Another one of my Kennebunkport history heroes was Julian C. Howard. Born in Boston in 1891, Julian spent his whole life visiting Goose Rocks Beach every summer. He graduated from Harvard in 1913 with a degree in Chemistry but also became a registered surveyor in Massachusetts and Maine. After a long and productive career in his fields he finally became a year-round resident of Kennebunkport after the fire of 1947.

In Kennebunkport, Julian served on the Board of Selectmen, surveyed and drew town maps, started the Town Forest, and helped with reforestation after the fire of 47. He also served on the Historical Society Board of Directors, eventually becoming President. The pictures of Goose Rocks Beach I am sharing today are prints that Julian Howard had made for the Kennebunkport Historical Society in 1958 from his collection of glass plate negatives taken by Francis Dow, who along with Julian’s father Willis, was an important early Beachwood photographer. Julian mounted the prints on cards and identified as many buildings as he could on the back.

One of my favorite civic-minded projects he participated in was the Goose Rocks Beach Community Christmas Tree. He and some of his neighbors, conspired to bring Christmas Joy to the year-round residents of Goose Rocks Beach in 1950, when the ruins left by the Fire of 47 were still evident and less than festive. Every year, for at least a decade, Gilbert Fessenden and Julian Howard went out to find a sizable Christmas Tree and set it up in the empty beachfront lot next to Lawrence Ireland’s cottage. They draped it with homemade strings of lights and plugged them into the Ireland’s electric bill.

One of the last things GRB resident, Harriet Wingate did before she died was to call him aside and give him some money. “Julian,” she said, “I want you to do this for me, please buy some more lights for the tree. I love to see it.” She never saw them again.

Do you remember the Goose Rocks Beach Christmas Tree? We would love to find some pictures of it!