Community


Ruggles House, Columbia Falls, ca. 1920

Ruggles House, Columbia Falls, ca. 1920
Item 87961   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

When Thomas Ruggles' new Federal style house was completed in 1820, it was praised as one of the most exquisite homes in Maine.

After coming to Maine from Rochester, Massachusetts, in the late 1790s to claim a land grant, Ruggles amassed huge tracts of timberlands in Washington County and made a fortune cutting and shipping lumber.

By 1818 he had the means to hire Asa Sherman, a housewright from Marshfield, Massachusetts, to design a fine home for him in Columbia. He spared no expense in building his home, which featured a grand flying staircase and meticulously carved woodwork.

Ruggles, also Chief Justice of Court Sessions for Washington County, head of the local militia, and a successful farmer, died within months of moving in.

Ruggles’ descendants continued to live in the house until 1920, when Lizzie Ruggles died. The house had never been modernized -- Lizzie’s sole source of heat was the fireplace — and while its interior detailing was intact, it was in terrible condition, as the ca. 1920 photo shows.

Mary Ruggles Chandler, a cousin who was the pharmacist at the drugstore next to the house, saw the value of the house and dedicated herself to restoring it. She enlisted the assistance of wealthy Bar Harbor residents and the founder of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

The Ruggles House opened to the public in the 1950s, with Mary, at age 80, as the first docent. The Ruggles House Society has done further restoration, including rebuilding the chimneys and removing and rebuilding the original ell.

Today the house is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Ruggles House, Columbia Falls, ca. 1920

Ruggles House, Columbia Falls, ca. 1920
Item 88002   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

When Thomas Ruggles’ new Federal style house was completed in 1820, it was praised as one of the most exquisite homes in Maine.

Ruggles, who had a land grant in Maine, became wealthy cutting and shipping lumber. In 1818, he hired Asa Sherman, a housewright from Marshfield, Massachusetts, to design a fine home for him in Columbia Falls.

Ruggles died within months of moving in, but his descendants continued to live in the house until 1920. Mary Ruggles Chandler, a cousin who was the pharmacist at the drugstore next to the house, was dedicated to restoring the house after it fell into disrepair.

The Ruggles House Society has done further restoration on the house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Lincoln House, Dennysville, ca. 1930

Lincoln House, Dennysville, ca. 1930
Item 88034   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

Theodore Lincoln was among Dennysville’s first settlers, arriving in 1786 from Hingham, Massachusetts. He soon built a small frame home, the first house in Dennysville, which became an ell on the Federal style house he had built by master builder Joshua Chubbuck from Massachusetts.

Lincoln's father, Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, along with Gen. Henry Knox, and George Partridge were Commissioners of Massachusetts when in the summer of 1784 they explored the lands east of Passamaquoddy Bay looking for the St. Croix River, which had been designated in the Paris Peace Treaty of 1783 as the boundary between New Brunswick and Maine.

The vast timberlands and water potential of the area led Gen. Lincoln, Thomas Russell, and John Lowell of Boston to purchase two townships, which became Dennysville, Pembroke, and Perry.

The Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, published in 1909, notes of Theodore Lincoln's house, that "for a number of years after its erection the Indians used to make it a stopping place on their way to and from Machias, camping on quilts and robes before the great fireplace in the old kitchen."

Lincoln was known as a friendly man with a "cheering word for everybody." Three generations of Lincolns lived in the house.

View of Columbia Falls, ca. 1925

View of Columbia Falls, ca. 1925
Item 87993   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

This photo shows Church Hill Circle in Columbia Falls in the 1920s. The Alpheus Chandler house, now gone, is at the right. Chandler's daughter was Mary Ruggles Chandler, who dedicated herself to preserving the deteriorating Ruggles house; she saved the Ruggles family furniture by moving it to the Chandler house.

The Columbia Falls Methodist Church is next door.

At the left is Hamlin Hall, named for Elijah Hamlin, an attorney in Columbia before he moved to Bangor. He was the brother of Hannibal Hamlin, the former U.S. congressman and governor of Maine who served as President Lincoln’s vice president during the Civil War. It was constructed in 1857.

