From Our Collection
“THROWBACK THURSDAY” by Sharon Cummins
Patten’s Berry Farm in Kennebunkport is about to be history but the history of farm stands at that corner did not begin with Patten’s. Bishop Hutchins and his mother, Bessie ran The Sun Set Farm Stand very near there, for many years starting in 1941.
Luttell S. Hutchins purchased the farm from two daughters of Dana and Martha Stone in 1901. At that time, it included the farmhouse on the hill overlooking the new Cape Arundel Golf Club. Luttell married Newfoundland-born Bessie Halfyard in 1909 and their son Bishop was born ten years later. We have Bessie’s cousin, Robert Halfyard of Ontario to thank for all the photos of the Hutchins Farm in the 1920s and the 1950s. After Luttell S. Hutchins passed away in 1927. Bessie and young Bishop Hutchins carried on working the farm. Bishop built himself a smaller home on the North St. side of the property in 1952.
The late Mary Bryant of the Kennebunkport Historical Society started compiling a list of Kennebunkport houses over 100 years old, in the early 1960s. Bessie Hutchins told her at the time that a Miles Rhodes had built her farmhouse and the old house next door to Bishop’s place, now called the Book Farm. Mary Bryant and her team of historians were able to verify that The Book Farm, was indeed built by Miles Rhodes, Sr. before the town road was laid out in 1755, as it’s mentioned in the Town Book entry. At some point, the Rhodes family moved the Book Farm southwestward over the creek to its present location. Our historians were unable to ascertain a date that Miles Rhodes, Jr. built Bessie Hutchins’ farmhouse. The year 1813, the same year the Book Farm was sold, was assigned to the farmhouse until further proof could be uncovered.
Bishop Hutchins sold the Hutchins farmhouse to Kennebunkport Playhouse Alumnus and two time Tony Award winner, Russel Nype and his wife Dyantha’s in 1971. Local builder and antique restoration specialist, Arthur Hendricks inspected the farmhouse for the new owners. When asked if the old part of the house was Federal, built around 1815, as the architectural details would suggest. Hendricks replied, “No, it’s earlier. They must have gotten richer about that time and Federalized it.” Traces of an old beehive oven clinched it for the builder. Miles Rhodes Jr. did get richer in 1812/1813. His father Miles Sr. died in 1812 at 100 years old and in 1813 the heirs sold his homestead on a 7-acre lot to Captain Jonathan Stone for $600: A pretty penny in 1813.
A few years ago, Don Johnson, who owns the 1747 Abner Perkins house on Locke Street, let me scan some old documents left in his house by previous owners. Among them was a 1788 work order about road repairs on the town road. As a Surveyor of Highways, Abner Perkins was put in charge of rallying the neighbors to contribute either labor or money to the job. Both Miles Rhodes and Miles Rhodes Jr. were required to kick in for the road repair leading me to believe that the Hutchins farmhouse was already standing in 1788. At least two Rhodes houses on the western side of North Street were again mentioned in an 1805 plan to widen the road.
It just goes to show that the documents and pictures left in your attic by previous owners may hold the key to unlock old historical mysteries.
Bessie and Bishop Hutchins ran this farmstand near the location of Patten's Berry Farm for many years. Sun-Set Farm Vegetables was a little closer to River Road than Pattens. The farmhouse was most recently occupied by Russel and Dyantha Nype. The farmhouse at right overlooked the new Cape Arundel Golf Club, established in 1896. The Luttell Hutchins Farm in the 1920s. Luttell is driving and Bessie is on the running board. Luttell Hutchins is at far left with suspenders. Bessie is sitting with Bishop on her lap. Picking fruit at the Hutchins Farm in the 1920s A visual aid Town Book March 1755 Entry about the laying out of River Road and North Street mentions the house of Mr. Rhodes already there. Russel Nype passed in 2018. He won two Tony Awards for his performances on Broadway and played alongside our own Jane Morgan at the Kennebunkport Playhouse Don Johnson's 1788 road work order mentions Miles Rhodes and Miles, Jr. I think son John Rhodes was across the street.
“THROWBACK THURSDAY” by Sharon Cummins
William Harrison Larkin Jr. was only 10 years old when he and his family started spending summers at Goose Rocks Beach in 1881. He was the 2nd of 7 children born to Stella Emma Pierce Larkin and her husband William H. Larkin, Sr., Proprietor of Larkin & Company Haberdashery of Worcester, Massachusetts. The Larkin family rented the Emerson Cottage at the site of today’s 278 Kings Highway at the corner of Broadway. What better place and time to coral such a youthful hoard? There were just a few summer cottages on King’s Highway then but Will managed to find a few summer friends.
As a teenager, William Jr. carefully sketched some of the cottages at the beach and the remains of a shipwreck exposed west of the point, where, as yet, there were no cottages. Local farmers and their teams of oxen often collected seaweed to fertilize their crops at the west end of the beach. Will documented that too in his ever-present sketchbook. The Kennebunkport Historical Society has photos of a few pages from that sketchbook to share here today. Students of Goose Rocks history still treasure a detailed map of Goose Rocks that Will drew while on a summer break from his Engineering studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the early 1890s. He graduated in 1893. On July 3, 1894, he and his brother Walter purchased the cottage at Goose Rocks Beach for $725 so the whole family could continue to summer there. William Harrison Larkin Jr. also started “lighthousing” that year. He traveled the New England coast visiting lighthouses and installing and repairing aids to navigation. He was one of the youngest machinists on the job of Master Mechanic but he took it very seriously. In an article he penned for the Journal of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1900, The U.S. Light-House Establishment, he wrote of Lighthousers, “lives depend on their arrival or non-arrival. They must drive over snow-bound roads in the winter, pull a mile or two in a leaky dory, arrive at the station in the dead of night, and, though half-frozen, go at once to the whistle house, work 48 hours incessantly — all of this falls to their lot.”
Will married Cordelia Fessenden of Portland Maine in 1902. William Harrison Larkin III was born a year later. Anna was born in 1906, Mary in 1910 and John was born in 1911. William Harrison Larkin Jr. hung up his lighthousing oars to became a well-known Mechanical Engineer in the Iron Industry, then the concrete industry and finally the rubber industry. He even had a handful of patents to his credit.
