Category: History

Labor Day Weekend 2024 is upon us. What does that mean to you? For many years Labor Day marked the end of the summer season at tourist destinations like our towns. But that isn’t what it was established to commemorate. Labor Day, organized by the Central Labor Union was first celebrated in this country in...

I have recently posted the histories of the Old Fort Inn and Breakwater Court (now The Colony). They were both designed by architect Henry Paston Clark for hotelman, Reuel W. Norton. By the time he died unexpectedly in 1924, Reuel Norton also owned a winter hotel in Florence Villa, Florida at which he employed a...

The old house in the foreground was still at 26 Summer Street in Kennebunk when this first photograph was taken. You might recognize the Taylor Barry House in the background. The old colonial had originally been built on Main Street by Theodore Lyman in 1770 as a store. Theodore Lyman worked for wealthy Shipbuilder Waldo...

Long-time Kennebunkport hotelman, Reuel W. Norton had the Old Fort Inn designed by Architects Henry Paston Clark and John Russel in 1901.Builder Alphonse Allen promised it would be finished in time to accept guests for the 1902 season. The Old Fort Inn opened for business in June 1902, as promised. The hotel was named after...

Want to learn more about the Kennebunkport Dump Parade? Join us at White Columns (under the tent) on August 4th: Visit with Sharon Cummins and learn more about the famous 1970s Dump Parade in Kennebunkport. Slide show, archival items, and ice cream! $15 for Non-Members $12 for Members We hope to see you there! Click...

If you ask to see the Yeoman Cottage at Cape Arundel, you might be shown three different houses. They are also known as Inglesea, The Rocks, and the Yoeman-Powers Cottage. Inglesea Cottage, which still stands at the corner of Ocean Ave and Haverhill has erroneously been attributed to Joseph Yeoman but neither he nor his...

These photos were all taken during the third and fourth week in July 1926. They were pasted into a little vacation album that was found years ago in a Florida attic. The dates caught my eye. Something was amiss with the cosmos during the third week of July 1926. The temperature hovered near 100 degrees...

The Fourth of July weekend has always opened the summer season for the kid-friendly community of Goose Rocks Beach. But when their casino was lost to the Fire of 1947, The Goose Rocks Beach Association with Dorothy Mignault at the helm, moved heaven and earth, and a 50-ton building to rectify the situation. The Kennebunkport...

I was doing some research on the Seavey Family of Cape Porpoise this week and encountered a lot of history, but I promise won’t go all the way back to William Seavey who came to Cape Porpoise from Kittery in 1720. John E. Seavey was born in Cape Porpoise in 1830. He was listed in...

The history of the Kennebunks has its own shameful episodes of treaty breaking in the build up to King William’s and The French & Indian Wars when Indigenous families still camped along the Cape Porpoise (Mousam) and Kennebunk Rivers. But no Indigenous families had lived in the Kennebunks for 48 years in 1803 when Thomas...