01907 Spring 2022

Fresh
Eyre
SPRING 2022
VOL. 7, NO. 1
• Thomson tale
• Can we talk?
•Town tableau

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LIQUORS

2 | 01907
LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
TED GRANT
A publication of Essex Media Group
Publisher
Edward M. Grant
Chief Executive Officer
Michael H. Shanahan
Directors
Edward L. Cahill
John M. Gilberg
Edward M. Grant
Gordon R. Hall
Monica Connell Healey
J. Patrick Norton
Michael H. Shanahan
Chief Financial Officer
William J. Kraft
Chief Operating Officer
James N. Wilson
Controller
Susan Conti
Editor
Thor Jourgensen
Contributing Editors
Madison Bethune
Gayla Cawley
Sophie Yarin
Writers
Adam Bass
Madison Bethune
Allysha Dunnigan
Alena Kuzub
Sam Minton
Photographers
Spenser Hasak
Jakob Menendez
Advertising Sales
Ernie Carpenter
Ralph Mitchell
Patricia Whalen
Design
Edwin Peralta Jr.
Advertising Design
Emilia Sun
INSIDE
4 What's up
6 Let there be light
10 Surf and skate
12 House Money
14 Perseverance
16 Friends with zest
19 Thomson tale
24 Way to play
28 Town tableau
29 Can we talk?
ESSEX MEDIA GROUP
85 Exchange St.,
Lynn, MA 01901
781-593-7700 ext.1234
Subscriptions:
781-593-7700 ext. 1253
01907themagazine.com
Plugged into
Swampscott
In the 1880s, a young scientist named Elihu Thomson had an idea
to use a spark from an electrical current to provide heat for welders. He
won the patent for his invention in 1891 and introduced it at the welding
company he had founded in 1886, called Thomson Electric.
For more than 80 years, Thomson Electric operated out of the building
on 161 Pleasant St. in Lynn, now occupied by Traditional Breads. You can
see it from the Lynnway.
A scientist and inventor, Thomson was granted 696 patents during his
life that spanned 83 years. He is perhaps best known as being extremely
instrumental in forming the merger of electrical giants that resulted in the
General Electric Company. And the Thomson Club in North Reading
bears his name.
Thomson was born in England, but his family moved to the United
States when he was a child.
So what’s the 01907 connection?
As an adult, he settled in Swampscott, in an estate near the beach on
22 Monument Ave., where he lived until his death in 1937. We know it
today as Swampscott Town Hall.
In this edition of 01907, Alena Kuzub profiles Elihu Thomson. She
talks of his childhood in Philadelphia, and his interest at an early age in
all things scientific. Alena relates the circumstances under which Thomson
partnered with Silas Barton, Henry Pevear, and shoe-manufacturer
Charles Coffin to leave New Britain, Conn., and come to Lynn to form
the Thomson-Houston Electric Company on Market Street in downtown
Lynn. Later, Thomson helped engineer the merger with his competitor,
Edison-General Electric Company of Schenectady, N.Y., to form General
Electric.
And why do I care about Thomson Electric? Because my father worked
there until he died at the age of 48 in 1969. As a kid I’d accompany him
to the plant on occasion – but never had a clue as to what he did or what
the company did or who Elihu Thomson was.
Now I do. Thanks, Alena.
I do know what Essex Media Group designer/illustrator Edwin
Peralta Jr. does, because I work with him almost daily. And I marvel
at his drawing and digital talents, which he used to capture the iconic
Swampscott Town Hall. Check it out on Page 28.
A different type of artistic prowess is shown by Julie Butters. The
Swampscott Public Library staffer – who graces the 01907 cover –
combined her love of playwriting with Zoom’s popularity to write and
stage a Jane Eyre novel adaptation. A novel adaptation, indeed.
And – speaking of a novel concept – there’s town resident Bob Scheier,
who co-founded the New England chapter of Braver Angels, a group
dedicated to bringing conservatives and progressives together to listen to
opposing views and shaping perspectives.
Civil discussion? In 2022? What a concept. Good luck with that, Bob.
COVER Actor and writer Julie Butters found a way to stage "Jane Eyre" on Zoom.
PHOTO BY Jakob Menendez

4 | 01907
WHAT'S UP
Civic reminder
What: It's time to register to vote
in the April 26 town election — a
Swampscott springtime ritual.
Where: The quickest way to register to
vote is either online at http://www.sec.state.
ma.us/ or visit the Clerk's office, Town Hall,
22 Monument Ave., to complete a voterregistration
form in person. Mail-in forms
are available online or at the Clerk's office.
When: The registration deadline is
Wednesday, April 6 with registration open
from 8 a.m.-8 p.m.
Global appetite
What: Swampscott Recreation
sponsors Eat Breakfast Around the
Globe, a culinary adventure for students
in grades 5-8 making "stops" in Costa
Rica, Japan, Switzerland, and the U.S.
Where: Swampscott Senior Center, 200R
Essex St. — check swampscottma.myrec.
com for registration information.
When: Tuesday, March 15-April 5, 3-4:30 p.m.
Taxing questions
What: The public library is taking calls
for American Association of Retired
Persons (AARP) income-tax-assistance
appointments.
Where: Visit the library reference desk, 61
Burrill St. AARP will mail information prior
to the appointment day.
When: The library will take
appointment calls Monday-Friday until
5 p.m. and Saturday until 1:30 p.m.
Sitter School
What: Swampscott Recreation sponsors
a babysitting class for students in
grades 5-10 taught by a licensed daycare
provider focusing on infant and toddler
care. Sign up at Swampscottrec.com.
Where: Swampscott Senior Center, 200R
Essex St.
When: Sunday, March 13, noon-4 p.m.
Bring-A-Friend
What: Rotary Club of Swampscott
sponsors a monthly meeting to introduce
the club's serving humanity mission.
Where: Mission on the Bay, 141 Humphrey
St. Visit Swampscott Rotary Club Facebook
page for more information.
When: Wednesday, April 6, noon-2 p.m.

