The Salt Boxes

Mrs. Boardman and her sisters opened their Salt Box vacation cottages for their first season in 1938.  The cottage colony was built on an old farm between the northeastern end of the Bass River Golf Club and Bass River, a little over a mile north of South Yarmouth center.

This leaflet was prepared for the ninth season, which would be the summer of 1946 - the first summer season after the end of the Second World War.

Salt Box promotional leaflet, circa 1946 (click to expand)

The two-week minimum rental in July and August, but not June, suggests that these months were the height of the season.  Wasn't June a vacation month in the late 40s?  I assume the two-week minimum would have reduced booking and housekeeping overhead.  I wonder if, by increasing overlap among visitors, it was meant to increase a sense of community?

Recommended by Duncan Hines!  This is before the cake mixes.  Hines was originally a traveling salesman who took careful notes on the restaurants in the places he visited.  He began to share his notes with friends, and in 1936 published them as "Adventures in Good Eating."   He followed this in 1938 with a book on hotels and motels.  A Hines recommendation had cachet in the 40s.  Following Crist, I suspect that the Salt Boxes paid for the right to use his name after a visit by one of Hines' representatives.  Hines didn't get involved with prepared foods until the late 40s.

Salt Box promotional leaflet, circa 1946, second side (click to expand)

The cottages are distinctive - very modern, with no nod to traditional Cape Cod construction.  The barn on the site - I assume that's it on the upper right of the second page - was built with wood brought up from abandoned salt works lower down the river.  Apparently the old Post Office that served the community near the mouth of the river was also brought up to the site.  The trees haven't grown up much by this time, they're about as high as the one-story cottages.

You are promised a real Cape atmosphere - not just a seashore, but a rural, country, experience.   You associate with a congenial - select - group on site.  In addition to the sun, sea, and shore, and quaint fishing villages, you have smart stores in Hyannis and the Dennis Playhouse.  Crist emphasises the sophistication of many of the visitors: artists, affluent, titled.

Mrs. Boardman is also advertizing a limited number of cottage sites for sale.  Crist is clear that, from the start, the cottages were meant to be temporary, and that eventually the property was to be converted to a carefully controlled community.  In the event, the cottage rentals lasted 30 years.

All the background on the Salt Boxes is from Bainbridge Crist's article "A baroness came, and so did a countess, in the heyday of Yarmouth's Salt Boxes" from the Dennis-Yarmouth Register of December 21, 1978. See the link in the post.

Comments

[Craig]

Many northeastern resorts didn't truly open until school had let out near the end of June. To this day, the Chautauqua Institute doesn't officially start its season until around July 4th.

[Ben Muse]

Thanks Craig, you're right, of course!

[Christine]

I agree. Graig you are absolutly right.