A View of Lake Eola Bandshell and Downtown Orlando

A view of the Lake Eola Bandshell and downtown Orlando, Florida.

postmarked February 25, 1984, Orlando FL

Dear Marion and Fred

Little cool today- 75 degrees.  Went shopping in Altamonte Mall.  After lunch at "Denny's" in Longwood.  Bought a steak for supper Saturday and a roast for Sunday.  Will be coming home as planned 3/11/84.  Miss you both- nice to get back home.  Wrote most all of my cards.  See you next week.  Hope Fred feels better.

Love, Betty

Mr. and Mrs. Fredrick Blokland

218 Bullard Street

Holden, Mass. 01520

Here's a great view of downtown Orlando with a few less high rise condos and one less Suntrust Center, which was built 4 years after this postcard was sent.  According to Wikipedia, Denny's had expanded into all 50 states in 1981, almost 30 years after its 1953 California beginnings, so Betty's air-quotes around Denny's may actually denote the newfound Florida presence of the restaurant chain.  Altamonte Mall had been open for ten years, so I guess Betty didn't feel the need to introduce the concept to the Bloklands.  

Speaking of the Bloklands, Frederick and Marion Blokland bought the property at 218 Bullard in 1951, where they live until Frederick's death from cardiac arrest in 1989.  Shortly thereafter, Marion moved to Lake Orion, Michigan, where she still is today at the age of 93.  They had at least one son, Frederick, Jr. who still lives in the town of Holden, so perhaps we'll be able to find out who Betty was!

(Big thanks to the Worcester County Reigstry of Deeds, who has a great public records search!) 

Hotel Lucerne, Orlando, Florida

Orlando is the seventh city of Florida and the largest inland city in the State.  It is the county seat of Orange County and located in the very heart of Florida's brick highway system, the heart of the citrus belt, and the heart of the lake region of central Florida.

postmarked January 18, 1956

Hotel Lucerne Box 1793

Wednesday. Jan. 18.

You are not sick are you?  I hope not- but I've missed hearing from you.  

Guests are arriving in full numbers now tho it is not too warm here.  What is the news in Beverly?  Mildred Horne writes that she plans to come to Florida later this spring.  

Mabel? Hicks

Mrs. Robert O. Small

70 Dane St.

Beverly, Mass

Ms. Hicks is a doomsayer!  Great numbers of snowbirds!  Run!

A closer and later view of the Hotel Lucerne, which was fairly large for the burgeoning city of Orlando.  

Beverly, Massachusetts is an historic resort and manufacturing town of about 40,000 people today.  It is one of two cities that claim to be the birthplace of the U.S. Navy.  The tidy white house at 70 Dane St is still there, just blocks from Mackerel Cove.  Robert O. Small, an 1896 graduate of Bowdoin University, and served as Deputy Commissioner of the Massachusetts Board of Education, as well as the Beverly Library Trustees Board.  

So it's weird that there aren't property records in Essex County, or a mention of his wife.  Or Mabel Hicks.  

Rodeway Inn, Orlando, Florida

Rodeway Inn

5827 Caravan Court

Orlando, Florida 32805

Phone (305) 851-8300

Dining Room + Coffee Shop + Cocktail Lounge + Children's Playground + Meeting Facilities

Nine miles from the main entrance at Disney World

At I-4 and Florida 435.  First interchange south of the Florida Turnpike.

Hi This is where I am staying.  Spent the day at Disney World.  Still don't believe some of it.  See you soon.

Love,

Helen

Mary Rhodes E. Baker

33 Auburn St.

Framingham, Mass. 01701

This Rodeway Inn became a Days Inn sometime in the 1990's, but it's still around in all of its budget motel glory.  Florida Highway 435 is known to Orlando residents as Kirkman Rd, the major artery leading folks to Universal Studios Orlando, Valencia College's West Campus and the communities of Orlo Vista and Pine Hills.  This 1973 postcard was long before Universal Studios, so you can notice the seemingly unending stretch of orange groves behind the motel beyond the interstate.  

