Category: History

Paddling by Stage Island and its former appendage, Little Stage or Fort Island, one would never guess it’s enormous historical significance. I’m not talking about Its use by European fishermen as a place to dry their fish long before Plymouth Rock was glorified, nor grazing sheep there in the 1800s, or even harvesting gold from...

The Kennebunkport Historical Society has in its photo collection an album of cyanotype prints taken by summer visitor, Henry B. Wood, mounted on ruled newsprint and later unceremoniously captioned. Cyanotype prints were most popular with amateur photographers in the 1890s because their processing didn’t require a lot of chemicals or equipment. I always get excited...

I spend a lot of time kayaking our waterways. I’m not alone out there but I hardly ever see canoes these days. There was a time, during Cape Arundel’s heyday, when owning a birch bark canoe made by Louis Francis was something to brag about. Canoes were status symbols and social conduits. On occasion, they...

Artist Abbott Graves purchased and renovated the old Kennebunk Customs House on Maine street in Kennebunkport to donate it to the town as a Public Library in 1920. Above one of the fireplaces, he painted a mural depicting explorer Martin Pring’s ships ‘Speedwell’ and ‘Discoverer’ sailing the vast Atlantic on their way to being the...

The 784-ton Ship Anna F. Schmidt was launched on August 25, 1854, from the D&S Ward Shipyard in Kennebunkport. Little did her owner, Capt. Charles Williams, know that day that her demise would make international news and American Civil War history. Captain Henry B. Twombly of Pearl Street Kennebunkport was her master by the time...

Local Catholics attend Mass in Kennebunk these days, but in 1902, Martha Walker, great grandmother of President George H. W. Bush and great, great, grandmother of President George W. Bush, was the driving force to build a Kennebunkport Catholic Church. You may recall the Irish fisherman Thomas Casey who, as one the few Catholics in...

Two of my favorite places to wander offshore at the Kennebunks are Strawberry Island at Kennebunk Beach and Vaughn’s Island at Cape Porpoise. Both are now held in trust; Strawberry Island by the Kennebunk Land Trust and Vaughn’s Island by the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust. Both islands were also once privately owned by Arthur Guy Carlton...

You have probably heard about the wreck of the 4,000-ton British freighter Wandby at Walker’s Point in March of 1921. In fact, that shipwreck is so famous we now have a Kennebunk restaurant named after it. You may also have seen the iconic photograph of the 121-ton schooner Empress on the rocks nearby at Arundel...

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...

A high-speed car chase down North Street, during which 5 shots were fired by law enforcement officers, ended on the lawn of South Congregational Church at about 7:30 in the evening of October 25, 1925. Okay, the pursued vehicle was actually traveling at 60 miles an hour, but that was a pretty high speed for...