Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m a coward in a thunderstorm. Imagine my horror when amid a barrage of lightning strikes last Friday night, I heard what sounded like sirens from half a dozen fire engines rushing toward my beloved Kennebunkport village. There was a fire at the Tamaracks property on Maine Street, formerly known as Peter’s Rock. My heart sank with a sense of déjà vu.

That property has had more than its share of fire damage since the main cottage, designed by the Lowell and Boston architect Frederick W. Stickney, was built for the Julian Talbot family in 1888. A tree in front of the stable was struck by lightning, causing a great ball of fire to run along the new telephone wires into the coachman’s sitting room during the summer of 1897.

The Julian Talbot family lived higher than most of their Kennebunkport neighbors. They traveled in style to and from their summer retreat with seven railroad freight cars to transport their horses, ponies, dogs, monkeys, parrots, and baggage. Once in Kennebunkport, they visited their friends at Cape Arundel aboard a Five-in-Hand, also known as a large carriage, drawn by five horses.

Julian Talbot, heir to the Talbot Woolen Mills in Lowell Massachusetts, died of pneumonia in 1900. His wife, Anne Richardson Talbot and their children moved to Kennebunkport year-round, in 1920. On a bitter cold night in February 1923, Peter’s Rock was reported ablaze. The upper floor of the cottage and all its priceless antiques were destroyed. Though the fire fighters were commended in the paper for their heroic efforts, the editor of Turn O’ the Tide wrote that the extensive damage to the Talbot Cottage “was entirely due to insufficient apparatus to fight fire with.”

The most recent fire at what is now called Tamaracks, valiantly fought by our well-equipped firefighters, displaced a family from their home. My heart goes out to them. Thank Goodness, with all the property damage suffered, nobody was hurt in any of the fires at Peter’s Rock.

Learn more about the generous Talbot family in my upcoming slideshow about the History of Cape Arundel.