This past weekend was the last weekend at White Foam, summer home at Chatham, Mass, for a couple of decades of William and Sally Pettit.Sometime in the 1920's Mr. and Mrs. W. O. Pettit of New Brunswick NY, with their two children began to take their summers at Harwichport Massacusetts renting here and there. Owning boats, sailing and fishing.
After the 1938 hurricane destroyed his summer home at Salters Point, Mr. and Mrs. D. C. Daniels of Worcester, Massacusetts began to summer at Harwichport, bringing along their two daughters.
Eventually the families would meet and William Jr. and Sally Daniels, fell in love, married and continued the summer tradition. The original White Foam is pictured below, on the beach at Harwichport, this was the summer home of William Pettit, Jr and Sally Pettit for most of the later part of the 20th century.
We are all thankful for having almost one hundred years of Cape Cod experiences, the stories we heard, the stories we experienced, the times of our lives, were ledgend.
William O. Pettit, Jr. became among other things a master boat modeller, although he would never admit to it. In the possession of the editor of TMDC is this whaling ship model built by W. O. Pettit, Jr., it is a model of the last active whaler to operate out of the eastern sea board in the early 20th century about the time that WOPettit and his family began to spend summers on the "Cape".
Some things are sad, and some are happy. Leaving Cape Cod behind is sad, the memories are happy.
wow. beautiful. reminds me of so many of MY times on the Cape. my parents moved from there a couple of years ago and i miss it . . . always will. thanks for the post. cep
ReplyDeleteI just purchased two of Mr Pettit's ship models at their home in Chatham , Ma.
ReplyDeleteBoth models are very impressive. One is a model of the lightship STONEHORSE and the other I think a Catboat or BeatleCat both in cases.
John Connell
Chatham MA
The White Foam pictured above is my family's house on Cape Cod. Could you tell me more about the history of the Pettits at White Foam?
ReplyDeleteThe family bought it in the mid nineties. Did extensive renovations.. my parents were always like that, nothing too good for them. we (the children and grandchildren) would visit for time to time. But largely my parents spent the summers there. Eating at Eastward Ho, and around town. Dad had a cat boat he sailed for a few summers. Every morning he would walk to get the paper and do the crossword puzzle. Mom read.
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