USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Augusta > Historical notes on Augusta, Maine > Part 9
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No. 154 State Street - Office Building.
This ornate old time mansion was last used as a residence by Blaine S. Viles, Mayor of Augusta in 1915-16 and a well known lumberman. He was born in New Portland in 1879 and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1903 and from Yale Forestry School in 1904. He was interested in various timberlands, director of several banks and one time State Forest Commissioner. He married Ethel Johnson of Hallowell and they had a son, William P. of Augusta, and a daughter, Mrs. Sanford Fogg of Hallowell. The residence, it is believed, was built by the Reverend Doctor Benjamin Tappan in 1816. He was born in 1788, graduated from Harvard in 1805, studied Di- vinity at Bowdoin in 1809. In 1811 he was engaged as Pastor of the South Parish Church, at a time when the parish was divided on doctrinal matters. He continued as Pastor until 1849 when he re- signed to work in the field of domestic missions. He continued this work until 1862, when he was thrown from his carriage and severely injured. His strength impaired, he died the following year at the age of 75. His pastorate, covering nearly forty years, was marked by great industry in promoting the welfare and influence of his parish. He was one of the chief pillars of the Congregational Church in Maine. It was during his tenure that the episode of the famous
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"Scenes in a Vestry " took place. It is said that in the early 1800's it was customary to have square dances in the presence of the minister, with no disapproval, but in the 1830's qualms began to arise and dances to music seemed pleasure loving and inconsistent with true piety. A committee from the South Parish was appointed to investigate and in their report frowned on such practices as they encouraged undue love of dress, display and admiration, which they maintained increased unnatural aversion to the duties of religion. The Weston family did not share their views and they were subse- quently called to account and a long and painful church trial ensued, reported by Daniel Weston in his " Scenes in a Vestry ", published in 1840. As a result the Westons and others left the church. After the death of Dr. Tappan's widow in 1862 the property was sold to Colonel Alanson B. Farwell, who was born in Greene in 1825, the son of Hanni- bal Farwell who came from Vassalboro in 1817. Colonel Farwell was admitted to the Franklin County bar in 1852 and was elected Clerk of Courts for Franklin County which he served in 1859-61. He was Colonel on Governor Hubbard's staff. During the Civil War he was Chief Clerk in the Navy Department in Washington, D. C. He is shown in the Augusta directory of 1867 as Counsellor and living at No. 154 State Street. He was a member of the Legislature in 1869-1870. He married Abbie Stinchfield of Farmington June 5, 1850. He died July 22, 1874 and made several sizeable bequests to various churches and colleges. His wife survived him and gave land for Monument Park. Subsequently the old mansion was acquired by Dr. W. Scott Hill, well known by the older generation. He was born in Greene, in 1839. He studied medicine with Dr. William Graves of Sabattus, was in Tufts College in 1863. He entered the Navy serving as surgeon's steward until the end of the war. He graduated from Bellevue Medical College in 1867 and then came to Augusta, where he had a long and successful practice. It is said that when he was a young doctor, located in a small house on State Street, north of Bridge Street, it was his ambition to be sometime located in the house he finally occupied. He died in 1923 and the place was sold to the Viles family.
No. 156 State Street - Residence of Mrs. Warren Hendee.
This old home, now in the process of being torn down for a filling station, is shown as the residence of Joshua Heath, a house painter in 1850. In 1865 the place was bought by John S. Hendee,
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Augusta photographer, and has been in the Hendee family ever since. In the 1867 directory the names of John S. Hendee, Henry Bailey, who took many Augusta views, N. R. Rideout and Charles D. Starbird are given as professional photographers. The early pho- tographers depended on daylight and skylights were built into studio roofs to facilitate their work. In outdoor photography the emulsions used on the glass plates were so slow that pictures taken of a busy street showed no traffic as the horses and people moved so fast that they did not register on the plate. In 1884 the photographers are listed as Geo. O. Ayer, who advertised photographs "made by the instantaneous method ", Henry Bailey and John S. Hendee and Wil- liam G. Hussey advertised himself as a photographic artist. No doubt he and others of the era are responsible for the huge framed portraits of our ancestors. Will H. Dunton is advertised as "Leading Photographer and Dealer in Art" in the 1892 directory. He is fol- lowed by F. H. Burgess, who, too, is an artist and photographer, and John S. Hendee and F. E. Fairfield. It was said that during the nineties the late Justin E. Packard, watch maker, inventor of a mechanical flytrap, early vacuum cleaner, once loaned some money to an impecunious photographer and upon his failure to pay, fore- closed on his equipment, plates, paper and chemicals and continued the business himself on the theory that materials would bring far more on his investment than in the finished product. It was said that he did a good business until a fire came along and wiped out the enterprise. The present day photographers are Mansur's and James Clark, the former established in 1916 and the latter after the Korean War.