The building housed the elementary school on the first floor. The upstairs hall was used for community events and traveling shows. It was the meeting place for Knights of Pythias during the first half of the 20th century.

Children in the lower elementary grades used the door on the right and students in grades 4-6, the door on the left; the middle door led upstairs. A large wood stove heated the divided classroom, and privies were in the ell in the back. A student from the 1930s, when there were two teachers, remembers students using a dipper to ladle drinking water into paper cups they made.

When the Knights of Pythias decided to sell the building, a group of residents arranged to have the school bell, which had been given by Elijah Hamlin in memory of his brother Hannibal, moved to its present location in the tower of the Methodist Church.

W. R. Allan Residence, Dennysville, ca. 1910

W. R. Allan Residence, Dennysville, ca. 1910
Item 87981   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

This Dennysville house was built in stages by two generations of the Allan family. In the early 1800s Mark Allan built the center chimney cape and operated it as a lodging house until 1815.

Theopilus W. Allan, the second son of Mark and Susanna (Wilder) Allan, built the two-story Greek Revival section in about 1840. He and his wife, Martha (Sargent), raised eight children in the family homestead. T. W. Allan owned a general store in Dennysville and lumber businesses in Dennysville and Edmunds.

The house and land were passed to his sons, Nelson S. and William R. Allan, with Nelson deeding his part of the property to William R. in 1895. William R. and his wife, Helen (daughter of Benjamin and Mary Stoddard Kilby), were the parents of two sons and three daughters.

In 1915, the Allans sold the house and land to Harvey and Pearl Boyden Sprague. Harvey, a dealer in livestock, made use of the many acres of pastureland and hay fields, as well as the very large barn on top of the hill above the house, while his wife often took boarders and accommodated transients in the many spare rooms of the Allan homestead.

In 1964 Pearl, then a widow, sold the property to W. Bradford and Miriam Marsh; the house remained in the Marsh family as of 2013.

Quoddy Village, Eastport, 1936

Quoddy Village, Eastport, 1936
Item 87963   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

This 1936 photo shows the buildings constructed as temporary housing for the clerks, engineers, draftsmen, technicians, and laborers building the Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project, the world’s largest tidal dam. The site was originally the George Rice farm, on the Old Toll Bridge Road and Route 190.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Quoddy dam project began officially on July 4, 1935. It was estimated that 5,000 workers were needed for the project, and Eastport lacked housing.

A model village, named Quoddy, was built three miles from the center of Eastport. It consisted of 128 single-family, two-family, and four-family houses; three large dormitories with dining rooms for single workers, a fire station, hospital, heating plant, school, large mess hall, and a large administration building that included a theater, library, and sub post office.

Quoddy housed over 1,000 workers and their families.

The building near the center of the photo, with the men on the roof, is the Exhibition Building, and at the left edge of the photo is part of the Administration Building.

The Quoddy dam project was officially shut down in July 1936. From 1938 to 1943 the National Youth Administration used Quoddy Village to train 800 city youth a year in vocational trades. It was a Navy Sea Bee base named Camp Lee-Stephenson during World War II.

Although the exhibition and administration buildings are gone, many of the "temporary" houses still existed in 2013.

The working model of the planned Passamaquoddy Tidal Dam is in the Border Historical Society in Eastport.

Union Church, Jonesboro, ca. 1920

Union Church, Jonesboro, ca. 1920
Item 88036   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

Three church denominations were organized in Jonesboro in 1840: the Congregational Church of Machias, a Baptist congregation, and a Universalist Society.

Only the Congregationalists established a Jonesboro church. The first meetinghouse was built in 1844. It had a 26’ x 35’ sanctuary, steeple, and bell tower. There were 24 pews, which were assigned by the family name and taxed.

In 1893 each pew was assessed at the rate of $1.46 to $2.92, depending upon its location. The church needed repairs, so the next year’s assessments were raised from $1.89 to $3.75.

In 1909 the Jonesboro Union Church Aid Society was reorganized and incorporated to "build or repair a house of worship, to keep the same in repair and to provide and support regular religious worship in said building."

Major renovations and improvements were undertaken in the next two years, with broad community involvement. The church grew. In 1934 there were 114 children in the Sunday school, and 52 adults and children were baptized.