William Harrison Larkin, Jr. passed away in 1936 leaving the family cottage to his wife Cordelia, who in turn deeded it to his two daughters, Anna Larkin and Mary McLean in 1941. Unfortunately, their beloved family cottage did not survive the fire of 47.
Kings Highway as it looked in 1881 when the Larkins first rented the Emerson Cottage. 1. Francis Dow cottage 2.Banks cottage 3. Banks cottage 4. Newell cottage 5. Just beyond the Newell cottage stood the Emerson cottage "Emerson cottage" At the corner of Broadway and King's Highway, where 278 King's Highway now stands. Stella Emma Larkin with the scarf and parasol and all 7 of her children are in the photo. Will "at far left with his hand in his pocket) along with friends including Jim Newell Ostrom Taylor Back row Ted Muzzy, Jim Newell, Will Larkin with his sketchbook, Fred Grant Seated Walter Larkin, George Flagg, Herbert Larkin A page from Will's sketchbook Shipwreck in the foreground Farmer collecting seaweed to fertilize his crops, at the West End. Will's treasured map c. 1890 Cordelia Fessenden soon to be Mrs. William H. Larkin, Jr. Cordelia with Mary at Larkin cottage William the Engineer with John and Mary Goose Rocks House and Emmons Farm Will and Cordelia enjoying the fruits of their labor More cottages were built Poor Cordelia surveying the ruins.
‘THROWBACK THURSDAY” By Sharon Cummins
My first residence in Kennebunkport was a beautiful old winter rental at Turbats Creek overlooking the cross crik. Twenty years later, that neighborhood still occupies my heart. I learned then, in no uncertain terms, that Turbats Creek is spelled with an “A.” “No, this crik isn’t named after a fish that isn’t even native to our waters!” It’s named after a family who lived in Cape Porpoise in the 17th Century and owned the land that bordered the western side of the creek. Peter Turbat, an Isle of Shoals fisherman, moved to Cape Porpoise in the 1640s. His son, John Turbat owned the land in the 1660s. After John’s death, the land passed to Samuel Wildes and at least some of it stayed in the Wildes family for the next 200 + years. There was no town road down to the creek until 1841. When Turbats Creek Road was finally laid it passed through the lot of John Curtis and the lots of Samuel, James, and Joseph Wildes. Captain Jimmy Wildes was still fishing the creek in the 1930s.
German-born Wilhelm Schmidt bought a house at the creek sight unseen from the wife of a fellow rigger at the New York City Shipyard where he worked in the late 1850s. A doctor had told him his wife was dying of consumption and that she needed country air. Julia Dorothea Schmidt lived happily at Turbats Creek for another 40 some years. She was no shrinking violet. Her son Henry Schmidt was born in Kennebunkport in 1862 just a few months before Wilhelm set off to enlist in the Union Navy during the Civil War. She ran the farm alone until after the war with little Henry on her hip. Henry’s daughter Henrietta Schmidt studied the history of Kennebunkport for most of her life. When she retired from teaching public school, she wrote a local history column for several newspapers in the Kennebunks. Like Kenneth Roberts, Henrietta fictionalized her stories with character development and compelling dialog but her historical research was spot on. In her maturity, Henrietta remembered her childhood at the creek in the early 1900s. “Captain Jimmy Wildes owned one side of the cross crik; the Schmidts owned the other side. We had the crik between us. “The crik was deeper, then. The two-master schooner [Julia D. Schmidt] that my grandfather and father (Henry) had Maling build went into the water 10 tons, and it was moored at the crik. Once a great big horse mackerel, they call them tuna now, came swimming up the crik. Grandpa got him and divided him up among the people who lived here. My father built boats in the red fish house in the winter.” Henry Schmidt was not the only boatbuilder at Turbats Creek. Harry Brooks fished from the creek for 40 years until his doctor told him that his heart was done fishing so he took up boatbuilding at the creek instead making Harry the third generation of shipbuilding Brooks men in the Kennebunks. His father and grandfather had worked at the shipyard of George Christenson in Kennebunk Lower Village.
My first view over the cross creek at Turbats Creek 20 years ago. Turbats Creek. The rocks are near where the Flagg Cottage was later built. German-born Julia Dorothea Schmidt and her son Henry of Turbats Creek. Wilhelm and Henry Schmidt's schooner Julia D. Schmidt at Schmidt's dock. She was built by Maling near where the Arundel Yacht Club is now. Looking up the cross creek from the red fish house toward Turbats Creek Road Fish Houses at Turbats Creek Fishnets hanging to dry at Turbats Creek Looking back at Schmidt's fish houses from Vaughn Island Captain Jimmy Wildes house, Wash Griffen's sloop, Harry Brooks leaning on the door Abner Perry, George McKenny, Will McKenny, Mel Hager Captain Jimmy Wildes Jim McKenny with derby, one Brooks brother in soft hat, hill in background Lands End Harry Brooks
“THROWBACK THURSDAY” by Sharon Cummins
The Oldest Commercial Building in Kennebunkport
Last week’s Throwback Thursday featured the c.1724 Thomas Perkins House, the oldest house in Kennebunkport Village. This week, the oldest commercial building still standing in the village is our focus. The Eliphalet Perkins wharf and store were built c.1775 for the West Indies trade. Perkins ships carried Arundel fish and lumber to the West Indies and returned with molasses for making rum.
In the 1840s, Mrs. Jeffery ran a sailor’s boarding house upstairs in the store. Eliphalet Perkins III and his son Charles E. Perkins, who built the Nott House, owned the business when the Maine liquor law passed in 1851. Schooner Nile, the first Perkins vessel ever launched from the Dock Square shipyard, returned to Perkins Wharf on February 3, 1852, with at least two barrels of rum and two casks of Brandy. Just then, the newly appointed Deputy Sheriff, James Tripp arrived with a warrant to search the schooner Nile. The spirits were dumped in the square. Fines were quietly paid. The influential Perkins name was mostly kept out of the news but not out of Andrew Walker’s diaries. Within a year, Charles E. Perkins and his brother-in-law, Joseph Titcomb had reinvented the company as a coal business and the wharf was expanded for coal storage.
