Echoes Of Dirigo

09/24/2026

Limerick’s Congregational Church — A Postcard Mailed in 1913

Here’s an old view of the Congregational Church on Main Street in Limerick, with people gathered along the front of the building beneath large shade trees. The postcard carries a 1913 postmark, so the photograph was taken that year or earlier.

The congregation’s history goes back considerably further. Limerick’s Congregationalists built a meetinghouse in 1793 and formally organized their church on July 5, 1795. Their first pastor, the Reverend Edmund Eastman, was ordained that November. He also became an important figure in establishing Limerick Academy.

The church shown here was built in 1833. The National Register documentation describes its architecture as a combination of late Federal and Gothic Revival styles. You can see the pointed arches across the front in this photograph. The same historical record notes a distinctive feature above the building: a weathervane shaped like an arrow piercing a heart, although it isn’t visible in this view.

The people in the photograph are unidentified, and there’s nothing on the card to establish what brought them together. The photographer and publisher are also uncredited on the front and back.

The card was sent to Bridgwater, Massachusetts. Its short message reads, “Hope you are looking out for all the marks,” and is signed “Aunt Jennie.” These personal notes are part of the history, too—even when we don’t know the story behind them.

The building has since taken on another community role. The Limerick Historical Society acquired the former church in October 2024. By May 2025, it was hosting the society’s plant sale, penny auction, and craft fair while volunteers worked on repairs and improvements. A building that served generations of townspeople is now helping preserve their history.

Shown in the original postcard’s sepia tones.

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Original postcard from my collection. Photographer and publisher unidentified.

Historical references: Louise Lamprey, History of Limerick, for the congregation’s early history; National Park Service, Limerick Upper Village Historic District nomination, prepared by the Limerick Historical Society and Maine Historic Preservation Commission, for the building’s date, architecture, weathervane, and Eastman’s connection to Limerick Academy. (ldsgenealogy.com, npgallery.nps.gov) Cynthia Matthews, “Plant sale and more,” The Reporter, May 8, 2025, for the Historical Society’s acquisition and use of the former church. Mailing year and handwritten message read from the original postcard. (waterbororeporter.com)

09/24/2026

Alfred Village — A View by Fred C. Philpot

Here’s an old view of Alfred village, with the Parish Church on the left, a horse-drawn carriage in the foreground, and large trees surrounding the village green. Utility poles and overhead wires were already part of the scene, but the roads were still unpaved.

The Alfred Parish Church was built in 1834 on the site of the earlier North Parish Meeting House. Its appearance changed substantially in 1889, when remodeling added the steeple and a Thomas clock. Those additions tell us this photograph was taken after that work, although the exact year remains unconfirmed.

The village developed around the green and the roads we know as Oak Street, Kennebunk Road, and S**o Road. Alfred’s role as York County’s shiretown helped shape the neighborhood. Lawyers settled near the courthouse, and their houses contributed to the village’s nineteenth-century character.

The photographer was Fred Charles Philpot, whose name appears on the back as “F. C. Philpot, Photographer, Sanford and Limerick, Me.” Philpot lived from 1856 to 1925 and was from Limerick. He operated studios in Limerick, Springvale and Sanford, and his work included portraits of members of the Alfred Shaker community.

The card was mailed from Alfred to West Lynn, Massachusetts, with a one-cent Benjamin Franklin stamp. I can’t confidently read the full postmark date, so I’m leaving the mailing year unknown.

The church still stands at the corner of Oak Street and Kennebunk Road and remains an active United Church of Christ congregation. It is one of the landmarks that makes this old view recognizable today.

The postcard is shown in its original sepia tones.

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Photograph: F. C. Philpot, Sanford and Limerick, Maine, as credited on the postcard. Original postcard from my collection.

Historical references: Parsons Memorial Library through Maine Memory Network, “Alfred (Congregational) Parish Church,” item 35524; National Park Service, Alfred Historic District nomination, documenting the church’s construction, 1889 alterations, and village development. (mainememory.net, npgallery.nps.gov) United Society of Shakers through Maine Memory Network, item 6915, for Fred Charles Philpot’s biography and work with the Alfred Shakers. (mainememory.net) Alfred Parish Church’s official website for its present location and continued use. (alfredparishchurch.org)

09/24/2026

The Old Stone Bridge — Rochester, New Hampshire

This postcard shows the three arches of Rochester’s North Main Street bridge over the Cocheco River, with rowboats pulled up along the bank. The bridge was completed in 1883, and its familiar “Old Stone Bridge” name leaves out an interesting construction detail: the arches are actually built of brick, faced with split granite.

Silas Hussey Jr., a local quarryman and stonecutter, designed and built the bridge between 1881 and 1883. His contract was for $13,800, and he hired Rochester mason Henry J. Wilkinson to handle the brickwork. At 50 feet wide, it was unusually broad for a bridge of that period. Hussey also designed Rochester’s Civil War monument.

