Safe Harbor Condominium, Building 1 (Units 1 and 2)
Safe Harbor Condominium, Building 1. [2013, Dunlap]
[2013, Dunlap]
Undated photograph. [Courtesy of Allen R. Gallant]
Handwritten on the back of the undated snapshot: “The old homestead. We always had loads of fun didn’t we Jo? Thank God I still do, and I know you folks will too when you get back.” [Courtesy of Allen R. Gallant]
Photograph dated June 1947. The boy at far left looks like he’s playing a soldier or cowboy. [Courtesy of Allen R. Gallant]
A snapshot from 1956. [Courtesy of Allen R. Gallant]
Left: Main staircase in Building 1. [2014, Dunlap] Right: Allen R. Gallant. [2014, Dunlap]
[2014, Dunlap]
[2014, Dunlap]
Gallant is a collector of all things pertinent to Galeforce Farm. This chair came from the Galeforce Ranch Colony, a motel at 22-30 West Vine Street that was run by the Alves family after they closed the dairy. [2014, Dunlap]
Toward the rear of this room at the Galeforce Ranch Colony is the model of chair that Gallant still has, though upholstered in red rather than yellow. The brochure, undated, identifies Irene Alves as “Your Host.” [Courtesy of Allen R. Gallant]
An ample farmhouse from the early 20th century still stands, and still commands a proprietor’s prospect over what was once dairy land. The main building of the Safe Harbor condominium at No. 147 was the home of Joseph Alves (1904-1963) and Irene Clayton (Raymond) Alves (1906-1967), who ran Galeforce, the town’s last commercial dairy farm. Their son Raymond S. Alves (1934-2014) sold the property in 1990 to his brother-in-law, Allen R. Gallant, who created the condo in 2004.
Gallant is a collector of Galeforciana. (Please refer to the article about the Galeforce Farm main barn, 144 Bradford Street Extension.) He also helped the firefighting efforts during the Whaler’s Wharf conflagration of 1998 by climbing to the steeple of the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House and playing a stream of water from a garden hose.
A Lilliputian cottage, close to the road, is now designated Safe Harbor Condominium, Building 2.
Allen R. Gallant wrote on 22 January 2013: The main house behind the cottage is the original Galeforce farm home, built by Joe Alves at the turn of the century and purchased from his son Raymond in 1990 by Allen Gallant. He still resides in the main house.
Wendy Wilson Hankins wrote on 4 November 2013: I lived in that little cottage with my mother and my sister, when I was very young. My mother’s brother, Harris, rented the barn from Joe Alves, and had farm animals. He also farmed part of the fields in the back for food. We left there and moved to the family homestead on Pleasant Street around 1954.
Allen R. Gallant wrote on 17 February 2014: I met with brother-in-law Raymond Alves in his rehab hospital yesterday in New Hampshire. The only little tidbit that he added was about the pear tree on the front lawn. It seems that his father also had pigs across the way in the “pig sty” beside the cow barn with the Holstein cows. They picked up the garbage from restaurants for the pigs. A volunteer seed sprouted and a pear tree grew out of the pig sty. Ray was in his teens (he thinks) and dug it up and carried it on his back and transplanted it to the front lawn and 60-plus years later, I give away bags and bags of pears to locals every fall.
¶ Last updated on 5 November 2022.
147 Bradford Street Extension on the Town Map, showing property lines.
Also at this address
• Safe Harbor Condominium, Building 2