Wheeler & Bell moved into the store after the Dock Square Fire of 1877 burned their original shop across the square. They also opened the Kennebunkport Post Office and an American Express Office on the premises. Wheeler & Bell were plagued by burglars who were, I suppose, enticed by the office safe. In the wee hours of July 24, 1878, bandits broke in. They drilled nine holes in the safe and were about to pack the holes with gunpowder when neighbor Mr. Burleigh Thompson was awakened by the racket and scared them away. Thieves stole safe-breaking tools from Mr. Tripp’s blacksmith shop on Maine Street in 1884 and then proceeded to Wheeler & Bell to try to break open the safe. They were unsuccessful but the safe took some damaging blows. A self-cocking revolver and a bit of tobacco were stolen from the front showcase. Wheeler & Bell finally decided to leave the safe open and post a sign for the scoundrels “Not Locked – Try handle” Mr. Wheeler died in 1891 and Mr. Torrey bought his share of the business, which was renamed Bell & Torrey.
In the early 1900s, Ted Maling and Woodbury Moulton had a meat market in the old store. Then Mr. Tobey had a grocery store and fish market. In the 1950s and 60s, Roy Cluff ran a Fish Market there. He sold the building to Marion Sharpe for an art gallery in 1964. Artist Frank Handlen showed his work there, too. Marion sold to Tom and Dorothy Jeglowsky who ran Kennebunk Bookport upstairs. Mrs. Carey opened the Copper Candle downstairs.
A fire nearly gutted the place on August 25, 1973. Three firefighters were injured. Walter Kubiak, a member of the volunteer Village Fire Company, fell about 35 feet onto some rocks in the mudflats of S-Brook sustaining serious back and shoulder injuries. The fire had started in a wastebasket behind the shop and spread to a propane tank that exploded. Melting wax in the candle shop downstairs made the fire difficult to fight.
The owners restored the building. The Copper Candle is still going strong on the first floor. The much-loved Kennebunk Bookport is gone in this electronic age but to this day, the 1775 EIiphalet Perkins store is the jewel of Dock Square.
An Elmer Chickering photo taken c.1882 - l to r Mr. & Mrs. Norby, Parks Pope,Joseph Brooks, John Bell, Cyrus Dennett, Woodbury Goodwin, Capt. Sylvester Brown. c.1889 Pope & Seavy Sail loft is to the right of Wheeler and Bell A wagonload of hay is getting weighed on the hayscale. Bell & Torrey after 1891 l to r S.H.Perkins, horse Jack, George Torrey, Lottie Torrey, John Bell. The Copper Candle Ancient details are still visible in the interior of the Copper Candle; The pegged timbers, the scorched beams and the old sliding door that used to open onto the Perkins Wharf on what we affectionately call "S" Brook
“THROWBACK THURSDAY” by Sharon Cummins
The Oldest House in Town – Captain Thomas Perkins brought his family to Arundel from Greenland, NH in 1720. Within a few years, he owned about all the land along the Kennebunk River from Bass Cove and Walkers Point. That area includes all of Kennebunkport Village and Cape Arundel today.
His eldest son, also named Captain Thomas Perkins, built the Oak Street saltbox featured in today’s story c. 1724. The oldest house standing in Kennebunkport is now just shy of 300 years old. It stood alone in the wilderness in 1724 still very vulnerable to attacks by the local Indian tribe who had fished the Kennebunk River for thousands of years before the Englishmen “discovered it.”
The younger Thomas Perkins commanded a company of Arundel men in the French & Indian War. He was appointed King’s Surveyor in 1749. As such, it was his job to reserve the tallest and straightest Arundel trees as masts for ships belonging to the King of England. Thomas Perkins collected the selected tree trunks in nearby “Mast Cove” pending transport to England. That same year, Thomas and his sons Eliphalet and Abner, also built the familiar Perkins Grist Mill on Mast Cove. Eliphalet Perkins built a home across the cove where the shipyard would later stand and Abner Perkins, who ran the Grist Mill, built a home that still stands on Locke Street.
Captain James Perkins, inherited the old homestead when his father Thomas Perkins died in 1752. In 1787, the local doctor, Thatcher Goddard, persuaded the captain to temporarily turn his house into a hospital since smallpox had come to Arundel from the West Indies that year in one of his ships. Confronted by horrified villagers, Dr. Goddard saved many lives in this old house by inoculating the inhabitants of Arundel with small amounts of the live smallpox virus, some 9 years before the smallpox vaccine was officially invented.
James would again sacrifice for the good of others in November 1800. He and his son James Jr. were decorated by The Humane Society of Massachusetts for heroic efforts in rescuing and reviving six people from drowning in the Kennebunk River in front of the old house on Oak St.
Captain James Perkins Sr. died in 1825, leaving his house and his share of the Grist Mill to his son Tristram Perkins. Tristram was never married. He ran the grist Mill for many years and lived in this old house until his death in 1880. The house was sold out of the Perkins family in 1882 for the first time in 158 years. The new owner planned to demolish the old house, which looked to be in rough shape in 1882 but by some miracle, it was saved and restored.
