The Guppys

No, not fish, our neighbors to the north of us at what was then 4 Beach Ave. They inherited the house from their parents. They were spinster sisters, Hazel and Florence, and bachelor brother Stanley. There was a fourth sibling, a married sister (Mabel?) who had family in the Rochester area and later retired to Florida. She had at least one son. We always thought they were of Dutch origin but were more likely English from the Dorset/Somerset region. From ancestry.com:

English: habitational name from a place in Wootton Fitzpaine, Dorset, Gupehegh in Middle English. This is named with the Old English personal name Guppa (a short form of Gūðbeorht ‘battle bright’) + (ge)hæg ‘enclosure’. The tropical fish denoted by this word was named in the 19th century in honor of R.J.L. Guppy, a clergyman in Trinidad who first presented specimens to the British Museum.

Anyway, Hazel was born February 22, 1894 and was, when we knew her, an invalid in a wheelchair. I don't think we children ever knew the cause, if she had always been so or if it developed in her later years. She died in April of1973. She always had hard candies (especially butterscotch) nearby to share with visitors, especially our brother John who inherited the family sweet tooth with the rest of us.

Younger sister Florence was born on February 27, 1901 and died in May 1976.

Stan (Stanley H Guppy) was born on November 19, 1896 and died on June 4 1989. Like his sisters he was thin, spare and very neat and precise, in both movement and habits. He knew so much local history, regaling us with tales of his youth in the Roaring 20s when he witnessed the goings-on of local wealthy folk with private rail cars that came up from New York City for weekend parties.

Their house was always neat as a pin, with a wrap-around porch from the seldom-used front door to the light-weight screen door on the south side, which was the usual entrance. There was a small alcove between the screen door and main door where mail and packages were left, and boots or shoes could be removed before stepping into the parlor proper. The front room was Hazel's bedroom and generally closed off (which is why the front door was seldom used) and off the cozy living area was a formal dining room. The kitchen was behind the dining room, and there was a connecting door to the back apartment, rented for many years by Rachel Walsh before she moved to the "Old Ladies Home" - the Faatz-Crofut Home for the Elderly, around the corner - years later. It was a mother-in-law apartment, with small sitting area and kitchen downstairs and a bed and bath upstairs. My father once said the basement floor was so clean you could eat off it, and Mr. Guppy kept nails, screws and so on in neatly labeled glass jars on shelves.