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Maine Streets

Main Street, Kennebunk, ca. 1915

Main Street, Kennebunk, ca. 1915

Item 25734 info
Penobscot Marine Museum

Kennebunk Village prospered in the 19th and early 20th centuries as a commercial and manufacturing center, where a variety of industries took advantage of the waterpower of the Mousam River.

Looking north up Main Street, this photograph from the nineteen teens was taken just over the bridge spanning the Mousam River.

At the left is the Parsons Block, while at the right stands one of the local barbershops. Both of these buildings were constructed to replace commercial blocks lost in the Great Fire of 1903.

Note the automobile at the right, trolley car tracks and lines running down the center of the street as well as the utility poles, wires, and electric street light, all signs of the arrival of modern times to this Southern Maine coastal town.