1965 photograph of the Thomas Perkins house. I believe the Wyeth family owned the house then. Captain Thomas Perkins brought his family to Arundel from Greendland, NH in 1720 to claim a grant of land that had been made to his father before the town was wholly abandoned in 1689. Within a few years of his arrival, Captain Thomas Perkins owned all the land along the Kennebunk River from Bass Cove and Walkers Point, with the exception of Ferryman Stephen Harding’s small house lot near the mouth of the Kennebunk River. Today his land would include all of Kennebunkport Village and all of Cape Arundel. The Perkins Tidal Grist Mill was built on Mast Cove in 1749 by Thomas Perkins and his sons Eliphalet and Abner. It was passed down through generations of the same Perkins family until 1862 when a great-great-grandson of Eliphalet sold the mill to Simon Nowell Perkins. Simon was no relation to the builders of the mill. He descended from the Perkins family that had resided in Cape Porpoise since 1719. Simon handed the mill down to his son James D, who in turn left the mill to his son James C. who operated it as a grist mill until 1939. In 1940, James C. Perkins's daughter Louise and her husband, Arthur Lombard, opened it as the Olde Grist Mill Tea Room. The historic Mill building burned in the early hours of September 14, 1994. Abner Perkins built his home on Locke Street c.1747. Historian Joyce Butler dates the Thomas Perkins house at 1724 since family tradition says all the children of Thomas and Lydia Perkins were born in the house. Thomas Perkins’s father Thomas gave him the 50-acre lot where the house was built in 1727, but as Joyce also points out, there is no mention of an existing dwelling in that 1727 instrument. We’re calling it c.1724 to make allowances for a few years in either direction. Even if the house was built in 1728 it has no competition for being the oldest house in the village unless you count his father’s house on South Main St that was built c. 1727. Here is how the Oak Street Thomas Perkins house looked in 1882. Tristram Perkins had died in 1880, leaving the farm to his nephew Henry C. Perkins who sold the old farm to William Peabody for $500 in 1882. An announcement was published in the Eastern Star that Mr. Peabody intended to tear the house down and replace it with a modern structure that would appeal to summer cottagers. By some miracle, the old house was saved. March 27, 1883 Anna C. Nevins bought the old house for $900. She added the wraparound porch for summer living. The oldest house in town as it looked yesterday morning.
“THROWBACK THURSDAY” by Sharon Cummins
March is shipwreck-hunting season in the Kennebunks. Every few years, a beach-scrubbing storm leaves ancient timber treasure in its wake on our beaches. Invariably, new local history lovers are born. Over 100 ships that we know of have been wrecked on our coast from Parsons Beach to Timber Island. This number includes shipwrecks documented in local histories, diaries, logbooks, and contemporaneous newspaper reports. The earliest record we have found of a local shipwreck is a 1738 Boston Post-Boy news report of X (number illegible) sloops and 1 schooner “being drove onshore Monday, between Cape Porpus and York Entrance.” In October 1804, Hallowell Packet, Captain Weston, sailed from Marblehead with 20 passengers, 12 of whom were women. All onboard were lost at Cape Porpoise in a storm. The only bodies recovered were the family of Dr. Appleton of Waterville. Today we are sharing a few shipwrecks for which we have photographic evidence; Packet Industry, Bark Horace, Freighter Wandby, Schooner Empress, and Schooner Carrie G. Crosby. We have also shared the stories of two wrecked vessels that were eventually saved and one we have yet to learn the details about. Do you know her story?
Packet Industry Boothby’s Beach October 04, 1770 Captain David Patterson On October 25, 1770, it was reported in the Boston News-Letter that a vessel, captained by David Patterson carrying several passengers had three weeks earlier, sailed from St George bound for Boston and had not been heard from since. After a March 4th blizzard of 1960, the remains of a 65’ shipwreck were exposed near the seawall at Boothby’s Beach. Kennebunk Star Editor, Sandy Brook, contacted Historian Edward Rowe Snow at this home in Marshfield, MA. Mr. Snow pulled a treenail with a diamond-shaped wedge in its end from one of the timbers. After examining the wreck and several other items found in it, Snow wrote an article for the Patriot Ledger outlining his theory that the find was The Industry built at St George, Maine in 1770 by a colony of Irish shipbuilders who were the only ones known to use treenails with diamond-shaped wedges at the end. Bark Horace Boothby’s Beach 1838 Captain Leander Foss The 389-ton bark Horace, captain Leander Foss, was anchored off Kennebunk so that 4 of her mutineering crewmembers could be taken into custody and transported to Portland. During a severe gale on the night of May 5, 1838, the bark parted both cables and struck the ledges off Oakes Neck where she lost her rudder and keel and started taking on water. The Horace finally grounded broadside on Lord’s Point and Boothbys Beach. All onboard abandoned ship. The cargo of about 1200 bales of cotton was sold at auction on the beach and as much of the vessel as possible was salvaged. What remains of the Horace can sometimes be seen near Lords Point at very low tide. Freighter Wandby Walker’s Point 1921 Captain David Simpson March 9, 1921, the British steam freighter Wandby was headed without cargo for Portland in a dense fog. Captain David Simpson mistook the whistling buoy off Cape Porpoise for the Cashes Ledge buoy. He retired to his cabin calling, “Full Ahead”. The crew discovered too late that they were actually 40 mi off course. Captain Simpson rushed to the bridge on the alarm but to no avail. The grinding of the Wandby’s hull on the rocks near Walkers Point could be heard as far away as Cape Porpoise. While her condition was assessed, crewmen bunked with local families. The freighter was declared a total loss. Frank A Howard purchased the wreck and salvaged most of the Wandby but abandoned the dangerous project before it was finished. Another salvage attempt was made in 1937 that resulted in a near-fatal accident. Today, pieces of the Wandby’s boiler remain for the occasional scuba diver’s visit. Schooner Empress Near St Ann’s by the Sea October 29, 1891 Captain Kelly The four-year-old, 121-ton schooner Empress went aground on the Rocks near the Nesmith cottage and St. Ann's Church on Oct 29, 1891, while the church tower was under construction. The schooner was Bangor owned and under the command of Captain Kelly. The Empress was carrying 206 tons of hard coal from New York to J. A. Titcomb's coal wharf at Kennebunkport. She missed the turn into the Kennebunk River in heavy fog and came ashore on a rocky spit a half-mile beyond the river's mouth where she eventually went to pieces in the pounding surf. Only the crew and the sails were saved. Carrie G. Crosby Parsons Beach September 20, 1893 Captain Wm. R. Kalloch Schooner Carrie G. Crosby, Capt. Wm. R. Kalloch, of and from Rockland for Salem, with lime, went ashore, Wednesday morning, [September 20, 1893] on Parsons Beach. She was on fire and a total loss though some of her rigging was saved. The 58-ton vessel was built in Chelsea, Mass., in 1869. -The Rockland Opinion, Sept. 22, 1893 Gov. Robie Timber Island for 10 days March 5, 1889 Captain Wm H. Blanchard On March 5, 1889, the 1712 ton ship Gov. Robie went ashore in rough water on the northeast side of Timber Point. The mostly Japanese crew was shorthanded due to illness onboard and the fog was thick. Captain Wm H. Blanchard of Searsport, with his wife Clara and daughter Eleanora, were quartered at the nearby Curtis House. The crew slept at the Biddeford Pool lifesaving station. Tugs and lighters worked for 10 days to offload enough of the cargo to lighten the load. The Gov. Robie was hauled off at 8am Friday, March 15, 1889 and taken to Portland for repairs. Fannie & Fay Near Breakwater 1911 and again in 1914 Captain George L. Hardy The Schooner Fannie & Fay ran aground while going out the Kennebunk River on August 8, 1911. The vessel was lying easy and was refloated on August 11th. She was bound for Stonington but was forced back in the river by a strong easterly wind. And then again, on November 20, 1914, Capt. George L. Hardy of Deer Island and the crew of four men of the three-masted schooner Fannie and Fay, which was caught in a gale off Kennebunkport Point, finally succeeded in reaching land just inside the breakwater. The men were assisted in reaching shore by Harry Chapman, who went to their rescue with a motorboat. Fortunately, The Fannie & Fay "was got off a second time." Monastery Wreck or derelict Kennebunk River near the old Mitchell Garrison 1870s Unknown Our mystery vessel somehow managed to get herself in this precarious position in the mid-1870s, based on the vessel on the stocks at the nearby Titcomb & Thompson yard at far right. By 1891 when the bottom picture was taken, what remained of her hull was visible near the Mitchell Garrison, which would later be replaced by the Franciscan Monastery. What remains of her today in the mudflats can best be examined by kayak at low tide.
