Category Archives: Plum Island

March 28, 2013 · 3:53 pm

Plum Island oceanfront…………three weeks later

Cranes being used on Plum Island to restore the oceanfront dunes.

Longer view to the area where the cranes are being used.

(Plum Island MA) I contacted Newbury building inspector Sam Joslin this morning (Thursday) and learned that Plum Island Beach was open.

I decided to take a few pictures of the Plum Island oceanfront. It turned out to be pretty close to high tide.

I wanted to see how the property recovery was going as well as how safe the surviving homes appeared to be when the next storm happens.

In the distance I could see workers using cranes to try and return the dunes to where they were before the storm.

Looking at houses that survived the storm it was easy to see that their locations are far from safe. These houses are built on sand dunes. I know that there are foundations involved but those too are resting on sand.

My religious background kicked in when I saw the houses and the sand:
“On Christ the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.” – from “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less” by Edward Mote

One homeowner has decided to stay on his oceanfront lot but move his house backward onto a foundation further inland. His optimism regarding his ability to withstand future storms in the new location may be misplaced.

home on left was moved back

front view of home that was moved back

One lady with a house in the area told reporters that she had been coming to Plum Island each summer for forty years and that the water used to be, “hundreds of yards away.” It is certainly not that far away anymore!

The shrinking beach size and the tenuous location of the surviving homes are a combination destined to lead to trouble in the future for the Plum Island oceanfront property owners.

The ocean in my pictures is where it is now reaching some three weeks after the storm. How can it not be concluded that this area stands one storm away from being endangered yet again?

Plum Crazy Replaces PJ’s on Plum Island

Manager Trish Cram and owner Kurt Littlefield in front of mural inside Plum Crazy.

If you’re new to a neighborhood, a quick way to meet your neighbors is to start a building or remodeling project. They’re not always thrilled.

That wasn’t the case, though, for the owner of a restaurant/convenience store called Plum Crazy on Plum Island. The neighbors were pleased.

They were so pleased, in fact, that they came to a lunch in early March before the place opened. “We expected a few,” said owner Kurt Littlefield during a recent interview, “but 28 people showed up. They brought plants and all signed one of our orange beach bags. That bag is our good luck charm.”

Why were the neighbors so friendly?

First, a very popular convenience store/restaurant called PJ’s Variety had existed at that spot, halfway to the lighthouse, for forty years. Kurt described PJ’s as a “social hub where people were used to meeting.” It closed suddenly nearly five years ago and there was no alternative.

Second, Kurt took initiative with the neighbors. “We visited all of them,” he told me. “We wanted them comfortable with us. We asked them how late we should stay open and they suggested 9PM and we agreed.”

Third, Kurt designed the interior of Plum Crazy to give something back to the Plum Island community. “We wanted people to walk in here and say – “Wow, that’s Plum Island,” said Kurt. “That’s why you see all the murals (by Susan McCann of Peabody) including the mural of the Plum Island lighthouse on the main 30-foot ceiling.”

Probably the biggest reason for the good reception was that many Plum Islanders saw the opening of a commercial establishment by someone who actually lived on the island, like Kurt Littlefield, as a pushback against the property taking by outsiders, especially Jeanne and Julian Geiger.

Julian is the wealthy CEO of Aeropostale. His wife, Jeanne, took a fancy to Plum Island in 2003 after visiting. Ten million dollars later Jeanne owned 16 properties on the island including the only hotel. She was willing to pay top dollar and got what she went after including PJ’s. Once purchased the island favorite was abruptly boarded up.

Apparently, Jeanne Geiger’s plan was to remodel and merge all the properties she bought into a big resort on Plum Island with a similar look to each property. The New Yorker hoped to attract New Yorkers with a mini South Beach look.

Some of the work had started but Jeanne Geiger died accidentally in February of 2005. That left Julian Geiger to run things and he has not pushed hard to carry on his wife’s plans. This eventually led to the unoccupied PJ’s being offered for sale.

Kurt, who is a vice president of information technology at Fresenius in Waltham, purchased the property in June of 2008.

Trish Cram is the partner/manager at Plum Crazy. “The retail end is new to me but I’ve got 20 years in the restaurant business in management,” she told me. “The convenience part is currently open every day from 7:30AM-5PM. From Wednesday through Sunday, we’re serving breakfast and lunch until 2PM.”

