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Camp Molly Hall, Westport Island, ca. 1908

Camp Molly Hall, Westport Island, ca. 1908
Item 105126   info
Westport Island History Committee

Camp Molly Hall was a dance hall operated by Everett "Ves" Sylvester and Melvin Cromwell starting in the 1890s, until the hall was torn down after Everett's death in 1912. Located on the shore of the Island's north end, Camp Molly was easily accessed by patrons from Edgecomb and Wiscasset during weekly dances.

The name "Camp Molly" came from an Island legend about a Penobscot woman named Molly Molasses who traveled in the vicinity of Westport in the 1840s. She reportedly saw a group of merrymakers having a clambake and stopped to share how the Penobscots prepared a clambake. The land where this exchange took place became known as Camp Molly. Molly Molasses was also known as Mary Pelagie (1775-1867).

"I don’t remember the first time [I met my husband Fred]. Most likely it might have been to a dance. …we had that dance hall up at the North end, up Camp Molly. [It was] right on the tip so they could come from Edgecomb or Wiscasset or wherever by boat... We ran dances from the Fourth of July to Labor Day."

Verlie Greenleaf, 1987

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