“THROWBACK THURSDAY” by Sharon Cummins
The ‘Early Photographers of the Kennebunks’ slideshow I presented last summer was limited to 19th-century practitioners for the sake of time. That meant I had to leave out my very favorite local photographer, Byron J. Whitcomb. His photographs are natural and evocative. He captured people laughing, shopping, and relaxing in ever-changing mediums.
Byron and his lovely bride Inez, a talented photographer in her own right, purchased the photography business of Lawrence X. Champou at the corner of Main St. and Fletcher St. in Kennebunk in 1902. Without a local reputation, the Whitcombs struggled to keep their new business afloat.
A May 3, 1903 fire destroyed the shoe factory, which was the largest employer in town. It also consumed the light plant and many of the businesses around the bridge over the Mousam River. No lives were lost but the impact on the economy of Kennebunk was considerable. B.J. Whitcomb rushed to the scene of the fire with his camera and captured the devastation in panorama. Sales of the resulting prints were brisk. He also sold portraits of a cat that had miraculously survived the blaze. This photogenic feline became a symbol of hope for the future of Kennebunk. The Whitcomb’s reputation was secured.
In 1906, while B.J. and Inez were building a new and improved studio shop on Ocean Avenue in Kennebunkport, the Lumiere brothers of Lyon, France were patenting a process to capture color images on glass slides called Autochromes.
Tiny grains of transparent potato starch dyed orange, violet and green were mixed together and dusted onto small glass plates. Layers of emulsion and sealers were applied to the mosaic of transparent color. When an image was photographed through the potato starch filter, complimentary colored light would pass through each grain while all other light would be reflected. The image was inverted and the resulting glass transparency was sealed with a protective piece of glass. The process was expensive and impractical for professional photographers, whose bread and butter came from volume reproduction. Each autochrome was one-of-a-kind and could only be fully appreciated when light was projected through it.
In 1985 photo historian, Alan Johanson purchased a box of fifty B. J. Whitcomb Autochromes at an antique store in Amarillo, Texas. He was overwhelmed by the artistry of the images of Kennebunkport in the early 1900s. John Wood, in his book ‘The Art of the Autochrome: The Birth of Color Photography,’ describes Whitcomb as a master of the art. He writes “there is no one in photography whose work is exactly comparable to Whitcomb’s.
The Kennebunkport Historical Society has several of B.J. Whitcomb’s treasured autochromes and dozens of his glass plate negatives in their collections. Search your attics. Maybe you have an original Whitcomb Autochrome!
Photographer B. J. Whitcomb A May 3, 1903 fire destroyed the shoe factory, which was the largest employer in town. It also consumed the light plant and many of the businesses around the bridge over the Mousam River. No lives were lost but the impact to the economy of Kennebunk was considerable. B.J. Whitcomb rushed to the scene of the fire with his camera and captured the devastation in panorama. This photogenic feline became a symbol of hope for the future of Kennebunk after the 1903 fire. Shopping for the perfect hat. B.J. Whitcomb and his happy family look like they are trying not to laugh. Inez must have been clowning behind the camera. Timelessly cute! The Whitcombs built a studio on Ocean Ave in Kennebunkport in 1906. In 1913, they built a matching shop right beside it. The 2nd shop later became the Seagull Restaurant. These Autochromes from the collections of the Kennebunkport Historical Society were purchased by the wealthy cottage owners of Cape Arundel. They were the only ones who could afford these pricey one-of-a-kind slides.The lightbox off and on here to show the need for light to be projected through them. This autochrome was taken from the porch of the Samuel Howell Jones Cottage near St. Ann's. Image from John Wood's book ‘The Art of the Autochrome: The Birth of Color Photography.’ Lovely, subtle, moody Whitcomb autochrome from ‘The Art of the Autochrome: The Birth of Color Photography,’ Inez Whitcomb, wife of the photographer from John Wood's book ‘The Art of the Autochrome: The Birth of Color Photography.’ B.J. Whitcomb's two buildings on Ocean Ave in Kennebunkport burned in 1967. The brown building engulfed in smoke was at the time the Seagull Restaurant. Thanks to Cindi Lord Ardizzone for this great picture.
“THROWBACK THURSDAY” by Sharon Cummins
Picture this! It’s August 20, 1970. Our tall blond, blue-eyed, 54-year-old photographic guide, Stephen Moore Johnson, has just adopted Kennebunkport as his new hometown. He’s taking a stroll around Dock Square with his camera. Thanks to his extensive 1993 donation of photographs to the Kennebunkport Historical Society we can stroll through this frozen moment in time with him today.
