A Bit of Skeet History in Andover, MA

[Dean Romig]

I found this little tidbit online this morning.

https://preservation.mhl.org/73-dascomb-road

I visited the site and was given permission by Mrs. Pitochelli to enter the kennel buildings and to purchase a few things, one of which is the key to the main kennel and office building.
I wrote an article for Parker Pages (note: there is no "the" preceeding the title) more than a decade ago, complete with pictures.

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[Bill Murphy]

Dean, that is not an easy site to access but I finally made it. Thanks for this great information. I am a Foster and skeet history student and am looking for more information for my collection. Tell us what you were able to purchase. I know you purchased some artifacts a few years ago.

[Dean Romig]

I bought two of what I called 'whelping boxes' but I got some assistance in reidentifying them as sleeping boxes that would allow the dogs to get up off the cold concrete floors in the kennels. I bought two of them and re-purposed them into elevated storage boxes with chestnut plank lids. Dave Suponski bought one also but I don't remember what he did with his.
As stated earlier, I bought the skeleton key for the main kennel house/office which I simply keep on my key ring as a lucky charm.
I also bought, for a dollar, a print by Lynne Bogue Hunt of mallards flying over a marsh with a hunter below firing up into them... it was most likely the top of a calendar but it was on the wall of the office and I'm guessing Mr. Bill Foster may have looked at it on occasion when he was in the office and remembering some of the duck hunts he had enjoyed on the Shawsheen River marshes right there in Ballardvale.
I also bought a stout bamboo boat rod of about 6 1/2 feet in length. My goodness there were some BIG stripers right up the road in the Merrimack River coming up to spawn and chow down on the herring in the spring.

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[Dean Romig]

I tried to buy the stained glass window in the peak of the gable end of the kennel house but the daughter of the owner, upon the sale of the property, wanted it for her collection of cherished memories of where she played as a child. I couldn't - I wouldn't - argue with that memory.





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[Rick Roemer]

Cool history