Name/Title
16 Water Street House, Eastport, Maine | I7-0D4-20 | District #2Entry/Object ID
002Description
This house fortunately survived the Great Fire of October 14, 1886 which destroyed houses immediately to the east and north of it. The house was built c.1840. It is a larger and taller wood frame cape cod style house than those nearby with two dormer windows on the front side. It has a five bay first story front with center doorway with a surrounding fanlight above the door and sidelight panels on either side of the door. The house has wooden clapboard siding. There are six fireplaces in the house including a large one in the northwest room of the main house that was originally used for cooking. This fireplace has a beehive oven. The front staircase is original to the house. The house has a later two story rear ell addition. The first floor of this addition was used as a medical practice in the second half of the 20th century. A small one story addition extends off the ell and once served as the entry way and waiting room for the medical practice.
From https://www.fineartistmade.com/blog/blog-detail.php?Water-Street-Part-1-72:
Water Street (Part 1)
July 9, 2013
The island town of Eastport, on the Passamaquoddy Bay, was first settled by fishermen from Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the late 18th century. It would grow to become a major Maine port, reaching its zenith with the emergence of the sardine industry. The once bustling waterfront is much quieter now - gone are the many wharfs and canneries that lined its shore. Fishing, lobster, pleasure boats and cargo vessels are the mainstay of the harbor.
We were recently called in to do a bathroom renovation in an historic Eastport Federal style cape on Water Street. Its proud new stewards were relocating to the area; part of a fresh influx of creative entrepreneurs that are breathing new life into the city. Room by room, they plan to resurrect and preserve the venerable old building.
Our commute from Perry to Eastport is not exactly bumper to bumper but rather a daily visual adventure. The Bay of Fundy's amazing tides have the largest range in the world - over 50 feet. In and around Eastport they can rise and fall as much as 25. In an ever-changing landscape the coves can appear as lakes on one visit - then later, drained dry as though someone pulled a giant cork, as muddy barren wastelands - a fertile picking ground for clammers.
Our remarkably intact project home overlooks Eastport's rising and falling harbor with views of F.D.R.'s beloved Campobello Island. It is a classic, center-hall, post and beam structure, two rooms deep. Downstairs is a large formal parlor and dining room in the front with a kitchen, pantry and a small bedroom or keeping room in the rear. A central hall staircase leads to rooms upstairs with a long ell off the back. Two massive brick chimneys supported in the basement by large roman-arched red brick corbels provide fireplaces for most every room. My favorite is the impressive kitchen hearth and beehive oven, with its ample mantel and hand forged kettle crane still in place.
It was wonderful to see so many surviving original elements. Throughout the house there are elaborate Federal mantles, chair rails, cupboards, trim and 9 over 6 windows complete with wavy glass - all likely crafted onsite, with a variety of hand planes, by skilled carpenters. Turned mahogany knobs in the front rooms and hand-forged Norfolk thumb latches on the 'workroom' doors in the back were probably purchased at the local hardware store.
Invariably the minute we dig into a project in an old house we become curious about its history; who lived there - how long has it been standing - when was it built? The home, itself, would begin to provide some answers.
A door from the back of the old kitchen that originally went outside, now leads to the ell. This ell was undoubtedly an early addition but the interior is a surprising mid-century time capsule. We learned it was renovated in the late 1950s to serve as the previous homeowner's doctor's office - complete with waiting and examination rooms as well as a small pharmacy.
Dr. Rowland French, a surgeon and Harvard Medical School graduate was lured from a practice in Arizona to join the small Eastport hospital staff. He and his wife, Winifred, a graduate of Cornell, purchased the property on Water Street in 1954 and raised a family of five there. Dr. French practiced medicine for 37 years in the community and helped establish the Eastport Health Care Center, which is named in his honor.
Winifred, for her part, established a much needed local newspaper in 1968 - aptly naming it, The Quoddy Tides. It is a small town paper with international aspirations, serving readers in both Maine and three Canadian Islands; Deer, Campobello & Grand Manan. It contains a mix of local news as well as maritime information like tide tables (which local fishermen used to set their lobster traps or go clamming by), sunrise and sunset, weather reports, vessels entering the port and a fisherman's log. Its office fittingly sits perched at the entrance to the wharf with harbor views of fishing and lobster boats with names such as; Pretty Girl, Bay Boys, Tide Tracker, Black Sheep, Baby Witch and Miss Meliss.
In its early days news copy was sent by fishing boat through treacherous waters (like "The Old Sow," the largest whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere), to Deer Island for typesetting and back again. After laying out the paper Winifred would drive down the coast on bumpy Route 1 to Ellsworth, to get it to the printer (more than 200 miles roundtrip).
