Most of you are familiar with HB Provisions or Meserve’s Market as it used to be called, but only those with memories of Kennebunk Lower Village going back more than 50 years will recall the controversy over making the little adjacent parking lot.

In September 1968, for some unexplained reason, the Kennebunk Board of Selectmen sold the old Washington Hose Co Fire House that stood there to the lowest bidder ($5,100) rather than to the highest bidder ($6,000 +). The highest bidder sued the town. During the court case they discovered that the Town of Kennebunk didn’t own the building to sell in the first place.

On June 25, 1936, the Washington Engine Company, a volunteer fire department, had deeded the building and land to the Town of Kennebunk with the stipulation that the title would revert back to the grantor if it was no longer used as a Firehouse. The town renamed it Washington Hose Company. Some 30 years later they decided to sell it, AFTER they had moved to a modern firehouse in Lower Village.

Several years and nearly $1,000,000 in attorney fees later Kennebunk Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to cease any legal interest in the firehouse. Meanwhile, the lowest bidder had sold his interest in the building to Paul Binnette, owner of the store that is now called H.B. Provisions. By April 1972 Binette had torn down the building and had a little parking lot.

The Washington Engine Co Fire House was built 1889. The first picture I have shared was taken in November 1889. By 1895, the company had saved enough to have Hobbs Gooch build an 8-foot square tower on the firehouse so the firefighters could properly drain and dry their hoses. A bell was hung in 1897. These details help to date old photographs of Lower Village.

I found one source that suggested the Fire House might not have been torn down in the early 1970s but moved without its tower to Rte IA in Arundel to become someone’s barn. I found no proof but it’s plausible. Do any of you readers know for sure?