This article appeared in the May 2 edition of the Old Colony Memorial.
Amidst the ruddy bogs that blanket Southeastern Massachusetts, a few old screening houses lay in repose. The building sags inward, gently leaning to one side as if it were weary from the ravages of time. The tight rows of windows that once made indoor screening possible, are cracked or boarded up. After decades of neglect, the former mainstays of the cranberry industry gently decay.
Screening houses were once ubiquitous around cranberry country, but changes in the industry – new technology, new methodology and the rise and fall of prices – lead to the destruction of many of these buildings and their history.