Kennebunk Main Street

This fascinating collection of photographs brings to life a hundred years of Kennebunk's rich history and in particular the hustle and bustle of Main Street between 1869 and 1970.

In the summer of 1643, John Sanders was granted land bordering the Mousam River in Kennebunk. From this early grant to the present, many generations have called Kennebunk home. Through nearly two hundred vintage photographs, Kennebunk portrays life in this charming village from 1850 to 1940. From the architecture of its downtown neighborhoods to scenes of the rural countryside, the images in this book provide a window on Kennebunk's past. They also capture the people who made up the fabric of this community, from early sea captains to hardworking farmers.

In the summer of 1643, John Sanders was granted land bordering the Mousam River in Kennebunk. From this early grant to the present, many generations have called Kennebunk home. Through nearly two hundred vintage photographs, Kennebunk portrays life in this charming village from 1850 to 1940. From the architecture of its downtown neighborhoods to scenes of the rural countryside, the images in this book provide a window on Kennebunk's past. They also capture the people who made up the fabric of this community, from early sea captains to hardworking farmers. Among them are immigrant Sam Tvedt, an eccentric preacher who sported shoulder-length hair and a long flowing coat while shouting sermons from beside the town pump, and Colby Jack Coombs, the famous World Series pitcher, shown spending time with his family on their Alewive farm.

The town of Kennebunk split from the neighboring town of Wells on June 24, 1820, just three months after Maine became a state. Kennebunk's proximity to three large bodies of water--the Kennebunk River, the Mousam River, and the Atlantic Ocean--fueled its development over thousands of years. Kennebunk's waterways were home to Wabanaki hunters, settlement farmers, early lumber mills, and a booming shipbuilding business. The Maine coast soon brought tourists to Kennebunk and its beaches. By the 1930s, Kennebunk Beach and its surrounding area contained several hotels and beach cottages. Sites like the Wedding Cake House, Kennebunk Beach, Main Street, and Blowing Cave quickly reached new heights as well-known landmarks. Postcards played a part in fueling the powerhouse tourist industry that remains active to this day.

Tourists have flocked to the beaches and hotels of the Kennebunks for more than one hundred years. At the dawn of the twentieth century, postcards that showcased the area’s attractions were popular with visitors as mementos and as an inexpensive means of communication. Today, the historic postcards that survive provide a look back at the Kennebunks of an earlier era. The Kennebunks in Season contains almost two hundred postcard images featuring the early hotels and businesses that catered to the tourist trade in Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, and Cape Porpoise, along with the popular local attractions and prominent homes of the area. Also included are rare images of the motel courts that began in the late 1920s along Route 1 from Kennebunk to today’s Arundel, then North Kennebunkport.

The Kennebunks--the phrase evokes peace, ocean breezes and small-town pride. In this captivating collection of vignettes, Kennebunk town historian Kathleen Ostrander reveals another side of the area's allure: its rich and varied past. From an account of the amateur astronomer whose name now graces the Bates College Observatory to the origins of Kennebunk's encyclopedic Walker Diaries, Ostrander offers a tour of the area's historical highlights. She notes the mysterious creature once said to live in the Kennebunk River, treasures hidden in fireplaces and under floorboards and the scandalous murder trial of 1866, during which the wife of deceased doctor, drunk, and temperance supporter Charles Swett was imprisoned on the testimony of her own daughter. Through quirky tales and serious sketches, Ostrander offers an affectionate portrait of the Kennebunks sure to charm and inform.