Stephen M. Johnson led an interesting life. He was born and raised in Chicago. At 21 he moved to Fairbanks Alaska to attend the University of Alaska. He successfully put himself through college by mining for gold, graduating with a degree in Geology on May 19, 1941. He was 1 of 35 in the graduating class that year and 1 of only 3 majoring in Geology. His number came up for the draft that August. Steve spent World War II with the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater and stationed in Washington DC with his new wife Mary Catherine Nelson, from Chicago. Records of his life during the next 31 years are sparse as he was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency but we do know he earned the Certificate of Commendation for meritorious service in 1963 and the Career Intelligence Medal for exceptional achievement in 1973. He had already retired to Kennebunkport before our own George H. W. Bush became Director of the CIA. Funny how so many retired United States Intelligence officers ended up in the Kennebunks.
The Johnsons lived in the Josiah Linscott House on Pearl St just next door to Tory Chimneys until 1982. He served on the Kennebunkport Shade Tree Committee and was a fan of the Kennebunkport Dump Association. Who wasn’t? Stephen Moore Johnson passed away at the age of 90 at Virginia Beach in 2007.
Photograph by Stephen Moore Johnson Dock Square August 20, 1970. Chat n Chew, Smith's Market, Colonial Pharmacy What else? Photograph by Stephen Moore Johnson Dock Square August 20, 1970. Chat n Chew, Smith's Market, The Young Set What else? Photograph by Stephen Moore Johnson Ocean Ave August 20, 1970. Gas Station, sign, Dora's Beaty Salon, Lyric flyer. What else? Photograph by Stephen Moore Johnson Dock Square August 20, 1970. Dora's, Julia's, Village Barber Shop. Before the Book Port fire. What else? Photograph by Stephen Moore Johnson Dock Square August 20, 1970. Chat n Chew, Smith's Market, Colonial Pharmacy Weinstein's. What else? Photograph by Stephen Moore Johnson August 20, 1970. Swivel Bridge still worked, Lyric Theater, Riverview. What else? Photograph by Stephen Moore Johnson Ocean Ave from the Clam Shack August 20, 1970. Texaco Station, Nedeau Quonset Hut, Captain's Landing
“THROWBACK THURSDAY” by Sharon Cummins
Tory Chimneys, the 3-story house tucked away between the middle of Elm Street and the middle of Pearl Street has a fascinating history; Not only because it was just the seventh house built in Kennebunkport Village but because of the array of interesting people who have owned it since Marblehead Sailmaker, Benjamin Coes built it around 1791. So much for the myth that the chimneys were painted with a black band around the tops to secretly express the owner’s sympathies toward the British during the Revolutionary War.
Benjamin Coes had a sail loft on the top floor of his house. It was in that sail loft that Joseph Brooks, an intellectually curious 12-year-old sailmaking apprentice, taught himself to read. In an 1882 interview, Brooks related a childhood memory of finding a tattered bible on a beam in Benjamin Coes’s sail loft. “He rubbed the dust from it, put it in his pocket and in due time absorbed its contents into his mind and heart.”
Capt. Joseph Brooks later earned his nickname “Old Probabilities” by pioneering in the field of weather forecasting. His persistence in the face of skepticism, even among his co-owners at the Portland Steamship Packet Company, preserved profit and lives.
Joseph married Sarah Coes in 1837. She was the daughter of Sailmaker Benjamin Coes. After a long and successful career, Capt. and Mrs. Joseph Brooks retired in 1867 to the home in Kennebunkport that they had both loved as children.
Maine State Historian, Henry Sweetser Burrage and his wife Ernestine lived in the house at Pearl and Pleasant known as Homeport during WWI. In 1917, they purchased Tory Chimneys to be used as a guest house. Instead, Ernestine Burrage, who was Chairman of the Kennebunkport Chapter of the Red Cross, allowed the ladies of her chapter to gather there 3 times a week to roll bandages for the soldiers injured in battles overseas. It became the headquarters for the Kennebunkport Red Cross. After the war, Ernestine nearly doubled the size of the house by attaching it to Albert Welch’s house next door. She was probably the one who had the chimneys painted and gave the house the colorful if misleading, name it still carries today.
Henry and Ernestine’s very interesting daughters, Mildred and Madeleine, aka Bob, continued to own the house until after WWII. Mildred was an artist/activist and Bob made gold and silver jewelry. Bob was also a pioneer in the growing Maine Tourmaline obsession. She took her own pick out into to Oxford County and collected stones to ornament the jewelry she made. The Burrage sisters sold the house to the James Macnaughton Thompson family in 1946.
Tory Chimneys in the 1940s Captain Joseph Brooks and Sarah Coes Brooks shared a love for Tory Chimneys. Kennebunkport Red Cross Headquarters Artist Mildred Burrage painting one of her famous maps Mildred Burrage also painted murals on the walls at Tory Chimneys. You might recognize the street she painted. Mildred Burrage also drew the depiction of Dartmoor Prison in Kenneth Roberts's novel The Lively Lady, about the War of 1812. Mildred Burrage's map of Kennebunkport. This 1939 news clipping about Madelaine "Bob" Burrage and her dynamite escapades to Oxford County. It's a long article. If anyone wants a copy of the whole thing, just ask. A more recent picture of Tory Chimneys, only about 50 years ago.
“THROWBACK THURSDAY” by Sharon Cummins
Despite gloomy predictions by new-enterprise naysayers, the Kennebunk and Kennebunkport Railroad became one of the most profitable branches on the Boston & Maine line. It was constructed by local men in 1883 and ran from the Kennebunk Depot off Summer St, down along the eastern side of the Mousam River to Parsons Station, then to Kennebunk Beach Station, diagonally across the Sea Road from the Wentworth Hotel and to the little Grove Hill Station just off Boothby Road. The branch terminated at the Kennebunkport Depot, which was actually in Lower Village just below the bridge to Kennebunkport.
