Newsletter October 2003

Several people have asked about the history of the Southport Town Hall here pictured. The views are from the south with the west side of the building on the left, a 1938 view above and a 2003 view below. Ron Orchard provides the following information.

In 1866 a group of Southport ladies who had formed a sewing circle felt the need for a larger meeting place. They built what was then called the Union Hall. This was the central portion of the present Town Hall with the stage at one end and a balcony at the other.

In 1868 the first town meeting was held at the hall and has been held there ever since. The meetings in the 1930’s were held on Saturday and the entire day was required in that there was no Budget Committee to discuss needs ahead of time. Thus all decisions were hammered out on the floor. At lunchtime, tables would be set up and lunch served. Phyllis Cook recalls lugging buckets of water across the road from a spring behind the Methodist Church . Ron remembers his grandmother, Izetta Brewer Pinkham, making coffee. She would pour an entire pound of ground coffee into a large pot of boiling water and boil it vigorously. Then eggshells were added to settle the grounds. A sip or two of the result would protect the consumer from even any thought of an afternoon nap!

In 1874 a group of citizens formed a stock company and bought the building from the ladies sewing circle. It wasn’t until 1900 that the Town purchased the hall. At some point, the balcony was removed in order to have more floor space, which was occasionally used by the school children for games. They did not change the name of the Hall and the old Union Hall sign that had been on the balcony was varnished and hung on the wall on March 15, 1955 .

In 1955 the committee on expanding the hall reported that an addition had been completed. The town offices had previously been in the small building standing just west of the Union Hall (see 1938 photo). This small structure was moved away and the addition to the west was completed comprising Town Offices and the kitchen. Later a similar wing was added onto the east side of the building and the large interior posts were added for support. Ron was unable to find any mention that the name of the hall was ever changed, so officially it remains today as Union Hall.

Volunteer Luncheons

We have often said that the Museum could never operate without the hundreds of hours of volunteer labor. Not only do volunteers guide visitors, but they clean the building, sand and paint interior window frames, provide refreshments, work on the garden, research Southport houses, record memberships, keep the books, move the boats in and out, repaint the sign when needed and plan for future needs. The list goes on. Twice this summer, the Friends put on a luncheon to honor some of these volunteers. In June and again in August about twenty people gathered at the Museum to hear Ron and Evelyn and Ed Donohoe describe the collection, and to share a buffet lunch. We are grateful to all those who helped and to all the others who are here listed. We have recorded that they gave a total of 1450 hours, but this is undoubtedly far too small!

Judy Basilieri Jack Bauman Henry Berne Mary Ann Blycher Marion Bradley Jeff Brown

Kathy Bugbee Barbara Bush Jackie Buttimer Bob Colby Matt Cole Phyllis Cook

Katie Copland Karen Curtis Dick Dexter Maria Doelp Ed Donohoe Fran Donohoe

Donald Duncan Joyce Duncan Leanne Eaton Gerry Gamage Anne Grimes Jean Hasch

Mimi Havinga Jean Hawley Enid Johnson Kathy Johnson Mary Lou Koskela Leonard Merrill

Mary Merrill Deborah Mullen Ralva Orchard Ronald Orchard Michael Pollard Penny Pollard

Roger Roche Mary Anne Sanborn Bob Seaman Lois Seaman Sandra Seifert Evelyn Sherman

Sarah Sherman Kit Sherrill Leigh Sherrill Dick Snyder Fire Department Ralph Spinney Pegi Stengtel

Peg Stewart Jean Thompson Priscilla Wallace Bruce Wood Hazel Upham Joan Zehm

Membership

Kit Sherrill has taken over from Gary Snowman the job of recording your memberships and donation to the Friends. This year we have received 216 replies to our April solicitation letter for a total of $5,875. We are grateful to Kit for his work and to Marion Bradley who keeps the books and pays the bills. This year the Friends have paid for the following: Ron Orchard for his regular services as permanent guide, the alarm system, the telephone, computer and copier supplies, membership in Maine Archives and Museums, luncheons, research books and miscellaneous small items as needed.

Morgan Rhees

This summer, the Museum featured an exhibit of paintings by Morgan J. Rhees. Mr. Rhees was born in Wheeling , West Virginia in 1855. He studied art in Pittsburgh and spent two years studying in Paris . In art circles of New York , Pittsburgh and Philadelphia he was known for his portraits of President William Howard Taft and Dr. Howard McGrath of Harvard University among others.

