In anticipation of Christmas present — and in honor of Christmas past — today’s Friday Flashback reprises one of my favorites, from several years ago.
Taken from “Westport … A Special Place” — the wonderful photo book written and compiled by Eve Potts, and designed by Howard Munce — it shows Christmas 1888, “at the seaside estate that became Longshore.”
I wrote then: “I have no idea who any of these people are. But all have stories.
“What are their relationships with each other? Why is the plump guy at the lower left not looking at the camera? Is there an infant in the carriage? How come they all seem so solemn? (Even the “Merry Christmas” sign looks stern.) Are the kids on the top step planning something? Is the boy at the far left slyly pointing to the statute? Whose dog is it? Who knew that people in 1888 even had pets?”
The post drew a number of comments. Among them:
“Folks during the early days of photography had to sit still for a long period of time before the photograph could be taken, so it’s common to see people in images from bygone eras with serious expressions. I like to think this is the case here, and that they were actually in a jovial mood and broke into gales of laughter once the shutter had closed.” (Jimmy Franco)
“There may have been a recent death in the family. The wreaths on the windows and the garland around the ‘Merry Christmas’ sign seem far too dark (even in black and white) to have been greenery. And given that it’s the holidays and all the women are in black during an era when women’s clothing was often colorful.” (India Van Voorhees)
“There are theories as to why people didn’t smile in old photos. They range from the long exposure times to the fact that smiles were quite gnarly prior to dentistry and orthodontia. But most experts believe that smiling for photos simply wasn’t the style at the time – if you smiled in a photo, you looked silly. Portraits were considered serious affairs rather than mean to entertain. Smiling in photos didn’t begin until the early 1900s.
“I went back to Eve Potts’ book to take a closer look at this wonderful photo. I noticed the smallest hints of a smile on some of the faces. Perhaps it’s better stated that a few of the faces looked ‘pleasantly relaxed’ rather than stern.” (Wendy Crowther)
So: Any more thoughts? What else do you notice, or wish to add? Click “Comments” below.
And — 135 years after this photograph was taken — we will add the same wish: “Merry Christmas.”
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I think I may have it figured out…. The man sitting below the two boys with his legs crossed just passed gas and everyone in the photo (including the dog) is trying to figure out what died. The stench was so bad it darkened the wreaths and blurred the lettering on the sign………Marry Christmas….photo lovers….and if you notice there is no sprig of mistletoe anywhere in sight…another beautiful Westport “special place” photo…
Perhaps they are remembering the great blizzard that occurred earlier that year (it devastated the Northeast killing 400) and wondered if they would soon experience it again…it was the worst and certainly impacted everyone living in NY & CT at the time.
Having that dog in the center foreground is weird given the chance of his moving and ruining the image unless it was well trained and important to the photographer.
Property records. Who owned that proprerty in 1880-1900? Once onwership is known then 1880 and 1900 cenuses can be checked. Henry Burr was the 1880 enumerator. He makes no notations on his sheets of where he started geographically. Walter Peck in 1900 starts off with (part?) of Imperial Avene “east of the Westport River,” notes when he hits Bridge Street (short), then notes Compo Street which is marked on several following sheets and then Peck stops with all street references though the numbering continues in correct sequence. I only looked at about 20 sheets (a “page” consists of nnn-A on the left and nnn-B on the right.
There ought to be a Westport section within some Faifield town directories from that time period but at the moment I can’t pull one up on Ancestry. Those will have names and streets.
Pretty straightforward. But I’m working on my mysteries.
Impressive ‼️gargoyle 👀and dog collar ‼️
I do not believe it is a photo around a death. Back in the day, a death in the house was announced by a black wreath on the DOOR. And the people would have been wearing black arm bands. Since there is no color, we cannot know just what the people were wearing. My impression is that this is multi-generational Family celebrating a new birth. Perhaps a Christening? There are hints of smiles.
On a side note, the actually Longshore facility, much as we know it today was founded in 1929 by a Hollywood producer. Smack dab in the midst of the Depression, it worked by bringing celebrities out of NYC to frolic in the summer sun. Quite amazing when you think of the economy. It finally fell to bankruptcy in 1959 and the town of Westport bought it up for 1.9 million bucks the following spring. Best investment this town ever made.
I believe that photo is of George P. Lawrence and his family. George’s father, Alexander M. Lawrence, had made his fortune importing fruits, foodstuffs and statuary and lived grandly in Gramercy Park. In 1867 Alexander purchased, for $30,000, some 68 acres along the Sound and the Saugatuck River, claiming and expanding the original farmhouse on site. Alexander passed in 1882, bequeathing what he called Compo Farms to his eldest son, George. After George’s death in 1910, the Lawrence family estate passed into the hands of a second wealthy New York clan, the Lewis’. A financier and land baron, it was Frederick E. Lewis who gave estate the name Longshore Farms, and over the next score of years added acreage, outbuildings and other refinements to the property.
What I find interesting about this 1888 ‘Christmas time’ the photo is, I suspect, probably not taken anywhere near Christmas time or perhaps not even in 1888- it must have been very good weather given the recent famous blizzard of 1888 in March that year that paralyzed the northeast.