The Ocean House Demolished, 1910

"Ocean House" with Middleborough Municipal

Electric Light Plant, Wareham Street,

Middleborough, MA, photograph, c. 1900.

Located on the west shore of the mill pond at Wareham Street was once a ramshackle building known around 1900 as the “Ocean House”, possibly as a satiric barb aimed at seaside luxury resort hotels of the era. For lower class Middleborough children, this was their oceanside alternative. The Ocean House which had originally been associated with the industrial works on the river nearby proved popular with local children who would dive from its open windows into the mill pond below. This activity ended, however, following the tragic 1905 death of six year old Wallace Spooner who while engaged in diving from the building struck his head upon a stone wall, fell into the river and drowned. Nothing, however, was done with the property until 1908 when the Middleborough Board of Health condemned the structure which was demolished two years later in spring of 1910.

The “Ocean house,” a blot on the landscape by the river side for many years, is no more, and all the lumber has been cleaned up. The beneficial change which has resulted would well repay one a trip to the Wareham street bridge. All the old tumble-down structures are now out of the way, and the appearance in that locality is materially improved.