A Look At Lynnfield-Related Items Up For Auction (11/5 Edition)

Most weekends (when there's enough listings), Lynnfield Patch takes a look at the various items up for auction on eBay that are connected to the town and its past. Here are the latest examples:

Civil War Reunion: This is a great piece of local history – On August 23, 1911, 50 years after the 17th Massachusetts Regiment left Lynnfield for the Civil War, surviving members and their families were invited back to town for a reunion at the Suntaug Lake Inn. The event included a visit back to "The Old Camp Ground," which is what the soldiers called Camp Stanton, the former military training camp that stood in Lynnfield right off the present-day Route 1 close to Green Street and the Holiday Inn in Peabody (across the highway from Spinelli's basically). Thanks to the dedicated work of historians, you can actually read a timeline of the various military actions these men were involved in during the Civil War. And as long as I'm on the subject, you can check out on some of the other soldiers and units that trained in Lynnfield during that era.

The B+M Railroad Station: I didn't know it until I started writing this, but apparently there was once a B+M Railroad Station in Lynnfield at the junction of Routes 1 and 128. There was also a lot of open space around it, for what that's worth. The seller does not indicate what decade this is from but I'll go out on a limb and say the unused postcard seems to be from the '20s or '30s, if not slightly older.

Unusual Angles: This is a black and white postcard showing the Towne Lyne House, which seems to get a mention in this column once every week or two. But in this case, check out that photo. Apparently back in 1944, when this card was postmarked, area photographers were experimenting with the super-secret Funhouse Mirror Camera, which had the power to make a building's walls look like they were jutting out at crazy angles. Word is it drove the Axis nuts. Those pillars out in front look like they're about to go tumbling onto Route 1, although I'm pretty sure it was an illusion.

Vintage Fire Trucks: There's actually four items mentioned for this listing – all of them slides showing vintage firetrucks that once served Lynnfield, ranging from the late '50s to the late '70s. Lynnfield Fire Department personnel were using these vehicles, dated 1956 (seems like the seller might have meant to say 1965), 1960, 1961 and 1976. The 1960 tanker truck had the catchy nickname "The H2O express." For more shots of vintage fire trucks, .

From The Kernwood: It took me a minute to place this one - at first I thought this was a swizzle stick from the Kernwood Country Club – but that place I believe still exists in Salem. Further investigation finds a 1910 photo online of the Kernwood Club in Malden, while the only remaining trace of the Kernwood in Lynnfield (not sure of the relationship between those particular two places) seems to be some remnant restaurant reviews from around 2002 to 2004, when I left Massachusetts for Laconia, NH for a few years. Checking further, I learned that the former Kernwood in Lynnfield once sat on the site currently occupied by on 55 Salem Street. I think in a previous eBay report, I mentioned the Kernwood in regard to somebody selling matchbooks from several former restaurants in town.