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Advocate Archives
This week in the Advocate Archives offers a look back at 1931 when Eugene O’Neill’s cottage at Peaked Hill Bars slid into the ocean; to 1940 when ice was harvested from Crawley’s Pond; and to 1960 when two nickelodeons were brought to Peter’s Hill Restaurant in North Truro.
Jan. 8, 1931
O’Neill Cottage Wrecked
O’Neill’s cottage at Peaked Hill Bars on the ocean side about three miles from Provincetown Center took a long slide into Davy Jones locker today. For a year or more the action of the surf under storm conditions in conjunction with maximum tides had been steadily eating away the dunes intervening between the estate and the high-water beach line some hundred feet or more away.
Sightseers have been expecting the house to tumble at any moment and it occasioned little surprise in town when the Coast Guard gave the alarm that it had lurched down the high embankment projecting its forward end into the surf.
The tide ebbs as this is written and the near hurricane blow is abating but the recurrence of unfavorable weather at the next high tide is expected to complete the demolition of the structure and to scatter its contents and wreckage.
The O’Neill cottage, although still known to very old-timers hereabouts as an early coast guard station, erected in 1872, had become something of a shrine to the eminent playwright’s fan public since his taking residence abroad and each season has witnessed a steady pilgrimage of visitors.
Here were written the “S.S. Glencairn,” “The Hairy Ape,” the preliminary draft of “Anna Christie” and that series of sea dramas which laid the mudsills of his fame. It is said of O’Neill in the neighborhood that he was fond of taking the most reckless personal chances with the dangerous sea often rowing alone directly out into it until out of sight, in a “Kiyak” or eskimo light skin canoe which he could carry overhead.
Last summer, upon hearing that his son, a student at Yale, liked the property he promptly transferred ownership to him.
Jan. 4, 1940
They’re Cutting Ice At Crawley’s
It’s Seven to Eight Inches Thick With Cold Holding
They’re cutting ice out at Crawley’s Pond for the first time in four years, and, according to Frank A. Crawley, it’s good, hard ice. As a matter of fact, the actual cutting and harvesting hadn’t really started today. Yesterday the pond was ploughed but during the unusual cold of last night the markings froze up again. This morning about twenty men were at work on the pond with the preparations for the cutting.
It is expected that 70 or more men will be employed with the harvesting of the ice which is between seven and eight inches thick now with no break in the cold yet in sight.
There was considerable excitement around town as word spread that ice would be cut at the Crawley Pond. During the past three winters there has not been a sufficiently prolonged spell of cold to freeze ice to a thickness worth harvesting and the town has had to depend on its freezers for artificial ice.
Jan. 3, 1952
Court Awards $10
Judge Charles E. Wyzanksi Jr. awarded in Federal Court a total of $10 to George H. and Gertrude H. Drysdale for the taking of land in North Truro.
He stipulated that this payment is in full satisfaction of all claims against the Government for the land taking.
Originally the Government took 108.95 acres of land in North Truro.
Jan. 7, 1960
Peters Installs Real Nickelodeons
With the arrival of two nickelodeons dating from the very beginning of the century, the coming cold Winter evenings will find many Cape Enders at Peters Hill Restaurant and lounge in North Truro listening to the lilting refrains of the great ballads of American music.
The nickelodeons at Peters Hill will have to perform the music of a bygone day for a trifle more owing to inflation but the effect is worth it.
The machines are quite demonstrative and may be observed in the lounge performing such old-time favorites as “Song of the Wanderer,” “Everybody Loves My Baby,” “Madeline,” “Old Mabel” and “Kentucky Wall.”
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Jan 3rd, 2008