The town of Framingham, Massachusetts is If Mary Rhodes Baker lived in the squat apartment buildings that Google maps shows, then her former residence is still standing.  

Crescent Court, 1721 N. Mills St., Orlando, Florida

Recommended by AAA

CRESCENT COURT

1721 N. Mills St.- on route 17-192

Orlando, Florida

32 Rooms - Air Conditioned _ Electric Heat _ Wall-to-Wall Carpets _ Room Phones

Free Television - Swimming Pool

Phone GArden 2-4482

postmarked February 4, 1960.

Here since last Thursday.  Rain most of the time.

Love, Florence

Mrs. Herbert Bruce

98 Willow Road

Nahant, Mass.

This motel, one of many dotting U.S. 17-92 and other major highways through Orlando, provided a place for weary travelers driving on the pre-Interstate routes through Florida.  (You can find many still in existence on the Orange Blossom Trail, such as the Parliament House.)  Most of these motels had similar construction- a long building divided into small rooms with a courtyard and perhaps a pool out front.  Crescent Court was torn down in the 1990's to make room for the Orlando Immunology Center.

Nahent, Massachusetts is a small town of about 3,000 people in the northern part of the state.  The hues at 98 Willow Ave sits on Dorothy Cove, an inlet of Massachusetts Bay.  Herbert Bruce was listed in the "Who's Who on the Northern Shore of Massachusetts Bay- 1916."  It looks as if Herbert Bruce's wife was named Mildred Bruce, and they had at least one son, Herbert, Jr. who granted the property to someone in 1997.  Mildred was listed as deceased.  What a friend of a fairly prominent family in Massachusetts was doing in an Orlando motel for an entire week is unknown.  At least she had free television.

Cocoanut Palm in Miami, Fla.

Millboro, Mass. September 7, 1962

Sept. 5 ‘62

Hello Carrie,

We are up here for a short while.  Hope you get a chance to come see us.

Love,

The Lincolns

Miss Carrie L. Dudley

693 Hill St.

Whitinsville, Mass


I hope they got the chance to come see the Lincolns too!

Whitinsville, Massachusetts is an unincorporated village on the Mumford River, primarily known as a mill town throughout it's history.  The house where Miss Dudley lived cannot be seen on GoogleStreetView, but the address is on a winding Hill Street just outside the Historic District.  The SSDI lists a Carrie Dudley passing in 1980, but the Worcester County Land Deeds Registry shows two land transfer records from 1977 and 1978 for two properties with different addresses, one on Hill St.  It also shows she was unmarried at the time of transfer, which likely means she had no children.

As far as the ubiquitous (in south Florida) Cocoanut Palm,  it may not be a native plant.  Since its seeds can float and disperse for long periods, it's very likely to have naturally migrated to Florida where it can be seen as far north at Stuart on the east coast and Punta Gorda on the west.  There's a Monty Python joke in here somewhere...

Scene on Island Waterway between Palm Beach and Miami, Fla.

Palm Beach, Fla, December 15, 1942

Dear Feverfew:-

Greetings from Florida once more- guess it will be for the last season until the war is over so we must make the most of it.  We are at Trailer Garden, W. Palm Beach for the winter and like it here.  Friendly people and a very pretty small camp.  Husband’s sister and her husband are at Lake Worth, seven miles from here, I a home so we shall be with them at Christmas as usual.  We go there for Sun. dinner usually, the only driving we do.  I can if weather is right, walk to shopping center about 1 ½ miles.  The open beach is probably ½ mile further across Lake Worth. 

Best Wishes,

Wanderer

Mrs. Etta Briggs

Pratt St.

Halifax, Mass.


Wistful musings about the war being over from a tin can tourist.  With gas rationing during the war, visitors to Florida found their journeys limited, if they could travel to Florida at all.  The Trailer Garden may still exist, given the rough directions that our Wanderer provides us.  

