Throwback Thursday

Dare I broach the contentious subject of the names of Kennebunk Beaches? When your use of the name, “Mother’s Beach” evokes an alarming reaction from some of the local “old timers,” you may assume they are having a hard time parting with the name their mother called it by, “Kennebunk Beach.” But this argument did not begin during our lifetimes. Long before the Parsons family built their homes on Crescent Surf, their beach was called, Hart’s Beach. We all call it Parsons Beach now. When Richard Boothby and his swashbuckling bride Mabel Littlefield moved to the Kennebunk Beaches in 1730,...

The cornerstone of the new Masonic Lodge was laid at the site of the new building next to Robert and Earnest Benson’s Blacksmith Shop on Temple St on Saturday, October 26, 1929. Everyone gathered at the Olympian Club House, the temporary home of Arundel Lodge 76. A line was formed. The grand officers and members marched to the site of the future building. Judge Harold E. Cook of Gardiner, Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge of Maine laid the 12x12x3 inch corner stone over a copper box which contained past records of Arundel Lodge from the date of its charter...

Inventor Arthur Atwater Kent introduced his first major invention, the Unispark Ignition System in 1906. Before that, automobiles had to be started by cranking an ignition mounted on the front of the hood. The driver would then jump into the car and hope it continued to run long enough to get the motor into gear. Kent’s invention enabled the ignition to be engaged comfortably from the driver’s seat and was an immediate success as automobile companies clamored to improve the mass appeal of driving. In 1910 the Kent family bought The Nesmith Cottage beside St. Ann’s Episcopal Church at Cape...

This morning I’m sharing photographs from the Kennebunkport Historical Society’s Salt Magazine Collection. The Salt Institute was located in Herbie Baum’s Boatyard in Kennebunk Lower Village in the 1970s when under the direction of Pamela Wood, the Kennebunk High School students interviewed Henry Weaver, the Southern Maine Federal Prohibition Agent. Wearver helped to bring down the Kennebunk Rumrunner Racket during National Prohibition, which led to the demise of the connected rackets along the coast of Maine. Henry told the students all about his days of chasing bootleggers and fighting curruption from a Law enforcement point of view. The students also...

The Kennebunkport Historical Society is celebrating the decade of the 1920s this month. All my THROWBACK THURSDAY posts in July will include Kennebunkport pictures and events from the 1920s. 1920 The decade started out with a bang. On foggy January 1, 1920, two three-masted schooners, Charles H. Trickery and Mary E. Olys, got tangled up together on the rocks near Goat Island Light. Holes were punctured in both hulls. The Chas H Trickey was later refloated but the Mary E Olys was a total loss. Two weeks later the eighteenth amendment to the federal constitution went into effect, making it...

The Boston & Kennebunkport Seashore Company was the group of New England men who incorporated in 1872 to develop five miles of coastline from Cape Porpoise to Lord’s Point into a summer tourist colony. To entice prospective cottage builders, the Seashore Company commissioned The Moulton Brothers of Salem, Massachusetts to take a series of stereoscopics of the principals posed before all the scenic beauty #kennebunkport Cape Arundel had to offer. The first stereo card here, (#1) is a candid shot of the Company men pretending to stroll about on Colony Beach. Their jubilant wives had joined them in the second...

Kennebunk-born Burleigh S. Thompson moved to Boston as a young man. He eventually became a wealthy dealer in tea, coffee, and cigars and married Harriet Gove of Cohasset, Massachusetts in 1854. Burleigh and Harriet were already living in the c.1800 Perkins House in Kennebunkport Village by 1880. They moved here from Cohasset Massachusetts to be close to their only child Hattie, who in 1879 had married the successful Kennebunkport Sea Captain, Daniel W. Dudley. Descendants of Ephraim Perkins finally sold Harriet Thompson the classic riverfront homestead overlooking Dock Square in 1888. The Thompsons tore it down and built a “modern...

The iconic red towered building at the downriver side of the bridge in Kennebunkport was built by antique dealer, Fred B. Tuck in 1901 as the Colonial Inn. The building didn’t have a tower then and it was painted green. It was a combination tearoom and antique shop with a fancy soda fountain. By 1908 the soda fountain and the antiques had been cleared out to make way for the first movie house in the Kennebunks. The Bijou Theatre was owned by the Acme Amusement Co. The familiar tower was added to the movie house within the first few years....

Bickford’s Island, where the Cape Porpoise Pier now serves us all, was occupied in 1758 by Andrew Brown and his wife. One eighteenth century map we have at the Kennebunkport Historical Society refers to it as Brown’s Islands. Before 1800, John Bickford’s family lived there. Almost the whole island was sold to Seth H. Pinkham before the Civil War. The early house on the island was expanded into the first hotel there, the Shiloh House, which was run by Olivia White. It later became the Wabun Hotel but it burned to the ground in 1891. The Cape Porpoise Land Company,...

Old pictures of the lots in Union Square, near where The Boathouse Restaurant now stands at 21 Ocean Avenue with the 1950s River Cottage next door, are hardly recognizable. Larrabee & Furbish built a store there that sold stoves and tin in 1833. Otis Buzzell bought the building in 1879 along with all the stock of stoves from the previous owners, Gould & Miller. Buzzell sold the store and the stock of stoves and tinware to George Carll in 1887. Carll continued the same business but added the sale of furnaces and general hardware. Wells & Furbish were running the...

Rivermead, at 19 Locke St Kennebunkport, was built by James Blunt between 1801 and 1814 on land that Capt. Thomas Perkins deeded to his son Abner in the first half of the 18th Century. Abner’s grandson, Clement T. Perkins, who was born at Blueberry Hill, acquired Rivermead in 1838 and lived there until his death in 1884. His single daughter Amelia Perkins, seen in the 1883 picture sitting on the front stoop, was the next owner of the house on the Kennebunk River. Her mother, Lucinda Fairfield Perkins, is sitting in a chair in the front yard. Amelia’s sister Ernestine...

Visitors to Goose Rocks Beach have periodically been protected by Lifeguards and the Coast Guard throughout its history as a summer resort. Mr. Coleman Joel, a 22-year-old Harvard Law student, perished trying to rescue a little girl named Betty Fairburn from the raging surf opposite the Downing cottage (Seen at top center) on August 15, 1928. The following season and for several subsequent seasons a lifeguard and a policeman were hired to patrol the beach every day from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The Coast Guard took over Goat Island lighthouse during WWII. Rotating crews lived at the Downing Cottage....