A new constitution in 1961 created the Jonesboro Union Church. It shared ministers with the East Machias Baptist Church until 1981, when it became independent.

Pomroy’s Cottage, Pembroke, ca. 1910

Pomroy’s Cottage, Pembroke, ca. 1910
Item 87973   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

As a young man, Thomas W. Pomeroy (also Pomroy) (1832 -1926) of Pembroke practiced the mason’s trade but soon left for New York where he called himself a "clairvoyant physician."

His method of diagnosis was to assume a trancelike state in which he would ascertain the patient’s illness and prescribe an herbal treatment while holding an artifact, such as a lock of hair, from the patient.

His amanuensis, usually his wife or his niece, recorded his utterances, which he claimed he could not recall after coming out of the trance. He developed a large following in New York, and also traveled widely in Europe and Canada, acquiring many devoted patients.

New York authorities charged Pomeroy in 1887 with practicing medicine without a license (or any academic training). He apparently negotiated a settlement agreement: records show he graduated in 1889 from the Eclectic Medical College of the City of New York, was licensed as a medical doctor in Connecticut in 1893. He was still practicing in New York on March 31, 1915, when he was almost 83 years old.

That Pomeroy became a wealthy man may be inferred from the mansion, always known as "Pomeroy Cottage," he built in Pembroke as a summer home in 1897-98.

As reported in the Eastport Sentinel of August 11, 1897, he had engaged as builder "Mr. Nathan Foster who built the handsome residence of John D. Allan, Esq., at Dennysville and our Odd Fellows Hall last year, and is soon to commence upon a house for Mr. Frank Watts. The house is to be constructed of the best materials obtainable and in the usual thorough manner which characterizes Mr. Foster’s work."

Several sources, including Carl K. Hersey’s 1982 "A History of Pembroke, Maine" (in the sesquicentennial souvenir book) report that the cost of construction was $80,000. It was built on a hill overlooking the Pennamaquon River and the Ironworks where Pomeroy had labored as a boy.

The house burned in 1946.

Iron Works School House, Pembroke, ca. 1910

Iron Works School House, Pembroke, ca. 1910
Item 87987   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

The schoolhouse in Pembroke was part of the "English Village" constructed by the Pembroke Ironworks Co. for its English employees, who immigrated to work in the mill.

In addition to the school, the village also consisted of a mansion for the "Ironmaster," the company’s resident agent; 15 homes for workers, a Methodist-Episcopal Church, a Catholic chapel, a bank, and a company store.

As of 2013, only one of the workers’ homes and the Methodist Church survive. The English men who came to work in the Iron Works were mostly Methodists and until the church was dedicated in 1863, they met at the Ironworks schoolhouse to read John Wesley’s sermons.

A history of the church, written in the 1930s, states: "These English men and women were wonderful singers and the Old Methodist revival hymns were sung. There were many to oppose these noisy Shouting Methodists so full of the spirit. Finally the school committee closed the doors. Though the times looked dark, yet it turned out for the best as seven of the English brothers…agreed to make an effort to build a church. In April 1861 they met to form a Board and elected officers to begin the work at once."

Bridge in Princeton, ca. 1920

Bridge in Princeton, ca. 1920
Item 88020   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

In 1903 Princeton’s first metal bridge across the stream between the lakes, known locally as the "flowage," was built, replacing the 1893 log bridge. It was reinforced with concrete in 1939.

In 2012 the Princeton Bridge was rebuilt and elevated, connecting Princeton with Indian Township.

The boat in the foreground may be a lumbering bateau, used for log runs. Albert Mercier owned and operated a restaurant in the white square building for many years.

The U.S. Peg and Shank Mill is visible on the shore of Lewey Lake beyond the restaurant. The mill was built in 1929 and owned by Nora Lewis Smith and her father of Brownville. Nora and her husband, Arnold, operated it.

The company produced wooden ice cream sticks and spoons. Women packed them into bundles of 12 to a package, making $9 a week. Men who operated the saws made $12.

When the mill burned about 1940, some local residents stood out in the lake, fearful that the whole town was going to go up in flames.