The French's son, Edward, the current editor, carries on the tradition today. His brother, Hugh, founded the Tides Institute, an arts and cultural institute and museum serving the greater Passamaquoddy and St. Croix River Region. The brothers, who grew up in the old home, have been instrumental for many years, in restoration and revitalization efforts in the community.
Our project bathroom was another time capsule, with fixtures dating from the late 1970s. While doing demolition we found that the vent pipe was galvanized and seemed to date to the 1950s. Then we spied a blue Sears, Roebuck & Co. shipping label attached to it. We knew the name printed on the shipping destination, J.W. Raye & Co. - it had connections with our own home's history. John Wesley Raye rented a camp on Boyden Lake from our home's builders, Nathaniel and Mary Golding, Their son, 'Rob,' met his friend, John Wesley ('Wes'), while serving in the Spanish American War. The Raye connection to this old house was however a puzzle.
Come the weekend we got a serendipitous knock at the door from a summer neighbor, Nancy Raye. After wintering in the south, she returns to her magical camp, just a short walk from our farm, along the lake's rooted and rutted "stub toe path." She might know something about that Sears, Roebuck Co. label - her grandfather founded the venerable Eastport institution printed on it.
The son of a sea captain, J.W. began building his business shortly after returning from the Spanish American War, when he was just twenty years old. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Raye's Mustard Mill was a major supplier of 'stone ground' mustard to the multitude of sardine canning factories that lined the waterfront in and around the seaside town. He purchased the massive 165 year old granite grinding wheels from local mills and designed the shaft driven system himself.
The mustard mill's stewardship passed to his son, Henry Wadsworth Raye (through his mother, a not too distant relative of the poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) and later to his grand-daughter, the entrepreneurial Nancy. In the 1990s, she revitalized the company, shaken by the decline of the sardine industry, by creating a line of award winning gourmet mustards. The historic property, now a working museum, is the only remaining stone ground mustard mill in North America and has been featured in the magazine, Martha Stewart Living.
Having just put her camp back in order, she came to invite us to brunch and to catch up. It turned out that she was just the person we wanted to see. We told her about our new project and asked her about the vent pipe and label; "Oh yeah," she said, "I used to live in that house." "My dad put that bathroom in." "He had that pipe shipped to the mustard mill." "It would have been just before we moved in."
The home had no indoor plumbing when Nancy's parents, Henry Wadsworth and Caroline Bradish Raye purchased it in 1950. It was her father's handy work that installed our project bathroom along with a new kitchen and a small half bath in the former keeping room and pantry.
Her family only lived in their Water Street home for a few years while Nancy was still a young girl. She shared with us some recollections about the place, recalling a story of two elderly women living in the home prior to her family who had little money and were managing frugally. They had boarded up all the drafty ancient chimneys, closed up the main house and were residing exclusively in the ell to save on heat. At that time the ell contained the "summer" kitchen and an in-house 'outhouse' at the back. This intriguing story evoked a slightly "Grey Gardens" image that further kindled our curiosity.
From https://www.fineartistmade.com/blog/blog-detail.php?Water-Street-Part-2-73:
Water Street (Part 2)
July 12, 2013
Physical evidence in our project house on Water Street initially suggested a construction date sometime between 1810 and 1840. In the early days of the American Republic, architects consciously chose in their designs to associate the fledgling nation with the ancient democracies. The resulting Federal style, with its restrained delicacy and formal symmetry, was favored from 1780 'til around 1830. Type 'B' cut (square) nails found in the original structure were not produced until after 1810. Hand forged Norfolk thumb latches were manufactured from 1810 to 1840. Accordion lath under the plaster and marriage marks (Roman Numerals) on hand hewn beams went out about 1840. We'd have to go to 'paper' if we were going to narrow down a date.
Our first clue to the home's earlier residents came from a map of Eastport Village published in 1881 that included the footprint of every building along with the owner's name. Printed next to the cape on the corner of Water and Shackford Streets was M.D. Bibber. With a little bit of census searching we could begin to flesh out the story.
In 1880, Myrick D. Bibber was living at 16 Water Street with his wife, Sarah, and three daughters, Augusta, Sarah and Grace. Both Augusta and Grace were schoolteachers. A forth daughter, Annie, married in 1862, was living with her husband, Samuel Longfellow Wadsworth, and their 18 year old son, Frank, on Washington Street, next door to the Baptist Church.
