Forgotten history: An Onset resident is diving deep into the village’s past

With the deed to his 1890s house in hand and a thirst to study history, Onset resident Peter Markow is embarking on a journey through time.

Markow is using library resources, post cards, house deeds and interviews to chronicle the complete history of Long Neck — a part of Onset that starts at Point Independence and stretches east to Buttermilk Bay. Most of the area is now the Bay Pointe Club.

Markow lives on Long Neck with his wife Emily and in his retirement, he began looking into the history of the area he has called home since 2018.

“There’s just a lot of stuff that’s intriguing to me so I want to go back as early as I can,” Markow said.

In his working life Markow taught chemistry and environmental science at the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford, Connecticut. Using his background in scientific research as well as a plethora of resources, Markow has already begun diving into the area's past.

“Data and facts and knowledge come from the scientific method,” he said. “History is a slightly different form of knowledge but this is the way knowledge is created. People ask questions and then try to find the answers to them and my question is what was Long Neck like in the 1800s.”

Around the corner from his house is Boyles Landing, an eight-unit residential complex that Markow discovered was once the Boyles Estate.

“The Kennedys used to rent the Boyles Estate and used to come here for vacation,” he said. “There was a little story about how a person from Onset Island had to rescue [former President John F. Kennedy] when he was young and I think [Robert Kennedy] because their sailboat overturned.”

And while the area is no longer referred to as Long Neck, remnants of the name remain.

“There’s a little sign that says Long Neck Cemetery and there’s a kind of dirt road that goes there,” Markow said. “I’ve poked around the cemetery and I think it has a lot of the original farmers that lived in the area.”

Markow is less than a year into his project which he said will likely take around five years to complete. He added this isn’t the first long-term history project he’s done. He’s also chronicled the complete history of Camp Frank-A-Day at the YMCA in East Brookfield where he once worked.

“I worked on that for about five years but one of my biggest things is history is boring without photographs,” he said. “If it’s just words then nobody cares.”

After five years, Markow got his Camp Frank-A-Day project published as a book titled “On the Shores of the Quacumquasit: Deep Among the Pines.”

With the completion of this project still being years away, Markow said he’s not sure how he will present his findings. Currently, he is still gathering information as well as hunting for any photographs he can find.

“A lot of the postcards of Onset are downtown so there aren’t too many for Long Neck,” he said. “Most of them are of Point Independence and the Pine Tree Inn that used to be located somewhere between Point Independence and Nanumet Heights.”

But of the photographs he has been able to find, one included the 1963 fire that destroyed the Pine Tree Inn.

“It was really cool to find the photo of the burning Pine Tree Inn so if I can find some of those original photos that would be helpful,” he said.

Markow’s next steps include meeting with people in Long Neck who share names with historical figures he has discovered. He also intends to take a look at different people’s post card collections.

If anyone has any historic photos of Long Neck, Markow encourages people to reach out via email at pmarkow1116@comcast.net.