Author: Sharon Cummins (Sharon Cummins)

An Irishman in Kennebunkport

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you of all nationalities. I was surprised to learn about Thomas Casey, the eventually revered “Patriarch” of Kennebunkport. The Irish Catholic lobsterman was not originally welcomed here with open arms, but he won the love and respect of his neighbors in Kennebunkport by speaking his mind with wit and passion....

March 16, 2023March 16, 2023

The 4-masted Schooner Sagamore

The Schooner Sagamore, seen here, was launched from the Charles Ward Shipyard in Kennebunk Lower Village on May 11, 1891. Four days later a reporter for the Eastern Star wrote about it. “The Sagamore launched from Ward’s yard took the water well but the carriage shop of Hall and Littlefield got a wetting, water pouring...

March 9, 2023March 9, 2023

The Nonantum

Henry Heckman of Lower Village built The Nonantum in 1884 with 26 guest rooms and a staff of 10. His business was so successful that he had doubled its size by 1894. Architect Henry Paston Clark designed a Georgian Revival façade for the main building during the expansion and a wide front Piazza was added...

March 2, 2023March 2, 2023

The Shawmut Inn

What became The Shawmut Inn at Turbats Creek was originally developed in the 1890s as a summer home for William H. Rankin, a Waltham, MA Textile Mill Man. William’s daughters later added new buildings and started operating it as an inn in 1913. The daughters, Mary Rankin Mathews and Sarah Rankin Summersby were Proprietors when...

February 27, 2023February 27, 2023

The Clock Farm

Ephraim Wildes built the farmhouse we now call the The Clock Farm in 1773 near Goose Rocks Beach on land his father Jacob conveyed to him in 1768. Ephraim Wildes soon saw active service in the Revolutionary War. He and his wife Temperance Downing raised a large family there. A descendant, John Wildes, sold the...

February 16, 2023February 16, 2023

Kennebunkport Railroad Depot building to be demolished.

Local capitalists devised a plan to deliver tourists closer to seaside businesses of the Kennebunks in 1881 by building a 4 1/2 mile railroad branch along Kennebunk Beaches. A lot in Lower Village owned by Shipbuilder, David Clark was purchased for the Kennebunkport Station. Joseph Day of Kennebunk won the contract to build a 48...

February 9, 2023February 9, 2023

Captain James Fairfield House c.1813

Captain James Fairfield married Lois Walker on 12 November 1807. She was the daughter of Daniel Walker of the Cup and Saucer House on Maine Street featured here a couple of weeks ago. You may remember that the couple built The Captain Fairfield house c.1813 on land that Daniel Walker had gifted to his daughter...

February 3, 2023February 3, 2023

Captain Nathaniel Ward Jr. House Kennebunkport

The house at 26 Maine St was built by boatbuilder and Sea Captain Nathaniel Ward Jr. in 1812. Nathaniel Ward Jr.’s eldest son, Charles, who inherited the house from his father, became the second American Consul to Zanzibar in 1846. Not the most diplomatic of diplomats, his explosive relationship with the Sultan Seyyid Said nearly...

January 26, 2023January 26, 2023