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New York Times Highlights New Bedford as Tourist Destination
36 Hours in New Bedford, Mass.
New York Times, May 26, 2006. Written By Paul Schneider
 A
LOT of time and tide has come and gone since the days when New
Bedford was, as Melville wrote in "Moby-Dick," "the dearest
place to live in, in all New England." The whaling business that
cobbled the historic district's streets and built its fine Greek
Revival buildings collapsed in the second half of the 19th
century. The textile and glass factories that took whaling's
place followed suit in the 20th. Now, while sea scallops
continue to make New Bedford the top dollar-generating fishing
port in the nation, commercial fishing in the Atlantic is on the
decline. Tough times and a rough reputation is how the city is
generally perceived regionally. "Thirty-six hours is about 24
more than you need in New Beige," said a year-round Vineyarder
at the prospect of spending a weekend there. Truth is, though,
New Bedford has plenty of history, architecture and small
museums to fill a weekend, particularly when you throw in its
proximity to some of the prettiest little towns on the coast and
a couple of Massachusetts's best and least famous beaches. PAUL
SCHNEIDER
Friday
2 p.m.
1) Bringing Home the Oil
When the skeletons won't fit in the closet, you might as well
hang them from the ceiling. The fully assembled bones of a
65-foot-long blue whale (immature, no less) and the slightly
smaller sperm and humpback skeletons are reasons enough to begin
in the historic district at the New Bedford Whaling Museum (18
Johnny Cake Hill; 508-997-0046; www.whalingmuseum.org.). At the
top of Johnny Cake Hill, the museum isn't a recent tourist
attraction concocted by the Chamber of Commerce to lure tourists
off the freeway as they hurtle past on their way to Cape Cod.
Founded 99 years ago, it's the pre-eminent museum devoted to the
global business that was Big Oil before the Big Oil we know
today. It's a fascinating picture of an industry everyone
thought the world could not do without — and then, quite
suddenly, did without. Houston, take note.
4:30 p.m.
2) A Whaleman's Chapel
As comprehensive as the whaling museum is, it doesn't quite
capture the pathos of the age as well as the Seamen's Bethel
across the street (13 Johnny Cake Hill; 508-992-3295;
www.newbedfordseamensbethel.org), the 175-year-old sailors'
chapel where Melville's Ishmael heard a memorable sermon on
Jonah. The memorials on the walls offer none of the usual pious
rhyming couplets but rather one-sentence tragedies like, "This
worthy man, after fastning to a whale, was carried overboard and
drown May 19, 1844, in the 49th year of his age." Or, "His death
occurred in nine hours after being bitten by a shark, while
bathing near the ship."
7 p.m.
3) Pickin' and Singin'
On many Friday nights in the summer there is high-quality,
low-key live music (Patty Larkin, Kate Taylor, Jennifer Roland)
at either the Whaling Museum or, even better, in the lovely
gardens of the Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum (396
County Street, 508-997-1401; www.rjdmuseum.org). It's also worth
a tour if you have the time.
8 p.m.
4) For Chowderheads
Before, after or instead of the live music, wander over to
Freestone's City Grill (41 William Street, 508-993-7477) in a
restored 19th-century bank just across the street from the
stately United States Custom House designed by Robert Mills, of
Washington Monument fame. Under the gaze of an enormous brass
monkey, patrons select from a drink list as long as some Chinese
restaurant menus. The food is not overly ambitious, which is to
say simple and tasty. Syrian nachos ($8.99) are a favorite with
locals, the seared scallops ($16.99) are locals themselves and
the fish chowder ($3.50, $4.50) is a perennial winner of
something called the Newport Chowder Cook-Off.
Saturday
10 a.m.
5) To the Sea With Cookies
You could wander the New Bedford docks, a rare fishermen's wharf
that actually still belongs primarily to commercial fishermen.
But if the day is clear, and this being New Bedford, you'll heed
the call of the sea — at least as far as the beach, anyway. Take
Dartmouth Street out of town toward the village of Padanaram,
below, a legendary crossroads of old money, older money and
really good chocolate-chip cookies. The lattermost are at
Cecily's (6 Bridge Street, South Dartmouth; 508-994-1162).
There's also a Cecily's on the waterfront in New Bedford proper,
but this is the mother ship, and you should consider picking up
sandwiches for later.
11 a.m.