Etta Briggs was born in 1877 and died at the age of 91 in Halifax, Massachusetts.  The town of 7,000 people has a historical commission, so I have contacted them to shed any more light on Ms. Briggs and perhaps her mysterious "wanderer."

Roney Plaza Hotel, as Viewed From Collins Park, Miami Beach, Florida

Roney Plaza Hotel as Viewed from Collins Park, Miami Beach, Florida

Miami’s hotels are unsurpassed by any throughout the entire world.  The Roney Plaza, surely one of the most palatial ever built is one of Florida’s proud boasts.  Its setting of tropical palm and flowers glowing with color invite to rest and play in the warm winter sun.

Postmarked Miami, Fla. November 15, 1937

623 NE 83 St. Miami, Fla

Dear Folks

Will hear we are in the sun shine and flowers it has been a lovely week not to warm and we hve been as buisy as bees are pretty well straitened out now wish you could be hear

Love from Hon Sue

Mr. & Mrs Harry Post

393 South Main St.

Farmingdale, L.I. N.Y.


Roney Plaza was demolished in 1962 to make way for what the Miami New Times called a monstrosity of a building.  The address given in Miami is home to a sunglasses distributor.  And the lumber business owned by the Post family in Farmingdale is now an expansion parking lot for the funeral home next door.

However, in addition to yesterday's find of Gladys Post, a possible descendant/contempory, it looks like Harry Post was an amateur roller skater back in 1955!

Indian Creek, Miami Beach, FL

Indian Creek, Miami BeachMany luxurious homes border on this tropical waterway.  Over its smooth surface Gar Wood races his famous “Miss Americas”

Miami, Fla January 23, 1944

Pvt. D. E. Phelps

912^th Tr. Gp. Sq. 121 Flt A

AAF Training Center #1

Miami Beach, Fla

1/23/44

Dear Dad,

Haven’t got time to write a letter home today.  I’m trying to get caught up on both my letter writing and sleep.  We had a big parade & review this afternoon.  By the sun was hot and in a parade you can’t wear sun glasses.  Well take it easy.  I’ll write later.

Love, Dan

Mr. H.S. Phelps

54 Willow Ave

W. Somerville, Mass

Notice that this postcard is without a stamp, and our Private Phelps auspiciously wrote “FREE” where the stamp should go?  That’s how we won WWII, through audacious acts such as this, and writing “FREE” everywhere our troops went in Europe and the Pacific.

Private Phelps was part of Army Air Forces 5th district, activated in 1943, headquarters in Miami Beach.  In addition to training U.S. pilots, the center trained Royal Air Force pilots as part of the lend-lease agreement with Great Britain.  The 912th Training Group was a squadron of refueling planes that saw plenty of action in support of bombers in World War 2, and is still active today.  

What became of Private Dan Phelps is a mystery.  The town of Somerville, first settled in 1630, has about 75,000 people.  The Middlesex County Registry of Deeds goes back to 1974, and the only listing for a Phelps in Somerville is a 1993 bankruptcy for someone who may or may not be a direct descendant.  Thankfully, the National Archives List of Army and Air Force World War Two Casualties lists an Ernest Phelps, so as far as I can tell, Dan survived long enough to go back to his home on 54 Willow St.

Lake Eola, Orlando, Fla.

Lake Eola, Fla.

Postmarked March 11, 1905 Received March 14 1905 Northhampton, Mass.

March 10

We have been in Orlando since Wednesday, but shall stay but one week so direct your next to Jacksonville, Gen. Del.  Papa is better but I think the water in Tampa was not good for him.

Mama

Miss Beaulah Wells

Albright House,

Northhampton, Mass.

As a Tampa native living in Orlando, I can attest to the lesser quality of Tampa’s water system, and I am not surprised that Papa suffered some as a result. 

