Weathervane Wednesday ~ A Crane with a Great Story!

I post a series of weather vane photographs every Wednesday.  This started with images of weathervanes from the Londonderry, New Hampshire area, but now I've found interesting weather vanes all across New England and across the globe.  Sometimes my weather vanes are whimsical, or historical, but all are interesting.  Often my readers tip me off to some very unique or unusual weathervanes, too!  If you know a great weather vane near you, let me know if you'd like to have it featured on this blog.

Today's weather vane is from somewhere in Massachusetts.

Do you know the location of weathervane post #278?  Scroll down to find the answer.

This is the only weathervane I've ever photographed on a fountain!  This three dimensional gilded crane symbolizes the Three Cranes tavern that stood here in City Square, Charlestown, Massachusetts from the 1630s until the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, when it burned to the ground along with most of the neighborhood.  Thank you to Linda Hall Little for the photographs of this amazing fountain, which is right in her own neighborhood.

The Three Cranes tavern was owned and operated by the LONG family of Charlestown for over 140 years.  The original immigrant, Robert Long (1590 - 1663) was my 9th great grandfather.  You can read all about the LONG family at this link: https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/02/surname-saturday-long-of-charlestown.html    In the 1980s there was an archaeological excavation on this land because the central artery project ("The Big Dig") was going to dig a tunnel right under here.  The excavation uncovered the foundations of the Three Cranes tavern.  After the tunnel was built, and the park was designed, sculptor David Phillips created this fountain and weathervane in 1996.  See below for some amazing details carved in the fountain.

Tomorrow I will be publishing a story with lots of photographs of the City Square park and the uncovered foundation walls of the Three Cranes Tavern, and more history and family history to go with the photos. Stay tuned! There are some amazing stories of genealogy, serendipity, tragedy and coincidence in tomorrow's blog post.

The top two photos are by Linda Hall Little, author of the genealogy blog Passage to the Past https://passagetothepast.wordpress.com/

A short history of City Square, the tavern and the new park at this link:  http://patch.com/massachusetts/charlestown/the-endurance-of-city-square-park


Click here to see the entire series of Weathervane Wednesday posts!

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Weathervane Wednesday ~ A Crane with a Great Story!", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 28, 2016,  ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/09/weathervane-wednesday-crane-with-great.html: accessed [access date]).