Church at Roque Bluffs, ca. 1915

Church at Roque Bluffs, ca. 1915
Item 87995   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

The Roque Bluffs Baptist Church was dedicated July 23, 1902. Fundraising for its construction was done by the Ladies Improvement Society, organized in February 1893.

In the beginning the plan was to finish the basement of the school for the students, and use the main level for worship, but by early 1900 the plan was to build an entirely new building.

James P. Tupper of Roque Bluffs offered the land, and $600 had been pledged by mid-March. By the end of the year the ladies had decided on the dimensions of the building and chosen Herbert Long to be in charge of construction.

Fundraising was by suppers at the school (and later at the still unfinished church), pie sales, quilt drawings, and lawn sales. At times the ladies catered to large excursions from out of town. On a nice day in July shortly before the church was dedicated, they set up shop out front and sold clam chowder and coffee to passersby.

Seven ministers attended the dedication in July. The service was in two sessions with a meal following the first session. By the end of the day, the entire remaining debt for the construction had been eliminated by contributions and pledges.

View at Roque Bluffs, ca. 1925

View at Roque Bluffs, ca. 1925
Item 88031   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

This photo, taken a short distance north of Roque Bluffs State Park, shows Nepp Point, the far shoreline, and part of Pond Cove Island a little closer.

Nearly obscured in the background is a summer cottage built for Orris Vose of Machias about 1890. In 1893 Andrew and Sarah Dow purchased it as a home, and then in 1917 it became a summer cottage again.

Just in front of that house is "Messauquatesk," the first summer cottage to be built in Roque Bluffs. It was built about 1877 for Clement B. Donworth, a Machias lawyer, and was still in the family in 2013.

Construction of the house in the foreground began by John B. Wallace in 1894, shortly after his house, store, smoke shed, boathouse, and storage building a short distance away had been lost to fire. Wallace, who was a well-known Downeast fisherman who had a passion for boats, built the Opal and Mascot before the 1893 fire.

The building that appears to be a barn was originally built as a 30’ x 50’ boatshop. The 42-foot Vera, a gaff-rigged sloop with an auxiliary steam engine, considered an innovation, was launched from here in 1899.

The boatshop was lengthened to accommodate the building in 1902 of the Uncas, a 53-foot gaff-rigged sloop launched in May 1903.

According to family legend, it was the first Downeast fishing boat to use a gasoline engine. In 1904 six copies of the Uncas were built at Maurice Dow’s boatshop at Roque Bluffs for the Seacoast Canning Company of Eastport.

Main Street, Machias, ca. 1920

Main Street, Machias, ca. 1920
Item 87979   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

This circa 1920 photo of Main Street in Machias shows a busy downtown. Although the horse-watering trough still stands at the intersection, automobiles dominate the commercial district.

The large building with the mansard roof on the right is the Phoenix Opera House, which had commercial establishments on the ground floor. Its listing in the 1913-1914 Cahn Leighton Official Theatrical Guide reports the second-floor hall had a seating capacity of 430, with 150 seats in the balcony. The Phoenix showed live entertainment as well as motion pictures. On January 23, 1927 the building burned to the ground.

The other buildings along Main Street are an assortment of the many establishments doing business in the community. It has been reported that at one time over 45 stores lined Main Street. The buildings on the left are now gone as far as the Customs House, which became part of the bank.

View of Waite, ca. 1910

View of Waite, ca. 1910
Item 88024   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

The house on the right is one of the oldest houses in Waite, built by Ed Ripley in the 19th century.

The home on the left, owned and occupied by Earl and Ada Ripley, was destroyed by fire in 1932.

The fire was of unknown origin. It was a very windy day, the Sunday before Labor Day, and nearly everyone was out of town. The strong wind took the sparks or flying pieces of wood from one house to another. Five homes were devastated.

The McPike house was bypassed as were four others in town.

Congregational Church, Waite, ca. 1930

Congregational Church, Waite, ca. 1930
Item 87964   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

The Congregational Church of Waite and Talmadge was built in 1902. Credit is given to C. H. McElhiney, a pastor of the Princeton Congregational Church, for encouraging the effort. A meeting was called July 2, 1902.

During the building period Frank Neal acted as treasurer and also hauled most of the lumber used in construction.

