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Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Northampton, Mass.: the setting for By Your Leave, Sir - The Story of a Wave

 

Smith College - Capen School Faunce House, 1914 postcard


During World War II, Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, was a training camp for WAVES.  The story of female midshipmen is recounted by one of its graduates, Lieutenant (J.G.) Helen Hull Jacobs in By Your Leave, Sir – The Story of a Wave.


The book is actually a novel, published in 1943, but as Lt. Jacobs was then in the Public Relations Office of the Naval Reserve Training School in the Bronx, one may assume that writing this book based on her own experience was likely part of her duties in public relations for the WAVES.  Though it tells of a troubled young woman named Becky McLeod, who loses her fiancĂ© in a London air raid and seeks a place in the war effort, recounts her challenges and new friendships made, the book serves as a concise outline of the requirements for a woman to serve in the Navy and what she might expect to encounter in Midshipman’s School.  WAVES is an acronym for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service and was part of the U.S. Navy Reserves.

Smith College Assembly Hall and buildings, postcard, c. 1905

Smith College, one of the preeminent women’s colleges in the country, became figuratively the Navy’s U.S.S. Northampton, and the women were trained in military history, military courtesy, discipline, physical training, and classroom education in many subjects.  When they graduated, they would be officers, the first branch of the military in which women would receive full military status. 

Smith College, Capen House, postcard c. 1905


The notion of women serving in the military was a controversial one, but the book’s title, By Your Leave, Sir, is a reference to the purpose of establishing this branch of military service for women: to relieve male sailors and officers for sea duty.  The women were assigned to replace men in clerical positions, but also served as aviation instructors, intelligence agents, scientists, and engineers. Over 100,000 WAVES served in World War II. 

Faunce House, Capen's School, postcard 1907


In the novel, we follow Becky and the other midshipmen through locations familiar to those living in western Massachusetts: on the grounds of Smith College and in Northampton.  They attend classes at Faunce Hall, are billeted at Capen House and the Hotel Northampton, and Wiggins Tavern is frequented on their off hours.  Filene’s in Boston tailors their uniforms, and there are trips to The Whale Inn in Goshen, and they go to a Red Cross Rally at the Springfield Auditorium.  Though most of the characters in the story are fictitious, real-life figures such as Lt. Elizabeth Crandall also appear in the story.

Hotel Northampton and Wiggins Tavern postcard c. 1920s

The novel is an interesting look at the life of women in Navy training at this time, and also for a glimpse at Northampton as it served this unique position in America’s war effort.



The author, Helen Hull Jacobs, had her own interesting story.  This was one of several books, both fiction and non-fiction she wrote, after having had a very successful career as a professional tennis player in the 1930s and 1940s.  She won several U.S. National championships, Wimbledon, and nine Grand Slam titles.  She was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1962.  She was a farmer, designed sportswear, and her Naval career culminated by achieving the rank of commander while serving in United States Navy intelligence in World War II, one of only five women in the Navy to achieve the rank of commander during the war.

Sources:  

Asal, Alex. "Learning to be Navy," Campus Life, June 11, 2019, Smith College website. 

Jacobs, Helen Hull.  By Your Leave, Sir - The Story of a Wave. (NY: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1943)

New York Times, "Helen Jacobs, Tennis Champion in the 1930's, Dies at 88" obituary by Susan B. Adams, June 4, 1997.

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, HolyokeMassachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

 

Monday, March 6, 2023

Wesson's Home Becomes a Hospital


 

The home in the foreground of this postcard belonged to inventor and firearms designer Daniel Baird Wesson of Springfield, Massachusetts.  With Horace Smith, Mr. Wesson formed both the Winchester Repeating Arms Company and Smith & Wesson firearms manufacturing companies.  

The house at 132 High Street, Springfield, was donated by Mr. Wesson in 1906, in memory of his late wife, to become the Hampden Homeopathic Hospital.  It became Wesson Memorial Hospital later that year when Wesson himself passed on.  It was a 30-bed facility, but Wesson Hospital enlarged with a further endowment from his estate to build a new 100-bed unit at 140 High Street, as well as a new 25-bed maternity hospital in 1908.

The old Wesson home that served as the original Wesson Memorial Hospital no longer stands, and what became Wesson Women's eventually merged with Springfield Hospital and became Baystate Medical Center.

The penny-postcard was published by George S. Graves of Springfield, Mass.

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, HolyokeMassachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

President Calvin Coolidge's homes in Northampton, Massachusetts


Calvin Coolidge lived in Northampton through much of his political career, and here we have in postcard images his two homes.