Northhampton, Massachusetts is a town of about 23,000 people with an eclectic social history.  It's been home to a Great Awekening, Transcendental Abolitionism, Industrial Age and Rust Belt Decline, and now vibrant music scene and large LGBT community.    Albright House is a dormitory still in use today at Smith College, and there is a mention of a Beulah Wells in the October 1905 Smith College Monthly newsletter (archived here) that informs us that Miss Wells went to Rochester, N.Y. to work at the Rochester Business Institute.  From there, the trail grows cold.

On a tangent, if that's a receiving postmark from Northhampton, then that shows it took three days en route through our Postal Service.  Before optical character recognition and ZIP codes.  Before Interstate Highways.  Wow.

Here's the game I invite all my Orlando readers to play with me.  Try to find the correct shore of Lake Eola that corresponds with this photo.  My guess is the camera is located on the northwest shore looking south, which would put the structure in the photo where the bandshell is today.  I welcome your thoughts and photos, with which I will update this blog to compare the two!

Shawmut Congregational Church, Tremont and West Brookline Sts., Boston, Mass.

April 29, 1909

Everything in (Revere?) is booming

What in the world is the matter that you don’t write.  I wrote you telling you of my youngest br. Death Mar. 10^th and you haven’t ans.  I am very well and busy.  The (Marks?) have moved in Dr. Morris’ house so we have lost our neighbor.  Try to get time to write. 

(H. Gary?)

Mrs. Henry H. Haines

Madison, Maine

Haines the Druggist


Boston's Shawmut Church is a very historic building in the South End of Boston.   There's a New York Times article about the church's divisions in 1892, an address on Abraham Lincoln, delivered by civil rights leader Moorfield Storey in 1909, and a Flickr page set up by the Boston Public Library with early 20th century photographs.  The church was severely damaged by fire in 1978, and was converted into residences in 1990.  Some units are for sale today!

Madison, Maine is a small town in Somerset County with a population of about 4,000, incorporated in 1804.  In 1900, the population was 2,700 and had a thriving business center.  Maine genealogy records show a Henry Haines that died at age 92 in 1972, but there is no mention of his drug store, or any "Haines" currently doing business in Madison.  Taylor's Drug Store boasts that it has been family owned for over 100 years, so perhaps they changed their name or provided some stiff competition for the neglectful Mr. Haines.

The scolding tone of H. Gary? is a departure from the usual text seen on postcards.  It is a tale of loss, displayed for any postal worker to read, as well as a plaintive cry for communication.  Was H. Gary a dear friend of Mr. Haines?  Or perhaps a former lover?  If the latter is true, than the sender was out of luck, if ancestry.com's marriage record of Henry Haines is the recipient.

Sunshine Pleasure Club, St. Petersburg, Florida

March 2, 1956

Hello, All-

We are having a good rest on a wonderful vacation.  The weather is very warm and all our summer plans are in bloom.  They built four thousand houses here last year and are still going strong. 

J. V. (?)

Haverhill Lumber & Supply Co.

22 Phoenix Row

Haverhill, Mass.


Sunshine Pleasure Club is my favorite band from the 1980's.

Haverhill, Massachusetts is one of the oldest communities in the state, settled in 1640, and incorporated in 1870.  It became a manufacturing center, specializing in shoes and hats until the Great Depression.  Its rich history includes the first retail establishment of Rowland Macy, the first Macy's Parade, and Haverhill High School, which inspired Bob Montana's Archie Comics.

The Sunshine Pleasure Club was my favorite 1970's kids show.

The Haverhill Lumber and Supply Company is gone, replaced by an assisted living facility.   In addition, the sender has an undecipherable signature.  It is very conceivable that the sender worked at the lumber company when he notes the number of houses built in St. Petersburg.  Perhaps the Haverhill Lumber and Supply Company could have benefitted from a southern migration- the population of St. Petersburg doubled from 1950 to 1960.