Myrick was not a native of the seaport city. Born in Freeport, Maine in 1809, to Thomas and Dorcas Bibber, he came to Eastport as a young boy. His father, a master mariner, may have visited the island in his adventures and been lured there by the end of the British occupation, when a new spirit of enterprise was emerging in the harbor.
On July 11, 1814, during the War of 1812, Commodore Thomas Hardy, in his flagship the HMS Ramillies, assisted by Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Pilkington, led four warships and several transports carrying 2,000 infantrymen against Eastport's Fort Sullivan. The defending rag-tag American force of 70 regulars and 250 militiamen were no match for the British and gave up without a fight. The Commodore and his Lieutenant issued a proclamation making it known that the King considered the island, sovereign British territory. Eastporters were given the option to take an oath of allegiance to the crown or leave. In 1818, after four years under martial law, the British relinquished their claim and surrendered the town.
Thomas Bibber was a busy Eastport ship's master in 1820, at a time when trade was expanding to Europe and the West Indies. Many of his children would take advantage of the increasingly important deepwater port, becoming prominent sea captains and merchants in the expanding city. Myrick himself was listed as a merchant or shopkeeper on several censuses. In 1841 he was a junior partner in business with William Shackford, a colorful retired seaman and son of a town founder, under the trade name "Shackford and Bibber." Also active in the community, Myrick was a member of the parish committee of the Central Congregational Church on Middle Street, in 1848 and in 1849, was one of three elected town selectman; a position he would again occupy in 1877.
In 1885, Myrick's wife, Sarah, died. The Bibber's youngest daughter, Grace, married a Philadelphian and moved to the orange groves of California. Their two unmarried daughters, Augusta and Sarah, continued to live in the home with their father until he passed in 1902 - cause of death, "Old Age."
In 1906, Annie Wadsworth's husband, Samuel, died of tuberculosis. This event may have prompted the two single women to move in with their widowed sister in her large comfortable home on Key Street; an impressive multi-columned Greek Revival that still stands today. Prior to his passing, Samuel Longfellow Wadsworth made his living running an Eastport ship's chandlery established in 1818 by his father, Samuel Bartlett Wadsworth. Samuel Longfellow took over for his father shortly after his marriage to Annie and would officially change the company name to "S.L. Wadsworth and Son" after Frank joined the business in 1883. Run by descendents, the firm still operates under that name today and is the oldest ship's chandlery in the nation.
Samuel Longfellow's grandfather, Peleg Wadsworth, was a hero of the Revolutionary War. His father's brother, George Wadsworth, was Nancy Raye's, great-great-great-great grandfather. His father's sister, Zilpah, was the mother of the famous poet.
After stumbling across this Bibber / Wadsworth / Raye connection, the trail went cold. We were heading down the coast to pick up some lumber and thought we'd make a stop and spend an hour at the 1855 Washington County Courthouse in Machias; the home of the registry of deeds. We started with the property's current owners then worked our way back. Each deed registered has a reference and page number to a previous book. Following the French's to the the Rayes; we found that Carolyn Bradish Raye purchased the home in two undivided half interests from Agnes Harris and Arthur E. Tracy on March 10, 1950.
Agnes's mother, Rebecca McDonald Harris, and sister, Alida Ardella Tracy, purchased the property from Summerville Robertson Anderson in May of 1918. Both mother and daughter occupied the home with their families. Alida was married to Arthur E. Tracy, a sardine fisherman and had one child, Virginia. Also living at the residence was another brother, Arthur and the patriarch of the family, Alfred Thorndyke Harris, a sardine boat captain. Two other siblings, fraternal twins Marion and Mariner, were married and living elsewhere in town.
On December 9, 1937, the Captain, Alfred Thorndyke, passed away. This was the same year the city of Eastport went bankrupt, the result of a declining sardine industry. Many of the once thriving community's residents were moving away. Rebecca would take a job as a cook, likely in one of the city's larger homes, to help support her family.
In 1940, forty-two year old Agnes Harris, who according to the census was unable to work, was living with her mother and older brother, Arthur, a laborer, along with Alida and her husband, Arthur. Alida passed away in 1943; her brother, Arthur, in 1948. Agnes, who never married, may have continued to live in the former Bibber home, caring for her mother, Rebecca, until she passed away on December 23, 1949. She sold her part of the property to Caroline Bradish and Henry Wadsworth Raye, two and a half months later.
From https://www.fineartistmade.com/blog/blog-detail.php?Water-Street-Part-3-74:
Water Street (Part 3)
July 13, 2013
Summerville Anderson, an immigrant from Canada, was the manager of an Eastport sardine factory. He purchased the Bibber home in March of 1918, two months before he sold to the Harris family. The 'grantees' were the four Bibber sisters, the only heirs of their father. The deed read in part, "being the Myrick D. Bibber homestead property, so called."
