Two sets of Twins between Chestnut and Elm

I love walking around my neighborhood thinking about the lives of the people who have occupied these old houses in historic Kennebunkport Village. Believe it or not, it’s what I do for fun.

Twin houses built during the War of 1812 used to stand on Ocean Avenue between Elm and Chestnut Streets. Cooper Nahum Haley, who had a barrel makers shop across the street, lived in the twin at Chestnut Street. Oliver Davis, a pump and block maker who also had a shop across the street (where my house is now) lived in the twin at the corner of Elm Street for seventy plus years until his death. When Oliver died in 1883, he was the oldest person in town at the age of 94. Forty some years earlier, one of his teenaged sons, George had died in the famous wreck of the Braque Isadore. She was full of Kennebunkport men all lost in a storm at Cape Neddick in 1842. Thank goodness Oliver didn’t also have to witness his neighborhood being destroyed a few years after his death.

Eventually, Oliver’s son Charles acquired both twin houses. They burned to the ground during the catastrophic skating rink fire of 1887. Their associated shops across the street did, too. In all, thirteen buildings in the neighborhood were lost or badly damaged that fateful April night thanks to an arsonist intent on eliminating the unprofitable skating rink.

The two houses that were built to replace the twins after the fire are not exactly twins but they do look alike. The house at the corner of Chestnut and Ocean Ave was built first- after the 1891 Sanborn Insurance Map was drawn, but before its matching house was built next door in July 1894 for widow Abbie E. Perkins. The Perkins family lived there for many generations before it was converted into apartments.

I’ve read there were at times shops in both of these matching houses. Do you remember what was sold there?

Twin houses built during the War of 1812 used to stand on Ocean Avenue between Elm and Chestnut Streets. They burned to the ground during the catastrophic skating rink fire of 1887. All that was left of them was their twin foundations.
In all, thirteen buildings in the neighborhood were lost or badly damaged that fateful April night in 1887 thanks to an arsonist intent on eliminating the unprofitable skating rink.
1891 Sanborn Insurance Map shows the neighborhood after the fire but before the twin houses were replaced. Notice the new Fire Engine House built immediately after the fire.
Glass plate photo from the Kennebunk River looking toward the foot of Elm St at the 2 similar houses that replaced the twins. The white house up Elm Street, The Horace Davis house, survived the fire.
This photo shows the houses built in the 1890s between Chestnut and Elm Streets. Notice Captain Dudley’s house at the right, which also survived the fire of 1887. See maps

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