Throwback Thursday

You may remember my earlier story about the Kennebunk Beach Branch of the B&M Railroad. It ran from the Kennebunk Depot Road Station off Summer Street, down what we now think of as the bridle path along the eastern bank of the Mousam River to the Parsons Beach Station, across the Sea Road to the Kennebunk Beach Station, over to the Grove Station on Boothby Road, and then on to its termination at the Kennebunkport Station in Lower Village. The first train christened the line on June 18, 1883. Much to the chagrin of local businessmen, the last train ran...

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 New York City on September 5, 1882. The Great Railroad Strike during the summer of 1877, in response to a 10% cut in worker’s wages by one West Virginia station of the B&O Railroad, spread across the nation bringing United States Railroad traffic to a...

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 number of his Breakwater Court summer staff. Norton was born on a farm in 1857 in Livermore, Maine. His first job in Kennebunkport was as clerk at the tiny Parker House Hotel that stood near the bridge in Dock Square until it burned in 1877....

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 Emerson. When Emerson died in 1774, followed shortly thereafter by his wife, he left his considerable fortune to his only child, 13-year-old Sarah Emerson. Theodore Lyman married Sarah the heiress in 1776. He moved to the Emerson house at the Landing and no longer had...

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 the earthen ramparts of the old War of 1812 fort, which was still standing proudly on the lot adjoining St Ann’s-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in 1902. The mounds of earth with apertures left open for canons remained in relatively good condition thanks to the sea grass...

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 HERE to get your tickets!

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 wife Henrietta ever had a cottage there. Inglesea Cottage was built for Dr. Fred Brooks on an empty lot he purchased from Mrs. Henrietta Rowland Yeoman and James Young Smith Nichols in 1891. The cottage is often connected to a popular later occupant, Miss Lucy...

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 all up and down the eastern seaboard. The heat wave was punctuated in New England by one exploding meteor over the crook in the Androscoggin River on July 18th and two unusual storms: one later on July 18th and the other on the 22nd. None...

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 Historical Society has in its collection a scrapbook that chronicles the evolution of the Goose Rocks Beach Association after the Fire of 47. Most of you probably know the story of the sea voyage of the 1891 Ramanascho Hall from Kennebunk Beach to Goose Rocks...

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 1860 census as a carpenter. He had been married to Ruth Ridlon for 6 years. Their eldest son George Fred was 5 and their daughter Cinda was 3. Seth would be born the following year. In addition to being a carpenter, John was the...

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 Jefferson first proposed the concept of southern Indian Removal. He thought Choctaw, Cherokee and Creek tribes should trade their cultivated farms and orchards east of the Mississippi River for uncleared wilderness lots on his new Louisiana Purchase. In fact, he hoped to finance the Louisiana...

I keep an eye on the antique real estate for sale in Kennebunkport because that sometimes gets me a modern sneak peek inside one of these old gems. It might not surprise you to learn that I love old buildings. There are currently two condo units for sale in the 1886 Bickford House and it got me thinking about the history of that hotel. John Bickford started building an 80 x 60 foot 4-story boarding house at Cape Arundel in the spring of 1886. It was built with 35 guest rooms that housed up to 60 guests at a time....