Author: Sharon Cummins (Sharon Cummins)

I love walking around my neighborhood thinking about the lives of the people who have occupied these old houses in historic Kennebunkport Village. Believe it or not, it’s what I do for fun. Twin houses built during the War of 1812 used to stand on Ocean Avenue between Elm and Chestnut Streets. Cooper Nahum Haley,...

Before you read today’s THROWBACK, look at the 4 pictures and take a guess where these columned Greek Revival houses stand in the Kennebunks today and in what order they were built. Master builder Beniah Littlefield built Nathaniel L Thompson’s house at Summer Street in 1842. Shipbuilder N.L. Thompson was a trendsetter. Not only did...

Seth Emery Bryant was a historical record keeper by vocation and clearly, by nature. Though he was technically from away, the contributions he made to the record of the history of the Kennebunks are immeasurable. Seth Bryant, the eldest son of William M. Bryant and Kennebunkport Perkins family descendant Mary E. Emery, was born in...

Theodore Lyman left his Kennebunk shipyard and mansion for Boston in 1790 never to return, but he continued to influence our maritime history for decades. Theodore’s brother-in-law, Dr. Oliver Keating, occupied the Lyman property as an agent for Theodore until 1799. Lyman then installed his cousins, the Plummer brothers there. The House and shipyard were...

Annie J. Crediford was our first newswoman in the Kennebunks. Born into a Brunwick, Me maritime family, she had traveled the world and lived in Japan before she reached marrying age. Upon her return to Brunswick as a teenager she went to work for the Brunswick Telegraph, learning every aspect of the newspaper business. She...

Another one of my Kennebunkport history heroes was Julian C. Howard. Born in Boston in 1891, Julian spent his whole life visiting Goose Rocks Beach every summer. He graduated from Harvard in 1913 with a degree in Chemistry but also became a registered surveyor in Massachusetts and Maine. After a long and productive career in...

While you are milling about Dock Square this weekend waiting for the Christmas Prelude Tree lights to come on, notice the building now blended into the Brown Block/Colonial Phamacy. It wasn’t always so. The humble old ‘White School,’ almost 70 years older than the Brown Block, has plenty of stories to tell. Samuel Davis built...

You may think about Cherry Garcia Ice Cream when you look at this house. During my childhood, Port Candy was the center of the universe. This house predates us all by almost 200 years. Thomas Wiswall arrived in Cape Porpoise from Newton, Massachusetts with his family c.1750. They purchased a blockhouse built by Rowlandson Bond...

The oldest Commercial building still standing in Dock Square was the Perkins West Indies Goods Store that currently houses a candle shop and a Tarot Card Reader. It was built around 1775 when Dock Square was the Perkins family’s front yard. That building was originally used to receive molasses and rum from Perkins ships docked...

To most historians, the natural world supersedes the “supernatural” in plausibility and interest. That doesn’t mean that historians can’t enjoy Halloween. There is no shortage of ghosts rumored to occupy Kennebunkport’s 18th and 19th Century houses. At least two of those “haunted” houses were also occupied by Samuel Lewis, Jr., the cabinetmaker with one side...