Year: 2023

Freeport Street Power Station // 1896

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The West End Street Railway was established in 1887 originally as an offshoot of a land development venture, but it rose to prominence when it merged several independent streetcar companies into a single organization. Over the next decade, it became the primary operator of public street transit within the Boston area! During this time, the company maintained one of the largest street railway systems in the world, the first unified streetcar system in the United States, and first electrified system in a major US city. Now, it’s the infamous MBTA. How far they fall… Power plants were needed all over the city to provide electrical power for the company’s street cars, this was the fourth (and final) power station built, and it powered the Dorchester, Neponset, Ashmont and Milton lines. The station was constructed in 1896 on the shores of Dorchester Bay, which allowed for coal to be delivered in barges to the plant. Old stone walls formerly lining the shore can be seen to this day. Landfilling in the second half of the 20th century and the construction of I-93 have since cut off the building from the shore. Eventually the building was sold off and today is home to Yale Appliance, good thing none of their products are coal powered!

Putnam Nail Company Factory // 1860+

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The Putnam Nail Company was founded in 1860 and located at the northern tip of the Port Norfolk neighborhood of Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts. The company was founded by Silas Safford Putnam (1822-1895), who was the seventh of nine children by Israel Smith Putnam and Charlotte Safford of Hartford, NY. He moved to Boston and found work as Boston’s industrial growth took-off. He owned a curtain factory before patenting a process to manufacture wrought nails in the 1850s. After some time in Abington and Roxbury, he moved to Dorchester, purchasing large pieces of land and began building a manufacturing complex for his new Putnam Nail Company. The company made world-class horseshoe nails until it closed in the early 1900s. The property here was acquired by the George Lawley & Son Shipyard, who moved from their cramped City Point, South Boston shipyard to this newer yard. Already an established and respected New England manufacturer, the Lawley company had been building wooden ships in Massachusetts since 1866. The site was later the home to Seymour’s Ice Cream and was abandoned in the late 20th century. The large 1890s brick factory is now occupied by RISE, a development/construction management firm, with other buildings occupied by the Boston Winery and Boston Harbor Distillery.

Albert T. Stearns Lumber Company Office // c.1855

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The Stearns Lumber Company, which originally covered forty acres, was opened by Albert Thomas Stearns in 1849 at Port Norfolk, in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The location was ideal for transportation as wood could arrive by ship via the harbor or by rail. Stearns made everything from greenhouses, to water tanks, to millwork, but they specialized in wooden gutters, a necessary component in housing construction, and even invented a machine just for this purpose. Stearns’ machine removed the core of the gutter in one piece with a cylinder saw, which allowed the leftover product to be reduced into moulding, trim, ect. Stearns specialized in Cypress lumber and erected a saw mill in Florida, having it shipped up to his lumberyard in Port Norfolk. He became known as the Apostle of Cypress. The company eventually closed in 1968, after decades in losses of national lumber production and an increase in the use of cement and steel in building. The former Stearns Lumber Company yards were redeveloped and is now the site of Joseph Finnegan Park. The brick company office building is the last extant building from the historic A. T. Stearns Lumber Company, and its future is uncertain. The building is currently owned by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), who asked for the building to be demolished, causing the local neighborhood to speak out for its preservation. This is one to watch out for!

Newburgh Center Union Church // 1878

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Image courtesy of Amy Higgins

The Newburgh Center Union Church was built in 1878 as a non-denominational religious building for the small, rural town of Newburgh, Maine. At this time, the small town had just over 1,000 residents and it was not economically feasible for each congregation to build its own meeting house. The vernacular Greek Revival/Italianate style church building was eventually the house of worship of a local Pentecostal congregation, but that too appears to have disbanded. The building has been falling into disrepair, so hopefully it will be preserved.

Jackson Congregational Church // c.1812

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Image courtesy of Amy Higgins.

In the year 1812, Jackson, Maine, was organized as a plantation, and the Congregational Church of Jackson was organized the same year with Rev. Silas Warren, as its Pastor. Mr. Warren was born in Weston, Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard University in 1795. He was ordained as Pastor of the Jackson and Brooks Church in 1812 when it opened. The town of Jackson has not grown much since then (610 according to 2020 census) and has maintained its very rural character. The Congregational Church here was likely more vernacular when built and given the belfry after the Civil War. Gotta love these old churches on back roads!

