Many Saltairians have been looking at, and looking forward to, a series of vintage photographs posted on the private Facebook page “Simply Saltaire” over the past few months by a gentleman named David Fisher. It is not Sea Walk’s David Fisher, but David Fisher from Toledo, Ohio. He is the great-grandson of Saltaire’s second Mayor, William Spencer. In recent years, he’s devoted much of his time to finding and cataloging scores of photographs the Spencer family took in Saltaire between 1914 and 1938.
After learning about Simply Saltaire, David began posting some of his photos on the site, garnering many appreciative reviews. He even started up his own Instagram page called “Saltaire Before”. He has gained a respectful following. Yet, for all his interest in the village, neither David nor any of the Spencer descendants had ever set foot here – until June 29.
Each summer, David leaves his wife and children back in Ohio while he and his mother, Lynn, travel to a unique location. This year, they chose Saltaire, the first member of their family to come here since the last Spencer (the Mayor’s brother) lost his house in the ’38 hurricane and never returned.
Thanks to Village Historian Pat Hennessey, some of us met with the Fishers and saw his enormous collection of Saltaire memorabilia – some documents, but mostly photos showing the village as it looked a hundred years ago.
Remarkably, as David and Lynn walked around town (escorted by unofficial Village Historian Jim O’Hare) earlier in the day, they were repeatedly approached by people who somehow sensed who they were, introduced themselves, and told David how much they liked his photos.
Later, at the Yacht Club, where we viewed the assembled memorabilia, David gave a brief talk explaining how he started his project and how glad he was to finally walk the streets of the place he’s so far known only through century-old photos. It was a terrific afternoon, and we just might have coaxed a promise from the Fishers that next year, the entire family will take their vacation in the village.
I hope to have a couple of David’s vintage photos printed with this column, but since I can’t be sure how well they’ll reproduce in the paper, the best way to see all of them is to visit Simply Saltaire or his Instagram page and scroll through them. There are many photos of people long gone and things long vanished, but what struck us were some of the group photos of those long-ago Saltairians, especially the children.
We talked about how the locations where they stood a century ago were still readily identifiable, filling us with the eerie feeling that all we had to do was walk outside, and they’d be there still, waiting for us. In a way, they have been rediscovered and brought back to life thanks to the Fisher family. To be continued…