Bill Willis and Christine Tierney
A Day in the Life
A peek behind
the curtain into
the lives of two of
Marblehead’s top
real estate agents.
Bill Willis & Christine Tierney
Senior Vice Presidents
christine.tierney@compass.com
612.860.6446
bill.willis@compass.com
617.549.8956
4:30am
Rise and shine. Catch up on
overnight emails and drink
my first cup of coffee.
6am
Walk Oscar, my Yellow Lab. I
find that getting outside early
in the morning helps me feel
most prepared to take on the
day ahead and always makes
me grateful to live in such a
beautiful place.
8am
Make sure my youngest child
makes it to school on time!
8:30am
Hit Plus Cafe for a second cup
of artisan coffee. Downtown
Marblehead has so many great
shops and restaurants, I love
supporting a local business
while also getting an extra
caffeine boost.
9am
Head to the Compass office.
10am - 12pm
Take Zoom Meetings, collaborate
with colleagues, analyze market
trends, and prep listings for
market. As real estate agents
we are so often on the move, so
carving out time in my day to
check things off my to-do list is
a must!
12pm
Grab a quick lunch at Shubies or
Eat Well Kitchen, two of the most
delicious spots on the Northshore.
1pm - 6pm
Showing Appointments,
paperwork, and client consults.
This is why we do what we do!
Getting to meet with our clients,
understand their needs and be
a part of their journey home is a
privilege we don’t take lightly.
6pm
Dinner and Family Time.
Winding down in the evening
is crucial to making sure I am
refreshed and present in every
aspect of my life.
Bill Willis and Christine Tierney are real estate brokers affiliated with Compass, a licensed real estate broker and abide by Equal Housing Opportunity laws.

6 | 01907
Saving the planet
one light switch
at a time
BY MADISON BETHUNE
Ryan Hale, the chair of the town's Renewable Energy Commission, stands behind his solar-powered home on Paradise Road.
PHOTOS: JAKOB MENENDEZ
Calling all Swampscott electricity
users! You may be helping the
planet in more ways than you
think.
That is if you are using Swampscott
Community Power, a community-based
program under National Grid, created to
meet the town's sustainability goals, and
also hopefully help you save a few bucks.
Investor-owned utilities (IOUs) rates
(such as National Grid) fluctuate in
the summer and winter, because of the
difference in electricity needs during each
time of the year.
With Swampscott Community
Power’s long-term (28-month) pricing,
LIGHTING, page 8
A lone light iilluminates the pier at Fisherman's Beach.
PHOTO: SPENSER HASAK

8 | 01907
LIGHTING, continued from page 6
compared to National Grid’s short-term
(six-month or three-month) pricing and
fluctuating rates, Swampscott Community
Power offers stable, predictable rates for
customers.
Although savings can’t necessarily be
guaranteed because of National Grid’s
unknown future costs, savings do come
with the program.
“Looking at the published rates, I’m
saving about 10 percent at the moment
compared to current National Grid rates,”
said Swampscott resident Eric Nothnagel,
who would recommend the program to
anyone not currently using it.
Vice President of Communications &
Program Management Marlana Patton
from Peregrine Energy Group who
runs Swampscott Community Power
encourages people to check out the
program this winter, because the prices
will be competitive with National Grid.
Swampscott Community Power is
not only aimed at giving customers more
stable rates, but is also being used to meet
the town's sustainability goals. And not to
fear! Although residents are automatically
enrolled into the program, they can leave
or join whenever they please.
Participants are automatically signed up
to receive 100-percent renewable energy
with the Standard Green Plan. Under this
plan, the energy is provided by wind power
outside of New England.
“The best-kept secret in Swampscott is
that individual residents are reducing the
carbon footprint,” said Ryan Hale, chair of
the Renewable Energy Commission.
Hale said customers can ignore all that
“you-have-dirty-electricity” junk mail,
because the electricity being provided by
the program is far from it. Especially if you
upgrade to the New England Green Plan,
which also provides 100-percent renewable
energy, but right from your own backyard
— maybe not literally.
The New England Green Plan provides
energy from, you guessed it: New England!
Although a bit pricier, the perk of this
Power lines extend down Paradise Road.
plan is that it creates a market demand for
energy suppliers in the area, which will
in turn create more sustainable energy
providers in New England.
More than half of Massachusetts towns
use a community-power program, also
known as a community-choice program.
Swampscott Community Power currently
serves 4,397 community members.
“I think it's great,” said Nothnagel.
GRAPHIC COURTESY: SWAMPSCOTT COMMUNITY POWER
"It saves us a little bit of money and it's a
great way for the town to engage in public
policies to help curb climate change.”
So when you’re pumping that window
air-conditioning unit this summer, you
can feel a little bit better about yourself,
knowing the power is coming from an
environmentally-friendly source, and that
it will keep an extra dollar or two in
your pocket.

Historic mansion.
Seaside cottage.
Penthouse condo.
Your dream is my job.
Kathleen Murphy | Global Real Estate Advisor | 781.631.1898
Uniting buyers and sellers along Boston’s North Shore
21 Central Street | Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA 01944