6) Do the Strand
The back roads from Padanaram wander through some of the more
unspoiled stretches of New England coastline south of Maine,
places where farm animals still have a view of the sea. There
are lovely loop trails at the Lloyd Center for the Environment
(430 Potomska Road, South Dartmouth; 508-990-0505;
www.lloydcenter.org) if you're so inclined, and they can also
put you in a sea kayak and teach you how to paddle it in the
protected waters of Buzzards Bay. If you want to sit on the
sand, however, your ultimate destination is a little farther
down the road. The exquisite, curving Horseneck Beach and the
even lovelier and child-friendly Demarest Lloyd State Park have
long been overshadowed in the public eye by the wunderstrands of
Cape Cod and Nantucket, for reasons having nothing to do with
the quality of the beaches.
4 p.m.
7) The Big Picture
Get back to town before the New Bedford Free Public Library (613
Pleasant Street, 508-991-6275) closes at 5 p.m. and ask the
friendly curator, Paul Cyr, to unlock the art room, where there
are a handful of luminous works by a local boy named Albert
Bierstadt and a massive George Washington portrait that may or
may not have been painted by Gilbert Stuart. To help you get in
a historical mood, crane your neck up in the rotunda at the
collection of whaling images by Clifford Warren Ashley. (Be sure
to call ahead to make sure Mr. Cyr is available.)
7 p.m.
8) Candlelight and Catwalks
Take an early evening stroll to see the Nathan and Mary Johnson
House at 21 Seventh Street, where in 1838 a certain fugitive
changed his name to Frederick Douglass ("Here in New Bedford,"
he wrote, "it was my good fortune to see a pretty near approach
to freedom on the part of the colored people"). Then proceed to
the Candleworks, above, (72 North Water Street, 508-997-1294)
and take your table. The restaurant is in what used to be a
factory for whale-oil candles, and it has long had a reputation
as the best dining New Bedford has to offer. Could be: both the
atmosphere and the menu are fine and reliable examples of
old-school elegance. May we suggest the scallops Mediterranean,
served with artichoke hearts and roasted bell peppers ($19.95).
Afterward, the rooftop of the Catwalk Bar and Grille (34 Union
Street, 508-994-3355) might lure you with its promise of a
nightcap under the night sky while a southwest breeze wafts in
off the bay. The band, like the scallops at dinner, will be
local.
Sunday
10:30 a.m.
9) Fair Thee Well
Fairhaven, just across the Acushnet River from New Bedford and
settled around 1660, much earlier than New Bedford, is well
worth a visit before leaving the area. The streets of the
Poverty Point neighborhood, above, are lined with houses dating
back to the 18th and early 19th centuries. In 1843, the first
Japanese person known to have lived in North America arrived in
Poverty Point on a whaling ship that was partly owned by
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's maternal grandfather, who lived in
town. In the 1890's in the Point, Joshua Slocumb built the
Spray, a 36-foot sloop in which he became the first to sail
around the world solo. Now that's the kind of history you can
sink your teeth into. For lunch, sink into the pan-seared
scallops for $10.99 at Margaret's (16 Main Street,
508-992-9942), a cheerful place that yachties from all over know
is worth a voyage to Fairhaven all on its own.
The Basics
New Bedford's airport is locally famous for having graveyards at
both ends of a runway, but it serves only Martha's Vineyard and
Nantucket. Otherwise, the closest commercial airports are in
Providence, about 25 minutes away, or Boston, about an hour
away. Starting July 1, you can take a ferry from Montauk, N.Y.,
via Block Island, R.I. (631-668-5700, www.vikingfleet.com).
For accommodations, consider one of the many bed-and-breakfasts
in grand old homes. The Davenport House Bed & Breakfast is in a
1912 Jacobethan Revival-style home with a generous porch and
deck (124 Cottage Street; 508-999-1177;
www.davenporthouseb2b.com); rooms are $75 to $125.
Captain Haskell's Octagon House (347 Union Street,508-999-3933;
www.theoctagonhouse.com) is Victorian through and through, and
welcomes pets; $80 to $165.
Across the river in Fairhaven, the elegant Edgewater Bed &
Breakfast (2 Oxford Street; 508-997-5512; www.rixsan.com/edgewater)
dates back to 1760. It has water views and four-poster beds; $90
to $145.
For the B & B-averse, the New Bedford Days Inn (500 Hathaway
Road 508-997-1231; www.daysinn.com) is as charming as Days Inns
everywhere; $89.
Rick Friedman for The New York Times
Published: May 26, 2006 By PAUL SCHNEIDER |
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