Services are still held in the church from time to time, as pastors are available to come and preach.

The small towns of Waite and Talmadge shared not only a church but also a cemetery in Talmadge on land purchased in 1856 by the Ladies Aid Sewing Society of Waite and Talmadge. They also share a post office and zip code.

View of Waite, ca. 1900

View of Waite, ca. 1900
Item 88037   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

The 19th-century house on the right is the McPike house, built and owned by James Ripley, who was one of the earliest residents of Waite; his name appears in the first census in 1840. The house that James Ripley built was later owned or occupied by Lemuel Campbell and by George Andrews and his family before Charles and Glennie McPike lived there. Their son Clayton and his wife, Lillian, raised their four children in the house.

The house is located on Route 1 near the corner of Mill Road.

Beautiful elm trees lined the road through Waite. They were taken down when the Dutch elm disease killed them.

View of Perry, ca. 1910

View of Perry, ca. 1910
Item 88030   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

Taken from a hill on the South Meadow Road, this photo of the village section of Perry was taken before U.S. Route 1 was built.

In the foreground, the Maine Central Railroad tracks run from left to right. The old Perry Post Office is at the left, and the old Perry Farmers Union and a private home are at the left.

Between the two, obscured by trees, was a bridge leading to the Shore Road. In the background is the former Methodist Church on the Shore Road, later J.T. Gove and Sons Store (destroyed by fire in the 1930s) and beyond that the steeple of the Perry Congregational Church, which was still standing in 2013.

J. T. Gove and Sons Store, Perry, ca. 1905

J. T. Gove and Sons Store, Perry, ca. 1905
Item 88025   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

Located on the Shore Road, just west of the Perry Congregational Church, the building on the left was originally a Methodist Church and in later years housed J.T. Gove and Sons Store, owned by Justin Gove, who lived across the road.

Beside it appears to be a private home and barn. All of the buildings were destroyed by fire in the 1930s.

Colon S. Morrison Sr. later purchased this property, and it was a pasture as of 2013.

Town Hall, Perry, ca. 1910

Town Hall, Perry, ca. 1910
Item 87972   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

Warren Hall, known locally as the Brick School House, is located at the intersection of Shore Road and Gleason Road in Perry. Built by John Gleason in 1827 as a school, it was named in memory of General Joseph Warren, who died in the Battle of Bunker Hill.

The Masons bought the building, which continued to be used as a school, and owned it until 1870, when the Town of Perry purchased it.

It was used for town meetings, political and social gatherings, a polling place and as a school with grades 1-4 on the first floor and grades 5-8 upstairs until the new Clark School opened in 1952.

It has been privately owned since 1953, used primarily for storing commercial fisheries equipment.

Main Street, Calais, ca. 1930

Main Street, Calais, ca. 1930
Item 88001   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

The corner of Main Street and North Street in Calais, which became known as Bank Corner, is at the center of Calais business district.

The three-story brick building was built in the mid 1890s. Its ground floor was the site of several banks over the years, the last being the Merrill Trust Company.

The "dummy cop" in the center of the intersection was the first attempt to control auto traffic in Calais, which at intersections was generally a free for all. Drivers rarely obeyed the "Slow, Keep Right" admonition and, according to a boy who grew up in the 20s, its primary use was as a jungle gym for kids who spent Saturday afternoons swinging on it or perched at its top.

Main Street, Calais, ca. 1900

Main Street, Calais, ca. 1900
Item 88018   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

This photo of the corner of Main and Church Streets in Calais was taken about 1900. The stars-and-stripes bunting on the Hill-Pike Building to the left suggests that this photo was taken near the fourth of July. This building was used as a chandlery and as retail space for other merchants serving the waterfront trade.

Beside it is the Emmans Hotel and looking further east on Main Street can be seen the many carriage makers and stables that provided transportation in Calais in the days before the automobile.

The brick building to right was then called St Croix Hall and later became the Opera House.

International Bridge between Calais and St. Stephen, N.B., ca. 1940

International Bridge between Calais and St. Stephen, N.B., ca. 1940
Item 87956   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

The Ferry Point "steel bridge" as it became known was built to replace the wooden covered bridge, which had spanned the St. Croix since 1845.