The museum is fortunate to have a childhood portrait of Ethelyn Pinkham Giles (pictured above). The portrait was given to the Museum by Ron Orchard in 2002, and the Friends have had it cleaned and restored for permanent exhibit. Also on display is Rhees’ painting, ”The Gates of Hell” which hung in the Pittsburgh Art Museum for a number of years. This 3- by 4-foot canvas portrays the punishments and temptations of the damned and merits careful viewing. The exhibit included landscapes and seascapes of the Southport area as well as some paintings of the American West. We are grateful to the many people who loaned paintings for this exhibit. Rhees came to Southport in the late 1890’s, opening a studio and enjoying the island. He died on June 3, 1925 at Saint Andrews Hospital and is buried in Cameron’s Point Cemetery .

Memorial Garden

In 2001, the Trustees felt that the area behind the Museum needed sprucing up and although it had produced a bumper crop of raspberries, the Trustees felt that something more cultivated would be an improvement. Some monies had been given in memory of Kenneth Orne, and Jessica Brewer laid out the beginnings of the Memorial Garden . This year, through the efforts and generosity of Karen Curtis, great strides have been made. Karen is a Master Gardener and has had our project approved by The University of Maine Extension Service so that volunteers can obtain credit for their hours. Enid Johnson, Hazel Upham and Joan Zehm along with Karen and Evelyn Sherman did the work. Several of the lilac bushes that used to be on the right of the driveway have been moved by Bill Royall and replanted in the rear. We are grateful to Bill for his contributions to the project. Karen, Enid and Sue Laine have contributed plants from their own gardens. Evelyn has given her usual enthusiasm to the project. Each time that she visits her daughter in Bucksport she is able to fit into her car eight five-gallon buckets of horse manure, which have sweetened the garden (and occasionally the car)! There seems to be no end to Evelyn’s talents! Karen has developed a three-year plan to develop the area with plants that are compatible with an 1800’s Maine house. The Friends have appropriated $500 toward this project and will doubtless continue to help as needed.

Our goal is to create a database in which ALL Southport dwellings can be entered. For historical purposes, any dwelling more than fifty years old is considered to have potential historical value. The database will be organized in twenty-year groupings so historical development of Southport Island can be easily reviewed. There are nearly 800 dwellings presently on Southport .

To date, a little over 125 responses have been received from owners of houses, cottages and log cabins. The dates of these structures range from pre-1900 to as recently as 2000. Their history includes dwellings that had burned and were rebuilt, those that were incorporated into essentially new structures on the original sites, and those that were moved to their present site. The information in the responses indicates that the earliest known dwellings on the island were both houses and cottages followed shortly by log cabins. Examples of each remain today as part of the architectural history of Southport Island .

Special thanks goes to Peg Stewart who has researched nearly all the dwellings on Capitol Island . We look forward to receiving her report after the first of the year. Also, we are indebted to Jill Hansen and John Moses for information on the early Pig Cove - Gray Colony. Barbara Whitepine has provided extensive information on the Strout Colony. Tom Evans, D’Arcy Sampson and John Fricks have independently corroborated a wealth of information on the Violet Evans cottage "Barnacles". Plans are developing to create an index of both dwellings and "Colonies" for easy reference. The index will be available at the Museum next summer.

Remember all dwellings are relevant to this study. We are very grateful to all who have responded and for those who have not, a questionnaire is included with this newsletter.

The key to the Sheepscot, now displayed in the Museum, was made by Walter R. Eaton, a summer resident, in his shop in Melrose , Massachusetts , in 1937. It was used by the Southport Yacht Club then, and for several years thereafter, to open up the waters of the Sheepscot for the July start of the sailboat racing season. Charlie Pinkham, holding the key, rode into Cozy Harbor on the bow of one of the powerboats and landed at the SYC float. The boat used, for at least one year anyway, was probably the Liberty owned by Ob Brewer. Charlie was dressed as King Neptune with a long white robe and beard. There was a short ceremony and Charlie would open the waters with the key. The key was then hung on the wall of the Club until the following year. This tradition was probably suspended during the World War II years and the key was stored away until the Museum acquired it in 1998.

Friends of the

Southport Historical Society

P. O. Box 3, Southport, ME 04576

HENDRICKS HILL MUSEUM

Membership