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They didn't forget!
Karen and Steve Cleary have just sent me the results of
the Mary Cleary Memorial 5K Run/Walk
- and here they are!
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Three Italianate Treasures on West Main Street.
West
Main Street Buildings being Painted in September, 2014
I've taken the following information from the 1971 Centennial Book and am "blogging" it because I presume that many regular blog readers never read these histories when they were first printed
and because I think that it's important for at least some people under the age of seventy to know about what they're looking at!
Perhaps, if they do, they will appreciate it more.
The buildings - plus the one housing "the Slaughtered Lamb Pub" - are all on the National Register of Historic Places in the Waterville Historic Triangle and are listed as examples of the Victorian style called "Commercial or Mercantile Italianate."
1. on the left.
"The
building (that now houses Main Street Liquors) was built - or possibly rebuilt - by
Miller Babbott who later had a liquor store on White Street. The April 6, 1871,
Waterville Times reported that removal of the old building had started from the
lot of the Gilbert M. Giffords estate. “Mr. Babbott contemplates a two-story
building with a brick front. George Snell doing the work.” The April 27 issue
said that a third story had been added and rented to the K.O.S.C. for $75 a
year. The building still has a brick front. The rest is wood. It is now (1971)
occupied by Dan Moore’s restaurant."
2. center.
"The
building purchased in 1970 by James Morgan for expansion of the Frank P. Morgan
& Son Hardware Store was a two-story brick building in 1871. The third
floor was added in 1874. (In 1871)
it was known as the Easton Block and was owned by J.G. “Jap” Easton. He used
the ground floor as a variety store in which he sold just about everything:
Groceries, confectionary, watches, jewelry, fruit, musical instruments,
stationery and silverware – to name a few items. During 1871 Easton took in a partner named Terry and the
business was operated as Easton & Terry. If business acumen can be evaluated
by the extent and variety of advertising, Easton appears, 100 years later, to
have outdone his competitors. The unusual displays that he had in the
Waterville Times week after week would one to equate his flare for business
with that of P.T. Barnum. (In
1971) the Easton Block was occupied by Grace Moore’s Gift Shop. For many years it
was the Waterville Pharmacy operated by Ernest Jackson and Maldwyn Lloyd."
3. right.
“The
original part of the Morgan Hardware Store is a three-story building presumed
to have been built by George Putnam and in 1871 was known as the Putnam
Block. For many years W.G. McLean had a hardware, furniture and undertaking
business. His son, Charles W. McLean, was associated with him for many years.
The store was sold in the 1930s to Frank P. Morgan (Tom Morgan's grandfather) who began his hardware
store in the eastern portion of the building and to the Grand Union, which had
a grocery store in the western part. Morgan took over the entire structure when
the Grand Union moved to the Bissell Block (west of the Reed Block / now the
Slaughtered Lamb Pub.)”
Does anyone know what the "K.O.S.C." was?
Just a guess - the "Knights of Saint Christopher"?
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Tonight will be variably cloudy and cool with patchy fog possible. Lows will be in the low and mid 50s.
Thursday will be quiet and pleasantly warm with a blend of sun and clouds. Highs will be in the low and mid 70s. Dry weather and sunshine will continue into Friday with highs once again in the 70s. We then start to focus in on a strong cold front approaching from the west that will bring in wet weather Friday night into Saturday. In the wake of this front, an unseasonably chilly air mass will build in over the weekend with highs only be in the 50s on Sunday!
Seasonably cool temperatures and unsettled weather will be with us into next week with highs in the lower 60s."
TOMORROW IS GARBAGE DAY
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More when it happens!
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