The first railroad company to run tracks through Kennebunk was the Portsmouth, Saco and Portland Line. The company opened a depot in West Kennebunk in August of 1842. It was the only depot in town for 30 years. Competitors, the Eastern Railroad Company and later the Boston & Maine Railroad Company, leased rights to run their trains on this line until the early 1870s when PS&P tried to renegotiate the 6% B&M lease at a higher rate. Rather than pay the increase, B&M Railroad laid its own tracks through Kennebunk. The new Kennebunk Depot off Summer Street served tourists lured to Kennebunk Beach and Kennebunkport by elegant new hotels and cottages.
In 1881, local capitalists devised a plan to deliver tourists even closer to seaside businesses by building a 4 1/2 mile railroad branch along the shore. On June 18, 1883, Kennebunk Town Clerk, Andrew Walker recorded the first passenger run to the Port. More hotels were built at Kennebunk Beach and Cape Arundel to take advantage of the improved access. B&M reported in 1887, that the 4.5-mile railroad was already one of their most profitable branches per mile.
As automobiles became more common, ridership on the line declined. When the Federal Income Tax Law regarding leased railroads changed in 1919, the Kennebunk & Kennebunkport Railroad officially became a subsidiary of the Boston & Maine Railroad Company. Against the wishes of local businessmen, the branch was abandoned on September 8, 1926.
West Kennebunk Depot was the first train station in Kennebunk first opened in August of 1842 The 1872 Kennebunk Station Lower Village as it looked before the 1883 station was built Parts of the railroad bed are now used by walkers as the Bridle Path 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 x 20 foot depot with an attached 40 ft platform. The Kennebunkport Station is seen here when it was first built in 1883 Hotel coaches waiting at The Kennebunkport Station to convey paying customers 1899 derailment at Parsons Station. No human injuries Kennebunk Beach Station in its heyday Kennebunk Beach Station in its heyday Henry Parsons took pictures of the final trip in 1926 Left to right seated Fred Burnham, fireman; Stanley Brown, station agent; Mitchell, bag master; George Seavey, bag master; Henry Seavey, bag master; J.C. Perkins, brakeman; Irving Stronach (on bike), messenger; standing, V. R. Burgess, conductor; Eben Stronach, engineer; Edith Grindell, telephone operator. "The Engineer is Mr. E. Stronach," wrote a reporter for the Biddeford Journal in 1887. "Although the locomotives employed upon the road have been constantly changing," he continued, "Mr. Stromach has wielded the throttle from the beginning of the branch road's existence. His portly form and genial countenance are familiar to summer travelers here. The locomotives employed upon the branch road have been, in turn, named: Strafford, Camilla, Exeter, and Newburyport."
“THROWBACK THURSDAY” by Sharon Cummins
People have been fishing out of Cape Porpoise since long before Plymouth was settled in 1620. Whether from dories, schooners, or trawlers; whether for cod, bass, mackerel, herring, or lobster, fishermen played an important role in the making of Kennebunkport. The annual Lobster Pot Christmas Tree at Cape Porpoise Square and Our Forebears of the Coast, the heroic size statue on Kennebunkport Village Green, are monuments to that legacy.
Cape Porpoise lobsters were first shipped out of state in the 1840s. The invention of the well-smack, a boat with a tank built into the hull through which saltwater could flow, made it possible to keep lobsters alive long enough to transport them from the Maine coast to Boston and New York. Captain Chapell, sailed his 50-ton smack “Hulda B. Hall” back and forth between Cape Porpoise and Boston Harbor in the early 1840s. By then, the fishing industry here mostly consisted of a handful of fishing schooners that made one 3- or 4-month cod-fishing trip each year.
In the 1850 census, about every household in Cape Porpoise included at least one fisherman. Stephen Hutchins and Edmund Ridlon engaged in the lobster business during the 1850s. Between them, they managed 20 pots.
The Nunan family moved to Cape Porpoise in 1862. That year there were three commercial fishing vessels here. The 14-ton Hattie Ellen was owned by Richard J Nunan. The 16-ton Rescue was owned by Payson T. Huff. The 9-ton Julia, owned by Benjamin Wakefield, had a crew of only 3 or 4 men.
After the Civil War, lobstering exploded. Fifty traps tethered together were worked by one man. Resort hotels and big city dealers bought all the large lobsters they could get their hands on and the canneries at Eastport paid good money for lobsters weighing as little as ¾ pound.
The schooner Carrie Nunan was built in 1868. By 1904 the Nunan Fleet consisted of nine large fishing schooners. There were also about 300 dories in Kennebunkport that year and one auxiliary gasoline trawler owned by Merton Hutchins. As the 20th Century progressed, lobstering began to take precedence over fishing in Kennebunkport.
Another monument to Kennebunkport fishermen was Dana Cluff’s barbershop/pool hall/tobacco-hardware-rubberboots-oil skins store which opened in 1905 and became a sort of community center for the male population of Cape Porpoise. When Dana Cluff died in 1940 The Fishermen's Club was formed in the same building. Names written on the back of the pictures. In front of the Fishermen’s Club 1947 Walter Deinstadt Harry Brown Frank Sinnett James Ridlon Charles Averill Harry Etherington Homer Hutchins Bobby Thompson Wilbur Emmons Store owner Dana Cluff Charles Averill held the distinction of being the oldest fisherman in the club. By 1877 Cape Porpoise lobstermen were working 1,100 traps, shipbuilder Charles Ward was manufacturing lobster pots on the side, and 40,000 lobsters were shipped from Cape Porpoise to Boston’s Lewis Wharf in one season. Postmaster Hutchins’ report to the U.S. Fish Commissioner showed 40 vessels, 1000 gill nets, 1100 lobster traps and 240 men employed in the Cape Porpoise fishing Industry. Schooner Richard J Nunan and Mr. Nunan, himself Our Forebears of the Coast sculpted by Frank Handlen An annual homage
“THROWBACK THURSDAY” by Sharon Cummins
Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2019
I hope you will indulge me for making an extra post this week in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Penobscot and Passamaquoddy families from Indian Island in the Penobscot River, occupied land on both sides of Ocean Avenue at Cape Arundel every summer for almost 50 years. The Rancos settled first near Picnic Rocks in 1878. The Mitchells set up camp on Emery Point the following year. Both families later camped at the mouth of the Kennebunk River along with the Shays, the Neptunes, and the Nicolas, who first came in the summer of 1882. At first, they lived in tents but as time went on they built more permanent wooden structures. They made a good living making and selling sweetgrass baskets for the tourists. Louis Francis and Joseph Ranco, both Old Town Penobscot Indians, made birch bark canoes every summer near Government Wharf. Ranco is credited for making the first canvas canoe and patenting several canoe improvements over the years. Thanks to Joseph Ranco, Kennebunkport was considered a canoe-making center in the early-1900s
“Indian Village” was torn down by landowner John Peabody in 1936.