First, the duplex on Massasoit Street where he and his wife Grace moved after their marriage in 1905.  Coolidge, a graduate of Amherst College and native of Vermont, came here to open his law practice.  His wife Grace had been a teacher at the Clarke School for the Deaf.  They rented the left side of this duplex and raised their two sons here.  



The Coolidges continued to make this their home through the next couple of decades as "Silent Cal" entered politics and served as Mayor of Northampton, Governor of Massachusetts, Vice President of the United States under President Warren G. Harding, and then assuming the presidency in 1923 after Harding's death in office.  

The Beeches

Coolidge's presidency ended in 1929 ("I do not choose to run.") and in 1930, he moved his home from the house on Massasoit Street to a new house called "The Beeches" on Hampton Terrace, for more privacy.  The tourists gawking at his rented duplex got to be a bit too much.


Calvin Coolidge died at "The Beeches" in 1933, at the age of 60.  

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, HolyokeMassachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.


Tuesday, February 21, 2023

First anniversary - Slava Ukraini


Approaching one year since the start of World War III (whether we acknowledge it or not).  

Invasion and atrocities.

Putin's Russia has committed mass kidnapping of children, mass torture, extensive war crimes.

Putin's Russia is currently committing genocide.

Support Ukraine in every way possible.  We should join the fight against fascism wherever it exists.

Support freedom and democracy.

Slava Ukraini!


Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Upcoming talk on Mt. Tom Playhouse - Holyoke, Massachusetts


I'll be giving on a talk on my book, Comedy and Tragedy on theMountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts, at the South Hadley Senior Center, 45 Dayton Street, South Hadley, Mass., next Tuesday, February 7, 2023, at 5:30 p.m.  A slide presentation of several photos from the book will accompany the talk.

The book covers the history of summer theatre on Mt. Tom from 1895 to 1965.  Many stars of stage and screen, and many newcomers who would one day become stars, performed over several decades on Mt. Tom.

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, HolyokeMassachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.


Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Springfield Technical High School - Springfield, Massachusetts


Here are some postcard views of the former Springfield (Mass) Technical High School.   Built in 1905 on Elliot Street, it served the city for some 81 years before it was closed in 1986.



This above is was postmarked June 1910, probably sent as a keepsake of a graduation ceremony.



Here above is from 1915.  On the back a lady named Marion (?) wrote "We had a very nice trip up and the graduation was a very pretty one well worth seeing.   We went to Forrest Park here to-day.  It is a lovely big park with all sorts of amusements for children..."


Above is postmarked October 1912, with male figures drawn in front of the building.  A student wrote this at what must have been the beginning of the school year, "School in here is quite different.  I like it very much."  He writes to a lady in Monson, Mass.



The building had a capacity of 900 students.  When it closed in 1986, this school as well as Classical High School were joined together in a new school far away from downtown, but still called Central High School.  Perhaps Technical High School's most famous grads were Ernest "Bunny" Taliaferro, its greatest athlete; and Congressman Richard E. Neal.

Most of the building has been torn down, but the front section is used as the facade for the Springfield Data Center, a modern building constructed behind it.

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, HolyokeMassachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.



Tuesday, January 17, 2023

View of Mt. Holyoke from the Connecticut River railroad bridge


 

A vew of Mt. Holyoke in South Hadley, Massachusetts, from the Connecticut River on this postcard "New England Views on Boston & Maine R.R."  The photo was probably taken from the Willimansett truss railroad bridge across the river from Chicopee to Holyoke, pictured in the postcard below.



The railroad truss bridge is on the left, and was later replaced by a deck plate girder bridge.

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, HolyokeMassachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.


Tuesday, January 10, 2023

First Baptist Church - Springfield, Massachusetts


Here are two postcard views of the First Baptist Church of Springfield, Massachusetts.  They are from 1907 and 1908.  The Romanesque building is the fourth church used by this congregation and stood on the corner of State and Spring streets.



The church was used for nearly 20 years, then the congregation merged with the Highland Baptist Church (whose own building on Stebbins Street burned down in 1906) becoming First-Highland Baptist for a time, and afterwards the building was sold and became St. Paul's Universalist Church.  It no longer exists, replaced by a parking garage.

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, HolyokeMassachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.

Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Nonotuck to Roger Smith to Holyoke House - Holyoke, Massachusetts


The Nonotuck Hotel, pictured in this 1919 postcard, opened in 1915 on the corner of Suffolk and Maple streets.  It later became the Roger Smith Hotel, part of the chain of hotels that began in Connecticut in 1928.  This one in Holyoke joined the chain and changed its name in 1937.  (The chain no longer exists - there is only one Roger Smith Hotel remaining in Manhattan.)


By the 1960s, the Roger Smith in Holyoke became The Holyoke House.  The building was sold at auction in 2014.

photo by JT Lynch


photo by JT Lynch




 

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