- The Heckes Place, 1920s
I almost-but-not-quite remember when the Heckes Boarding House was in its hey day. Until very recent times (well, till 1987 when the Hampson house went up between us) the Heckes house was our next door neighbor to the north. Although it was a full block away, we had a clear view of one another and it was not unusual for one neighbor to call the other in the morning if they had seen a light in the middle of the night. “Is everything all right over there?” would be the inquiry.
The Heckes family bought the house in 1919. It had been built way back in 1867 by John Crellin who brought his house plans to Oysterville from the Isle of Man. Two years later his brother Tom used the same plans to build our house. There have been many changes to each of the structures since those early days but, if you look at them from the vantage point of the bay, they are still alike. And, no matter who has lived in them over the years, we seem to feel an extra special neighborliness because of those brotherly beginnings.
My mother and her brothers and sisters called the Heckes House “The Ant Hill” because for twenty years four sisters, affectionately known by family and friends as Aunt Nanny, Aunt Ann, Aunt Rye and Aunt Ev, owned and ran the boarding house there each summer. They divided the labor: Aunt Nanny was business manager and cooked the meat and seafood; Aunt Ann was the bread, biscuit, and pancake maker; Aunt Rye made pies and desserts; Aunt Ev was in charge of vegetables.
Food critic Duncan Hines visited and highly recommended the Heckes Place in his travelers’ guides. The fare was not only home-cooked but mostly home-grown. Uncle John Heckes, Aunt Nanny’s husband, tended the orchard and large vegetable garden where “weeds didn’t dare to grow,” according to all who spoke of his diligent husbandry. He also raised cows, pigs, and chickens, and their son Glen, an oysterman, supplied seafood of every description.
During the busy summer months, young people throughout the village were hired to wait tables, make beds, wash windows, or pack lunches for guests. Both my mother and my Aunt Mona worked there for several summers. Just before World War Two the aging sisters closed the boarding house, but family members continued to live there for another generation.
I still remember the board walkway between the house and outhouse and the annex to the southwest that was used to house extra guests. I remember staying overnight with my friends Anne and Nancy and Judy, and sleeping in a room above the big commercial laundry north of the house. Most of all, I remember the big warm kitchen, always full of bustling activity – the hub of the large household and a cozy place to be on a rainy day. Even now, every time I play a board game I am transported back to that big oak table where we ate warm cookies right out of the oven and played endless games of checkers and Shoots and Ladders and giggled a lot.
What a wonderful peek into the past, Sydney! What I need to do is bring your Oysterville book up there and do a walking tour as I read.