Number Four of Trolley Parks in Maine

The entrance to Lake Grove Park, Auburn 1900 - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

  How about roller skating and then dinner while watching the Powder Puffs musical act?  Even if it's on the eastern shore of Lake Auburn?  Not even if there is a slide show with "dissolving pictures" made from hand painted glass slides?  Even if it just costs five cents to ride the horse-drawn trolley?
  Such was entertainment in 1900, and that is what this park, and most of the others, offered.  Times had changed by the 1920's and changed even more after World War Two when, I'm guessing, most of us were born.

Building that house the attractions at Lake Grove Park 1910 - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net
 

Part three, Trolley Parks (Portland area)

South Portland's Grand Casino 1897-click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

  The Portland and Cape Elizabeth railway opened the Grand Casino on Simontons Cove on Willard Beach.  It opened one week before Riverton Park (see yesterday's blog).
   The newspapers described this building as immense, it was 110 feet long and 65 feet wide with 3 floors.  It had, on the first floor, 75 dressing rooms and a heated salt water pool, and many more things live a movie theater and dance floors.

The Cape Cottage Theater 1910 - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

  This theater was a typical playhouse where sometimes popular actors came to perform, usually in the summer.  This particular theater is still hosting plays, the building has been altered over the course of a hundred plus years, but it stands on the South Portland/Cape Elizabeth line.

Cape Cottage Casino c1900 - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net
 

  This Casino was located on a rocky bluff where visitors could watch the activity of the shipping channel, right from the dining room!  There were dance halls, food service facilities, bake shops, dressing rooms and swimming.
  A very popular destination for day trippers the biggest draw was "fresh air" which considering the size of Portland may have been better (horse "droppings") if you get my drift.

Riverton Park, Trolley Parks part two

This is blog number 1425, it's been about four years now, on un-hospitalized days or Hollie's vacation days.

Riverton Casino, Portland 1910 - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

  For twenty cents Portland Railway riders could board a trolley on Preble Street and be transported to Maine's most luxurious casino.  It was a popular destination, 10,000 people showed up on opening day.  There were bridal showers, card tournaments, or you could watch the Great Roberto parachute from a hot air balloon, he was The Human Meteor.
  There were parks along the Presumpscot River, outdoor movies, and boat rides.  Ahhh! The fresh air and still in the city.
  The casino operated into the 1900's but after World War Two when the lines shut down the place was razed and city housing now is on that site along with a nice golf course.

The indoor reading room/dining area/smoking lounge - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

The Red Room, 1907, parties in luxury - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

Trolley Parks, part one, Southern Maine

  Way back when most small cities and larger areas were connected by inter-urban trolley lines, the trolley companies were happy.  What could make them more happy was more revenue.  And that's where Trolley Parks come in.
  Trolley Parks were "amusement areas" at one end or the other of the trolley line and they were owned by the trolley company(ies).

The Atlantic House, York Beach, Maine c1905 - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

 The Portsmouth(NH), Kittery and York Street Railway ran a special trolley, The Comet, where for ten cents you could ride to York Beach and visit The Atlantic House.  You could walk on the beach for some fresh air, dance in the ballroom, and of course eat some not-so-healthy food.  Sometimes these types of places, if they were on or over or near the water were called "casinos", but not the gambling kind.   The building is still there.

St. Aspinquid Park, York, Maine c1908 - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

  A bit north of York Beach visitors were able to go the Saint Aspinquid Park where visitors could "experience" the life of Native Americans.  The center of attraction was a giant statue of Saint Aspinquid, or Passaconaway (his real name).  Legend tells that St. Aspinquid converted to Christianity and became a missionary to other Tribes in North America.  There were also very extra-large Bibles on display.  Unlike The Atlantic House building these buildings are no longer around.

The casino at Cape Porpoise (Kennebunk) - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

  This was the recreation area for Sanford-Springvale-Kennebunk riders.  The round trip fare from Sanford was fifty cents in 1909.  The railway had a line to Cape Porpoise to haul coal to the schooners which docked there; the casino, was just an idea for profits that worked.
  Visitors could dance and eat dinners and lunches - mostly seafood which was reported to be delightful.
  The casino remained in business until September 6, 1915 when it was consumed by fire at the end of the Labor Day Weekend.

Sanford, Maine over 100 years ago

  I never lived in Sanford but in the "Town next door", I did start High School at Sanford High before my family moved to Ohio and took me with them.  After three years when I graduated we moved back to Maine.  Sanford is where I found the Navy Recruiter and joined.
  I was baptized in Sanford (the first time) because that Baptist Church had a "baptismal" - an artificial pool type arrangement - in back of the pulpit and behind a curtain.

First Baptist Church - click to enlarge
Photo: Sanford Historical Committee via www.mainememory.net
 

  This is the church on the corner of Main and Kimball, it's not much different to this day, the windows have been changed, and I'm not sure about the chimneys.  This is the corner where we waited after school for my father to get out of work - then we went home.  The high school is a mile or more up Main Street toward Springvale.  We just walked down and waited, of course we took our time.
  Springvale is part of Sanford but it's treated almost as a separate Town.  It's where the ice house and the railroad station are, and the Shoe Factory that's now housing the elderly.  Nason College was in Springvale too, my cousin Norman graduated from Nason and taught business classes in high school.

The Murray home and Livery Stable in 1910 - click to enlarge
Photo: Sanford Historical Committee via www.mainememory.net

The Twelve Apostles - click to enlarge
Photo: Sanford Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

  These were some of the houses built for workers in the Goodall Mills on Cottage Street, I don't know if they are still there, I would hope so.
  Goodall is a "major" name in Sanford, Goodall Hospital, Goodall Library etc. etc.  Those mills were the town when I was young, now I hardly ever go there except for a funeral, I live about 180 north and east of Sanford now.  It was nice to visit this way.

Making the sail

  On Limerock Street in Camden, Maine there's a house with a sail loft, the home of a sail maker.  Amos Perkins Lord used to live here from his birth in 1896 until his 1957 death.  Mr. Lord made some of the new sails for "Old Ironsides" the USS Constitution.
  In 1976 Grant Gambell bought the house and loft, he is also a sail maker, he uses a lot of Mr. Perkins tools.  Oh sure, there is some machine work, but fine sails need fine finishing touches.  Tools like a large lump of beeswax to make the needle slide smooth, or a Roping Palm a sort of "thimble" for the hand that pushes the needle through several layers of canvas.

Sample seam of a handmade canvas sail - click to enlarge
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

A sail makers needle, there are different sizes. - click to enlarge
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

A Roping Palm - click to enlarge
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net
 

On the (Taber) Wagon

  Silas W. Taber was a blacksmith, building and repairing wagons and farm equipment in 1900, and then he had a better idea.
  The potato fields of Aroostook County weren't smooth.  They certainly weren't smooth enough to navigate with a wagon full of barrels of picked potato's; and Mr. Taber had a better idea.  And the Taber Wagon was born.


A loaded wagon on display at a farm in Caribou - click to enlarge
Photo: Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum via www.mainememory.net

  Mr. Taber designed a "dropped axle" that would allow the wagons to be easily loaded with the barrels and they were easier to navigate the fields.

The dropped axle, or crank axle the wagon sets on the lower part. - click to enlarge
Photo: Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum via www.mainememory.net

A newspaper ad for the wagon. - click to enlarge
Photo: Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum via www.mainememory.net