10 | 01907
Amber O'Shea and Tim Oviatt recently opened
Ocean House Surf and Skate in Nahant after
moving from Humphrey Street in Swampscott.
PHOTOS: SPENSER HASAK
Ocean House Surf and Skate
BY SAM MINTON
Amber O'Shea and Tim Oviatt
have come a long way as owners
of Ocean House Surf and Skate.
The surf-and-skate shop had humble
beginnings. The business started in Salem
in 2011, with Oviatt selling gear out of his
truck and garage. One year later, Oviatt
moved his base of operations to Beverly
Port Marina, and in 2013, moved the shop
to Swampscott where he stayed until 2021.
The shop in Swampscott also had a
café, which is where O'Shea and Oviatt
connected because O’Shea was a frequent
customer. Eventually, with her experience
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working in the food industry, she helped
him run the café. O'Shea became more
involved in the business as it grew by doing
some buying for Oviatt, who also makes
custom boards at the shop.
Ocean House made its way to Nahant
just before Christmas of last year, as the
business moved into its new location at
2A Wilson Road, with construction taking
longer than Bulletin expected. Print Ad
O'Shea said the Nahant community has
been great in supporting the shop.
"Everybody has been really cool," she
said. "Two days before Christmas, all of our
branded gear and T-shirts — everybody
bought them so we ran out. Everybody
seems really stoked."
O'Shea said that Long Beach in
Nahant is a great spot for surfing due to its
long waves and shallow and sandy makeup.
This also makes it a suitable surf spot for
beginners, as well as more advanced surfers.
The pandemic has helped people step
It's simple to customize t
1. Change the document
clicking on "Change Do
of the page. Consider i
abbreviated publicatio
2. Review the property in
the correct location(s)
out of their comfort zones and try some
new hobbies, especially ones that can get
them outdoors. O'Shea said that in the past
3. Double-click on the hea
change the messaging

SPRING 2022 | 11
Ocean House Surf and Skate co-owner Amber O'Shea
removes a Walden surfboard from the display at the
shop's new location in Nahant.
Surfing in the winter, says Amber O'Shea, is no
more rigorous than skiing or snowboarding.
rides
a wave to success
two years, surfing and skating have really
blown up.
"Everybody just wants to be outside,"
she said. "We've really seen the sport blow
up lately and we have a ton of beginners
coming into the shop that are super
excited."
O'Shea also mentioned the
technological advances that have helped
the sport grow in colder areas of the planet.
"I don't think a lot of people realized
you can surf in Massachusetts," she said.
"The wetsuit technology wasn't really up
to par 20 years ago, so if you lived in a
cold-weather place or somewhere where
the waves are best in the cold weather, you
wouldn't (have) seen a lot of surfers in the
water decades ago because the technology
wasn't there."
O'Shea compared hitting the beaches
of Massachusetts to going skiing or
snowboarding.
"If you have the right gear, you can surf
on a 20-degree day and be fine," she said.
NOMAD: Ocean House
Surf and Skate ended
up on Wilson Road
in Nahant by way of
Salem, Beverly and
Swampscott.

12 | 01907
HOUSE MONEY
PHOTOS COURTESY OF AMIE KEEFE

SPRING 2022 | 13
A peek inside
57 Puritan Road
SALE PRICE: $1,520,000
SALE DATE: November 4, 2021
LIST PRICE: $1,599,900
TIME ON MARKET:
53 days to closing
LISTING BROKER:
Maria Salzillo with J. Barrett & Company
SELLING BROKER:
William Raye with William Raveis Real
Estate - Boston - Back Bay
LATEST ASSESSED
VALUE: $1,007,500
PROPERTY TAXES: $14,407
YEAR BUILT: 2002
LOT SIZE: .27 acres (11,761 sq ft)
LIVING AREA: 3,554 sq ft
ROOMS: 14
BEDROOMS: 6
BATHROOMS: 4
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Oceanfront home with steps to a
private beach and unobstructed views
of Boston skyline and Nahant from
multiple rooms and the infinity pool
and patio. Six bedrooms on three
floors along with 2nd level great room
with fireplace, deck and wet bar, 3rd
floor bedrooms with additional deck.
Plenty of entertainment space, plus the
ability to moor your boat just off the
private beach.
Source: MLS Property Information Network.

14 | 01907
All in the family
Vinnin Liquors is a women-run business with a half century history, originally located on Humphrey Street, before moving to Paradise Road.
PHOTOS: SPENSER HASAK
BY ADAM BASS
As she looks back on the last year,
Vinnin Liquors President Angela Ansara
said the business is recovering from the
pandemic, but there is still a need for
quality employees.
"We're still recovering a little bit, but
it's still hard to find the employees who
want to work because of the pandemic,”
she said. “A good employee would be
someone self-motivated, eager to learn, ask
questions and show up on time. What we
ask for is pretty simple.”
During the early period of the
pandemic, Ansara said alcohol demands
were high, leading to more deliveries in
Swampscott and other communities such
as Salem, Beverly and even Boston.
“We have delivery to go anywhere
in Massachusetts,” Ansara said. “If it's
too far out, we will ship it. If it's a big
event, we will ship it. We go to places like
Rumson's Rum, based in Salem, lines a shelf at Vinnin Liquors, 371 Paradise Road.

SPRING 2022 | 15
Gloucester, Boxford and Boston all the
time.”
Vinnin Liquors was established in the
early 1970s by Ansara’s mother, Marge,
who also commissioned the building’s
construction. The store was originally on
Humphrey Street before relocating to its
current location at 371 Paradise Road in
1975. Before starting Vinnin Liquors, she
built and founded Lynnway Liquors in
Lynn in 1964.
“Her dad — my grandfather — sold
perishables,” Ansara said. “The one piece
of advice he gave her is: ‘Don’t go into
business for things that expire.’”
Ansara said her mother broke ground
by being one of the few female owners of a
liquor store at that time, and that she faced
challenges when getting signatures to start
her business.
“It was hard times because women
owners weren’t looked at very friendly,”
Ansara said. “I remember my mother
telling me she had a petition around
Swampscott to get the dream she wanted.”
As for Ansara, she said she had been
interested in business since she was a child.
“I was always a very business-minded
person,” Ansara said. “I would always take a
cart to King’s Beach and sell lemonade.”
Ansara started working at the store in
sales after graduating from college in 1994.
She then climbed the ranks to become
president in 2012. At the age of 93, her
mother is still helping out at the store,
Joe Cesarz, manager and beer buyer at Vinnin Liquors, organizes an aisle of wine at the liquor store.
albeit less frequently.
She's a minority owner and she does
pop in a little bit less these days,” she said.
“She still tries to rule the roost the best she
can.”
Ansara said business follows her
wherever she goes, and she someday hopes
her children will follow in her footsteps.
“It comes naturally to me,” she said.
“Maybe if it was more of a mental
challenge it would be more of a stress.
I want to share what I know and teach
others and do business and marketing.”
For those pursuing entrepreneurship,
Ansara has a piece of advice: “Anything is
possible.”
Vinnin Liquors front-end manager Calvin Carter
checks out a customer.

