Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, Wakefield, Mass.

Title

Route 128, May 1959

Description

"The 53' 20-ton, two-masted Newfoundland Swordfish schooner 'George and Freeman' moved from Portland, Maine to its permanent berth at Clipper Cove in Pleasure Island on May 5, 1959. The 80-year -old vessel had sailed with the Grand Banks fishing fleet before the turn of the century and was wrecked off the coast of Cuba. The schooner traveled the final leg of its journey along Route 128 which was a two-lane highway with a grass median strip in the Wakefield-Lynnfield area. The highway was eventually widened to accommodate the increasing number of cars and trucks. In addition to serving as a prop at Pleasure Island for 11 seasons, the 'George and Freeman' appeared in the movie 'Charlie' starring Cliff Robertson and Claire Bloom which was filmed at Pleasure Island during the off-season in 1967. Clipper Cove was a reproduction of a 150-year old New England fishing village, the place from which visitors embarked on two of the parks most popular attractions, the Wreck of the Hesperus and the Moby Dick rides. After entering Pleasure Island, visitors passed through the crescent shaped entrance to Clipper Cove that was outlined with barnacle-crusted anchors. The schooners 'ribs' can still be seen when the water is shallow in the area which was once Pleasure Island's Clipper Cove inner harbor."

Image from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department annual calendar, 2015

Photo courtesy of Bob McLaughlin, Friends of Pleasure Island

Contributor

Institution: Lucius Beebe Memorial Library

Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department (Wakefield, Mass.)

D'Onofrio, Jayne M.

Coverage

Massachusetts--Middlesex (county)--Wakefield

Date

05-1959

Format

image/jpeg

Publisher

Wakefield, Mass. : Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department

Subject

Amusement parks

Type

still image

Photographs

Original Format

1 picture: b & w

Extent

31 x 17 cm.