The opening of the "steel bridge" in 1895 was the occasion of the greatest celebration ever seen in the St. Croix Valley. Up until this time all three bridges across the St. Croix had been toll bridges, a fact much resented by the local populace on both sides of the river.

However with the beginning of the international street railroad a new, much sturdier steel bridge was required to support the weight of the streetcars. As it was no longer feasible to collect tolls, the towns of Calais and St. Stephen bought all the bridges and they became "free."

On the day the bridges officially became free almost every citizen in the two towns who could walk paraded the four-mile loop from Calais to Milltown, across the Milltown bridge to Milltown New Brunswick, then back to St. Stephen and across the "steel bridge" to Calais. It is said the line was unbroken for the entire length of the march.

Episcopal Church, Robbinston, ca. 1915

Episcopal Church, Robbinston, ca. 1915
Item 88014   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

Grace Chapel in Robbinston is a classic example of a 19th-century rural American church. It was built in 1882 by the Rev. Peter Henry Steenstra. A longtime summer resident of Robbinston, he and several other summer residents decided to build a church in the village for summer services.

Steenstra acquired the land in 1875 from James S. Pike, who lived next door at the Mansion House. The cost of building the church was $1417.55, including $75 for the lot, $992.72 for workers and construction materials, and $349.81 for the furniture.

It has open beams and boards, all clear stained except for a red stripe on the smoothed corner of each beam. The original oil lamps are mounted on swing brackets along each side, and three brass chandeliers hang down from the ceiling. The church was never wired for electricity.

The original woven palm mats still covered the floor in 2013 and the original pump organ still played well. The lectern, originally an architect's adjustable drawing table, stands nearby.

The first service was held in October 1882 with Steenstra presiding. His son, Fredrick Steenstra, was the primary minister for most of the chapel's active years. The last church service was held on August 29, 1993.

In early 2000, the Steenstra family persuaded the Episcopal Church to turn the facility over to the Robbinston Historical Society. In June of that year the church was deconsecrated, and in 2001 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is now a museum.

Post Office, Whitneyville, ca. 1915

Post Office, Whitneyville, ca. 1915
Item 87967   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

This early 1900s photo shows the Whitneyville Post Office at the corner of Cross Street and Middle Street.

Main Street looking south, Whitneyville, ca. 1910

Main Street looking south, Whitneyville, ca. 1910
Item 88012   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

In 1841 Whitneyville was part of Machias. To become a separate town there had to be a church and ten households headed by men.

In 1845 the criteria were met; a town was incorporated and became Whitneyville. It was named for Joseph Whitney, a Calais businessman who started a lumber business in 1836.

Village of Columbia Falls, ca. 1920

Village of Columbia Falls, ca. 1920
Item 88028   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

Children in this view of Main Street in Columbia Falls are standing in front of the building that housed Mary Ruggles Chandler’s drug store and Gus Barton’s grain store, with stairs leading to the second floor apartment.

The horse-drawn wagon has just passed the building with the Methodist vestry on the first floor and Columbia Falls Library upstairs. Next to it, but not visible in this photo, is the Methodist parsonage. All of these buildings burned in the winter of 1945. The site of the store became the Ruggles House parking lot.

The gas lamp on the left is on the porch of the hotel. The Grant Brothers' store is the next building visible on the left.

A.D. Lane Residence, Topsfield, ca. 1910

A.D. Lane Residence, Topsfield, ca. 1910
Item 88033   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

Daniel Lane and his family ran the Lane Hotel in the building that was also their home on what is now Route 1 in Topsfield. Adjacent to the barn, near the road, is the Lane general store. Daniel Lane served on the Board of Selectmen and was a Topsfield postmaster.

The buildings are gone, and another house was built on the site, which is across the street from what was in 2013 the Topsfield Country Store.

Universalist Church, Addison, ca. 1920

Universalist Church, Addison, ca. 1920
Item 88009   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

The Universalist Church, sometimes called the Old White Meeting House, was located in Addison Point on the corner of Back and School Street. The Universalists first held services at Addison Point around 1835, meeting in schoolhouses and private homes.