16 | 01907
A zest for the best
BY MADISON BETHUNE
Ranging from ham-and-swiss hand pies,
rosemary-and-lemon cookies, all the way
to chartreuse cocktails and pomegranate
martinis, there is something delicious for just
about anyone at Zestfriendz, a bakery/smallbites
bar in Swampscott.
Owned and operated by two “zest
friendz,” Margie Peterson and Trudi
Fagerlund, this bakery by day and small-bites
bar by night prides itself on unique flavor
pairings and a focus on bringing people
together. Zestfriendz coined its name from
the pair’s zest for life, powerful flavors in the
kitchen, and their 23-year-long friendship.
“She’s (Peterson) had a lifelong dream
to have the bakery side, and I always just
wanted a bar. So we thought let’s just form
the concepts into one business rather than
separating them, and let’s leverage the upside
of both,” said Fagerlund.
Peterson runs the bakery side, and about
90 percent of the baked goods are from her
own recipes. She crafted the idea for the
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Zestfriendz owners Trudi Fagerlund, left, and Margie Peterson toast their business' success.
PHOTOS: JAKOB MENENDEZ
Zestfriendz signature rosemary-lemon cookie
during her time running an at-home bakery
business, Delicious Designs. Although the
rosemary-lemon cookie is a staple for the
990 Paradise Rd, Suite 3A
Swampscott, MA
781-581-1500
2 First Ave, Suite 127-1
Peabody, MA
978-717-5370
bakery, Peterson’s scones are pushing for
front-runner.
“You’re never going to taste a better
scone,” Fagerlund added. “I would throw
anyone down on a scone,” said Peterson.
Peterson scratch bakes a batch of citrus
scones every morning.
“I always have a citrus scone, and that’s
the whole lemon-lime thing; it goes with the
zest again,” she said.
Rumor has it, Gov. Charlie Baker is
“infatuated” with the scone as well.
“People on social media are like ‘I was
fighting over the last citrus scone today,'
or they’re like, ‘am I too late for the citrus
scones?'” said Peterson.
Her other flavors of scones change daily,
ranging from cheddar-scallion, honeylavender,
maple-oatmeal, orange-cranberry
and cinnamon-raisin scones.
Another crowd favorite is their hand
pies. Due to their small kitchen and
inventory space, Peterson didn’t want to
have sandwiches on the menu, but needed
a savory grab-and-go option — hence the
creation of a hand pie, a pastry creatively
named because of its pie-dough crust and it’s
hand-holdability. These delectable treats have
people coming back for more than just one
handful.
“People come in and are like ‘oh, can I
have five of the ham-and-cheese hand pies?'”
Peterson said, and explained they are the
most surprising success of the bakery. Along
with the ham-and-cheese hand pie, they offer
a tomato-and-dill-havarti hand pie as well.
ZESTFRIENDZ, page 18

18 | 01907
A 23-year friendship forged Trudi Fagerlund's and Margie Peterson's commitment to start their
Humphrey Street business.
Carmelized Brussel sprouts topped with kimchi, roasted
garlic aioli, and cilantro is one of the many small-bites
options Zestfriendz offers for dinner service.
Zestfriendz' strawberry-jam-filled sugar cookie dusted
with powdered sugar.
Zestfriendz chef Ryan McGovern dollops garlic aioli on top of a plate of carmelized Brussel sprouts
before serving.
ZESTFRIENDZ, continued from page 16
The two friends are really excited for
what's to come in the warmer months — in
particular the outdoor dining right on the
water which will seat up to 20 customers on a
shaded painted patio.
“You can come in in your flip flops and
you don’t have to care that you have sand,”
said Peterson.
Some menu ideas for the warmer seasons
include an outdoor oyster bar, gourmet
ice-cream sandwiches with unique flavor
pairings, and to-go items for people to pick
up and take out onto their boat or to the
beach.
“And obviously we want to have some
fun, light cocktails,” said Peterson.
Speaking of cocktails, Fagerlund is
shaking up some absolutely delicious drinks
on the bar side.
Fagerlund recommends trying the “Hair
of the Frog” cocktail — a 110-percent proof,
green French-liquor, gin, and lime.
“It’s (chartreuse) a green, expensive,
herbal, high-octane alcohol. None of us had
tried it. So I bought a bottle, we sat around
and we were like, what do we put with this?
We looked up a few recipes that were with
chartreuse and we were like OK, let’s do a
little of this, a little of this, a little of this, and
then we wrote it down somewhere,” said
Fagerlund.
Another popular drink the two love is
their pomegranate martini.
“We actually started drinking
(pomegranate martinis) in Boston, and they
have many, many stories, but we’ve brought
that with us here,” said Fagerlund. Although
many Zestfriendz-goers fear the sweetness of
the drink, once they take a sip they’re already
ordering the next one.
Along with cocktails, an eclectic
small-plates menu is offered, prepared in
the kitchen by Chef Ryan McGovern. His
favorite menu item to make is the mussels,
flavored with a thai green curry for some
heat, and garnished with thai basil, cilantro,
and grilled bread.
With many gluten-free and vegetarian
options, Zestfriendz wants to be inclusive
for everyone, and Fagerlund said that if you
take the bread out of most dishes, they will be
gluten free.
McGovern has been working as a
chef since the late 1990s, and worked in
restaurants in Martha’s Vineyard, Florida and
throughout the North Shore.
He is looking forward to the new flavors
the warmer seasons bring as well.
“We try to cook and flow with the
seasons and what’s available. As spring
hopefully comes sooner than later, peas
will be around the corner, asparagus, greens
hopefully, so you’ll start to see a shift in the
menu from heavier comfort food to lighter
foods,” McGovern said.
The owners have a few hopes for the
future of their restaurant, one of them being
for the bakery. Peterson hopes to one day
have dessert cakes in the evenings that
customers can stop by to pick up on their
way to dinner or for someone's birthday. They
also hope to be able to expand their team and
bring in more help.
For those of you interested in opening up
your own restaurant, these friends have a few
words of advice: “Sleep ahead of time. You
probably should be prepared to sleep your
whole life ahead of doing it.”
Zestfriendz is located at 286 Humphrey St.
in Swampscott. For more information, visit their
website at https://www.zestfriendz.com/.

