52 Ancestors Week 30: In the News

  From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 30:

The theme for Week 30 is "In the News." Have you found an ancestor in the newspaper? (I sure hope so -- newspapers are wonderful resources!) Another possibility for this theme is to consider what historical/newsworthy events an ancestor witnessed or would have read about in the newspaper.

Parker! Forget about covering that fancy wedding uptown!
I want pictures of Spider-Man!

    If you can hear J.K. Simmons's rendition of the cantankerous Marvel newspaper publisher,  "J. Jonah Jameson" in your head as you read the blurb underneath the banner, then we can be friends.  Anyway, as far as being in the news goes, I guess you could say my family has been in print in various forms over the years. Even I've been immortalized in the pages of the "Salem Observer" and the "Lawrence Eagle Tribune". In many of those instances I have the doofiest looking grin on my face. Don't bother trying to find them for blackmail, guys! They're THANKFULLY not digitized at the time of this writing and lord knows if they ever will be! You try looking calm and collected after a Cross Country meet. Of course I know this won't stop some of you intrepid genealogists from trying. You know who you are. I've got my eyes on you.

The Colonial Arms. Lady in the pic not included

    With that said, this is a picture of the fabulous Colonial Arms Motel located by the dunes of Salisbury beach. Salisbury is just a stone's throw away from Newburyport and the mighty Merrimack river. My grandfather Marco,  my grandmother Ollie's brother-in-law, Arnold and my father built the place in 1959 and it opened in 1960 to rave reviews! As far as I know. There could be some slight embelishment here! I'm kidding. I'm sure it was a great place!

    Why am I bringing this up? Well, that's because this motel was in the news more than a couple times during its lifetime. From what my parents told me, Salisbury beach was THE spot where everyone in the Merrimack Valley visited if they wanted to swim, catch an act at the Salisbury Frolics,  hit up various restaurants and arcades conveniently located on the boardwalk. Those arcades, by the way, remained opened until well into the 1990s. God, I loved the fried dough on the boardwalk. AND "Tripoli Pizza", a historic pizza joint on the strip is still open! At the Frolics during its heyday, many famous acts of the 1960s would pass through such as Paul Anka and Connie Francis.

    That sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right? If you need a place to stay before heading out into the ocean, why not stay at an admittedly very nice looking motel. It had plenty of space and it seemed like a great place to chill. I think that sentiment sums up this first article I ever found about the old Colonial Arms.

Oof. I'd love a cleaner image of this.

     From the pages of the "Newburyport Daily News" on July 12th, 1962, we have this rather grainy article I pulled from the Newburyport Public Library The three distinquished gentlemen are from left to right: my dad's cousin Joseph Villanucci, my father and Joseph's brother, Dennis. Joseph and Dennis are the sons of my great-aunt Louise and her husband Arnold helped run the motel. If this seems like the makings of a sitcom to you, you're not wrong! Oh, the stories I could tell. Some of them are best left internal. Trust me.

    Anyway, they're playing it cool as they can since this is the early days of rock and roll and everything. Joseph still plays music to this day and was a music teacher for many years.

    I really liked the picture despite its grainy nature. It actually made me want to find out all I could about the motel. Sure I've heard about it from my father and everyone else who was involved. I just wanted to see what else was out there. And what did I find? Well....

    This article is from the same paper and dated August 9th, 1962. It's...Sigh...it's another grainy picture. Let me clear it up for everyone. It'll just take a minute.

    THERE we go! Much better! How does he do it, folks?! Is it magic? Nope. I just asked Dennis for a picture of the actual article and he was kind enough to scan it for me using his phone. I'm good at editing but I'm not good enough to clean up THAT mess. At least now we can see what's going on here. I also have a new and improved version of the second picture of everyone playing it cool.

    In the picture we have my grandparents, Marco and Ollie sitting at the table with Arnold, Louise and Dennis while my father and Joseph are hanging out in the background.

    From the looks of things, it seems that the two families were planning a barbeque. Perfect time of year to do it and you just know things were going to be epic! An Italian barbeque? What's not to like?!

    Yup. Things at the Colonial Arms were going really well without any drama, right? They had a great place, great locale and great staff. What could go wrong? A lot, apparently. Here is one such incident.

Oof. That'll put a damper on the partying....

   In the wee hours of October 17th 1961, Salisbury firefighters responded to a 911 call saying a fire broke out at an unoccupied cottage owned by the Villanuccis and the Ferraiolos. The fire was so intense that it forced the evacuation of a family of six from an adjacent home. Firefighters from Seabrook and Newburyport managed to contain the blaze and sadly the cottage burnt to the ground. Thankfully, none of the neighbors were hurt and only one firefighter suffered from smoke inhalation.

    As you might have guessed, this story took place a good year before the barbeque planning session. To this day no one knows what started the blaze. Was there a gas leak? Was there a faulty electrical problem? No one knows. My father likes to tell stories about the fire as he was home in Haverhill at the time. He said he never found out what happened. For all we know it could have been an accident. 

    Despite that one major event, the motel thrived until 1970 when the two families decided to sell the place. Today, it still stands the test of time and from what I've seen it's still in pretty good shape.

    Not bad, right? I think the place should be considered a historical landmark as it was part of Salisbury beach's heyday. My father has many fond memories of the motel and building it with his father. We've driven by the motel since it's been sold and I think it held up pretty nicely over the years. Other buildings should be so lucky!

    It was great finding these articles and talking to my parents about them as I found them. It gave me great insight into the kind of person my grandfather was and many stories about the people I grew up with well before I was born. That's the great thing about newspaper articles. They give valuable insight into peoples' lives and if the people involved in the stories are still around, it can add more meat to an otherwise dry family tree. So, do yourself a favor and try to find out if someone in your tree did something amazing or if they ended up being "ye olde Florida Man". 

See ya next time!