The bridge survives, though it has undergone substantial work. Rochester’s 2022 historic district inventory records that its superstructure was rebuilt in 2012. It remains a recognizable link between this postcard view and present-day Rochester.

I’ve included the back of the card, too. It was addressed to South Braintree, Massachusetts, and the message mentions “plenty of snow”—quite a contrast with the scene on the front. I can’t confidently read the postmark year though. maybe you can?

The colors are those printed on the original postcard and should not be taken as verified building colors.

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Postcard: my collection; original photographer and publisher unidentified on the supplied card. Historical references: New Hampshire historical marker No. 191, “Arched Bridge,” documented by the Historical Marker Database; National Park Service, Rochester Commercial and Industrial Historic District nomination; Rochester Historic District Report, 2022.

09/23/2026

Main Street, Concord, New Hampshire

This postcard looks north along Main Street toward the New Hampshire State House dome. There is plenty to look at: the cars parked along both sides, the delivery truck, the Fletcher’s Paint sign, and the big M.A.C. Loans sign on the right. The card is undated, so I’m leaving the year open rather than assigning one from the cars. The New Hampshire Historical Society’s photograph collection confirms that Fletcher’s Paint and M.A.C. Loan Co. were among Concord’s downtown businesses in this period. (nhhistory.org, concordnhlibrary.omeka.net)

The mix of old brick buildings and newer storefronts tells part of the story, too. Concord’s own historical account says Main Street businesses remodeled many of their façades in the 1960s as shopping patterns changed and competition grew nearby. (hmdb.org)

What businesses do you remember on Concord’s Main Street? Follow Echoes of Dirigo for more New England history.

Postcard: Main Street, Concord, New Hampshire (PC52), published by Rudy’s Post Card Service and made by Tichnor Bros., Inc., as printed on the back. Photographer and date unknown.

09/23/2026

Portland Stove Foundry, 1984

This is the Portland Stove Foundry at 57 Kennebec Street, photographed on February 18, 1984. Chestnut Street is on the left, and Kennebec Street runs past the front of the building. The foundry started in 1877, and this building went up in 1882. It closed in 1984, the same year this photograph was taken. (digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com)

It made more than the wood and coal stoves many of us remember. An 1899 Maine industrial report listed stoves, ranges, furnaces, and heaters among its products. At the time, the foundry employed 80 men and sold mainly in New England and the Canadian provinces. (lldc.mainelegislature.org)

The colorized image is an artist’s rendition. The colors are approximate, and the original black-and-white photograph is included for comparison.

Photo: Portland Press Herald Still-Film Negatives Collection, Portland Public Library Special Collections & Archives, call no. 143030. Photographer not identified in the library record. (digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com)

If you remember the foundry or still have one of its stoves, I’d like to hear about it. Follow Echoes of Dirigo for more Maine history.

09/23/2026

09/23/2026

USAF Thunderbirds, North American F-100 Super Sabre, Pease AFB 1963

09/23/2026

QUODDY VILLAGE, EASTPORT, MAINE

This old postcard shows Quoddy Village, built outside Eastport in 1935 for one of the most ambitious public-works projects ever attempted in Maine, Franklin Roosevelt’s Passamaquoddy Tidal Power Project.

The idea was to harness the enormous tides of Passamaquoddy and Cobscook Bays to generate electricity. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officially began work in 1935, and the federal government initially put $7 million into construction. Plans called for dams, gates, a navigation lock and a generating station. Congress declined to provide the additional money needed to finish it, however, and work stopped in 1936.

The project was big enough that Eastport simply could not house all the people expected to work on it, so the government built an entire community about three miles from downtown on the former George Rice farm. Quoddy Village included 128 single-, two- and four-family houses, three large dormitories, dining facilities, a school, fire station, hospital, heating plant, mess hall and an administration building containing a theater, library and post office. More than 1,000 workers and family members lived there.

That is what we are seeing in this postcard. The upper left view is labeled “Quoddy Village, From Rice’s Hill,” while the upper right shows the village hospital. The lower views show more of the development and the Kittery apartment courtyard. For something intended largely as worker housing, this was a remarkably complete little town.

The tidal project died, but Quoddy Village did not.

From 1938 until 1943, the National Youth Administration used the buildings as a vocational training center, teaching hundreds of young men each year. Then during World War II the Navy took over the site. In October 1943 it became Camp Lee-Stephenson, a Seabee training and staging facility named for Lt. Irwin W. Lee and Lt. (jg) George W. Stephenson, two Civil Engineer Corps officers killed in action.

