THE MARTIN LUTHER KING MITZVAH: FOUNTAIN SQUARE IN LARCHMONT
In my novel The Martin Luther King Mitzvah, it is Halloween, and Adam Jacobs wants to go trick-or-treating with his new friend Sally Fletcher. Unfortunately for Adam, Sally Fletcher is Catholic, and in the fictional town of Beachmont, New York in 1966, Jews and Catholics just don’t mix. Sally has an older brother named Peter, and he confronts Adam and his friend Jimmy at a fountain outside of St. Catherine’s Church on Halloween and tells Adam to stay away from Sally, then calls Adam a derogatory name. Adam and Jimmy continue their trick-or-treating, but Halloween has lost its allure for Adam. The damage has been done.
In my hometown of Larchmont, New York, on which the fictional Beachmont is based, there is a bronze sculpture called The Mermaid’s Cradle in the center of Fountain Square, down in the Manor, the historic section of Larchmont that is closest to the Long Island Sound. It was commissioned by Larchmont benefactress Helena Flint and created by sculptress Harriet Hosmer. Flint donated the sculpture to the village of Larchmont and the mermaid was installed in 1894 in Fountain Square, where St. John’s Episcopal Church was being built. The sculpture depicts a mermaid lulling her baby to sleep by playing a double pipe. In my novel, St. Catherine’s Church is a Catholic church, and at one point later in the story, Adam finds himself inside the church with the other Catholics who are praying for Sally’s recovery from an illness.
When I did a tour of Larchmont on June 18, 2009, I visited Fountain Square and took some photographs of the mermaid and of St. John’s Church. This square is only a few blocks from my house on Hazel Lane, where I spent most of my youth. In Photo 1, you can see the mermaid and how beautiful Fountain Square is. Imagine it’s 1966 and kids are trick-or-treating, and Peter Fletcher confronts Adam at this fountain. Photo 2 gives you a closer look at the mermaid playing her double pipes. Photo 3 shows the entrance to St. John’s Church, which looks out at Fountain Square and the mermaid, which would be off to the right, out of frame.
Great memories of my hometown, and bittersweet because of the anti-Semitism that did exist in Larchmont back in the 1960s. I deal with it in the novel, and I hope my story helps people of all faiths to learn to live with each other.
