Fountain in Frost Park
Frost Park
My daughter came down to visit and after supper one evening last week we played tourist and wandered into Yarmouth town, about 15 km from our home in Port Maitland. We went to Frost Park, a central park in Yarmouth just before sunset, and got some interesting images. Sometimes it is fun to play tourist in your own area, and we looked at the place with “new” eyes – as neither of us had been in the park for a while.
Frost Park is interesting in that in 1766 it was the original burying ground for the Town of Yarmouth. My 4x Great Grandparents are buried there – early Yarmouth settlers James and Elizabeth Goudey, who came here about 1774 from Marblehead, Massachusetts. Today, and since the mid-1800’s the Park is a tad more festive, with a lovely fountain (the image for this week), a nice promenade facing the ocean and an adjoining park piece commemorating those lost to the sea. Frost Park is named for distant cousin and Yarmouth native Charles Sydney Frost, a President of the Bank of Nova Scotia.
There is a local legend or two connected with Frost Park. One of the more intriguing involves Meredith Wilson, who wrote many famous songs. The story is that one year in the early 1950’s he was sitting in the lobby of the Grand Hotel, across the street from Frost park, and just before leaving to return to the United States when he began writing some lyrics. He had earlier walked down the street and saw the old Woolworth's 5 & 10 decorated for Christmas, and saw the toys of the day that were on sale there; he saw the town tree lit up in the park, and of course, was next to the tree that was always in the Grand Hotel lobby at Christmas time. Out of this came the lyrics:
“It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas…”
Whether inspirational to artists, a final resting place for loved ones or just a pleasant place to gaze at sunset, Frost Park is indeed a place worth visiting. And so, it’s always fun to remember to look around your own location when looking for interesting things to make images of.