SPRING 2022 | 19
Who was Elihu Thomson?
BY ALENA KUZUB
Elihu Thomson demonstrates the Electric Welding Transformer, one of the many inventions by the one-time Swampscott resident.
PHOTOS: COURTESY SWAMPSCOTT HISTORICAL COMMISSION
Can you imagine a boy who wants
to attend high school at 11 years
old being told that he has to wait
until he is 13? Can you imagine that boy
being told he is not allowed to have books
for two years? Imagine that 11-year-old boy
saying, “If you do that, you might as well kill
me now, cause I’ve got to have my books!”
This was Elihu Thomson, future great
American inventor and prominent resident
of Swampscott. He used those two years free
of formal schooling to study "The Magician’s
Own" book, which contained tricks and
puzzles, but also experiments in electricity
and chemistry.
“The electrical chapter was what struck
me at once,” recalled Thomson.
The book explained how to make an
electrical machine out of a wine bottle.
Young Thomson, made the machine and was
able to get his first electrical sparks out of it.
“My father rather poo-pooed the
magnitude of my efforts and I thought I
had to get even with him somehow,” said
Thomson in a 1932 interview with Edwin
W. Rice Jr., his student, assistant, and
ultimately the president of the General
Electric (GE) Company, in the collection of
the Schenectady Invention & Technology
archives.
Thomson made a bigger battery for his
wine-bottle device, which shocked his father
when Elihu prompted him to touch it.
Thomson was born on March 29,
1853, in Manchester, England. He was the
second-eldest child of a Scottish father,
Daniel, and an English mother, Mary
Rhodes, who had 11 children — six boys
and five girls. Four of the children died in
their early youth.
In 1858, his parents decided to emigrate
to America due to scarcity of work. They
settled in Philadelphia, the second-largest
industrial center in the U.S. at the time.
Thomson’s father was a skillful mechanic,
who traveled to Cuba and other places to
set up sugar-refining machinery. However,
he struggled to support such a large family.
When Thomson finished high school, the
family could not afford to send him to
college.
Thomson showed curiosity and
extraordinary abilities for a child from a
young age. His mother discovered that he
knew the alphabet and could recite it both
forwards and backwards at 5 years old.
Young Thomson taught himself.
He was highly influenced by his father’s
work as an engineer and machinist as
well. By his own account, he was able to
visit various industrial establishments and
witness the industrial processes going
on, both in chemical work and also in
mechanical constructions. He actively
studied the two volumes of the "Imperial
Journal of Arts, Sciences and Engineering,"
which his family had at home.
“I was always interested in what was
going on around me, such as the laying of
water pipes and gas pipes in the streets, the
building of sewers, etc., and spending hours
watching the operations,” said Thomson.
When he was 10 or 11 years old,
he constructed a small model of cupola
furnaces with fan blowers and succeeded in

