The Gibson family owned a summer home on Nahant called “Forty Steps,” named after the beach that the house overlooks. Catherine Gibson inherited the home from her father, Samuel Hammond, in the 1850s, and continued to summer there for most of her life.
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| Forty Steps, Nahant (Gibson House Museum) |
When her son Charles married Rosamond Warren, he found a partner who was also deeply tied to Nahant. The Warrens owned Rose Cottage; Rosamond would go on to spend all but five summers of her life on Nahant. Her memoir is chock-full of pleasant recollections of time spent with family and friends there. She remembers greeting the men off the ferry at 2pm, which shuttled the businessmen from Boston back to Nahant daily. She also recalls the bathing houses lined up along the shore, for people to change into their bathing costumes.
It was a complicated endeavor to pack up and head off to Nahant for the summer. The staff would close up the house in Boston and pack up theirs and the family’s trunks. As one family member remembered, “We would order a horse-drawn dray…and they would drive up…and start at eight-o-clock in the morning loading trunks and suitcases and silver and laundry and extra groceries…” After the dray left with the luggage, the family and staff would follow via the Boston to Lynn train.
During the summer, the Gibsons and their neighbors spent time swimming, playing games, and entertaining friends. The 4th of July celebrations were one of the highlights of the summer and the children would win prizes for different races.
Rosamond passed her love of Nahant to her children. Ethel, her eldest, got married at the Village Church in June of 1911; afterwards, her mother wrote to Ethel, “Wasn’t it a wonderful wedding? I think it was the loveliest thing I ever saw. The place like a fairy cottage… No one the worse for the champagne and yet everyone had all they wanted.”
Charlie Gibson was equally attached to the family summer home. In his later years, he spent his summers tending to the rose gardens, and they became a destination for travelers to the Boston area. The gardens were even written up in the New York Times.
It seemed that Nahant held a special place in the hearts of so many who spent their summers there. Charlie’s cousin-in-law, Lord Lyon Playfair, wrote “Beautiful walks and drives are to be found at every turn; whilst Nahant has happily remained free from the features of the fashionable watering-place, and from the dissipations of summer resorts better known to the outer world.” And, indeed, as Newport became an opulent destination for the New York elite, Nahant remained a more muted and less showy summer locale for the Boston set.
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| Rosamond Warren Gibson, c.1934, Nahant (Gibson House Museum) |
During the summer, the Gibsons and their neighbors spent time swimming, playing games, and entertaining friends. The 4th of July celebrations were one of the highlights of the summer and the children would win prizes for different races.
Rosamond passed her love of Nahant to her children. Ethel, her eldest, got married at the Village Church in June of 1911; afterwards, her mother wrote to Ethel, “Wasn’t it a wonderful wedding? I think it was the loveliest thing I ever saw. The place like a fairy cottage… No one the worse for the champagne and yet everyone had all they wanted.”
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| Rose gardens, Nahant (Gibson House Museum) |
It seemed that Nahant held a special place in the hearts of so many who spent their summers there. Charlie’s cousin-in-law, Lord Lyon Playfair, wrote “Beautiful walks and drives are to be found at every turn; whilst Nahant has happily remained free from the features of the fashionable watering-place, and from the dissipations of summer resorts better known to the outer world.” And, indeed, as Newport became an opulent destination for the New York elite, Nahant remained a more muted and less showy summer locale for the Boston set.
On Saturday, September 16, 2023, the Gibson House is hosting "By the Seaside: A Literary Walking Tour of Nahant." Space is limited - register today!
- Meghan Gelardi Holmes, Curator
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