The real Sunshine Pleasure Club started in Williams Park in St. Petersburg sometime before 1917.  Google has an archive of the St. Petersburg Times, and apparently shuffleboard, horseshoe pitching and the athletic prowess of the Sunshine Pleasure Club were hot topics for decades.

Home Surrounded by Tropical Foliage and Hedge of Flame Vine St. Petersburg, Fla.

January 12, 1959

Hi Come on down.  No snow here. 

Bob Martino

640 8^th Ave. South

St. Petersburg, Fla.

Mr. & Mrs. Tom Fairbanks

Rear 496 Main St.

Groveland, Mass


A short quick note from our good friend Bob Martino, one month prior to the previous message he sent to the Fairbanks'.  I'm trying to coin a neologism for the ubiquitous Florida weather contrast seen on most postcards- maybe "sunboasting."  This is the first of several postcards addressed to the Fairbanks family in Groveland, MA that came in the last lot of postcards I purchased.  Most antique stores get their inventory from either auctions or buying estates.  Postcards and greeting cards get saved in a stack over the years, and generally get discovered when the antique dealer finds them in that sweet roll-top desk or Victorian hutch.  They get added to the inventory, and generally put into a section of the store or booth.  If there's enough inventory, a dealer may organize the cards by location and theme, mixing in the used and unused cards.  This process is why the frequency of the same family name s fairly commonplace, but it still holds excitement and provides a more secure anchor to discover the identities of the recipients.

Thankfully, our friend Bob was kind enough to provide his return address on this card.  Unfortunately, Bob's house was swallowed up by the continuing expansion of Bayfront Medical Center and All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.  There is a drywall company owned by a Bob Martino in St. Petersburg, but their website is under construction and very generalized.

The population of the town of Groveland was 3,297 in 1960, over half of what it is today.  Groveland is located in Essex County, made famous by the oddly shaped state legislative district drawn for Eldridge Gerry.  A cartoon of "the Gerry-mander" was published in 1812, and our political system had a new word that would shape our government every ten years.  The tidy white house at 496 Main St. still exists, as was listed in the Essex County deeds as being sold to a Claude Ritter in 1975.  Fairbanks seems to be a prominent surname in Groveland, maybe they were members of the Garden Club or descendants of the same Fairbanks family that owns the oldest timber house in America.

Among the Orange Groves in Florida

St. Petersburg, FL
February 3, 1959

Greetings from Florida.

Come on down where it is cold and wet.

Bob Martino

Mr. & Mrs. Thom. Fairbanks

Rear 496 Main St.

Groveland, Mass.


Thanks, Bob.


Mr. Martino is either a poor salesman, or close enough to his friends, the Fairbanks', that he can lay on the sarcasm.  There's more from Bob on another card, as well as the Fairbanks, so enjoy this pastoral scene from the not-too-distant past.


The first citrus trees in Florida were planted and cultivated by members of Christopher Columbus' crew, and continued under the Spanish flag as the first settlements in Florida began.  Even through freezes and disease, Florida continues to be a major producer of citrus, even as old orange groves are cleared to make way for suburban development.

I'm still waiting to hear back from the Groveland Historical Society, but check out this history from one of the Parker descendants detailing a church pageant from 1950.

Evening Shadows Fall in Florida

Cocoa, FL

April 1, 1951

Best of Wishes from Florida

The Dunbars

Mr. James Parker

Main St.

So. Groveland, Mass.

Parker’s Store


Cocoa, FL was first settled in the late 19th century and got its name in one of two apocryphal ways.  The first theory is that a resident would offer hot cocoa to the passing sailors, which became so popular that they would shout "Cocoa!  Cocoa!"  The second theory is that another resident was inspired to name the town from a box of Baker's Coca she was using.  You can't make this stuff up- check out the official city history.

I covered who James A. Parker may have been in an earlier post about the correspondence between father and son.  The Dunbar surname is too common even for Brevard County to get a definitive identity on the senders.  Even the research on James Parker turned up no mention of a Dunbar branch of the Parker family tree, or why the Dunbar's would send such an impersonal greeting from Florida as if it were a very belated Christmas Card.  

