My memories of Nauset Heights go back to 1949 when I was 4 and met a girl exactly my age whose family had bought the Bob Hersey house, the current Brezina family house. I met Betsey Brezina Kenna then. Betsey and I would sit on top of the Brezina playhouse on the roof and look out to the ocean or down to the inlet. We talked about colleges and baseball teams. Her family was a Yale family and were Yankee fans. My family was a Harvard family and Red Sox fans. One time when we were 9 or 10, Betsey and I went fishing for flounder in the inlet in a row boat right near the "big rock". We had 9 hooks, lines and sinkers. We caught 9 flounders and rowed back to shore. Neither of us would take a fish off a hook!

Other memories of Nauset Heights include many trips to Alice and Fiske Rollin's house, currently the Cunningham house. I would go to "Alice's" to help her make jams and jellies. I also learned to play Canasta in Alice's house with Mrs. Thompson, the Schofields grandmother.

My families activities included my mother and father surf casting for stripers and bluefish from the beach. My mother, Mary Farnham, would then make a baked stuffed striped bass or stuffed bluefish. Mother also made a very good fish chowder and quahog chowder. The quahogs would be gathered by a trip to the Eastham Marsh and then mucking around in the potholes of the marsh.

Some other points of interest about Cottage B's property: A very tall flagpole stood there. It had spreaders and Julian Doherty would fly a huge American flag there and some nautical flags. The cement base is still there. There have been several weddings and parties with tents on the property. The Farnham family tennis court, (Bill, Betsey, Polly and myself) was built in 1973-1974 and sits on Cottage B's land.

 

-- Ann Farnham Deming


From the time the Callanans purchased Cottage B in the early 1900’s, it remained mostly rented until 1938.  That year the Callanans returned to summer on the bluff after having deserted Orleans for Chatham in 1929.  It finally occurred to the family that it was foolish to rent ten miles away while leaving two houses unused in Orleans. Also, Paul Callanan and his brother-in-law Dr. Julian Doherty rebelled against the dressiness of summers in Chatham. 

 

By then the Orleans house on the top of the hill (called the Dog House) had one story only and a modern kitchen but no bedrooms.  Cottage B  had bedrooms, but the kitchen was woefully out of date. Therefore, the family decided to sleep in one house and live and eat in the other.  Of course, this arrangement was less than perfect. After three years  it was decided to add a second floor back on the  Dog House during the summer of 1941.  The timing was fortunate as WWII would have precluded any building beginning in 1942.

One of the more humorous events during the period of double occupancy was the addition of a fourth bedroom in Cottage B. This was to be accomplished upstairs by raising a dormer on the shed roof next to the back door.  My uncle Julian Doherty determined it was a job he could do rather than hiring someone;  He was always confident he could handle most any project--be it building something or solving a mechanical or plumbing problem. Indeed, there were plenty of such problems, and he was usually successful. One of the requirements for success  always was the presence of an audience. He really didn’t like to work alone. He was a natural comic and would carry on a humorous running commentary while he worked.. One of the most important actors in this scene was his brother-in-law Paul who filled the role of straight man. So family and friends were expected to sit around on the ground and admire his work above.  The result was the room that for many years has been called the Rocket Room.

 In 1942 the Callanans returned to living solely in the Dog House, and Cottage B was rented regularly.  In 1961 it was sold to the Farnhams to accommodate their growing family.

-- Nancy Callanan Barker