Throwback Thursday

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...

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...