“We serve traditional breakfasts and lunches,” she added. “A morning special called, ‘Two Crazy,’ which has two of everything, has been very popular. For lunch, our chicken walnut cranberry salad sandwich is awesome. We have wraps and burgers.”

Close to completion is an ice cream window where soft-serve will be available.

“When this place is fully operational we expect to be open from 6AM to 9PM during the on season and offer breakfast, lunch, dinner, and ice cream,” explained Kurt. “The off season we’ll go from 7-to-7.”

The restaurant part has a seating capacity of 44.

“I have nearly 100 applications to go through,” said Trish. “We’re still taking applications and hiring because we plan to be extremely busy.”

“Our goal was to put something together that we could be proud of and that the Plum Island community will be comfortable with,” said Kurt. “I think that we have done that.”

( This story appeared in The Town Common on April 1st. )

Plum Crazy Opened With Local Support

Roof sign for the new restaurant/convenience store on Plum Island.

I did an interview on March 20th at Plum Crazy on Plum Island to report on their recent opening. The more I learned over there and in researching at home the more interesting the story became.

The story idea was suggested because that store site had been vacant for a number of years.

Partner/manager Trish Cram and owner Kurt Littlefield in front of one of the murals inside Plum Crazy.

The owner (Kurt Littlefield) and his partner/manager (Trish Cram) were very cooperative despite being in the midst of a setting where finishing work was still going on.

One point that Kurt made very clear to me was that the neighbors were very excited to have a restaurant/convenience store opening up. That got me started in trying to figure out why the neighbors would have such an unusual attitude. Living near Fruit Street, I know that pulling out a paintbrush can result in neighborhood hysteria.

My research got me reacquainted with the name, Jeanne Geiger. I recalled reading about her death (in 2005) but hadn’t thought much about her in any context since then.

Starting in 2003 I dare say that anyone living on Plum Island knew her very well. Supposedly, the New York resident visited PI and fell in love with it. Not only did she fall in love with the place but with the help of husband Julian (CEO of Aeropostale) decided to buy as much of PI as she could.

The long range plan was to turn PI into a resort that her wealthy friends from New York would be comfortable at. Property would be bought and eventually given a makeover into a common theme.

You would have assumed that the PI locals would turn her down flat when she came trying to buy property that wasn’t even for sale in some cases. But this was a woman who believed that everyone has a price. She spent $10,000,000 to get 16 PI residential and commercial properties in two years.

PJ’s Variety was one of the buys. It was an island center for the locals – food and talk were served up in big doses. Shortly after buying the place she had it closed down and shuttered. That didn’t please the locals.

Jeanne Geiger died suddenly in February 2005 from a second-story fall from the PI hotel she had purchased. What PI would look like now if this hadn’t happened would not be something the locals would wish to think about. This was a lady in her 50s with plenty more money to use than the $10 million she had already spent.

Anyhow, with her out of the mix, the curiosity was over what would become of the property she had bought and the plans she had for those properties. Her husband, Julian, didn’t have the fire in his belly to do much as far as more buying was concerned.

He put PJ’s up for sale and Kurt bought it in June 2008 and has been rehabbing it ever since. He now lives on the island. He has a day job in Waltham as the VP of information technology at a dialysis company.

It has been a long trip to my point that the locals were cheering Kurt on when he bought PJ’s because, I suspect, that in their heart of hearts this signified the turning of the tide against the big spending Geigers from New York. The PJ buy would mean that at least one commercial property would belong to someone who actually lived on PI.

I think that Kurt sensed the wave of support early and that made the trip out into the neighborhood for feedback a likely success, which it was. Kurt also hired an artist to do several murals of local scenes that represent PI for the interior of Plum Crazy. I saw them and they are very nice.

They raised the ceiling and have several skylights. It is very bright. I picture PJ’s as having been a low-ceilinged, dark spot.

Kurt agreed with me that the place’s biggest problem will be parking or lack of same. There is room for 44 restaurant patrons but I can’t fathom how that many folks would have room to park. Maybe that’s where being on the good side of the neighbors will help.

Plum Crazy is located halfway to the lighthouse on the right-hand side of Northern Boulevard.

I have done a separate article on Plum Crazy. It is scheduled to appear in The Town Common on, no fooling, April 1st. When that happens I will slide that article and accompanying picture onto this blog.