Summit House on Rutherford Island, 1892-1918. Photo by Eastern Illustrating and Publishing Co. (Courtesy image)
South Bristol Historical Society will have its first monthly public presentation of 2022 at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 18, at the South Bristol School gym. This is the first of five monthly SBHS presentations open to the community.
The fifth- and sixth-grade class at SBS has been working with teacher and SBHS board members Jason Bigonia and Dave Andrews all school year to learn about the heyday of hotels in South Bristol. The students attended two presentations, read books, and searched online for information about hotels near the turn of the 20th century. They also had a presentation from John Mitchell, whose family owned Coveside Inn. The class visited the SBHS Museum to look at artifacts curated by Andrews, and by SBHS board member Carolyn McKeon.
After gathering all their information, students began writing a quest, which is a poetic scavenger hunt that leads questers around town to visit the site of each of the five chosen hotels and to learn about each of them. Steamboats were another item they researched and wrote about. Students chose to write the entire quest as a series of informative limericks. The quest is written and ready to be distributed to the public for the very first time at the May 18 meeting.
Attendees will be treated to a slideshow presentation of the hotels of South Bristol by Andrews, Bigonia, and the students. Speakers will stick around to talk about their displays of artifacts from the hotels and answer questions. Paper copies of the quest will be available at the end of the presentation.
Stay tuned for upcoming events.
