Throwback Thursday

The Seaveys of Kennebunkport descend from William Seavey who moved to Arundel from Kittery in 1720. Like his father Captain Eli Seavey, our subject today was a ships carpenter in the shipyards for many years but Matthew eventually started building yachts on his own behalf, to operate as tourist excursion vessels. Capt. Matthew B. Seavey’s Kennebunkport house was built at the corner of Ocean Ave. and Chestnut Street shortly before the devastating 1887 Skating Rink Fire that destroyed 13 buildings in the neighborhood. The fire scorched it in places, but fortunately Matthew’s new house was saved. Artist Abbott Graves later...

“The observance of “Easter Sunday” in New England except by Roman Catholics and Episcopalians is quite recent. In this village, I do not think there was any particular observance previous to 1870,” wrote Diarist Andrew Walker in the Spring of 1883. By then, homegrown lily displays adorned every pulpit in every church in the Kennebunks on Easter Sunday. Sermons focused on resurrection, rebirth and seizing yet another new chance to set things right. Thinly veiled Pagen references to fertility, like bunnies who deliver colored eggs they lay to waiting baskets all over town were still few and far between in...

I’m working on a series of lectures about the history of Kennebunkport. Even though each is about a different part of town I find the research overlapping in interesting ways. The names of some people who lived here before the Europeans temporarily abandoned Cape Porpus in 1689 are still in frequent use today. Turbat’s Creek and Batson River were named after Peter Turbat and Stephen Batson. They were both among the 12 Cape Porpus men who submitted to Massachusetts on July 5, 1653. The first town records were lost at abandonment, but we still have access to early deeds and...

The future of the former Unitarian Church Parsonage at 15 Portland Road in Kennebunk is again in question. I have collected historical information about the house that may be useful to those contemplating its historic value. The Unitarian Society bought a nearly 3-acre lot for a parsonage from Horace Porter in 1833. The house was likely built soon after that. Town Clerk Andrew Walker wrote in his diary that the cost of the land and buildings to the parish was about $1,350. It was used as a parsonage for 17 years. In May of 1850, the Unitarian Parish sold the...

One of the treasures protected by the Kennebunkport Historical Society is a record book kept by Rev. Silas Moody of the covenants, baptisms, marriages, etc. of the Church of Christ in Arundel from 1771-1815. The book went missing for 100 years but was returned in 1915 by a woman who came upon it in Fryeburg, Maine and realized its historical significance to Kennebunkport. The first church in town was built at Cape Porpoise Square in 1727. Thirty-five years later, inhabitants of the more recently populated upper part of town wanted a church nearer to them. Taxpayers would not vote to...

The discovery of gold in California in 1848 inspired thousands of fevered fortune hunters to rush there by land and by sea. Fifteen of them were from Kennebunk. The sudden population influx caused a great housing shortage. A handful of Kennebunk entrepreneurs, future West Kennebunk Twine Mill proprietor Robert Waterston Lord, Capt. Wm Lord jr., the richest man in town, and carpenter, Oliver Littlefield took more of a picks and shovels approach to making money on the California gold rush. Timothy Frost of this town had materials prepared for one small prototype prefabricated house. Capt. Wm Lord Jr. and Oliver...

Pinkham Island in Cape Porpoise Harbor was called Negro Island until about 50 years ago. On some documents, a more offensive name was used. I have read stories about an escaped enslaved person who, after rescuing a local child from drowning, was allowed to reside there on that poison ivy covered rock after the Civil War, but the island was given that name long before the Civil War. An unregistered 30-ton English slave-trader sloop Mary dropped anchor near what is now known as Willards Beach, on July 17, 1789. Local fishermen, who well-remembered the damage British Ships had done to...

Town Planners and Kennebunkport Historical Society (KHS) Officers tried for years to create a Village Historic District to protect our many vulnerable properties, but Port voters repeatedly rejected such local ordinances. Our Bicentennial celebration presented a chance to take a tiny step in that direction. KHS and the Maine State Preservation Commission applied to the National Register of Historic Places for an official Historic District Designation. Though it offered no protection against historically inappropriate alterations or demolitions it prevented federal funds being spent to cause harm within the district, with housing projects, road widening, etc. It also made the historic...

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. George Washington met with Passamaquoddy citizens of Maine and asked them to fight with him against the British during the American Revolution. In exchange for their support, he made since-broken promises to protect their land rights in an independent America. Indigenous families of Maine made Kennebunkport and Kennebunk Beach their summer home from 1879-1927. By 1890, the community near the mouth of the Kennebunk River included five Passamaquoddy families from Eastport under the leadership of L.F. Francisway, and three Penobscot families from Old Town led by...

Kennebunk Historian William E. Barry did a lot to document our history. I especially appreciate his Historical and Road Map of Kennebunk, ME and Vicinity, that he compiled and drew between 1905 and 1908. It still hangs at the Kennebunk Free Library, thanks to Henry Parsons. Barry was still in the process of making it in 1906 when it was displayed at the three-year-old Atlantis Hotel at Kennebunk Beach. I have shared the description of the map that appeared that summer in The Wave. The last feature mentioned caught my eye. “The site of the Acadian Exiles’ house built for...

Number 8 Langsford Road in Cape Porpoise is getting a new identity. Farm + Table has closed. Complements, which has been in Dock Square in the Dora’s Beauty Salon building for some forty years, will soon move into the red livery stable building. A grocery store, built in 1867 by Allison B. Huff used to stand next door to Church on the Cape. Civil War Navy Captain Thomas W. Bell bought half of the business in 1886. A year later, 25-year-old Luman E. Fletcher bought the remaining Huff share and added a small livery stable across the street. Capt. Bell...

What does a Kennebunk Sea Captain killed by pirates have to do with the Monroe Doctrine? Be forewarned, the story is not for the faint of heart. Capt. Clement Perkins, 30 year old grandson of the Thomas Perkins who built the oldest house still standing in Kennebunkport, was familiar with the dangers of sailing to the West Indies when he first took command of Simon Nowell’s brig Belisarius and embarked for Haiti. He then proceeded into the Bay of Campeche, between Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula. While anchored there, in view of the fort, the Belisarius was boarded by some...