As there was no reference in this deed to a prior owner, we had to take a different approach. We knew from an 1888 history, Eastport and Passamaquoddy, compiled by William Henry Kilby, that the property had once been part of a much larger track of land, 100 acres, owned by John Shackford - sea captain, shipowner and pioneer settler. The Shackford farm lay between the present bounds of Key Street and Shackford Cove, extending westerly one mile to the county road and easterly down to the shore. In addition to this property he also owned one hundred acres west of Broad Cove, Shackford Head, which is today a state park.
The Captain was born in Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1753. A fisherman in his early days, he first visited Eastport, known at the time as Moose Island, when he was 15 years old. In 1780 he married Esther Woodwell, the cultured daughter of a prominent Newbury shipbuilder. In 1783, when there were just a handful of families living on the island, he purchased 100 acres directly from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Shortly thereafter, he built a waterfront structure for the processing and curing of fish, as well as a log general store where he served both fishermen from the British provinces and the local Passamaquoddy Tribe. In 1787, after building a home and planting a garden, he shuttled his family in his small sailing vessel, Industry, from Newburyport to their new home in the wilderness.
As a soldier in the Revolution, he served under the infamous Benedict Arnold; marching in 1775 through the wilderness of Maine to the Battle of Quebec, an early defeat for the Continental Army. Shackford was among the more than 400 men taken prisoner in the failed assault upon the city. He was confined for nine months in prison, six weeks of which he spent in shackles. After his release, he served under George Washington at the Battle of Harlem heights, a Continental victory.
In later years the Captain commanded the first militia company organized on Moose Island. The story goes, as told by a descendent; in 1814, when the British Commodore, Thomas Hardy, came on land to take possession of the island town, Shackford met him at the water. Wearing relics from his glory days; his three-cornered Continental Army hat as well as his sword and carrying a long pointed cattle prod, he indigently declared, "Well, sir! What brought you here? I am King of this island, and these are my subjects. If you behave yourself, you can come on shore - if not, you had better be gone."
We knew that the Captain died on Christmas day in 1840. Going to a massive ancient book listing grantees and grantors from 1830 to 1840, we looked up John Shackford. Scanning down a list of sales we came across our answer; again there was that name - M.D. Bibber. On June 15, 1839, Shackford sold a piece of land to the 30 year old merchant.
By this time a handful of Moose Island's former farms on the southeasterly shore had been supplanted by the growing seaport city. The municipality's population was approaching twenty-nine hundred. Much of the Shackford property had been subdivided with Water Street, laid out in 1803, still not much more than a footpath, "two hand barrows wide." However, the premium waterfront property John sold to Myrick was something quite unique.
In the record of deed, dutifully inked in a flourish of 19th century script, the Captain proclaimed, "Know all men by these presents that I John Shackford of Eastport in the County of Washington and the State of Maine in consideration of two hundred and eighty three dollars paid by Myrick Bibber... hereby give, grant, sell and convey... forever... Beginning at the Westerly side of Water Street at the corner of the Yellow house lot owned by me, thence running north 65° east along said Water Street six rods and nineteen links to land occupied by Gideon Stetson thence north 61° west six rods and eight links on land occupied by said Stetson, thence north 76° west, three rods and twenty links along land occupied by said Stetson & land of Mrs. Sarah Lincoln thence south 24° east seven rods and thirteen links along said Yellow house lot: to the first mentioned bounds on Water Street... and is the same which is known as my garden and so improved by me for many years past."
The early part of 1839 and several years preceding, had been tough times for Myrick. In 1836 he married Eliza Ann Appleby, the daughter of a sea captain. In 1837, their first child, Emma Sophia, passed away when she was barely two months old. On the 1st of January, 1839, their second child, Sylvanus Appleby, named for Eliza's father, also succumbed when he was only twelve days old. Two months later, on March 11, Eliza herself, possibly weakened by the rigors of childbirth and despondent over the loss of another child - tragically was taken.
It seems a resilient Myrick would recover quickly. It was just three months after the death of Eliza that he purchased that choice bit of land from the Captain. One could presume he spent the summer building a brand new, Federal Style, merchant's home with all the bells and whistles - for on December 19th of the very same year he married 17 year old Sarah Appleby - Eliza's younger sister. The Bibbers would live and raise a family of little women, in a house they built on Water Street - in John Shackford's garden.
