Gray Gables | |
---|---|
Former names | Tudor Haven [1] |
General information | |
Architectural style | Shingle style architecture |
Location | Bourne, Massachusetts |
Coordinates | 41°44′03″N70°37′26″W / 41.7343°N 70.6240°W |
Estimated completion | 1880 [1] |
Renovated | 1890 |
Destroyed | December 11, 1973 (fire) |
Owner | Grover Cleveland (1890–1908) Cleveland family (1908–1920) Gray Gables Ocean House (until 1973) [1] |
Known for | Grover Cleveland's Summer White House |
Other information | |
Number of rooms | 20 [2] |
Gray Gables was an estate in Bourne, Massachusetts, owned by President Grover Cleveland that served as his Summer White House from 1893 to 1896. It was later converted into the Gray Gables Ocean House hotel, which was destroyed in a fire in 1973.
Gray Gables was built in 1880 and was named Tudor Haven by its first owners. [1] Grover Cleveland purchased the house for $20,000 [2] in 1890 (equivalent to $620,000in 2023), renovating it and renaming it Gray Gables. The property at the time consisted of 110 acres (45 ha), 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of beachfront on Buzzards Bay, the main house, and a hunting lodge. [2] He had initially tried to purchase Harbor Lane, a home in Marion, Massachusetts, where he had spent his previous four summers, but decided not to after the owners raised the price. [3]
In 1892, Cleveland ran for what would be his second term as president, and an electric telegraph was installed in the house so he could follow the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. [2] That fall, he won the election, and Gray Gables served as his Summer White House from 1893 to 1896. In 1892, the small Gray Gables Railroad Station was built nearby on the Old Colony Railroad to provide easy transportation to Washington, D.C. [2] A dock was also constructed next to the house to accommodate a Navy gunboat. [4]
In 1893, Cleveland recovered at Gray Gables following a secret surgery to remove a tumor aboard his friend Elias Cornelius Benedict's yacht Utowana as it sailed from New York City to Gray Gables. [5] [6] Two of his children were born at the house: Marion in 1895 [7] and Francis Grover in 1903. [6] Following his presidency, the Cleveland family continued to summer at Gray Gables until 1904, when his daughter Ruth died of diphtheria at the age of 12. After her death, the family stopped summering there and rented out the house. Grover Cleveland died in 1908, and the family sold the house in 1920. [1]
In the mid-20th century, the property was converted to a restaurant and hotel known as the Gray Gables Ocean House. The hotel was destroyed by fire on the morning of December 11, 1973. [4] In the 2000s, a private home was built on the former site of Gray Gables. [1]
The neighborhood of Gray Gables and the former Gray Gables Railroad Station in Bourne take their names from the house. In 1976, the station building was moved to the Aptucxet Trading Post Museum. [8] Because of the time Grover Cleveland spent summering at Gray Gables and fishing in Buzzards Bay, a shallow area of Buzzards Bay, Cleveland Ledge, was named after him, as was the 1943 lighthouse Cleveland East Ledge Light that sits on top of it. [9]
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The name Cape Cod, coined in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold, is the ninth oldest English place-name in the U.S.
The Cape Cod Canal is an artificial waterway in Massachusetts connecting Cape Cod Bay in the north to Buzzards Bay in the south, and is part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. The approximately 7.4-mile-long (11.9 km) canal traverses the neck of land joining Cape Cod to the state's mainland. It mostly follows tidal rivers widened to 480 feet (150 m) and deepened to 32 feet (9.8 m) at mean low water, shaving up to 135 miles (217 km) off the journey around the cape for its approximately 14,000 annual users.
Buzzards Bay is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Bourne in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,859 at the 2010 census. It is the most populous of the five CDPs in Bourne.
Marion is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,347 at the 2020 census.
Wareham is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2022 census, the town had a population of 23,303.
Bourne is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 20,452 at the 2020 census.
Falmouth is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 32,517 at the 2020 census, making Falmouth the second-largest municipality on Cape Cod after Barnstable. The terminal for the Steamship Authority ferries to Martha's Vineyard is located in the village of Woods Hole in Falmouth. Woods Hole also contains several scientific organizations such as the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), the Woodwell Climate Research Center, NOAA's Woods Hole Science Aquarium, and the scientific institutions' various museums.
