Today in history: Matunuck landmark torn down

Published Dec. 15, 2009 at 11:05 a.m.

On the local front:

Journal photo/ Frieda Squires

A year ago today:
Residents of the Matunuck section of South Kingstown awake to the emotional sight of workers tearing down the Seaview, the building where beach goers for nearly 90 years had showered, changed, played bingo, gone to dances, or just sat on the deck looking at the wide beach and ocean views out to Block Island. The beach is gone now. And the shoreline has receded so rapidly in recent years that waves were crashing into and under the building's foundation. As employees of Mary Carpenter's Beach Meadow attacked the west end of the building with an excavator, they had to watch the steep drop-off that could have dumped them into the ocean. "This is so sad," said one of the Carpenter employees, who helps run the shoreside colony of about 300 trailers and small cottages. Bud Shaw, who has lived in Carpenter's for 35 years, took pictures as the building came down. He said it was the focal point of some of the better times in his life with the summers at the beach and the dances at night. "We hoped they would move it, but it's too late now," he said.

5 years ago today:
Ninety-five of 177 nightclubs in Rhode Island must install sprinklers under the fire safety laws inspired by The Station disaster in 2003, according to a statewide survey compiled by the state fire marshal's office. Of those 95 clubs, 55 must also install fire alarms that automatically notify the local fire department when the alarm sounds. Thirteen other clubs that meet the sprinkler requirements must install these municipally connected alarms. The fire marshal's study, which combined data from local fire departments and nighttime surveys by the marshal's staff, found that 69 clubs already meet both the sprinkler and alarm requirements. The list does not include large theaters, which could come under the sprinkler law. Fire Marshal Irving J. Owens said last night that his office concentrated first on nightclubs. "All the others will be addressed accordingly," he said. The Station nightclub fire, Feb. 20, 2003, killed 100 people, injured about 200 and provoked an overhaul of the state's fire code. Getting more sprinklers into places of public assembly was a key goal of the 2003 legislation.

25 years ago today:
Superior Court Judge John P. Bourcier is expected to decide next month when movie theater owner John J. Tavone is to begin serving two years behind bars for showing a pornographic film. A hearing on the matter was shifted to Jan. 4 to give the Rhode Island Supreme Court time to rule on a motion by Tavone's lawyer, John F. Sheehan of Providence, according to Bourcier. Sheehan has asked the Supreme Court to stay execution of the two-year sentence pending an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to Asst. Atty. Gen. John E. Magliaccio. The attorney general's office will oppose the stay, said Magliaccio. In September, the state Supreme Court upheld Tavone's 1981 conviction under the state's obscenity law passed in 1979. In 1982 Bourcier sentenced Tavone, 39, of Kerri Lynn Road, Warwick, to two years. Tavone is the first person to be sentenced to prison for violating the 1979 obscenity statute. Tavone was owner of the Palace Theater on Washington Street in West Warwick in February, 1981, when the movies "Baby Blue" and "Maraschino Cherry" were shown. Tavone also owns the Johnston Cinema.

On the international front:

Journal file photo

Glenn Miller

On this day in 1944, the plane carrying American bandleader Glenn Miller, a U.S. Army Major, disappears over the English Channel, probably the victim of bombs jettisoned from British bombers returning from an unsuccessful raid.

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