Memories of temple, childhood burned by last week’s fire

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December 23, 2007

Gail McCarthy The Gloucester Daily Times Sun Dec 23, 2007, 11:27 PM EST

In the past two weeks, Robert Visnick, a descendent of one of the earliest Jewish families on Cape Ann, has seen childhood memories destroyed or damaged by fire or torn down.

The most devastating blow was the destruction of Temple Ahavat Achim in the eight-alarm Middle Street fire Dec. 15.

Less than two weeks before, fire hit Charlie’s Place on Bass Avenue, once the site of Mr. Ed’s, a diner run by his late father, Edward Visnick, a Gloucester High graduate of 1938.

In between the two fires, Donut Dream in Rockport, which at one time housed his father’s restaurant, Mr. Ed’s Anchor Inn, where Visnick worked as a teenager, was torn down.

“It has been surreal for me because I have lost a lot of the physical memories of my father’s life and occupations,” Visnick said.

The most recent blow came when Visnick, 50, received a call early Saturday morning about the temple.

“When I got there about 8:45 a.m., it just reminded me of Sept. 11 because you are looking at something that your brain can’t comprehend what your other senses are telling you,” he said. “It was so otherworldly when you looked up and saw the smoke, and there was the smell of burning, and you could see the water and the ice that had frozen on the trees and ground.”

When he walked to the top of Middle Street for the Sabbath service that was held at the nearby Unitarian Universalist Church, he had to pause to regain his composure.

“I was disoriented because everything looked so different, Visnick said. “For a moment I couldn’t tell where I was, my brain was refusing to process it.”

He had been anticipating the bat mitzvah of his daughter Sarah in 2009 at the temple.

“We had unfinished business in that building,” said Visnick, who served on the temple board.

But the Sabbath service brought hope as well as tears when firefighters arrived to return prayer shawls and a B’nai B’rith plaque on which were inscribed the names of many Visnick uncles and cousins.

“I don’t think there was a dry eye in the place,” Visnick said. “It was a beautiful service, and people gave their remembrances, the happy times, and there was certainly a feeling in the air that the community will overcome it. We mourn the loss of life and sadness about the building. But the building can be rebuilt. There is the thought that we will move forward with this and our children will have memories made in a new structure.

“It filled me with a resolve to be more involved and active. It will involve everyone on the (temple) board and the community to work together.”

Visnick’s grandfather, Hyman Visnick, came to Gloucester before World War I. Around 1910, he worked at Hubbard’s Bakery on Prospect Street. Hyman’s daughter, Ann Visnick Fishman, once recalled that at one point that he made thousands of rolls for the Navy who were coming into town, according to the account in Sarah Dunlap’s book titled “The Jewish Community of Cape Ann: An oral history.”

At one point, his great-grandfather Baruch Visnick of Lithuania came to Gloucester to live with his son’s family here.

For awhile the family lived on Addison Street, in the house bought by the Jewish community and used to hold services for several years. Eventually a synagogue was established on Prospect Street in 1915.

Visnick shared a story his father (Edward Visnick) used to tell about that synagogue.

“He used to have to go on Friday afternoon from my family’s place in East Gloucester to the synagogue, usually by bus, and he would take a chicken with him in a satchel. The rabbi would bless it and ritualistically slaughter it quickly so it didn’t have pain and then set it free in the basement. Then (my father) would have to go find the chicken and put it back in the satchel and go back on the bus. Then the family would have chicken soup for the Sabbath meal,” said Visnick, whose children represent the fifth generation in Gloucester.

The only place remaining of his childhood was 2 Highland St. in East Gloucester Square. His grandfather bought the building and Visnick lived there as a boy for many years. His grandfather ran a bakery there, though it had many other businesses in the decades that followed — a bar frequented by Rocky Neck artists, a package store, a diner and a variety store. Later the building would be sold and undergo several other incarnations, including a pizza parlor.

“I remember when it was a general goods shop and I would run in and steal candy,” said Visnick, a lawyer in Rockport.

“My grandfather would pretend to chase me. Then I’d give the candy to my friends.”

When (Robert) Visnick was about 8 years old, the family was returning home but they were not allowed to drive to their apartment in the Highland Street building.

“So we went around another street, and we saw that fire was shooting out the windows,” said Visnick. The fire gutted their home. The family moved to a back apartment until renovations were finished.

In 2006, he and his brother, Michael, were preparing for their father’s funeral at the synagogue and on the way home, drove by the old Highland Street homestead where they saw workers by the door.

“I asked if the owner was there to see if we could walk through,” said Visnick. “She was there and we were able to see the place. Her condo unit was the apartment where we had lived. Before we left, she handed us her card, and the name was Memory Layne.”

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Memories of temple, childhood burned by last week’s fire

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