Daytona Beach from the Air, Daytona Beach, Florida

January 18, 1947

#2

Dear Dad,

We still haven’t found a job or anything and may not stay here but I’ll let you know when we get an address for you to write to. 

Love, Herb

Mr. James A. Parker

482 Main St.

Groveland, Mass.


And we're back with more depressing news from Herb's job search.

I detailed the research on the elder Parker in the previous post on Herb's first desperate message to his dad, and Groveland, MA in other posts, so let's focus on what became of Herb Parker, who migrated to Florida after the second World War.

As of this writing, Florida has about a 9.9% unemployment rate, so there is a bit of comfort knowing that jobs were about as scarce in 1947 as they are today.  We continue the saga of Herb, the used car salesman, who now may not stay in Daytona Beach.  The only evidence he may have stayed is from a 1976 Daytona Beach News-Journal article that lists a Herb Parker (perhaps a Junior?) as part of the city's landscape department and another article commemorating a heroic rescue of a four-year old girl in 1986 from a swimming pool.  I'd like to think that the elder Herb Parker prospered alongside the World's Most Famous Beach and had a son who also stayed.  A quick search of the Volusia County Property Appraiser's website corroborates this theory as two deeds are recorded for a Herbert Parker (Jr.) in Daytona Beach and a Herbert Parker III in South Daytona.  I guess he finally got an address for Dad to send letters.

Tropical Palm in Florida

Cocoa, FL

April 5, 1951

Still having good weather.  The cars are starting northward now.  They are travelling in large numbers. 

Best of wishes,

From,

The Dunbars

Miss Marion Parker

480 Main St.

So. Groveland, Mass.


Just over a month after the Dunbars sent this postcard to Marion Parker, Hurricane Able would brush the Florida coastline as one of the earliest hurricanes to strike the U.S. Obviously, even modern hurricane tracking cannot predict a storm moving more than a week before landfall, so the Dunbars must be observing the annual migration northward of what we in Florida call the "snowbirds."  It might be just me, but I sense an apocalyptic tone to this postcard, as if some horrible disaster had driven the winter residents away from the state in massive numbers.

That disaster is the sweltering summers here.

There are two places of interest for the identity of Marion Parker.  The first is a Marion Parker who is the chairman of the Greater Women's Club of Massachusetts Public Affairs, holding a publicity book fair.   The second, and more age-appropriate site shows a 1985 Lakeland Ledger obituary for Marion Parker, retired bookkeeper of Groveland, MA, survived by a nephew, Herbert Parker of Clermont, FL.  She is listed as a member of the Groveland Congregational Church, until moving to Lakeland in 1983.

$2 Million Banyan Tree

Dania, FL

March 8, 1946

Hello,

Just a line to say we having a grand time.  We haven’t seen this tree but have seen lots of others like it.  Went on Jungle Cruise yesterday.  Irene saw an alligator in the water.  Be good and say hello to the folks.

? Irene & Ruthie

Mr. Thomas Fairbanks

King St.

Groveland, Mass.


Irene saw an alligator.  Thanks, Ruthie.

Long before Walt Disney World had it's jungle cruise, tourists would flock to places like this to take in the exotic and strange Florida landscape.  And all the sights from the 1920's through the 1950's seemed to boast of their "million dollar" qualities.  How a banyan tree got valued at 2 million dollars in Ft. Lauderdale is lost to the ages. Since Irene and Ruthie didn't provide their surnames, it is difficult to know whether they were passing through Dania, or were winter or permanent residents of the south Florida town.

As far as the Fairbanks, there is a Wayne Fairbanks living on King Street who serves on the Groveland Congregational Church's Church and Ministry Committee today (link broken-you can visit the church's website here.)  His email address is listed, and I'll update this post if he knows of any connection between Ruthie and Irene and the Fairbanks family.