Filling Station, Corner of State and Western Avenue.
This station is on the site of the Central House, 158 State Street, which was renovated from the residence of J. Eveleth, an early mer- chant engaged in trade with John Brooks, then Greenwood C. Child and afterwards John E. Hartwell. He died in 1848. In the 1892 directory the hotel was called the Park House. In the 1890's when Governor Burleigh bought the property which afterwards was the site of the Burleigh and Boyd homes, the old tavern was moved to the corner of Grove and Capitol Streets where it was a tenement house for many years. It was finally torn down and on its site is the drive-in branch of the Depositors Trust Company.
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Western Avenue crosses. . . .
No. 170 State - Augusta House.
This hotel, said to contain 200 rooms at the present time, was opened in 1831. It was built to accommodate legislators who were expected to hold their first session in Augusta the following winter. Ruel Williams was the President of the Company. He was born in 1783 and studied law with Judge Bridge and became his partner. He frequently represented the town in the Legislature and was a leader in locating the State Government in Augusta, the establish- ment of the U. S. Arsenal (which afterwards became a part of the State Hospital) and in the building of factories and railroads. He lived in the celebrated Ruel Williams house on Cony Street, which was torn down when the Memorial Bridge was built. The mansion was built by Arthur Lithgow, first sheriff of Kennebec County, in 1799 and was one of Augusta's showplaces. President James Knox was entertained there in 1847. Ruel Williams died in 1862. His son, Joseph Hartwell Williams, was born in 1814, graduated from Harvard in 1834. He went to Cambridge Law School and began practice in 1837. He was Governor of Maine in 1857. He married Apphia Judd in 1842 and their only child died at the age of three years. The Augusta House originally had a mansard roof with dormer win- dows, but was remodeled to a six-story building in 1910. For many years when the electric street railroad was running there was a small waiting station on the north corner of the Augusta House lot. The intersection of Grove, State and Western Avenue formed a junc- tion for an electric railroad system started in the 1890's. By 1915 from this junction it was possible to reach Waterville and Fairfield and Togus National Home by northbound cars; Gardiner, Lewiston and Portland and even Portsmouth and Boston with some interruptions by taking the southbound cars. By way of Western Avenue the road ran to Granite Hill, Hammond's Grove, Island Park and Memorial Drive in Winthrop. There was also a line from the Grove Street inter- section northerly on State Street which crossed Bridge Street and ran to a dead end before reaching the old St. Mary's School. It was said that it was planned to run the tracks down Gas House Hill to Bond Street and thence to the railroad on Water Street, but the steep grade made it impossible. To keep the franchise alive the railroad ran an " accommodation car" down State Street once an hour and the small fry of the time got a free ride. The street railway system was discontinued in the 1930's. In 1910 the Augusta House was
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extensively remodeled to meet the threats of insufficient accommoda- tions raised by the proponents of the change from Augusta to Port- land of the State Government. The hotel has been the social center of the city for generations.
No. 172 State Street - Gasoline Service Station.
This station was built on the site of a house formerly occupied by Dr. John Metzger.
No. 176 State Street - Gasoline Service Station.
