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Only in Wellfleet
To the editor:
In your article concerning the apparent dysfunction within the Wellfleet Select Board [“Wellfleet Struggles With Leadership Crisis,” Aug. 16], you attribute the following statement to Select Person Justina Carlson: “Only in Wellfleet do we get a gift of $1 million and people are complaining.”
I am of the opinion that only in Wellfleet do we have a member of the select board willing to sign an agreement binding the town to purchase a parcel of property costing the taxpayers $1 million and then, within a few days, that same person takes the position that she must recuse herself from any further discussion of that same agreement.
I would submit that the taking of these two strikingly contradictory positions within days of one another defies logic (she can sign the agreement but not discuss the matter further) and, when combined with the other “controversies” surrounding this purchase, it does not reflect well on those we have elected to govern us.
—Wil Sullivan, Wellfleet
Oyster History, for the Record
To the editor:
“The Eastham Oyster Demands Attention” [Aug. 16] stated, “From around the time of the Civil War until World War II a company called Sealshipt Oysters dominated the oyster business in Wellfleet. As recently as 1947, Sealshipt employed 125 people in Wellfleet….”
This implies Sealshipt had a presence in Wellfleet for about 80 years, when in fact they and their successors were in Wellfleet for only about 15 years (1911-1925).
Commercial Wharf was built on Wellfleet Harbor in 1835. Many years later it became the site of Sealshipt, but Sealshipt wasn’t organized until 1901 (in New Mexico) and reincorporated in 1910 (in New York). Sealshipt didn’t have a presence in Wellfleet until 1911 after it acquired the Seacoast Oyster Co., which was located at Commercial Wharf.
In 1914 the property of Sealshipt Oyster System (then under receivership) was sold at foreclosure to Cape Cod Oyster Farms. In September 1925 Cape Cod Oyster Farms sold the former Sealshipt property to Edith M. Grant.
Mrs. Grant was a South Wellfleet summer resident and I found no evidence that she was involved in the oyster trade. In fact, in announcing her purchase of the property, the Chatham Monitor reported, “It is said that a summer home is planned for the site.”
In 1927 Mrs. Grant allowed the former Central Trading Company store on the site to be disassembled and moved to Truro to be used as a summer cottage for Mr. Raymond Freeman. In 1930, two locals, Henry Delory and Everett Higgins (of “Cap’t Higgins” fame) reportedly were repairing Mrs. Grant’s Sealshipt building “to use it in the shellfish business,” but this likely was a very small endeavor employing few people.
Further, an arsonist’s fire destroyed the old Sealshipt Oyster Company building in September 1935 and the property was finally acquired by the town of Wellfleet from Edith Grant in April 1944.
Thus, while it is conceivable Sealshipt and its successors employed up to 125 people in Wellfleet, that could have occurred only sometime between 1911 and 1925.
—Albert Grandin, Wellfleet
Summer House Conversions
To the editor:
Elspeth Hay’s article on the decline of the ponds [“Danger Blooms in Cape Cod Ponds,” Aug. 9] cites Andrew Gottlieb’s assertion that “conversion of summer homes to year-round use” is a contributing factor, increasing “nutrient loads” from septic systems. But Wellfleet’s year-round population and presumably our septic system use by year-rounders has remained steady (or slightly declined) since peaking at around 3,000 in the late 1990s.
Summer visitor contribution is another factor of course. Has that increased over the past 20 years?
—Brent Harold, Wellfleet
Elspeth Hay replies:
Gottlieb, of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, said that the overall rate of second-home conversions Cape-wide has increased. He had exact data but I cannot remember it off the top of my head, so while it is not Wellfleet-specific it is affecting nutrient loading regionally.
In addition, in his talk he said easy rental of homes and single rooms through services like Airbnb has increased the density of rentals, i.e., more people per house, and also allowed people to rent out rooms in their houses that previously were not being used.
