Most of us take a secondary education for granted but before 1890 most Kennebunkport kids didn’t have the option of going to high school. The cost for such a luxury was not covered by local taxes or subsidized by the state.

The State of Maine finally offered subsidies for any town that maintained a high school. In 1889, Kennebunkport voted to build a new village school on the burned-out Spring Hotel lot on Elm Street. The first floor of the new school would accommodate grammar and primary students. Upstairs, for the first and only time in the town’s history, Kennebunk Port had its own high school.

Kennebunk Port High School opened in April 1891 with freshman and sophomore students. Their teacher was Mr. William Gilpatrick of Saco. In the spring of 1893 Mr. Gilpatrick and his 39 students posed on the doorstep of the school building for a photograph. Five students were ready to graduate from high school but because they would each be charged out-of-pocket, they voted not to hold a formal graduation ceremony. The Chairman of the Kennebunkport School Committee refused to grant their 5 diplomas without a ceremony. The next time students were ready to graduate was spring of 1895. A ceremony was held that year and the original 5 graduates from 1893 finally got their diplomas.

While the town was building a Consolidated School on School Street, they voted to close the high school and pay tuition for Kennebunkport high school students to attend Kennebunk High School, Wells High School, or nearby private schools. All of the town’s 8th graders were temporarily moved to the old high school building. Consolidated School opened in 1953 and the old Elm St Schoolhouse was used as a branch bank for Ocean National Bank while their building across the street was under construction. The schoolhouse was torn down to make way for the municipal building in 1959.