This information is taken directly from a brochure prepared by the Quoddy Maritime Museum in 2001. This brochure, The Eastport Walk-About, which also include maps and pictures is available at the Quoddy Maritime Museum, 70 Washington Street. (NR) denotes listing on National Register of Historic Places.
The Mowe House 1 Adams Street, Federal. As Dr. Mowe was in Eastport during the British occupation, he may have been the original owner. Dr. Robert Mowe was a noted businessman as well as an early Eastport physician. The house is a two and a half story wooden clapboard home with Ionic columns and traditional five-bayed front. During the fire of 1886 Hiram Blanchard and his factory crew set up a "deadline" to stop the fire. They were able to keep the fire from spreading to the north side of Adams Street where the Mowe and D.I. O'Dell houses still stand today. |
The D.I. O'Dell House 153 Water Street, Greek Revival. This house also survived the Great Fire of 1886. David I. O'Dell was a prominent fish merchant, both retail and wholesale. After the death of Robert Kerr, the British Consul in Eastport had D.I. O'Dell appointed as a representative of England in place of a Consul (which had to be a British citizen). |
The Shead House 130 Water Street, Federal. Although greatly changed by E.A. Holmes in the late-1800s, this house was built in 1802 by Col. Oliver Shead and was one of the first two-story framed houses built in Eastport. Oliver Shead came to Eastport in 1790s as a clerk of Nathaniel Goddard. In 1802 he became the first postmaster of Eastport and held that position until his death in 1813 at the age of 36. In 1807 he was Eastport's first representative to the Massachusetts General Court. He was the second captain of the town militia and rose to the rank of colonel in the 3rd Regiment and commanded the militia at Fort Sullivan at the beginning of the War of 1812. |
Little's Cove, 167 Water Street, Car Ferry Landing. A Smuggler's Paradise. Little's Cove was one of the sites of smuggling activity in the early 1800s. Congress passed an embargo in December 1807. This act stopped the flow of goods from the United States to the British Colonies in the Americas and elsewhere. Businessmen and adventurers both saw opportunities to gain wealth on America's "Eastern Frontier." In 1808, over 160,000 barrels of flour were stored at smuggler's repositories between Todd's Head and Prince's Cove for transport to British controlled Indian or Campobello Islands. U.S. Naval ships, such as the sloop-of-war Wasp and the frigate Chesapeake, under the command of Capt. Steven Decatur, failed to stem the tide of smuggling. |
J.W. Beardsley's & Sons and the Sardine Industry (Little's Cove). In the late 1870s Martin, Selman and Balkam began a sardine packing factory at this location at what was the Asa Bucknam fish stand. In 1913 Beardsley's bought the sardine factory from Martin and Caraher. Beardsley's packed sardines and then boneless herring until 1958, and shipped their product out of town by rail car. Although the canning of sardines began in Europe in 1834, it was not until the Franco-Prussian War of the early 1870s cut off the supply to America, that the opportunity was provided to can sardines in America. In 1875 the commission house of Wolff and Reising, under the direction of Julius Wolff, began its first successful American sardine cannery in Eastport. At its greatest extent there were 22 sardine factories in Eastport at one time. The cans were soldered together in three pieces, a time consuming process. In 1903 machine-made and machine-sealed cans replaced the three-piece soldered cans. For a short time in 1902, two companies, the Standard and the Sea Coast Packing Company merged, creating a cannery giant. By 1910 smaller canneries started to reappear. In the 1950s sardine canneries suffered a major setback as the industry collapsed. In 1983 Holmes Packing Corp., the last Eastport sardine factory, closed its doors. |
Todd House (NR) 11 Capen Avenue, Colonial period built in the 1780s. John Campbell Todd of Steuben, Maine, a merchant and trader, owned this restored cape located on Todd's Head. In the fall of 1800 Todd bought 73 acres from James Bradbury who acquired this land from John McGuire, sea captain, and his wife Abigail. The McGuires arrived on Moose Island in 1780 and were the original owners of the 100-acre Lot No. 6. On May 1, 1801 Todd bought, for $1000., the rest of the McGuire lot from the widow Abigail. On August 11, 1801, Eastern Lodge No. 7 of the Masonic fraternity held its first meeting at this house. The Todd House may be the oldest standing structure remaining in Eastport. |
The Masonic Tomb Hillside Cemetery, just to the left as you enter from Capen Avenue. October 14, 1828 the Masonic Order had a mausoleum built large enough to house several hundred members and their families. It was intended to be the final resting place, or a holding place until family and friends had the bodies of their loved ones reinterred. Often reburial was many years later. The Masonic Tomb was turned over to the City of Eastport in the 1990s and no longer houses the remains of Masons. |
The Hillside Cemetery High Street, North End. In 1818 the town of Eastport felt a need to have a new burying ground, as the old one at Little's Cove was eroding away. They purchased a modest piece of land from two Boston merchants for $500. The oldest gravestone dates from 1800 and is believed to have been transplanted from Robbinston. The cemetery has had several periods of expansion and on occasion acted as a park. As many as three tombs were above ground and were used throughout most of the 19th century. Several times during the year John "Terry" Holt narrates tours of this cemetery. He knows many of the families as though they were family. Some are. |
Fort Sullivan Powder House (NR) McKinley Street, the road behind the high school. Masonry and brick construction is all that remains of this decaying building which is on the site of the buildings and garrison that once made up Fort Sullivan. Shortly after the capture of Eastport during the War of 1812, the British troops of the 102nd Regiment of Foot set to work improving the fort for a counter attack by the Americans. For safety reasons the British-built magazine was placed a good distance from the blockhouse. The walls were constructed of stone three feet thick with an arched roof made of layers of brick. It measured 24 feet long x 18 feet wide and when completed it held 200 barrles of gunpowder. A wooden building was built around the stone to disguise it as an ordinary storage shed. All that remains of this impressive building is crumbling stone walls and heaps of loose rock. |
Fort Sullivan (NR) Colonel Lemuel Trescott began the construction of Fort Sullivan, originally a blockhouse, in the spring of 1808 for protection against "the insolence and rapacity of British naval commanders." The first troops were artillerymen under the command of Capt. Moses Swett, who arrived aboard the Wasp in May of 1808. Near the end of the War of 1812, the British, under the command of Sir Thomas Hardy, with a fleet of more than twelve warships and over 800 troops, captured Fort Sullivan and Eastport on July 11, 1814 without a fight. The British renamed the fort Sherbrooke and greatly expanded the fort to present day Adams and High Streets. Four years later British rule ended and Eastport was restored to Massachusetts on June 30, 1818. Fort Sullivan would be manned off and on, primarily by U.S. artillery units, until 1873, when it was closed. All that remains of the fort today is the Barracks Museum, which was once part of the officers quarters, and the ruins of the stone powderhouse. |
Eastport, Maine: Easternmost City in the U.S.A.
Send comments to: susan@amitycomputer.com |
Visit: Amity Computer |