20 | 01907
melting cast iron; however, the iron that was
melted was not sufficient enough to run into
a mold, which was Thomson’s ultimate goal.
He also had a great interest in
astronomy. In the summer of 1858, when he
was 5 years old, Thomson saw the Donati’s
comet, and in 1867 he witnessed spectacular
meteor showers. In 1878, he published
an account of a method of grinding and
polishing glass specula, and in 1899 he
began the construction of a telescope for his
private observatory, including making the
optical parts for the 10-inch reflector. The
observatory was located on the lawn near
his house, which is now the Swampscott
Town Hall, but later removed and donated
to the American Philosophical Society in
Philadelphia.
Thomson attended the boys’ Central
High School in Philadelphia. He graduated
with honors and accepted employment in
a commercial laboratory which analyzed
iron ore and other minerals. After about
six months, he returned to Central High
School with a title of adjunct professor to
the Department of Chemistry and a salary
of $500 per year (about $10,730 in today’s
money).
Student Edwin Rice was 14 when he
You can't read General Electric Company's history
without reading about Elihu Thomson.
met 23-year-old professor Thomson at
Central High School, who was keen to
teach the eager student.
“To me he has been ‘my professor’ ever
since I first met him,” Rice said. “It is my
recollection that there was no question
that I asked to which I failed to obtain a
satisfactory reply, expressed in language that
I could understand.”
One of the senior professors whom
Thomson assisted at Central High School
was Edwin J. Houston, who held the
chair of Physical Geography and Natural
Philosophy. The two soon started to
collaborate in the evenings on investigations
and formed a long partnership, inventing
devices, especially in electricity.
“Not infrequently I would leave home
after breakfast and not eat or drink anything
until I got home again at 11 in the evening,”
wrote Thomson. “I’ve always believed in long
hours. It’s the only way to get things done."
In 1876-77, Thomson gave lectures
on electricity at the Franklin Institute,
an important center of American science
and technology in the 19th century. The
following year, he and Houston tested
dynamos of different types at the institute,
which prompted Thomson to design and
build a dynamo for a single-arc light.
That formed the basis of the later
development of the Thomson-Houston
arc-light system that involved several unique
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SPRING 2022 | 21
features, including three-phase winding and
the automatic regulating system, which kept
the current in the light circuit at an even
value, no matter how many lights were on
that circuit.
Next, they invented an air-blast
method to extinguish an arc, the magnetic
blowout which employs a magnetic field to
extinguish an arc and a lightning arrester.
Thomson and Houston were able to get
business backers to market their lighting
system. They created a lighting system for a
bakery that was open all night long and for
a brewery.
In 1880, Thomson was approached
by Frederick Churchill, a young lawyer
from New Britain, Conn., who had just
organized the American Electric Company.
The American Electric Company bought
control over the Thomson-Houston patents
and Thomson resigned from Central High
School to become an “electrician” at the
company.
When he left Philadelphia for
Connecticut, Thomson took Rice with
him. In New Britain, Thomson focused on
improving the arc-lighting system but since
the market for commercial electric-lighting
systems didn’t exist yet, the company was
Elihu Thomson built his Georgian Revival-style home — now Town Hall — in 1889 and outfitted it with the organ
he constructed as a teenager.
struggling.
Meanwhile, in Lynn, a group of
investors, including Silas Barton, Henry
Pevear, and shoe-manufacturer Charles
Coffin, were looking to invest. Electrical
lighting looked like a promising new
industry for them.
THOMSON, page 23
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THOMSON, continued from page 21
In 1882, Barton and Pavear went to
Boston to examine an electric-lighting
system that had been installed in a shop
on Tremont Street. They slipped down the
back stairs to the dynamo that was powering
the system and located a brass plate that
read “American Electric, New Britain,
Connecticut.”
The next day, they traveled to New
Britain, where they met Thomson and his
associates. They convinced Thomson to let
them buy the American Electric Company,
leave New Britain and form a new company
with them in Lynn.
Coffin became the president of the new
company. With Coffin assuming the burden
of finance and management, Thomson was
free to give undivided attention to research
and technical development, and for the first
time he was able to surround himself with
competent assistants.
The Thomson-Houston Electric
Company installed street lighting at 166
Market St. in Lynn, and the merchants in
the area began to subscribe to their service.
Market Street became the first street with
commercial lighting in New England.
The firm grew rapidly. In 1884, it
employed 184 workers. By 1892, when it
merged with its competitor, the Edison
General Electric Company of Schenectady,
N.Y., the number had grown to 4,000
employees. The result of the merger was the
General Electric Company, with Coffin as
president and Rice, who had been manager
of the Lynn plant, as vice president and
technical director.
Thomson's contributions to the success
of this great industrial organization was in
industrial research.
Thomson married his first wife, Miss
Mary Louise Peck, in 1884. Together they
had four sons — Stuart, Roland, Malcolm
and Donald. They lived in Lynn until 1889,
when Thomson purchased a prime piece of
land overlooking the Atlantic Ocean from
the Swampscott Land Trust.
The Thomson house was designed by
architect James T. Kelly in the Georgian
Revival-style and was built in 1889.
Thomson designed and built a steam boiler
to heat the house, installed his electriclighting
system, but also included eight
fireplaces in the house.
The second floor of the carriage house
was designed and built to accommodate a
laboratory for his work.
He also installed a pipe organ — the one
that he built as a teenager, which he had
brought to Swampscott from Philadelphia.
The Thomson-Houston Electric Company was a precursor to the General Electric Company.
PHOTO: SPENSER HASAK
The pipes were installed in a grid above the
second-floor ceiling.
He also built a miniature railroad of
about 100 yards for his sons.
He donated the land next to his home to
the Town of Swampscott for a town library
to be built.
One might think that a scientist of his
intellect and intense work ethic would be
reserved and strict. But Thomson lived a
rich family life, actively engaged with his
sons, and went camping and hiking in the
Adirondacks and Catskills.
There is old video footage showing him
playing with his grandchildren in the large
front yard of his Swampscott home and
reading to them.
The Thomson’s house was always open
to visitors, including other outstanding
scientists of the time, including Nikola
Tesla.
Thomson’s friend and MIT president
from 1909-20, Dr. Richard C. Maclaurin,
said that Thomson showed an intense desire
to help all who were struggling earnestly
with scientific problems. Many engineers
came to him with their secret projects.
“They have done this, knowing that
they had only to ask in order to get the full
benefit of his imagination and his power,
and that they need have no misgivings
that he would take any advantage of their
confidence or any credit for their work, for
he has no touch of selfishness,” Maclaurin
said.
Thomson was asked to become the
MIT president as well, but declined the
offer because he felt that the research he
wanted to do would be hindered by the
administrative work the position would
require. Still, in 1920-23, he was convinced
to assume the obligations of the acting
president because the president of MIT at
the time became ill.
After 32 years of a happy marriage,
Thomson’s wife died in 1916. In 1923, at
70 years old, Thomson married again to
Clarissa Hovey of Boston. Together they
began to travel a lot.
The prominence of Thomson is
indisputable. He holds a prominent place
among the brilliant group of scientists
who worked on solving the problem of
generating adequate current, including
Brush, Edison, Siemens, Stanley, Tesla, Van
Depoele, Weston, and others.
Over his inventor’s career, Thomson
patented almost 700 inventions. He is
still one of the leading patent holders in
America.
His awards include the Franklin Medal,
the Faraday Medal, the Hughes Medal of
the Royal Society, the Edison Medal from
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE), the Rumford Medal,
and the 1889 Great Prize from the Paris
Exposition.
Thomson died at 84 on March 13, 1937.
His home was partially donated to the town
by his heirs in 1944.
An ongoing exhibition of the artifacts
of the inventor’s career and life, “Elihu
Thomson’s Inventive Life,” can be viewed
until April at the Swampscott’s Town Hall
during normal business hours.