Band Shell and Ocean Front, Daytona Beach, Florida

January 18, 1947

Dear Dad,

It took longer than we expected to get here but we made it O.K. only to find the bottom dropped out of the used car market and now you can’t even give one away.

Love, Herb

Mr. James A. Parker

482 Main St.

Groveland, Massachusetts

I admit that it gave me a little comfort to know that the story of being unemployed in Florida has been experienced by many people, and as far back as 1947.

This postcard is the first of two from Herb (Parker) to his Dad, James A. Parker.  I'll go over the research on what may have become of the despondent Herb in a later post, but let's focus on the elder Parker in this one.

First, the house at 482 Main Street still stands, and the earliest online record of the property from the Essex County Reigstry of Deeds shows an easement granted from James A. Parker in 1973.  James A. Parker is also listed in a 1950 book by a Sarah Parker as a World War I veteran, and the family may have been (according to Wikipedia...) descendants of a Benjamin Parker who was the second postmaster of Groveland, having relocated the post office to his store.  An 1884 atlas shows many Parkers in residence along the same area of Main Street where this card was sent.  As to what became of the store, the Parker-Hannifin Company  boasts a division in nearby Haverhill, MA amongst its worldwide locations.  It is conceivable that many Parker family members are still thriving in Groveland, and hopefully passed on that survivability to poor Herb looking for work in post-war Florida.

Ocean Front Park with the Casino in the Background Daytona Beach, Fla.

May 20, 1952

Dear Ray,

It’s hot here today.  It is a nice beach here an the way down you would ride for 30 miles on the road and see no one in Georgia and after you leave Jacksonville.

Love,

Dad

Raymond Parker

482 Main St.

Groveland, Mass


Please say hello to the Parker Family.  We're going to get to know them over the next few cards.

Ocean Front Park has changed dramatically in the past few years, as a new hotel and development surrounds most of the area between the bandshell and park.  The clock tower and pier still exist as reminders of Daytona Beach's heritage as the "world's most famous beach."

According to the almanac, the high in Daytona Beach on May 20, 1952 was 90 degrees.  I suppose that is hot if you are an older person used to the New England winters.  Raymond Parker, part of the prominent Groveland family is attached to a Parker Fence Company on Main St., but given the date of this card, the business owner must be a descendent.  

The World Famous Daytona Beach, Florida

February 23, 1950

Dear Elsie:-

Congratulations about you and Mr. Farr!  Is he the army man I once met?  We moved here Jan. 11 and like so much.  Fine beach & nice trailer park we are in now.

Love, Mildred W. Cousins

Box 428, Holly Hill, Fla.

Weller’s Trailer Park

Mrs. Elsie Farnesworth

21 Pearl St.

Leominster, Mass


Leominster, MA was founded in 1915, and had a significant role in the development of the plastics industry, as well as being the birthplace of the Foster Grant Company.  Ironically, the city is the birthplace of the ubiquitous pink flamingo lawn ornament that dotted so many Florida yards in the 1950's and 1960's.

Holly Hill, FL is across the Halifax River from Daytona Beach, settled in the late 19th century.  The city and surrounding area is riddled with motels and trailer parks from the first half of the 20th century.
Worthpoint.com has an archived auction for a postcard advertising Weller's Suniland Trailer Park, but the park itself no longer exists.  Mildred Cousins was most likely a winter resident or tourist as there are no vital records or deeds listed for her in Holly HIll or Daytona Beach, although she specifically states that she "moved there on January 11."

Google Maps lists a business near the home in Leominster, which could be either a group home or a hotel including the house at 21 Pearl St.  The Worcester County Deeds office does not list any recent records attached to that address, nor is there a website for the aforementioned business.  There are plenty of Farr's and Farnesworth's in the area of Leominster, so we may never know about the "army man" that Mildred was congratulating Elsie on landing.