Old Orchard Beach Historical Society

10/20/2026

Old Orchard Beach, Maine, After the Great Fire of August 15, 1907

This photograph captures the devastation left behind after one of the worst disasters in Old Orchard Beach history. The ruins of the Hotel Emerson and Hotel Alberta can be seen near the end of the pier, with crowds gathering to look over what remained of the once-busy summer resort.

The fire swept through the beachfront district on the night of August 15, 1907. Hotels, boarding houses, businesses and cottages were destroyed. Contemporary accounts reported that 17 hotels and boarding houses and roughly 100 residences and cottages were lost in the blaze.

The pier itself narrowly escaped an even worse fate. People trapped out on the structure began ripping up wooden planks to create a break in the path of the fire. Their actions helped save the iron framework and the ballroom at the end of the pier from destruction.

Thousands of residents and summer visitors were left displaced. Relief trains arrived the following day to help people leave the devastated resort.

Looking at this photograph, it’s hard to imagine the lively summer destination that stood here just hours before. Old Orchard Beach would rebuild, but the fire of 1907 remains a defining chapter in its history.

References:

• Maine Memory Network, Pier and Business Ruins After Fire, Old Orchard Beach, 1907, McArthur Public Library collection.
• Maine Memory Network, Old Orchard Pier and Downtown After the Great Fire, 1907, Dyer Library/Saco Museum collection.
• Biddeford Journal, August 16, 1907.

Photo credit: The Lakeside Press Co., Portland, Maine, as printed on the original postcard.

10/07/2026

There's still so much time to come to the Old Orchard Beach Historical Society and see all the beautiful displays and exhibits we have to offer !!!!! Our Docents are still doing guided tours and we are always eager to meet new guests !!!!!!

Audra Blaney is the curator of the Harmon Museum in Old Orchard Beach

10/02/2026

Welcome FALL !!!!! 🍂🍁🍃🎃🤎🧡 Our Museum
Is OPEN Tues, Wed & Thurs !!!! We can’t wait to have you explore our exhibits and vast artifacts !!!! We can’t wait to meet you ❤️🎃🍂🤎🧡🍁🍃

09/19/2026

Boston & Maine Station and the Old Orchard House

This old postcard shows Old Orchard Beach when the railroad, the big hotels and the amusement district were all packed tightly together.

In the foreground is the Boston & Maine station. The railroad established a station directly at Old Orchard Beach in 1873, bringing summer visitors right into the heart of town. Passenger service continued here until 1965.

Behind it is the enormous Old Orchard House, one of the great resort hotels of the beach era. The large hotel was built in the 1870s, had more than 300 rooms, survived the disastrous 1907 fire and remained in business until it was torn down in 1943.

The card itself is also worth a closer look. Early color postcards like this were not usually color photographs in the modern sense. Publishers commonly started with a black-and-white photographic image and turned it into a color printing plate or series of plates. Some cards were genuinely hand-colored, but the huge postcard trade demanded something far faster. Processes such as photolithography and photochrom printing allowed thousands of colored cards to be produced from photographic originals, with printers assigning colors to buildings, sky, clothing, trees and other details. The Library of Congress notes that photochrom printing specifically made mass production of color postcards possible.

That is why the colors on many old cards can look almost painted. They were often intended to make a scene attractive and recognizable rather than reproduce its colors with photographic accuracy. By the 1930s, the familiar linen-style postcards pushed that even further with brighter dyes and highly stylized color.

So this is more than a view of Old Orchard Beach. It is also a good example of how Americans saw places like this before true mass-market color photography became commonplace.

Credit: Vintage postcard, photographer and publisher unidentified on the image. Historical information from Maine Memory Network, Great American Stations, Smithsonian Institution Archives and the Library of Congress.