24 | 01907
The play's the thing
BY ALENA KUZUB
CURTAIN HALL: Actress, writer and town library
employee Julie Butters saw room on Zoom to stage a
theatrical adaption of "Jane Eyre."
PHOTOS: JAKOB MENENDEZ
Two years ago in pre-COVID
times, many of us didn’t even
know about Zoom — a cloudbased
communications app. Although it
provided convenience and changed the way
we work and connect, some say that they
are tired of virtual meetings.
Still, it is undeniable that Zoom has
been instrumental over these two years,
not only in supporting 9-to-5 jobs and
our personal lives, but also in furthering
the reach of the arts. One such example is
a "Jane Eyre" play that was adapted by a
local actress and writer Julie Butters and
produced by Connecticut-based nonprofit
Flock Theater.
Butters, who works as a part-time
circulation aide at the Swampscott Public
Library, has been acting since she was little,
primarily on a volunteer basis. She was
involved with children's theater when she
was younger and participated in a lot of
plays while studying English at Harvard in
her college years.
In 2019, Butters adapted the "Jane
Eyre" novel by English writer Charlotte
Brontë into a script for a theater play. She
worked with a nonprofit Flock Theater in
New London, Conn., for many years in the
past and they were interested in staging the
play.
“Jane Eyre was actually sort of my reentry
into theater after a long time,” said
Butters. “The first major project I had done
in quite a few years.”
The theater began rehearsing "Jane
Eyre" with Butters in the main role in
March 2020. However, they managed to
hold only a few in-person rehearsals in
Connecticut before everyone’s lives got
halted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“And so at first, I remember those
rehearsals; we had some hand sanitizer on
the tables. And we were careful to use that
before interacting with each other,” Butters
said. “None of us really anticipated it would
become the huge pandemic that it is now.”
Soon the schools started to shut down.
71

SPRING 2022 | 25
Charlotte Brontë's timeless novel "Jane Eyre" sits on
a table in the Swampscott library among biographies
of the Brontë sisters.
As things with COVID-19 got worse, the
director of the play, Derron Wood, made a
decision to continue the production online
over Zoom.
“Initially, I was skeptical of the idea of
doing a Zoom presentation of this play. It
was a new thing, and I wasn't sure how it
would work,” said Butters. “Our director
took a leap of faith with it. And I am so
grateful to him for that because it was
amazing to still find a way to act and be
creative and connect with other artists and
performers to create something to share
with the community.”
The production involved 18 people
playing various roles. To create a more
consistent look, all actors were asked to use
a black background and wear light clothes.
Butters used a spare room in her condo.
Her husband helped her set up some
wooden boards propped up against chairs
with a black material draped over them. She
put her iPad against shoe boxes and books
stacked on a desk.
“I really had only a little more than
maybe a foot of playing space between the
backdrop and my desk,” said Butters.
To light the scene, she blocked the
window light with some fabric and put
shading over lamps to soften the fluorescent
light. For some of the night scenes, they
decided to use handheld electric candles to
create the ambience and atmosphere of a
Julie Butters calls her Zoom staging of a theatrical version "Jane Eyre" a "leap of faith."
gothic novel.
“You obviously can't tell from watching
the program that that's what the setup was.
But it was definitely a challenge I had not
experienced in acting before,” Butters said.
All the actors were used to performing
in the same space with each other and
having a very personal interaction. Instead,
they found themselves isolated in their own
locations, performing via the screens of
their devices.
“That was very different for us,” Butters
said. “But there were some advantages to
that as well.”
She found the fact that she wasn't
worried about a sudden block or the
physical movements or dealing too much
with props interesting and rewarding.
Without an audience in the room, Butters
was able to focus solely on the face on
the other side of the screen — her scene
partner. She looked at their face and saw
what they were expressing, focused on their
eyes and what they were saying in a very
intense way.
“I tried to use the challenges of the
medium as an opportunity to enjoy that
intimacy between performers,” said Butters.
The director and assistant director were
recording over Zoom, as the actors were
giving their performances from their homes.
However, filming over the internet had
its technical challenges. Not everyone in the
cast was familiar with Zoom at that point
in time. Sometimes the internet connection
would lag and people would freeze on
screen.
“If someone's screen froze, we would
have to stop and then do another take,” said
Butters.
She believes that the production turned
into a wonderful project and a wonderful
experience for everybody.
“It was not something that we had
traditionally done, but I give (the director)
credit for being forward thinking,” Butters
said.
The filming was finished in the spring
of 2020. The Flock Theater staff moved
on to editing and recording the shadowpuppetry
scenes, which formed a big part
of the project and took quite a bit of effort,
time and ingenuity, Butters said. To film
the shadow puppetry, give it depth and
create different effects, the crew used a DIY
multiplane-camera setup.
The film was released on Nov. 6, 2020,
on YouTube.
“In person, we would have, of course,
reached the local community,” Butters said.
“But because the pandemic forced us to find
another creative way (to make) and present
the film, we ended up having a much larger
audience than we would have had.”
To date, the almost two-hour video
BUTTERS, page 27

26 | 01907
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SPRING 2022 | 27
Stage it.
Sell it.
Intersecting Zoom and the theater garnered
international attention for writer Julie Butters.
BUTTERS, continued from page 25
has been watched more than 4,200 times.
Butters reached out to a lot of Brontë
appreciation associations around the
world. The Brontë Society in England
posted a note about the project on its blog.
The Italian Brontë Society posted about
it on its Facebook page. The Australian
Brontë Society shared information with its
members and posted a review in one of its
newsletters.
There were also a few virtual screenings
and a presentation for a group of
international scholars who are members of
the International Gothic Association.
“We are still hoping and planning to
perform the actual stage production at
some point,” said Butters. “Theaters are still
struggling with COVID right now. Some
of them have done in-person performances,
but it is always risky.”
Even though the pandemic continues
to be a challenge, Butters said, it has also
offered new ways to come together and her
experience with "Jane Eyre" is an example
of that.
“This project has been, and continues to
be, for me, very joyful, fun, creative and just
a soul-filling project,” Butters said. “I love
the story so much and playing Jane and
being involved with this project has been a
dream come true.”
Since finishing the project, Butters has
participated in other theatrical projects
over Zoom. She continues to write for
Flock Theater and is looking forward to
finding more ways to act, whether over
Zoom or in person.
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28 | 01907
A town tableau
Essex Media Group designer/illustrator Edwin Peralta Jr. created this mid-winter depiction of Town Hall and First Church, initially by sketching,
then digitally enhancing his work.

