Haverhill

The Sordid History of Haverhill’s Downtown Parking Deck—A Loss Few Will Mourn

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Contractors this week began deliberately tearing down the downtown parking deck, but it was doing that to itself as far back as 1979. Anyone who’s chronicled the thing would likely say ‘good riddance’ to the horror that started 50 years ago this year. In 1974, the Haverhill Housing Authority, then the agency responsible for the city’s ill-fated urban renewal program, unveiled garage drawings that showed it up against the Merrimack Street sidewalk. The street, central to Haverhill’s reputation as the “Northeast Shopping Center,” now would have no stores for a lengthy part of the streetscape. The deck was intended to serve the retailers it displaced and a hoped-for “climatized mall” along the new Baily Boulevard.

Haverhill

U.S. Supreme Court Gave Go-Ahead 72 Years Ago to Radio for Bus Riders; Proves Too Late for WHAV

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‘Music as You Ride’ Fails to Save Original WHAV-FM in 1952

Editor’s note: A version of this story originally appeared in a WHAV newsletter May 17, 2010. Additional photograph below. The original FM incarnation of WHAV was a relatively short-lived affair of about only four years. It was conceived under difficult circumstances, lived in painful agony and died in part because of complaints from, of all people, bus passengers. WHAV FM was supposed to be Haverhill’s first radio station and would have been one of the first FM stations in the northeast.

Haverhill

Haverhill’s Forgotten Movie Star, Actress in 1933’s ‘Son of Kong,’ Born on This Day

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In 1933, nine months after the success of a little film called “King Kong,” RKO Pictures released “Son of Kong.” In the sequel, filmmaker Carl Denham is broke. Blamed for the destruction caused by Kong in New York, he hides in his boarding house. His landlady can barely keep the process servers outside and away from him. He leaves New York by freighter and ends up back on Skull Island. The landlady was played by actress Kathrin Clare Ward, born in Bradford as Katie Clare O’Connor on Nov.

Haverhill

As Canada Observes the ‘Great Expulsion’ of Acadians, Reflections on Whittier’s ‘Marguerite’

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Editor’s Note: Today, Canadians are observing a Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval, recognizing British atrocities in 1755, resulting in the expulsion of Acadians who refused to sign an oath of allegiance to Britain. The Acadians, descendants of 17th and 18th century French settlers in the northeastern region of North America, were deported to the 13 American colonies, France and Britain. Thousands died during the expulsion. Acadian suffering was formally recognized by a 2003 Royal Proclamation. It declared July 28 as the Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval.

Haverhill Heritage Series

WHAV Offers Happy 200th Birthday Wishes to Haverhill Gazette; Institutions Share History

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Editor’s Note: WHAV couldn’t let the year end without acknowledging the Haverhill Gazette’s milestone 200th birthday that took place this year. WHAV and The Gazette have a shared heritage in John Taylor “Jack” Russ. Russ, as publisher of the Haverhill Gazette, is the man most responsible for bringing Haverhill its first radio station, WHAV, in 1947. The Haverhill Gazette turned 200 years old in 2021 without any fanfare, but it deserves this birthday surprise, especially since it is one of the nation’s oldest, surviving newspapers. It is better off than the thousands of newspapers that have succumbed in recent years, but still a shadow of its former self—the victim, first of consolidation that reduced it from a robust daily to a weekly, and then of the loss of its advertising base to electronic media.

Haverhill

The Friendship of Helen Keller and John Greenleaf Whittier

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Editor’s Note: Haverhill native Dr. Raymond F. Comeau commemorates the 129th anniversary of the passing of one of Haverhill’s favorite sons, John Greenleaf Whittier, with an essay on the poet’s friendship with Helen Keller. Now of Belmont, Comeau is a retired dean and current lecturer at Harvard University Extension School. He is also a trustee, emeritus, of the John Greenleaf Whittier Birthplace in Haverhill. It was a sporadic relationship that manifested itself in only four letters and a single visit, and it lasted fewer than three years, but we can be sure that both Helen Keller (1880-1968) and John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) felt that knowing each other was a gift. As we will see, Keller was only nine when they met.

Haverhill Heritage Series

John Greenleaf Whittier’s Last Poem

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Hear Whittier’s Last Poem read aloud

There is something poignant about “last” things. The word last often possesses the sad, sometimes heroic, connotation of finality, including death. Think of a loved one’s last words, or the last time you saw a good friend, or a soldier’s last stand. Whittier’s last poem holds this poignancy. It is also, as I will show later, a key to understanding the poet’s deepest feelings and thoughts upon his approaching death, and a testament of his writing genius.

Haverhill

The Mystery of a Whittier Christmas Quote

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Editor’s Note: Thursday, Dec 17, was Haverhill-born poet John Greenleaf Whittier’s 213th birthday. Many Americans remember, especially at Christmas, on greeting cards or in other publications, the following lines attributed to John Greenleaf Whittier:

For somehow, not only for Christmas, but all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others is the joy that comes back to you;
And the more you spend in blessing the poor and lonely and sad,
The more of your heart’s possessing, returns to make you glad. But do they belong to Whittier? On Dec. 24, 2015, in “Quote Investigator,” an online source[1], an anonymous contributor traces the genesis of these lines.