This station was built on the site of a house formerly occupied by Dr. Mary Coughlin, Osteopath, now deceased. Visible from the back of this station was the old Capitol Garage, now a parking lot, which was the "hospital " for many an old time automobile. There were several garages in Augusta before the First World War, but the best known was this one, owned by Fifield Brothers, whose machine shop on Water Street at one time produced a marine inboard engine, called the " Capitol". Many a glistening brass bound monster with clanking chain drive shuffled into this repository. The earliest attempt at local self-locomotion seems to have been made by Frank Clark, machinist, about 1900. He built a steam surry similar in appearance to the early Locomobile "tea kettle" steamers. It is said that he made the engine, but bought the boiler and other parts. Chandler, a local carriage maker, built the body. Mr. Clark ran it for some time, but finally dismantled the car and put the engine in a boat. There is a photograph of this car taken near the Outlet in Hallowell in the possession of Mrs. Brooks Newbert, Mr. Clark's daughter. The late Walter Stebbins of Boothbay Harbor had a garage at one time in Augusta. He owned an Orient Buckboard about 1904. In 1911 a hill climbing contest was held on Winthrop Street, starting at the Universalist Church and ending at the Airport. Mr. Stebbins won in his class, driving a Buick Model 19. The time was 53.75 seconds. Incidentally the writer was a passenger in the Buick and has in his possession a loving cup given for the event. R. W. Soule, "The Hustler ", who operated a large furniture store in what is now known as the Depositors Trust Building, owned what is generally believed the first commercially produced car - a Mobile Steamer of the buggy type. Legend has it that Mr. Soule operated this car in 1900, selling it to a man who let the water run dry and the steamer came to an untimely end. Dr. James W. North
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owned a buggy type " Crestmobile " gasoline car and was very care- ful of it. He sold it to A. P. Fifield, a machinist in charge of the steam plant at the Kennebec Journal. One of the same type is owned by Maynard Leighton of Winthrop. Dr. Oliver W. Turner, for many years an Eye, Ear and Throat specialist in Augusta, drove one of the famous Duryea Three Wheelers. The starting, shifting and steering were done by one lever. Governor John F. Hill owned a Pope Toledo. His son, Percy V. Hill, owned several makes, in- cluding a Thomas Detroit, 1910 Packard Runabout, a Simplex and the famous Marmon. The sight of his Packard with its rumble seat and yellow wheels brought many an admiring look from the young- sters of the day as it stood in front of the old Vickery and Hill building on Chapel Street. John Leggett, step-son of Governor Hill, drove a big chain drive Matheson. Charles Kinsman, Sr., who was a Bowdoin football star, drove a yellow one cylinder Cadillac on the streets of Brunswick. His father, Dr. Fred G. Kinsman, had a 1907 Pierce-Arrow touring car. William H. Gannett owned a 1905 Peerless and his son Guy piloted a Stevens Duryea runabout. Dr. Richard Stubbs drove a one cylinder Reo and later a Stanley Steamer. The rival realtors, Levi Williams and Elmer Newbert, drove Reos of the two cylinder variety. Orland Tolman owned a two cylinder 1906 Buick for hire and ran a garage on Hillcrest Street for years. But perhaps the most famous early Augusta motorist was Justin Packard of Dayton Street who made a transcontinental trip in 1914 in, as is believed, a four cylinder Cadillac. He began his auto- motive career with a buggy type steamer which did not run very well. He got up an idea for a never-leak tire; filled the tire with molasses. All went well until one hot July night - the tires exploded and everything in the yard was covered with molasses. He bought a rear entrance one cylinder Cadillac in 1904 and paid for it by driving people around the block. After he came into possession of a four cylinder Cadillac he drove it to California. However, the trip was so arduous he decided to return by rail. Unloading the car at Boston he started for home and got as far as Portland where the car broke through a bridge and he was nearly drowned. Years later, when asked what was the hardest part of the trip across the United States, he replied, " If you get through Portland, you'll make it all right."
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No. 178-180 State Street - Business Building.
This is an old dwelling, owned by the Augusta Real Estate As- sociation in 1902. Of late years it has been occupied by a restaurant and news stand.
No. 182 State - Office of Dr. Sherman, Osteopath.
This is shown as the Bartlett residence in 1867. Thomas Bartlett was a partner of Bartlett and Hartwell, grocers on Water Street. He died in 1877 and Miss Elizabeth Bartlett is shown occupying the house for many years previous to 1900. The Augusta Real Estate Association bought the house in 1902 and rented it to various tenants for many years. Dr. Sherman has occupied the house for the past 25 years. It is believed that the house is shown on the 1838 and 1850 maps.
No. 184 State - Maine Teachers Association.