Hezekiah Chase House // c.1820

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In 1782, Stephen Chase (1740-1821) settled in present-day Unity, Maine, and built the first frame house there to establish a community. After Stephen’s death, his son, Hezekiah Chase (1774-1848) built this brick, Federal period home for his family, moving his father’s wood-frame house and adding it onto the rear, which remains there to this day. Hezekiah was a judge and was involved in town affairs ever since it was established. The bricks were made locally and were of fine quality. Hezekiah’s son George C. Chase (1844-1919) was raised here. He attended Bates College in its second class, and eventually became a professor of English there. In 1894 he became the second president of Bates College and oversaw a period of significant growth at the college. Chase became known as “The Great Builder” at the college. The old Chase House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places both for its architectural merit and its history and significance to the town and region.

Unity Village School // 1898

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The town of Unity, Maine, was incorporated in 1804, and for most of the 19th century had small district schools for the education of its children. In 1894, the state enacted legislation that encouraged the consolidation of school districts in order to improve quality and building standards. The town, whose population and student enrollment had been declining, voted in 1898 to build this school, which effectively replaced four of its eight district schools. The Colonial Revival style schoolhouse was built by Joseph Sawyer of Fairfield, Maine. The Village School remained the town’s largest primary school until 1953, when increasing enrollment and school overcrowding prompted the decision to build a new elementary school.

Lemuel Bartlett House // c.1813

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When originally settled by Quakers, the town of Unity, Maine, was known as “Twenty-Five Mile Pond Plantation”. The name came from its being located on a pond, twenty-five miles from Fort Halifax in Winslow (creative, right?) The name was changed to Unity upon incorporation as a town in 1804. The town grew steadily through the first few decades of the 19th century and some wealthier residents began building homes. Lemuel Bartlett (1762-1834) built this house around 1813, which is a great, vernacular example of a Federal style residence in rural, central Maine. Lemuel was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts and fought against the British during the Revolution. After the war, he settled in present-day Unity around 1780 and became one of the original proprietors and land-owners here. He worked as a mason and farmer, and likely built this house himself. The property is now occupied by the Unity Historical Society.

Dixmont Town House // c.1836

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Dixmont, a small rural town in central Maine was originally originally a land grant by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (of which Maine was then a part) to Bowdoin College, which sold the first settlers their land for profit to build on their campus. As a result, the town was originally called “Collegetown”, which was obviously short-lived. Dr. Elijah Dix (1747-1809) of Boston, who never lived there but took an interest in its settlement, encouraged others to settle there, and when the town was officially incorporated in 1807, it named itself after Dix, as Dixmont. A “malignant fever” broke out among the settlers in the early years, also killing Elijah Dix while in Dixmont on a trip there in 1809, he was buried in the Dixmont Corner Cemetery. Elijah was the grandfather of reformer and nurse Dorothea Dix. The early settlers had this Town House built in the center of the township around 1836 as a vernacular structure. The building (like many early town houses) was used for both secular and religious purposes. This small structure is one of the oldest surviving town houses in the state and served as the town government center until 1952 when it hosted its last town meeting. It was restored in the early 2000s and looks great!

Dixmont Corner Church // 1834

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Dixmont, a small rural town in central Maine was originally originally a land grant by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (of which Maine was then a part) to Bowdoin College, which sold the first settlers their land for profit to build on their campus. As a result, the town was originally called “Collegetown”, which was obviously short-lived. Dr. Elijah Dix (1747-1809) of Boston, who never lived there but took an interest in its settlement, encouraged others to settle there, and when the town was officially incorporated in 1807, it named itself after Dix, as Dixmont. A “malignant fever” broke out among the settlers in the early years, also killing Elijah Dix while in Dixmont on a trip there in 1809, he was buried in the Dixmont Corner Cemetery. Elijah was the grandfather of reformer and nurse Dorothea Dix. The early settlers had this church built by 1834 by Rowland Tyler, a local master builder whose only other documented work is the 1812 City Hall of Bangor. The Dixmont Corner Church is one of Penobscot County’s oldest Gothic churches and also exhibits some Greek/Classical elements.

