lucy wightman

The mammoth structure was torn down amidst claps, cheers and dust on July 21 and now the lots at 317-319 Beach Ave. are smoothed over and ready for construction.

The Hull Building Department says that building permits are now approved for the 3,500 square foot home to be built on the site of the former Holiday Inn at the ocean end of S St. by new property owners James and Donna Stearns.

Using almost the same footprint as its demolished predecessor, the new structure incorporates towers and bridges to connect its two wings in a design by Hull architect Don Ritz. It is to be a single-family residence, as stipulated by the zoning board of appeals.

The boarded up structure stood abandoned for years, long after its tenure as a beach hotel. Initially two small cottages, they were then joined to accommodate The Ocean Inn, which later became The Holiday Inn, operated by George Gordon. Having no relation to the giant chain of popular hotels, the business functioned busily through the 1960s, housing beach visitors.

One would be hard-pressed to imagine any degree of divine artistry while looking at the sagging, hollow structure that shadowed what is today’s empty lot. It might surprise you to know that a living treasure, Edna Hibel, owned and lived in the house at 317-319 Beach Ave along with her husband of 67 years, Theodore “Tod” Plotkin, and their three children.

“There is no such thing as a bad painting,” she pointed out in a warm, friendly voice, “just an unfinished painting.”

The Hibel Museum (www.hibelmuseum.org) is close to her home and holds a collection from more than eight decades of oils, watercolors, and lithographs. Her artistic achievements and awards are too numerous to list, having reached legendary esteem of international acclaim. Most recently, Hibel was named as a National Women’s History Month 2008 Honoree, and in 2001, Hibel was the second woman to receive the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts. She has painted popes and movie stars, and was asked to paint a commemorative for 200th Anniversary of the White House titled, “The Heart and Conscience of America.”

Edna Hibel has enough memories of Hull to fill a book.

Of her former home on Beach Ave. and S St., she says there were things left in the house worth salvaging. For example, Hibel recounts the time working on a bigger-than-life-size portrait of Ginger Rogers. “She loaned me the beautiful sequined red dress so I could work on her portrait while she wasn’t able to pose for me. I purchased a mannequin and posed the mannequin every which way. I am pretty sure I left the mannequin there.”

This story led to more elaboration about her relationship with Ginger Rogers, who strived to achieve a marital harmony such as the one Edna and Tod have. “She always wanted to be happy with someone. I remember she once brought over Elizabeth Taylor’s mother, who excused herself to check in on her daughter, who had recently had surgery. When the mother returned she was so happy because apparently Elizabeth was already in the pool and Richard was washing her hair!” Hibel chuckles.

Hibel and her family were glad to own an ocean house after so many years summering here in Hull. When they took ownership, Hibel said, “We took the south corner and redid the whole thing, insulated it, put electric heat inside.

“It was so big and old. I remember there was one room filled with stoves, and another one with just refrigerators, then all these little tiny rooms. We just broke down all the walls and opened everything up. Back then, the houses were built on the smallest amount of land possible, and there were not the same zoning laws so nothing had to be so particular. I don’t know if there were any zoning laws at all. So we just kept it as-is, even though legally it was still a hotel. But if we were to rebuild it, we were told that we had to leave the existing walls, and then the parking was a problem. There was none, because the town owned the land for the railroad at the time. The trains went to Pemberton, and I remember my father used to take that to the boat for work.”

While Hibel never used the house in her art, it faced a lone house at the end of the point that became Hibel’s favorite house subject. Additionally, there was plenty of painting that went on inside the Beach Ave. house. “It was such a perfect spot, and the whole family used it. I had two studios on the top floor. In one room there was this old telephone booth that I painted in lavenders and blues, and every year I wanted to redecorate something, so I would paint rugs on the floors. I painted vases of flowers where one might expect to find them.”

Hibel could be seen with her easel anywhere in Hull at any time. After a fourth-grade teacher gave her some brushes and paints to keep her busy while other students finished their math work [Hibel was a math whiz], her talent took hold and has not stopped since.

Her parents came from Brookline and rented a room at Kenberma when Hibel was seven years old. Moving up to house rentals they spent summers on E St., K St. and M St. where Hibel practiced another strong talent – tennis.

“I remember Hull Gala Day, when the tennis tournaments would end, and there were pony rides and fireworks all day long,” she recalled.

In Hibel’s teenage years, she was quite busy, having met her husband-to-be, starting at the Boston Museum School, and beginning what could have been Hull’s first art association. No matter what the activity level, painting remained a constant, even off the traditional canvas. “In one home, I painted a fresco in one niche of the house, and in another I painted the bedroom walls, and now the paint is under the wallpaper. A few years back, I tried to find the paintings in the houses but not everyone was home to let me in.”

One can see the attachments Hibel and Hull formed, making it a natural progression toward settling here. “We owned that house for a very long time, and then sold it to our children. Then our grandson lived there. The house eventually began to deteriorate, but the grandchildren still wanted to use it. We had already moved to Florida. My granddaughter and son-in-law said they would buy it from me and then fix it up. Afterwards they were to give me money so I sold it for a small amount. Then they just did nothing and it sat there. And I never got more money.”