Throwback Thursday

The oldest Commercial building still standing in Dock Square was the Perkins West Indies Goods Store that currently houses a candle shop and a Tarot Card Reader. It was built around 1775 when Dock Square was the Perkins family’s front yard. That building was originally used to receive molasses and rum from Perkins ships docked behind the building. It was later home to Wheeler & Bell. The building that stands next door is now called Compliments. If you have been around for a while, you may even still call it Dora’s Beauty Salon. You know who you are. That long...

To most historians, the natural world supersedes the “supernatural” in plausibility and interest. That doesn’t mean that historians can’t enjoy Halloween. There is no shortage of ghosts rumored to occupy Kennebunkport’s 18th and 19th Century houses. At least two of those “haunted” houses were also occupied by Samuel Lewis, Jr., the cabinetmaker with one side hustle in ship fitting and another building glass-topped pine coffins for his wealthy deceased neighbors. The house he built on Maine Street still stands next door to the Nott House. His cabinetmaker’s workshop was already in place in March 1805 when the current Maine Street...

Two members of the Nowell family are of particular interest in the history of Kennebunkport. I have written several articles about Brigadier General Simon Nowell who lived at the corner of Union and Maine Streets across from Graves Library. Simon’s son Captain George W. Nowell is the subject of my story today. He lived in the house that stands next door to the Kennebunkport Post Office. The exterior of their houses haven’t changed much over the years so you will likely recognize them in the old photographs. Unlike his father, George was risk averse. Given his dangerous occupation, he wisely...

Most of you are familiar with HB Provisions or Meserve’s Market as it used to be called, but only those with memories of Kennebunk Lower Village going back more than 50 years will recall the controversy over making the little adjacent parking lot. In September 1968, for some unexplained reason, the Kennebunk Board of Selectmen sold the old Washington Hose Co Fire House that stood there to the lowest bidder ($5,100) rather than to the highest bidder ($6,000 +). The highest bidder sued the town. During the court case they discovered that the Town of Kennebunk didn’t own the building...

The Cape Arundel crowd raised money to have the Kennebunk River Club built to support their growing enthusiasm for boating. Joseph Ranco could hardly keep up with canoe orders after the Boathouse Opening Ceremonies on August 2, 1890. Dr. Molten H. Forrest of Philadelphia, the Vice Commadore of the River Club, finished building his impressive Cro-nest Cottage at the corner of Summit Ave and Atlantic shortly thereafter. By then, Molten was already contemplating a glorious new vessel to bring to the Kennebunk River the following season. Dr. Forrest used some of his vast Railroad and Bank inheritance to have the...

Captain Daniel Webster Dudley was a globe-circumnavigating sea captain that lived on Elm Street in Kennebunkport from 1849 until 1929. In his time, the house was like a museum of treasures he acquired on his sea voyages to China, Japan, Java, New Guinea, New Ireland, the Soloman Islands, etc.. Captain Dudley commanded many vessels but his best-known was the barque Hannah W. Dudley. She was of his own design, built in 1877 by Shipbuilder David Clark of Kennebunk Lower Village. Dudley retired from the sea in 1901. In the years that followed he granted several national news interviews that included...

You may have heard of the shipwrecked barque Horace, the remains of which still occasionally make an appearance at very low tide near Lord’s Point. This week, while searching the archives for documents relating to the Eliphalet Perkins family of Kennebunkport who built the Nott House, I came across a contemporaneous handwritten letter that brought this shipwreck to life in my mind’s eye. Joseph Hatch Jr. and Orlando Perkins were both partial owners of the Scarborough-built barque Horace that was wrecked after the crew mutinied on her maiden voyage. Orlando, son of Eliphalet Perkins II, lived in the beautiful home...

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...