preacher – better known as Rev. Tim Garvin-Leighton – is headed next month to take part in the Fuller Center […]
Posted inCulture
Raspberry Jam finds its groove
Though Jerry Garcia has been gone for nearly 30 years, music inspired by the legendary guitarist is alive and well in Plymouth. The members of local band Raspberry Jam weren’t even born when the Grateful Dead leader was mesmerizing legions of Deadheads at marathon concerts. It plays a style of improvisational jam music popularized by […]
Posted inCulture
‘A powerful force for good’
Marcia Martinson was on a mission of mercy. The past president of Womanade at the Pinehills, a nonprofit group comprised of women who live in the upscale development, was dropping off a check at a residential shelter to help a family in need. “I made a payment for a woman whose family was going to […]
Posted inBusiness
Business is brewing at Shelly’s Tea Rooms
Opening an authentic English tearoom in America’s Hometown has been a learning experience – for both patrons and the business’s owners, Sean and Michelle Sinclair. Residents and visitors to Shelly’s Tea Rooms on Court Street downtown learn about the intricacies of “tea time” while the British proprietors have become acquainted with new tea-related terminology. “Steep? […]
Posted inCulture
‘Plymouth Argyle is America’s Team’
There’s nothing Eric Nemes enjoys more than watching the big game on TV while having a few beers with friends – even if it is 7:30 a.m. That’s because Nemes and his fellow fans follow Plymouth Argyle, an English soccer team which has live matches often airing bright and early in Plymouth, Massachusetts. “We have […]
Posted inCulture
They went around the world in 10 days
In mid-December, Keith and Lucia Gizzi were at an airport in Guangzhou, China, presenting their passports to a customs official. Because they didn’t have visas, the Plymouth father and daughter needed to show proof they would be departing for another country soon, so Keith proffered an itinerary detailing airline reservations for their entire trip. For […]
Posted inCulture
A Plymouthean in Paris: This local craftsman helped restore Notre-Dame to its former glory
In 2019, Michael Burrey watched television in horror as the steeple of the historic Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral collapsed during a devastating fire. He realized right away that the damage to this 1,000-year-old medieval masterpiece and World Heritage Site would require the efforts of thousands of craftsmen schooled in all-but-forgotten construction skills to restore it. […]