Daniel Scott Lamont was the United States Secretary of War during Grover Cleveland's second term.
The Cape Cod Central Railroad is a heritage railroad located on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It operates on a rail line known as the Cape Main Line which is owned by Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The line was previously owned and operated by the Cape Cod Railroad, the Old Colony Railroad, and later the New Haven Railroad, each of which operated passenger trains on the line from 1854 to 1959. Although its namesake is the former Cape Cod Central Railroad (1861–1868), the two companies are unrelated.
The Cape Cod Railroad is a railroad in southeastern Massachusetts, running from Pilgrim Junction in Middleborough across the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge, where it splits towards Hyannis in one direction and Falmouth in the other. It was incorporated in 1846 as the Cape Cod Branch Railroad to provide a rail link from the Fall River Railroad line in Middleborough to Cape Cod.
The Old Colony Lines are a pair of branches of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, connecting downtown Boston, Massachusetts with the South Shore and cranberry-farming country to the south and southeast. The two branches operate concurrently for 10 miles (16 km) via the Old Colony Mainline from South Station to Braintree station. The Middleborough/Lakeville Line then winds south through Holbrook, Brockton, Bridgewater, Middleborough, and Lakeville via the Middleborough Main Line and Cape Main Line. The Kingston Line heads southeast to serve Weymouth, Abington, Whitman, Hanson, Halifax, and Kingston by way of the Plymouth branch. Limited service to Plymouth was provided prior to April 2021 but was cut due to low ridership and budget constraints. The Greenbush Line, which was also part of the Old Colony Division, was reactivated in 2007 as a separate project.
Cleveland East Ledge Light is a historic lighthouse in Falmouth, Massachusetts. It sits on a man-made island in shallow water on the eastern of the two halves of Cleveland Ledge, which is said to have been named for President Grover Cleveland because he owned the nearby Gray Gables estate and used to fish in the area. It marks the east side of the beginning of the dredged channel leading to the Cape Cod Canal and is the first fixed mark when going northbound through the canal. As it is an important mark in an area subject to fog, it has a racon showing the letter "C".
Gray Gables station is a former train station in Bourne, Massachusetts.
The iron-hulled, single-screw steam yacht Utowana was completed in 1883 at Chester, Pennsylvania, by the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works for Washington Everett Connor. On sale to Elias Cornelius Benedict the yacht's name was changed to Oneida (1887), then when Benedict bought a new yacht to be named Oneida and sale of the old yacht and conversion to a tow boat the name was changed to Adelante (1913). During Benedict's ownership Oneida was the covert site of an operation on President Grover Cleveland, a friend of Benedict's and frequent guest on the yacht, to remove a cancerous tumor in his mouth.
Buzzards Bay station is a train station located on Main Street in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. The site also contains an interlocking tower. The Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge is adjacent.
The CapeFlyer is a passenger rail service in Massachusetts between Boston and Cape Cod that began in 2013. It is operated by the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority (CCRTA) in collaboration with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). The service runs on the weekends, beginning Friday evenings and including holidays, between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend.
Wareham Village station is a train station that is located on Merchants Way in Wareham, Massachusetts. Service to Wareham formerly ran from 1848 until 1959. A shelter, built in 1985 for short-lived Amtrak and commuter service, is currently unused. A new platform constructed nearby for the CapeFLYER summer weekend service opened for the CapeFLYER on June 27, 2014.
The Aptucxet Trading Post Museum is a small open-air historical museum in Bourne, Massachusetts. The main attraction is a replica of the 17th-century Aptucxet Trading Post which was built by the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony in order to trade with the Wampanoag Indians and the Dutch. The museum also features a replica of a 19th-century saltworks, the relocated 19th-century Gray Gables Railroad Station, and a wooden smock windmill. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.
Middleborough station is an under-construction MBTA Commuter Rail station in Middleborough, Massachusetts. It is expected to open in May 2025 as part of the South Coast Rail project, replacing Middleborough/Lakeville station for regular service. The station will have a single side platform located inside the wye between the Middleborough Main Line and the Middleboro Secondary.
Albert Winslow Nickerson was an American railroad executive and director of both the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and the Mexican Central Railway.
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