That part particularly interests me because of my own time in the Seabees. It is strange to think that this little planned village in eastern Maine, originally built for a tidal-power project that was never completed, later became a Navy installation filled with Seabees during World War II.

A surprising amount of Quoddy Village survived long after both projects were gone. Maine Memory Network noted that many of the supposedly temporary houses were still standing as recently as 2013, although the original administration and exhibition buildings had disappeared.

Quoddy was one of those enormous Depression-era ideas that came very close to changing Maine permanently. The power plant was never finished, but the village it created took on a whole second life that nobody had planned when the first buildings went up in 1935.

Photo: Vintage postcard, publisher and photographer not identified on this copy.
Sources: Maine Memory Network, Maine Historical Society, Penobscot Marine Museum, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers records, Naval History and Heritage Command.

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09/23/2026

AROOSTOOK VALLEY RAILROAD NO. 12 IN CARIBOU, 1972

This is Aroostook Valley Railroad No. 12, a General Electric 44-ton diesel, bringing two flatcars loaded with potato harvesters into Caribou on August 9, 1972. The original caption credits the photograph to Paul Westin, and the date and description fit the railroad’s operation during this period.

The Aroostook Valley was never a large railroad. It linked Presque Isle, Washburn, New Sweden and Caribou, with roughly 30 miles of track at its peak. It began as an electric interurban, but freight was always the important part of the business, especially potatoes. Early accounts describe hundreds of refrigerator cars moving the Aroostook potato crop each season.

By the time this photograph was taken, the electric cars were long gone. The AVR ended passenger service in 1945 and converted to diesel power, purchasing GE 44-ton locomotives Nos. 10 and 11. No. 12 joined them in 1949. The familiar dark blue locomotives with yellow striping became the face of the railroad for decades afterward.

What I like about this photograph is that it shows the railroad supporting the potato industry from the other direction. We usually think of Maine railroads hauling potatoes out of Aroostook County, but farms also needed a steady flow of machinery, fuel, fertilizer and other supplies coming in. In August, potato shipping itself was relatively quiet, but preparations for harvest were well underway. Here No. 12 is delivering new harvesting equipment right into Caribou.

The photograph also gives a good look at something unusual about the AVR. In places the railroad ran right alongside local streets, a holdover from its interurban ancestry. It looked almost more like a trolley line than a conventional freight railroad.

The potato business that sustained the AVR began declining badly during the 1970s. Highway competition, crop problems and difficulties moving perishable traffic over connecting railroads all contributed. Canadian Pacific eventually sold the AVR in 1980, the line north of Washburn was abandoned in 1983, and the remaining railroad finally ceased operation in 1996.

Photo: Paul Westin, Caribou, Maine, August 9, 1972.
Sources: original published caption; Maine Memory Network; Seashore Trolley Museum; Maine Railroad Commissioners’ reports.

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09/23/2026

CANADIAN NATIONAL 5293 AT PORTLAND’S GRAND TRUNK STATION, 1952

This is one of those Portland railroad scenes where almost everything in the photograph is gone.

On October 11, 1952, Canadian National 4-6-2 Pacific No. 5293 stands at Portland’s Grand Trunk station at the foot of India Street, ready to leave with Train No. 17. The photograph is credited in the source to Russell F. Munroe Jr.

The Grand Trunk had reached Portland in the 1850s, giving Montreal and Canadian commerce access to a deep-water Atlantic port that remained usable when the St. Lawrence was locked in by winter ice. Portland’s waterfront became an enormous Grand Trunk complex of tracks, piers, freight facilities and grain elevators.

The India Street station shown here was built in 1903, replacing an earlier Grand Trunk facility. It was an impressive pink-granite building with a prominent tower. That tower was removed in 1948 because of safety concerns, leaving the lower station building that passengers would have known when this photograph was taken four years later.

By the 1950s, however, passenger rail service was already shrinking. Grand Trunk was still operating a daily Montreal-Portland service in 1954, but regular passenger service was discontinued around 1960. A limited summer service for Canadian vacationers continued afterward, and the final seasonal Grand Trunk passenger service to Portland ended in 1967.

The station itself did not survive that long. Portland demolished the Grand Trunk station in March 1966, only five years after the city had lost Union Station. Greater Portland Landmarks confirms the India Street station was torn down that year. The adjoining Grand Trunk office building survived and was later restored, one of the few physical reminders of what had once been an enormous railroad presence on Portland’s eastern waterfront.

It is hard to look at this photograph today and picture a Canadian National steam locomotive sitting at India Street with a passenger train waiting behind it. Portland was once a major Canadian rail gateway, and scenes like this were simply part of the city.

Photo: Russell F. Munroe Jr., October 11, 1952.
Sources: original published caption; Greater Portland Landmarks; Maine Historical Society/Maine Memory Network; Great American Stations.

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