From the Collection:
The DoReMi Houses
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The
DoReMi houses ascended like a musical scale on small adjacent lots overlooking Eel Pond. Although they were similar in style, they were on separate lots and not designed for musical interpretation.
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Picture of houses from School Street - probably 1890. Do Re Mi can be seen at the far right.
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The houses, built in the Carpenter Gothic style, were constructed in the mid to late 19th century.
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View from Millfield Street about 1910
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The property was originally owned by Braddock Gifford. The Barnstable County Atlas shows them in 1880 as owned by G. Gifford and B. Gifford, and later passed down to Addie Gifford Elliot, daughter of Gideon Gifford.
Addie sold the property in the mid 1930s to Horatio (Ray) and Sarah (Naomi) Smith, who lived in the Do house, and to Warren and Ruth Vincent, who lived in the Re house for many years. The Smiths and Vincents were living in the houses prior to the property sale, however, probably as renters.
The majority of the families who lived in these homes over the years were year round residents, all with stories that represent Woods Hole in the old days
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Naomi Smith watches as her husband tries to load a horse onto his boat in front of the Do house.
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Ray and Sarah Smith had moved to Woods Hole from South Jefferson, Maine. Sarah Atkinson Smith was the sister of Martha Atkinson Hilton, wife of Oscar Hilton.
Mr. Hilton, had the building that is now occupied by Liberty House with a marine railway on Water Street. He was very active in carpentry, boat building and local real estate.
Although the Smiths acquired other real estate, the property on the edge of Eel Pond was Mr. Smith’s home base. He had a dock and a boat, useful for getting to Naushon Island for the carpentry and dock work that he did there, and in Woods Hole and Quissett too.
Mr. Smith bought or built several small houses near the DoReMi houses, one a rental property on North Street next door to the Do house, and another right on the edge of Eel Pond, which he rented to MBL summer scientists.
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Vincent House (the Re House)
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Warren Vincent was a commercial fishermen. He and his wife, Ruth Taber Vincent, moved to Woods Hole from Edgartown, by way of New Bedford, and into the Re house in 1929 or 1930. There they raised their children, Martha and Samuel. Martha married Robert W. Griffin (the great-great grandson of Braddock Gifford) of Woods Hole and their reception in 1942 was at the Re house overlooking Eel Pond.
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The Vincents’ five grandchildren spent weeks at a time during the summer at the Re house. Warren Vincent had created an extra bedroom out of the storage area that was adjoined to the back of the house, and which he dubbed “the steerage.” In front of the house near the stone wall was a whale jawbone that he had pulled up in his nets.
Captain Vincent had been a fisherman most of his life. Born in Edgartown, he began fishing as a child, hauling pots off Naushon from a dory. His first commercial fishing boat was
Halbird
that he fished out of Woods Hole and Edgartown. In 1937, he and his partner Carl Beckman of New Bedford bought the dragger,
Anna
. Woods Hole was their home base, and they sold their catch at Sam Cahoon's Fish Market.
The 1938 hurricane came through Woods Hole on September 21, flooding or washing away buildings and boats and endangering the townspeople. Five people died in a storm surge on Bar Neck Road. Captain Vincent invited neighbors to his house, since the Re house sat slightly higher than the Do house. He tied
Anna
to a telephone pole at the corner of North Street and then rode out the storm at home with his family and neighbors, with a dory tied off the first floor bedroom window. The water came up to the first floor of the house but no further.
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Eel Pond with rough water from the 1954 hurricane looking west towards
the Mi house, Vadala house and houses on Millfield Street
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On July 11, 1958, Captain Vincent had 6,000 pounds of lobster on his fishing boat, the
RW Griffin Jr.
, 59 miles from the Nantucket Light vessel, and was about to leave to sell their catch in Portland.
The boat was struck in heavy fog by a 484-foot, 7,360-ton steel freighter based in Glasgow, Scotland. Captain Vincent and two other members of his crew were lost at sea.
Another fisherman who lived in one of the DoReMi houses was Charles Bailey, who lived in the Do house with his wife and four sons, and met the same tragic fate as Captain VIncent. On July 5, 1930, Charles went out in the lobster boat,
Ruth M.
, that he co-owned. Later in the day his partner found the Bailey boat running in circles off Quicks Hole. Mr. Bailey was never found. Neighbors in Woods Hole rallied and raised funds to help the family, who were later able to buy a home on Glendon Road.
The highest house, the Mi house, was home to several families over the years, among them the Spauldings, Russells and Paynes. Oakes Ames Spaulding was the certified radio operator for WHOI's research vessel
Atlantis.
The Robert L. McKenzie family also lived in that house, and later moved to High Street at the corner of Middle Street. Mr. McKenzie worked for the railroad mail service for 49 years. The McKenzies had five children, among them, Helen, who taught biology at Lawrence High School for many years.
In the 1960s, the MBL bought the DoReMi houses, tore them down and replaced them with Swope center, built in 1969-70.
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Woods Hole Historical Museum
579 Woods Hole Road (P.O. Box 185)
Woods Hole, MA 02543
Phone: 508-548-7270
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