“THROWBACK THURSDAY” by Sharon Cummins
My love affair with ‘My Love Affair with the State of Maine.’
I’ve been thinking a lot about Goose Rocks Beach this week. I do every October when I’m reminded of the October 1947 fire that devastated almost everything east of the Proctor. This week, when we have finally reached the end of a divisive court battle that has caused uncharacteristic tension between neighbors; I want to celebrate what makes Goose Rocks Beach such a splendid community. What better way to celebrate than with the beloved book of Madison Avenue graduate, Scotty Mackenzie? If you have not yet read about her retail adventures at Goose Rocks with Dorothy Mignault, get thee to the Louis T. Graves Library. It’s a true story, though some of the names have been changed just for fun.
The real Dorothy Mignault, Scotty’s partner at the Colony Store and Casino, grew up playing on Goose Rocks Beach. She was born Dorothy Cornock in 1908, just a month before her mother Lydia passed away. Dorothy’s father, Sidney Warren Cornock was a vaudeville actor-singer-songwriter known by his stage name Billy Curtis. He apparently recognized that his lifestyle was not suitable for his newborn daughter and left her to be raised by his childless sister Annie and her husband Dr. Rodrique Mignault. The Mignaults summered in Goose Rocks Beach to be near Warren and Annie’s sisters Alice Jeffery and Edith Cornock. With all of her advantages, not the least of which was an array of loving aunties, Dorothy grew up to be a successful Madison Avenue Lawyer.
“What happens when two enterprising young women give up their Madison Avenue salaries, leave the glamorous whirl of New York behind, and move up to Maine to become proprietors of a country store? That’s what Scotty Mackenzie and Dorothy Mignault did back in the 1940s, and Scotty’s spirited account of their often hilarious setbacks and triumphs has been a well-loved classic ever since,” reads the back cover of 1997 edition of My Love Affair with the State of Maine by Gertrude Mackenzie with Ruth Goode. Many thanks to the late John Pinel for his amazing Goose Rocks Beach database.
Vaudeville sensation, Sidney Warren Cornock and his first wife, Lydia were Dorothy Mignault’s parents. The Colony Store and restaurant was on King’s Highway between Broadway and Hayward. The home on the left belonged to Herb Atwood in the book but it was really Frank Towne who sold Dorothy the store. Scotty drew this diagram of how the store was arranged and mailed it in a letter to Bill Fullerton 19 Feb 2002. Clipped from John Pinel's Goose Rocks Beach Database The Casino was behind and slightly to the right of the store. The back of Casino faced Dorrance. "Ladies and gentlemen if you want to bowl set up your own pins!" Lobsterman, Archie Smith was renamed Albion in “My Love Affair with the State of Maine” Artist Eliot O’Hara was referred to as Arthur Woodbridge in "My Love Affair with the State of Maine" The Mignault cottage was one of the few houses at the east end of the beach to survive the 47 Fire. Scotty Mackenzie and Dot Mignault on steps of 7 Sand Point Road after the 47 Fire. Just about the whole year-round population of Goose Rocks showed up to catch a new Community House after the Casino burned in the 47 Fire.
“THROWBACK THURSDAY” by Sharon Cummins
Birthday Parties – There’s been a lot of talk lately about plans for the Bicentennial of Maine’s Statehood next year. I got to thinking about how Kennebunkport celebrates important birthdays.
The 300th Anniversary of the establishment of Cape Porpoise as a proper Massachusetts town was celebrated in costume by folks some of you might remember. Fortunately, local news photographer, George Stevens, was around to capture some of the festivities in 1953.
Cape Porpoise had been informally settled for decades by 1653, under the King of England’s proprietorship of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. After Gorges died, the neighboring colony of Massachusetts Bay began imposing their jurisdiction ever northward. The towns of Kittery and York submitted to Massachusetts in 1651 but the commissioners, wary of continuing upon such a primitive road, temporarily returned from whence they came. They braved King’s Highway into Maine again two years later but were only able to get as far as Wells. Twelve Cape Porpoise men were persuaded to make the trip to Wells, take the Freeman’s Oath and sign the Act of Submission on July 5, 1653. The town of Cape Porpoise, later known as Arundel and eventually as Kennebunkport, was formally born.
Lots of traffic in Dock Square for July 4th weekend in 1953. Here's the schedule of events for the birthday celebration. Floats in the July 4th parade depicted historical highlights. This one shows the capture of Mrs. Philip Durrell and the Baxter Bible. The 1850 Arundel Hand Pumper gets paraded around town. Please name the people if you can. Heading past the Kennebunkport Inn The Wildes District contingent may have made a Pirate pit stop after the parade. The cast of characters for the reenactment of the signing of the Act of Submission Five Settlers Frank Small, Walter Clough, John Smith, Philip Fairfield, and Cecil Benson, Sr. Robert Schmidt and his sister Henrietta were descendants of Morgan Howell, one of the original signers. Arthur Hendrick, playing one of the few literate settlers, read the Act of Submission to his less literate Cape Porpoise neighbors. Gilbert W. Fessenden of Goose Rocks Governor Wilber Cross of Augusta holding a special 300th Anniversary copy of the Kenneth Roberts book, Arundel. Woodbury H. Stevens First Selectman of Kennebunkport Clifford L Maling the driver Loren Maling son of Clifford The old stagecoaches and ox-drawn wagons that took the signers to Wells belonged to Henry Parsons who loaned most of the old-time vehicles in use that day. It took the party 2 hours to travel the 5 miles from Kennebunkport to Wells in 1953.