Picture Show Presented by the Brick Store Museum

The 20^th Century witnessed two world wars, the Great Depression, revolutions in social equality and the dawn of the computer age. Looking back on this century, there are so many events both big and small that changed the world and Kennebunk. This slideshow is a selection of some of those moments that shaped Kennebunk, a visual history of the time between 1900-1999.

1900-1950

Main and Garden Street, c.1903

Clark Shipyard, c.1900. David Clark center foreground.

The Fire of 1903 seen from Water Street looking toward Main and Storer Street.

The Fire of 1903 as seen from Water Street looking down Storer Street and Main Street. The most desctructive fire to occur in Kennebunk.

The building of the Kennebunk Free Library, 1907

The Kennebunk Town Hall decorated for Old Home Week, 1907

Horse and carriage on Main Street with Kennebunk Public Library and Unitarian Church in the background. c.1908

World War I National Guard outside the Kennebunk Free Library, c.1918

Launch of the schooner Charles B. Wiggin, August 4, 1917

The Schooner Kennebunk launching from Ward’s shipyard, 1918. The last large vessel built on the Kennebunk River.

George Cousins in the Centennial Parade, 1920

Centennial Parade, Main Street, 1920

The Kennebunk Town Hall was destroyed by a fire on March 19th 1920.

On March 9, 1921, the British freighter “Wandby” was wrecked off of Walker’s Point in Kennebunkport.

The opening of the new Town Hall, May 1922

Brick Store Museum building c.1925 when the Water District was located on the 1st floor.

Park Street Grammar School students, Grades 5-9, 1925

Main Street looking north over the Mousam River bridge, c.1920

Kennebunk Public Health Association Health Parade, c.1930

Tomlinson’s store on the Mousam River after being damaged by the great flood of 1936.

The Mousam House located on Main Street, 1937. It opened as a Jefferds Tavern in 1791 and was torn down in 1937.

Kennebunk High School under construction, 1939

Upper Main Street, 1939

Kennebunk Inn, c.1930

Mousam River Bridge and the Kesslen Shoe Company, c.1930s

Main Street, c.1946

The Fire of 1947. On Monday, October 20, a fire that had been mulling underground at North Kennebunkport for almost a week broke out and began to move. Late in the day, fanned by high winds, the fire leaped across Route 1 in an arc of flames that dwarfed fireighters who stood helplessly by.

The Fire of 1947

Kesslen Shoe Company Christmas Party, c.1940s

World War II observation post on Jones Hill, Cat Mousam Road, 1942. Chief observer Carle Spiller required at least 35 women to join the corps of 35 men.

1950-1999

Children getting off a school bus, c.1950

Aerial photo of the Maine Turnpike, c.1950. It was opened on December 13, 1947 with the first stretch 47 miles from Kittery to Portland.

Kennebunk Safeguard Firehouse on Fletcher Street, c.1950. it was built in 1889 and torn down in the 1960s for the bank parking lot.

Kennebunk Central Fire Station, c.1957

Kennebunk’s first ambulance provided by the Rotary Club, c.1950.

Memorial Day parade on Main Street, c.1955

The Brick Store Museum, c.1960.

Kennebunk Depot with the self-propelled diesel railcar the “Buddliner”, 1962.

The Lafayette Elm, c.1960, on Storer Street named after General Lafayette’s visit to Kennebunk in 1825. It succumbed to Dutch Elm disease by the late 1960s.