SPRING 2022 | 29
Bringing
the ends
to the
middle
BY ALLYSHA DUNNIGAN
Bob Scheier of Swampscott is the co-chair of the New England Chapter of the Braver Angels, an organization commited to getting progressives and conservatives around a
table sharing their views.
PHOTOS: SPENSER HASAK
The political spectrum is
broader than ever with
conservatives on one end and
liberal Democrats like Bob Scheier on
the other. Scheier wants both ends to
meet in the middle.
Scheier thinks he has a way to soar
above the social and mainstream-media
storm swirling around former president
Donald Trump and fueled by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The Swampscott resident is co-chair
of the New England chapter of Braver
Angels, a national group consisting of
more than 11,000 members formed
after Trump's 2016 election as a way
for people in opposing parties to learn
to hear each other out and respect each
other's differing views in a civil way.
Scheier's co-chair is state Rep. Lenny
Mirra, a Georgetown Republican,
who stands at the other end of the
political spectrum from Scheier. Braver
Angels strives for an equal liberal and
conservative membership, as well as
leadership structure, to offer views and
opinions from both sides of the political
spectrum.
"Many Braver Angels groups around
the country are predominantly blue, or
liberal leaning, and we really need many
more strong conservatives so that we
can have the genuinely challenging but
rewarding conversations that we need,"
Scheier said.
The Angels' mission is to reach out

30 | 01907
CONVERSATION STARTER: Town resident Bob Scheier thinks talking can bridge America's yawning political chasm.
to groups that are more conservative,
with a promise their members won't
be shouted down, shamed, or attacked
during political discourse.
The group's monthly meetings
commence with a reaffirmation by
participants to confirm that they will
engage in respectful, curious listening.
The penalty for noncompliance? A polite
request to leave the meeting.
"We guarantee everyone a respectful
hearing if they come in and we
encourage them to live up to the Braver
Angels name," Scheier said. "It's called
Braver Angels because it takes courage
to reach out to the other side and to take
the risk of being heard by the other side,
but it's very rewarding."
As co-chair, Scheier is responsible for
helping volunteers create, schedule, and
run the monthly meetings, which occur
on the third Monday of each month.
Each monthly meeting features a
different topic. Prior to the meeting,
news articles are sent out for people to
review and be prepared to discuss in the
meeting.
Braver Angels was founded by a
family therapist and uses therapeuticlike
techniques to facilitate respectful
conversations with both political sides.
"We don't try to convince each other;
there is no interruption; there is no
attempt to convince allowed," Scheier
said. "The idea is that we form human
relationships with people on the other
side and we listen and be curious about
how they think and the same in return."
Of course, COVID-19 restrictions,
vaccinations, and masking occupied
a meeting discussion. Scheier is provaccine
and pro-masking, but other
discussion participants voiced strong,
opposing views.
"I found that by listening and trying
to understand their views, I was able
to see that these folks weren't living in
some other reality from me," Scheier
said. "They had some very heartfelt
concerns, not concerns that I shared, but
were coming from a different perspective
and were skeptical about what the
government and drug companies were
trying to do and the quality of the
vaccines."
Scheier said his views were welcomed
and respectfully listened to by meeting
participants.
"How often do you have a
conversation like that about a heated
topic, and the other side asks you to tell
you what you think?" Scheier said. "I felt

SPRING 2022 | 31
like him and I could sit down and come
to a mutual solution on something like
the COVID issue after that."
In an effort to broaden their
conversations, the New England chapter
of Braver Angels has reached out to
local colleges in an effort to provide
information and awareness of the group.
"They're the ones who will have to
live in the society that we are hoping to
improve," Scheier said.
Scheier said he has one overriding
reason for taking part in Braver Angels:
This isn't the country that he grew up
in, and it isn't the country he wants to
leave to his children and grandchildren.
He wants to be more involved in
changing the trajectory of the country's
political divide, and he wants to
understand how people on the other side
— Republicans — think the way they
do, and to see if there is a way to have a
respectful conversation with them.
"I don't know exactly how I stumbled
across Braver Angels but when I saw
their approach, I was very impressed
with it," Scheier said. "It works… It's
one small step towards healing the
divides in our country."
Engaging in these kinds of civil
conversations has led Scheier to having
more respect and understanding in
similar political conversations with
friends and family outside of the group.
"I became more involved in the past
year as I became concerned about the
breakdown of civility in society and the
very sharp splits between the quote ‘red
and blue sides,’" Scheier said. "I feel like
our democracy is really in danger if we
can't at least speak respectfully to each
other, if we can't even agree on the same
set of facts, and if people on both sides
of the political divide are dehumanizing
each other."
Braver Angels is open to everyone
regardless of age, sex, race, religion,
culture and sexual identification.
To learn more or to join the New
England Chapter of Braver Angels, visit
https://mailchi.mp/braverangels/greaterboston-email-list.
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MASONRY
Swampscott, MA
www.raffaeleconstruction.com | 781·598·5989

Your 1st CHOICE
Local Home Loan
Lender here on the
North Shore
We have an
extensive loan
product selection for
all your home
financing needs:
purchase, refinance,
jumbo, construction,
renovation
Adam Moore |
NMLS #156393
Branch Manager | Senior Loan Officer
(978)697-6019
adam.moore@academymortgage.com
academymortgage.com/adammoore
10B Atlantic Avenue, Marblehead, MA 01945
Corp NMLS #3113 | Equal Housing Lender | Mortgage Broker and Lender MC3113

Coming to the... Lynn Auditorium
LynnAuditorium.com 781-599-SHOW