This residence, formerly the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred R. Lord, was built by Guy Gannett in 1910. He was the son of William H. Gannett and was born in 1881. He was educated at Cony High School, Andover Academy and Yale College. He was associated with his father in the publication of "Comfort". Afterwards he moved to Portland and headed a chain of newspapers, including the Water- ville Sentinel, Kennebec Journal and Portland Press Herald. He was at one time member of the Legislature and during the First World War he was engaged in Red Cross activities overseas. During the Second World War he was active in the administration of the Civil Air Patrol. It is interesting to note that this house stood on the site of the old Wilder home. Dr. Amos Wilder of Calais came to Augusta before the Civil War and subsequently lived in the house, which is now the Winslow Restaurant near the Augusta House. He gave up the practice of dentistry to go into the oil cloth business with Simeon Page of Hallowell. His son, Dr. Julian Wilder, practiced dentistry in Augusta for forty years and was the father of Max Wilder and Doris Wilder Macomber of this city. Another son of Dr. Amos Wilder was Amos Parker Wilder who was the father of Thornton Wilder, the novelist, who wrote the famous "Bridge of San Luis Rey". It is interesting to note the names of some of the dentists practicing in Augusta in the past century. Dr. Issachar Snell, whose office and home is now St. Mark's Home, advertised quite extensively before the Civil War. Dr. J. M. Corrision was one of his contemporaries.
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In the 1867 directory the names of Dr. Snell, Dr. John W. Freeze and Dr. William McDavid are listed. Dr. McDavid was a Civil War veteran and quite active in the G. A. R. He practiced for many years in Augusta and in the later part of his life spent his winters in California and his summers in Maine. In 1884 the dentists are listed as Doctors E. G. Briggs, Charles Bryant, William McDavid, E. J. Roberts and A. C. Titcomb. In 1892 the name of Dr. Julian Wilder appears in addition to those listed in 1884. In 1906 the names of Doctors Dolliver, E. J. Hall and Dr. George Hawthorne joined the previous list. Dr. Hawthorne, in addition to his advertised skill as a dentist, "making a set of the best teeth for $8.00", was a well known amateur photographer using large plate cameras.
No. 190 State - Site of Homan Residence.
This lot was the site of the Joseph G. Homan residence which was listed as such in the 1867 directory. Joseph G. Homan was a member of the publishing firm of Homan and Manley which at one time produced the " Gospel Banner ", a Universalist paper, and later the "Maine Farmer", a paper devoted to agriculture. Mr. Homan was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts in 1816. In 1829 he was a printer's apprentice. It is said that with two partners he started the first penny newspaper in Boston in 1835. He came to Augusta in 1837 and worked on the Kennebec Journal. In 1840 he married Susan Sewall, daughter of the famous General Sewall who lived at No. 146 State Street. Her sister Caroline married James S. Manley, her husband's partner. After the death of Mr. Homan and Mr. Manley, their widows and Miss Abby Manley occupied the home for many years. Their housekeeper companion was Mrs. Lizzie Per- nette, the mother of Russell Pernette, who operated the " Alcedo ", a well known launch for hire at Lake Cobboseecontee. After the First World War the State bought the old house and tore it down for part of the Blaine Mansion grounds. This same house was shown on the 1838 map as the home of J. L. Child and on the 1850 map with the same name. James Loring Child was the son of James Child, the tanner, and was born in Augusta in 1792. He read law with Bridge and Williams and was admitted in 1812. In 1816 he went to Europe and South America as the supercargo of a ship. He practiced law in Augusta until his death in 1862. He was a member of the Commission which formed the State Constitution. During the Mexican War he was appointed Storekeeper at the U. S. Arsenal
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which was established in 1828 and is now part of the State Hospital. Colonel George Bomford of the Ordinance Department reported in 1828 the need for an arsenal large enough to fabricate supplies for the northern and eastern frontier. Lieutenant J. Hills directed the building of the station and was relieved by Captain C. Mellen, Second Artillery, in 1831. Several officers who later became famous in his- tory, including Lieutenant R. W. Wainwright, Captain I. Gorgas, General O. O. Howard, and Lieutenant Robert Anderson, the hero of Fort Sumter, were among those stationed at some time at the Arsenal. In 1905 President Roosevelt signed an act authorizing the Secretary of War to convey the Kennebec Arsenal property to the State of Maine for public purposes. The State Hospital which is immediately south of the property was made possible by a gift of land from Benjamin Brown of Brown's Tavern, Vassalboro, and Ruel Williams of Augusta. Mr. Brown in making his donation thought it advisable that the hospital be located in sight of the state public buildings, that is why the Hospital grounds are in full view of the State House, or were at that time, the year 1835. An account of the early history of the Hospital is given by North, including the Great Fire of 1850 when 28 persons lost their lives.
No. 192 State Street - Executive Mansion, Governor John H. Reed.