Troy Meeting House // 1840

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Located in the rural town of Troy, Maine, the 1840 Troy Meeting House is a classic example of a type of meeting house or church that was built by some rural communities in the state in the decades prior to the Civil War. Built as a Union Church, without a specific denomination, the building served the members of the Troy Meeting House Society, and by extension as the only church in the town. The building features both Greek Revival and Gothic Revival stylistic details on the exterior and its design is similar to others in the surrounding towns, likely being from the same builder.

Rockefeller Hall // 1934

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In the early 1930s, a U.S. Navy Radio Station at the Otter Cliffs on Mount Desert Island had become dilapidated and Navy funds were not forthcoming for repairs. When John D. Rockefeller Jr. suggested that it be removed, the Navy agreed to include the station in his donation to Acadia National Park, provided that he would build an equally good receiving station nearby. In the midst of the Great Depression, and short on funds, the government accepted the swap. Rockefeller set aside land at the tip of the Schoodic Peninsula, about five miles away across Frenchman Bay, at Winter Harbor. Rockefeller, wishing the station’s buildings to be compatible with others designed for the park, retained Grosvenor Atterbury, the New York architect who designed the park’s gatehouses, to come up with plans for the radio station. It opened in early 1935 and for several years served as an operation center and military housing. After the naval base was closed in 2002, the National Park Service acquired the land and established the Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC). The SERC campus is managed by the nonprofit Schoodic Institute and the NPS in a public-private partnership as one of 19 NPS research learning centers in the country. They restored Rockefeller Hall (as it became known) in the early 2010s and the stunning architecture can really shine today. The building is a Welcome Center to the institute.

Whelen Cottage // c.1891

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For the last cottage on Grindstone Neck, I present the stunning Whelen Cottage. Charles S. Whelen (1850-1910), a banker and philanthropist who served as one of the directors of the Gouldsboro Land Improvement Company and as one of several of its stock agents in Philadelphia, purchased a house lot for him and his wife Migonette Violett. The couple did not hire Lindley Johnson, like so many other cottage-holders did, but they worked with esteemed architect Wilson Eyre to design the home. The Whelens were typical of the type of person who chose to summer on Grindstone. While comfortably well off, they were not in a financial position to commission the sort of cottages built on an ever increasing scale in Bar Harbor. The property left the Whelen’s ownership in 1897, and the house was altered and enlarged in 1900. The large porte cochere, porch, and additional rooms added at this time by William Winthrop Kent, an alumni of H. H. Richardson’s office.

McCrea Cottage // 1891

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In 1891, Laura Denby McCrea, a wealthy widow based Philadelphia, sought to maintain her social standing all year by building a summer cottage on Grindstone Neck, a summer colony in Winter Harbor, Maine. She was one of the first to build a cottage here, and she hired renowned architect Wilson Eyre to furnish plans for the rustic home. The Shingle style house is dominated by its massive gambrel roof and was historically clad entirely with wood shingles (asphalt shingles have since replaced cedar at the roof).

Far From The Wolf Cottage // 1891 & 1902

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John Godfrey Moore (1847-1899) was born in Steuben, Maine, a small town just east of Mount Desert Island, the son of a ship captain. He moved to New York City at 18 and would become was a wildly successful businessman, financier and Wall Street stock market promoter during the Gilded Age. He gained fame by successfully suing the United States government in 1893, to stop the new income tax Act from coming into effect, delaying it by 20 years. Oh how the rich stay rich… He purchased a 2,000-plus acre estate on the Schoodic Peninsula and formed the Gouldsboro Land Improvement Company, which sought to develop the peninsula into a summer colony that would rival Bar Harbor. As part of this, Moore was a huge reason for Winter Harbor separating from Gouldsboro, to lower his and his neighbors’ property taxes. He built a cottage here in 1891 and named it “Far From The Wolf” a cheeky reference to its comfortable distance from Wall Street. He died unexpectedly in 1899. His second wife Louise and daughters Ruth and Faith did not share his aspirations for Winter Harbor, and their visits to the area became less frequent. A large portion of his land on the Schoodic Peninsula became a part of Acadia National Park. His property in Winter Harbor was sold, expanded in 1902, and renamed “Ingleside” by Frank B. Noyes, a publisher and later founder of the Associated Press. The home was for a time operated as an inn, and was recently sold for $1 Million at auction. What a steal!