In 1841 church member William Nash built a new church building at his own expense and sold pews to members. The Methodists used the building in the 1870s and the Liberal Christian Church in the 1920s.

In December 1932 a spark carried by heavy wind from Fred Crockett’s barn fire ignited the belfry, and the church building burned. Its bell, which had sounded the alarm for many other fires and was said to have the best tone of any in Maine, melted beyond recognition.

The church was never rebuilt, but the stone foundation remains.

Town Hall, Harrington, ca. 1910

Town Hall, Harrington, ca. 1910
Item 88013   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

The Harrington Town Hall is shown in a photo taken about a year before it burned in a large fire in 1911.

On April 28, 1911, the Grange Hall caught fire. Dry conditions caused the fire to spread very rapidly. The Grange Hall, Baptist Church, school, and Town Hall all went up in flames. House and barns owned by Howard Small, Charles Leighton, Azro Nash, Louis Nash, and Moses Nash all burned.

The fire lasted only two hours.

Main Street, Milbridge, ca. 1915

Main Street, Milbridge, ca. 1915
Item 87986   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

At the center of the photo of Main Street in Milbridge is the J. F. Leighton Co. that was owned by Joseph Leighton and later by his son, Chauncey.

The store sold clothes and shoes for the family as well as goods for sewing. The second floor was the telephone office for many years, owned by Mildred and Frank Bixby. Cora Kelley and Harriet Shaw worked as the telephone operators.

The store became the Milbridge Pharmacy, and the second floor an apartment.

To the right of J. F. Leighton’s is the law office of Henry Sawyer. The law office was a Sears Roebuck house, one of the more than 400 styles of ready-to-assemble house kits sold by the company as between 1908 and 1940. The building was moved across the street and was a real estate office in 2013.

The local post office was located to the left of Leighton’s store. The building had at one time been a drugstore and then an optometrist’s office.

View from Monaghan Hill, Whitneyville, ca. 1915

View from Monaghan Hill, Whitneyville, ca. 1915
Item 88017   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

This broad view from the Monaghan Hill on Canal Road looks south across the Machias River. The wooden structure is the remnants of a dam that supplied power to the original Sullivan lumber mill, which burned in the 1890s.

Grant’s house, on the riverbank on the right, was torn down about 1935 so Lester Crane could build a sawmill.

Three of the houses to the left of Grant’s are now gone, but the property to the left of the trees was made into a warehouse for St. Regis Paper Company and still stood in 2013. The next two houses are gone. At the curve in the road, before the Congregational Church, is the Whitneyville Town Hall, which was torn down in the 1980s.

On December 7, 1836 area clergymen held a meeting to establish a church in Whitneyville. The townsfolk were tired of walking to Machias, four miles away. Meetings were held in private homes until 1841, when the schoolhouse was utilized as a meeting place.

In 1869 construction of a church building was started on the site of William Palmer’s store. The Saxby Gale of 1869 demolished the incomplete building. Work resumed, however, and the church was completed in 1875.

View of Cutler Harbor, ca. 1910

View of Cutler Harbor, ca. 1910
Item 88000   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

This view of Cutler’s inner harbor was taken from Eastern Nubble in about 1910. Facing seaward is Lookout Hill, used by St. John, New Brunswick, pilots to spot incoming ships.

The rocky point, off which boats are moored, is Gilman’s Point, also known as Pig Turd Point. A. P. Gilman’s house is across the road from the point and his blacksmith shop to its right.

Cutler has always been a fishing town, but at the turn of the century it was also a shipping point for lumber, ice, and sardines. Williams’ sardine factory is shown on Shipyard Point, jutting out into the harbor. The Bangs also had a sardine cannery in the row of wharves.

The steeple of the Methodist Church is visible on the hill just outside town; a new Methodist Church, across the road from the harbor, was dedicated in 1913. The road through town was paved in the 1930s.

In 1891 the town voted to pay Western Union Telegraph Co. $300 to wire up Cutler and to allow New England Telephone and Telegraph Company to erect and maintain poles. Electricity did not come until 1942, however.

Eastport Memorial Hospital, ca. 1945

Eastport Memorial Hospital, ca. 1945
Item 87996   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

In the late 19th and early 20th century this was the residence of C. E. Capen, vice president of the Eastport Savings Bank. By 1935 it was known as the Blanchard house.