This residence of Maine Governors since 1919 was the former home of James G. Blaine, Member of Congress from Maine for twenty years, defeated candidate for President against Grover Cleve- land in 1884 and Secretary of State under President Garfield in 1889-1892. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1830 and graduated from Washington College in 1847. After college he took up teaching, in- tending to study law. His first position was at the Western Military Institute at Blue Lick Springs, Kentucky. He met Harriet Stanwood, a teacher from Augusta, who was in a nearby town. They were mar- ried in 1851. In 1854 he came to Augusta and became Editor of the Kennebec Journal. He went into Maine politics and subsequently to Congress. He was extremely popular with all who knew him and his defeat by Cleveland was a great disappointment to many. He made the mansion his residence until his death in 1893. Mrs. Harriet Blaine Beale, his daughter, presented the old home to the State of Maine in 1919 in memory of her son, Walker Blaine Beale, who fell in France in the last days of the First World War. The place was remodeled by the State and became the home of Governor
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Carl E. Milliken during the remainder of his term of office. It has been the residence of Maine Governors ever since. Captain James Hall, said to have been from Bath, built the house about 1832, it is believed. It is shown on the map of 1838 as the property of Captain Hall and in 1851 as the property of Greenwood C. Child. He was born in 1785, the son of James Child and the brother of James Loring Child who lived next door on the north at No. 190 State. G. C. Child had eight children, one of whom, James Rufus, married Margaret Bridge, daughter of James Bridge, one of the four owners of the original Kennebec Charter. The mansion was purchased from the Child estate by Harriet Stanwood Blaine in 1862. She was the daughter of Jacob Stanwood, an Augusta merchant, who at one time lived in the house at No. 22 Green Street, now the home of Dr. Edward Peaslee.
Capitol Street crosses. . .
State Capitol Building, Corner State and Capitol Streets.
The corner stone of the original capitol building was laid on the Fourth of July, 1829 and it was nearly three years before the building was completed. The granite used was from the Hallowell Granite Quarries and the edifice was designed by Charles Bulfinch of Boston. The cost of the building was $140,000, not comparable today, but a very sizeable sum at the time. As time went on there was considerable agitation to remove the seat of government to Portland, but that was overcome finally in 1910, when the building was greatly enlarged by the addition of wings and a cupola. The original Bulfinch front was retained. The dome is said to rise to the height of 158 feet and is surmounted by a figure of the Goddess Wisdom made of copper covered with gold. It was designed by W. Clark Noble, the sculptor. A few years ago, because of lack of facilities for an ever growing State Government, an office building connected to the original State House by a tunnel was erected on the west side of the Capitol.
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State Street - East Side
No. 57 Corner of Bridge and State Streets - O'Connell Residence.
On the 1838 map this home is shown as the residence of Moses Safford. It is said that in the stagecoach days before the Civil War this was the half-way house between Boston and Bangor. The Saf- fords were traders on Water Street in the 1830's. There are Saffords shown in the hardware business on Water Street in 1867. This property is shown as the Safford house in 1879; in 1902, it is shown to be that of George W. Vickery. Mrs. Harry Percival purchased the place before the First World War and the Percivals and the O'Connells have made their home there for over fifty years. John O'Connell was Chief of the Augusta Police Force in the 1930's, previously having been with the Gannett Publishing Company. He passed away in 1958 at the age of 76.
No. 59 State Street Congregational Church - Parish House and Churchyard.
This parish house was built in 1890 and was the third such house to be built. The first was built with an entrance on Bridge Street, in 1830, and the second in 1845. The present Granite Church was dedicated in 1866. It is 64 by 100 feet and the tower and spire rise to the height of 178 feet, and was rebuilt a decade ago. The present church building replaced the original meeting house which was erected in 1806 and can be seen on the Searle map of 1823. It had a belfry as well as a spire and contained a spacious interior and was used for other than religious worship. The trial of Dr. Valorous P. Coolidge, who was accused of murdering Edward Mat- thews in Waterville on October 1, 1847, was held in the old meeting house, because of its great seating capacity. Dr. Coolidge was sen- tenced to be hung for the murder, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. An interesting account of his trial and its sequel may be found in Dean Marriner's "Kennebec Yesterdays ". The old church burned in 1865. The pastor of the new stone church was the Rev. Joel F. Bingham.
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Apartments
No. 65-67 State Street, Corner of Church Street.
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