May 8, 2025May 8, 2025
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Dissolving Views

In preparation for my Dock Square slideshow coming up at the Townhouse School next Thursday evening, I am sharing part of one of the Dock Square history sources I used for the research. “Dissolving Views” was an article printed in the August 1,1913 issue of the Kennebunkport summer newspaper, Sea Shell. The Editor interviewed older Kennebunkport residents who still remembered how Dock Square looked in the 1840s.

Hay scales in a tall frame building, stood where the monument is now. A steep flight of stairs led to where one could “look at the steelyard beam, so counterpoised that a heavily loaded cart could be lifted.” The scale was in front of the oldest commercial building in Kennebunkport (1775), now Copper Candle. Perkins Rum Warehouse was on the first floor of that building. When the storeroom was full the wharf would be piled high with barrels of sugar, molasses and rum waiting for small sailing vessels to load the West Indies cargos on coasting vessels headed to New York and Boston.

A sailor’s boarding house kept by Joe Jeffery’s grandmother was conducted upstairs at the warehouse. Sailors would come on to Perkins Wharf from West Indies voyages on Perkins vessels, drop their gear at the boarding house and make their way over to Capt. Law’s Rum Mill in the basement of the building that would later become Weinstein’s. Upstairs in that building, Thomas Currier, the Apothecary, could sell them a remedy for any troubling ailment they may have picked up on their sea voyage to exotic places.

The lot where Colonial Pharmacy now stands was Eliphalet Perkins’ shipyard. The brig Eveline was on the stocks there in 1840. Shipbuilder brothers, Daniel and Stephen Ward launched their first vessel, sch Nile, out of the Dock Square shipyard in 1841. The sch Lucy and the brig Velasco were both launched from Dock Square in 1845 for D. and S. Ward.

Vessels were built in the Dock Square Shipyard until the Ward Brothers bought a lot above the drawbridge near South Church on March 25, 1851 upon which to build their new shipyard.

Hope to see you next Thursday!

T82 -Dock Square Kennebunkport c.1889
Kennebunkport Summer Newspaper Sea Shell August 1, 1913 issue, one of hundreds of old Kennebunkport newspapers donated to the Kennebunkport Historical Society by the Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. Remember Margaret Strong? She was the famous bathtub lady of Kennebunk Beach.
H1362 Copper Candle 1775 Perkins Rum Warehouse – West Indies goods were still stored on the first floor in 1840 while Mrs. Jeffery housed transient sailors upstairs. Later, Wheeler & Bell Store and Post Office occupied the building. Do you remember the more recent occupant, the Bookport?
H32 – In the secret language of “locals,” Kennebunkport buildings are sometimes referred to by the names of occupants who have long since vacated the premises. Weinstein’s in Dock Square will always be Weinstein’s no matter how it changes or who occupies it. It was built in 1810 as a two-story commercial building with basement shops entered through bulkhead doors at the front of the building. The whole building was sold to William Currier in 1835. His apothecary occupied one of the main shops in the building for 34 years. He rented the basement shops to a cigar salesman and a rum manufacturer. The building was raised up a level in 1912
H92 Ships were built right in Dock Square where Colonial Pharmacy building or Brown Block now stands. This photograph was taken around 1883. You can just see the new train depot across the river.

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