Marion McPartland was a nurse and widow who arrived in Eastport about the time of the Passamaquoddy Dam Project in the 1930s. By May 1940 she had acquired the Blanchard house for a private hospital and named it the Eastport Memorial Hospital.

By 1944 she had rejoined the service in World War II and sold the hospital to the Eastport Hospital Corporation.

McPartland requested that the private corporation retain the word "memorial" in the name since she founded the hospital in memory of her deceased husband and daughter.

It remained a private hospital until 1981, when it became a nursing home due to increasing federal and state regulations. It was renamed the Eastport Memorial Nursing Home.

Main Street, Addison, ca. 1920

Main Street, Addison, ca. 1920
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Penobscot Marine Museum

This photo from about 1920 shows buildings that were destroyed or damaged in the May 1938 fire in Addison.

At the far left is the Preble store, later owned by Maurice Caler; Leslie Bridgeham’s barbershop and the Addison Grain Store occupied it. C.H. Small, a general store, also sold stoves. Next to it is the Mayhew Library, named for Calista S. Mayhew, who purchased the building and donated it to the library in 1915.

The fire destroyed its 4,000 books, and afterwards the Maine Sea Coast Mission donated 1,200 books to help rebuild its collection. The building with the tall front is the H.M. Donald building, where grain from sailing vessels was once stored. It was later remodeled and housed a barbershop and poolroom.

The Methodist Church stands at the end of the block. A Methodist organization was established in 1870 and met in the Universalist Church and Wescogus Hall. The Methodists borrowed $800 to purchase its own church building.

A vestry was built downstairs so the women could serve dinners to pay for the church; they served dinners every two weeks for over 50 years, charging 25 cents for many years.

The upper part of the church sustained major damage in the fire, but the front and lower part remained standing. The metal ceiling dropped down on the pews, helping to stop the fire. The community came together to repair the church. In 1997 it closed when it merged with the Harrington Methodist Church.

The post office was across the street in the small building, which sustained fire damage but was repaired. It housed the post office from 1917 to 1967. Next door was Will Nash’s general store, which had fire damage on the front. He opened his store in the Masonic Hall until it was repaired.

View of Pleasant River and Addison, ca. 1920

View of Pleasant River and Addison, ca. 1920
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Penobscot Marine Museum

The picture was taken from the Red Bridge looking across Pleasant River to Addison Village. To the extreme right is the Coal Shed, which was built to hold coal brought in by shops. It was made of hemlock lumber because it is a sturdy wood and will stand the weather. The lumber was put smooth side in so it would be easier to shovel the coal out.

The white house three buildings beyond the Coal Shed was one of two hotels at Addison Point. It was the Addison House and sometimes "Halls Hotel."

The large two-story structure, with wings on both east and west ends, overlooked the river from the area behind the town’s present fire stations. The only part of the building still standing in 2013 was the east wing, including the front porch with its rows of narrow pillars.

The building on the right is the Addison Point Baptist vestry, built in 1826 by the Baptist Church the same year it was organized, with 57 members. Many years later Albert Dalot owned and used this property for a stone barn, where he made monuments and grave markers from the granite from the Dalotville quarry.

To the left of the vestry are the Allen Bailey, Ames Godfrey, William Nash, and Clapton Small homes.

View of Cutler waterfront, ca. 1910

View of Cutler waterfront, ca. 1910
Item 88038   info
Penobscot Marine Museum

This view from Gilman’s Point shows Cutler’s wharves in about 1910. At the time the inner harbor was populated with canneries, warehouses, and wharves from which lumber, ice, and sardines were shipped.

Williams’ wharf and sardine cannery, long gone, are on the left. The Williams’ home and barn are on the shore to the right of the cannery.

The barn is gone, and the current Town Library and Office are in the field behind the house.

The building on the closest wharf has been made into a home as has the industrial building on the far right.

The Hotel Cutler, Little River Lodge in 2013, is behind the Williams’ home. Little River was Cutler’s original name; it referred to the long, narrow harbor that looked like the mouth of a river.

The Methodist Church stands on the hillside left of center.

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