Author: Sharon Cummins (Sharon Cummins)

The original Kennebunkport Parker House was a restaurant built in Dock Square before 1872 by Wm C. Parker, who had emigrated from Sweden aboard a local merchant vessel. In 1874, Parker expanded into the store next door and opened it as a hotel. Both buildings were destroyed in the Dock Square Fire of 1877. A...

The Town House School Campus, soon to be reopened at the Kennebunkport Historical Society, consists of three fascinating structures at 135 North Street, Town House Corners. If you are standing on North Street looking at the property left to right are the Old Jail Cells, the 1899 Town House School and the Shipyard Office that...

The dam at Goff’s Brook near the golf club was still standing in 1899

Shipping embargos associated with the War of 1812 stopped the primary industry in Kennebunkport in its tracks. Local businessmen needed loans to endure the financial challenge and to protect their shipping investments through the war. To that end, the Kennebunk Bank in Arundel was incorporated by Eliphalet Perkins, Tobias Lord, Hugh McCullough, John Bourne, Joseph...

In 1824, a new Meetinghouse was built overlooking the Kennebunk River to accommodate the growing population in Kennebunkport village. It was open with tall box pews, a two-story pulpit, wide galleries or balconies on three sides, with the organ and choir in the rear. The tower clock, which came to be known as the town...

The new owners are doing a beautiful job with the Nowell/Clark House. It was built in 1854 for George W. Nowell. His estate sold the house to Shipbuilder David Clark in 1873. The Kennebunkport Historical Society has the spyglass that Queen Victoria awarded to Captain Nowell for his humanity to her subjects.

More from the Cecil Benson Collection. At the present location of Alisson’s bar room, there used to be a single story building known at various times as Union Store, Palmer Twambly’s Store, Benson’s, Miracle Market, Smith’s Market Dock Square Market, etc. The little building originally housed an academy that stood on Elm St. It was...

Beginnings A toll drawbridge bridge was first built here by subscription in 1810 to accommodate growing Kennebunk River shipping and shipbuilding industries. The drawbridge was made free in 1831 when the dirt path that extended from either side of it was designated a County Road. Since then, damaging storms have occasionally necessitated repairs, but most...