Dug out Dan (Dana Smith): exterior view of Dan's dugout home, the No. 9 Lonely Hearts Club, with Dan at far right
Description:
From a series of images taken of the Vermont hermit, Dana Smith. "Lives in ground. Blackington discovered this hermit of Barre, Vt. in the summer of 1925 when looking for a story there with another Boston Herald reporter. The story was later broadcast as a "Yankee Yarn" on September 29, 1947. 'Dugout Dan' ran a filling station and had made his home in the hillside, ostensibly after hearing a tale that living in a hole could cure his rheumatism. He boasted an ice cream parlor inside the home (with a freezer powered by a water wheel), a rolling canvas panorama illustrating a trip down the Mississippi (complemented by sounds and 'special effects' provided by Dan himself), an enormous silk-canopied four-post bed, a collection of over 10,000 calling cards left by visitors, and numerous other curios. From the Vermont Historical Society finding aid on Dana Smith: "Dana H. Smith was born in Montpelier, Vermont, ca. 1858[...] He married May Burnham on August 15, 1878 in Montpelier, Vermont. They had two children: Ely Goddard (1881-1969) and Perley (b. 1887). He and May lived apart most of their married life and at some point they divorced. He built [the No. 9 Lonely Hearts Club], which initially functioned as his home, on Route 302 in East Barre, Vermont. The structure was distinctive not only because Dana constructed it and nearly all its furnishings himself, but also because it was built into a hillside (hence its later name, the 'Dugout'). No. 9 functioned as a tourist attraction and according to newspaper coverage from the time was visited by 26,000 people in the six-year period from 1913-1919. It later evolved into a 'Get acquainted club for those who are lonely' (a lonely hearts club, equivalent to a singles bar at the time)."
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