The Victorian house at 115 Main Avenue (at Delaware) was built by Dr John Alday. The current owners tell us that Dr. Alday had a smaller house on the property until this one was built in 1896. The waiting room was in the rear of the current house. Mr. Ted Bell, Ocean Grove historian, has kindly provided us with the following profile of the doctor:
The John Alday house. 2010 Blogfinger photo“He was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1828. A practicing physician until 1851 when he became a minister in the Methodist church.
In 1874 he became a Trustee of the OCGMA and continued until his death in his Ocean Grove home in 1911 at the age of 83.
“A bronze fountain was placed in Woodlawn Park in his memory in graceful tribute for his work in Ocean Grove. The park was known as “Alday Park” until 1959 when the Fireman’s Memorial bell was place in the center of the park—the park is now known as “Fireman’s Park. “
Editors note: We have no information regarding the whereabouts of the fountain, but there are old postcards of Woodlawn Park that show a beautiful bronze figure of a woman. Gibbons’ History of Ocean Grove says that the fountain was called “The John H. Alday Memorial Fountain” and that it was “erected” in 1915 and placed in Woodlawn Park. It’s not clear when the park’s name was officially changed to “Alday Park,” but it seems likely to have occurred when the statue was placed there.
—Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor @Blogfinger
Civil War era surgical instruments
Medical history: Nineteenth century physicians had to contend with diphtheria, whooping cough, rheumatic fever, TB, polio, chicken pox, cholera, rabies, tetanus, maybe a rare case of malaria or yellow fever in travelers, and typhoid. Dr. Alday did get to see the discovery of XRAYS in 1895, the germ theory of Pasteur and Koch in 1870, and the development of sterile technique by Lister in 1867. He saw vaccines appear in 1879 for cholera, 1882 for rabies, and in 1890 for tetanus and diphtheria. Dr. Alday saw aspirin invented in 1899 and blood typing in 1901.
He never saw the development of penicillin, Vitamin D for rickets, or insulin, but he probably knew about the first blood transfusion in 1907.
He probably did not have an early ECG machine, because the earliest models, around 1900, were the size of a small house. His main tools were his stethoscope (probably a monaural model) and some crude surgical instruments. He probably made housecalls in a horse and buggy and he would have dispensed his own medications, what few existed at that time. He was a religious man, and his faith and compassion were likely very useful to him in the practice of medicine back then. –Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor@Blogfinger
“Johnny’s Gone to Hilo”. Kate and Anna McGarrigle
The “Figure with Urn Fountain” was in production by 1880. The height of the statue was 5-1/2 feet. The Fiske Iron Works and the Mott Iron Works copied each others products and it is often impossible to know the maker without a name label or paperwork. In a c.1880 Fiske catalog, the cost of the zinc figure alone was $135 with one coat of paint or $145 bronzed. The second treatment was merely the use of a metallic paint. The cast iron fountain in Founders Park was described as “bronze.”
Zinc statues were popular items as they were more affordable than bronze and carved stone. These were often used by towns of modest circumstances for Civil War and firemen’s monuments. If painted white, they magically became fine Carrara marble in the public imagination. When used on buildings as “Justice” on a courthouse, they could be coated with a sticky substance and have dry sand thrown on them. This would give a remarkable imitation of stone.