Yarmouth’s Harbor History Walking Tour
Take a step back in time and learn about Yarmouth’s bustling harbor, busy shipyards, and seafaring citizens. Although this area has changed significantly through time, clues about the neighborhood’s rich past abound.
1. Grist Mill Park and First Falls, East Main Street: The first falls of the Royal River were a major force behind the growth of Yarmouth in the 18th and 19th centuries, as subsistence mills for lumber and grain gave way to fulling mills, iron foundries, tanneries, and eventually an electric power plant on the western bank of the river. These mills grew in tandem with the burgeoning shipbuilding industry of the mid-19th century. Take a look from Grist Mill Park across East Main Street toward the harbor. Today, you’ll see a view of I-295 and glimpses of modern marinas and boatyards, so imagine for a moment a 19th century perspective on the scene: major shipyards ringing the harbor with workers, building materials, and shops adding to the industrious atmosphere. Yarmouth’s shipyards built many different types of vessels, including small brigs, large barks and full-rigged ships, schooners, and stone sloops. The most productive year for Yarmouth’s shipyards was 1874, when a dozen vessels were launched from the harbor. Many businesses grew up alongside the shipyards as factories supplied items like tackle blocks and deadeyes for rigging and treenails for fastening. Sailmakers provided essential materials while general stores and fish markets kept workers well-provisioned. Many waterfront workers lived in nearby neighborhoods along Pleasant and Main Street in the lower part of Yarmouth village. Yarmouth’s shipbuilding industry faded in the waning years of the 19th century. At 1:00 pm on September 3, 1890, Yarmouth’s last big wooden ship, the “Damietta and Joanna,” was launched by Giles Loring, marking the end of an era. Smaller vessels were produced and used into the 20th century, but the scale of the 1870s yards was never matched again.
As you walk along East Main Street, please use the sidewalk. The houses on this part of the walking tour are privately owned; please be respectful!
2. Jeremiah Baker House and Grantville, 35 East Main Street: From Grist Mill Park, turn up East Main Street and take a look at the grand Jeremiah Baker House sitting toward the crest of the hill, on the eastern side of the street. Before I-295 was built, this house had a commanding view of Yarmouth’s harbor and its busy shipyards. Built around 1848 in the Greek Revival style, the house may have been constructed for William R. Stockbridge, who was involved in Yarmouth’s early shipbuilding trade. Jeremiah Baker, also a shipyard owner, lived in the house from 1857-1871. Its location overlooking Baker’s yard on the eastern shore of the harbor no doubt added to the appeal. In addition to his shipyard and wharf, Baker owned other businesses, including a carding mill, tannery, plaster mill, and brick yard. The prominent lower level of the house may have contained an office or store. Many strong Greek Revival architectural details are still visible on the facade of the Baker house. Take a look at the wide entablature running above the upper windows and the prominent corner boards or pilasters at each side of the facade. The beautiful door surround and sidelights add to the Classical details.
Before the construction of the I-295 harbor overpass in the 1960s, the neighborhood running along the eastern shore of the harbor was known as Grantville, after the many members of the Grant family who lived there. The area was cleared during the construction of the overpass, with some houses moved to other locations. The small shingled house next to the Jeremiah Baker house was one of these houses.
3.William R. Stockbridge House, 51 East Main Street: East Main Street was once home to merchants, shipwrights, and artisans. The imposing house at 51 East Main Street may have been built in the 1810s; its original owner was William R. Stockbridge, whose family was involved in the construction of several houses along this stretch of East Main Street. Born in 1782, Stockbridge was a merchant, manufacturer, and shipowner who also served as treasurer for the Town and North Yarmouth Academy. After Stockbridge died in 1850, his estate, including the house, various outbuildings, wharf, shipyard, and a significant parcel of land along the river, was sold. The house changed hands several times through the latter half of the 19th century and was eventually acquired by Adaline Crockett, who converted it into the Royal River Inn in the 1920s. A news article about the opening of the Inn noted that “it is Miss Crockett’s hope that in the future new cabins may be added on the plateau at the rear of the Inn overlooking the river, where she hopes to add a tennis court, shuffle board, swimming pool, etc.” Her plans were realized with the development of the Royal River Cabins, which are included later in this tour. The article continued, “Yarmouth people are most interested in Miss Crockett’s progress and are grateful that she has preserved and made a thing of beauty this historic old landmark.” The Royal River Inn operated until the 1940s. Today, William R. Stockbridge’s house contains an antique shop along with apartments. Remarkably, the house retains its original Federal-style door surround and fanlight along with historic windows, trim, and siding.
4. Lebbeus Bailey House, 56 East Main Street: Built around 1800 for Lebbeus Bailey, this house retains a great deal of historic features, workmanship, and feeling. Bailey was a clockmaker who operated a foundry at the first falls of the Royal River where he cast metal movements for his tall clocks. According to local historian William H. Rowe, in this foundry, Bailey “cast not only the metal movements for these clocks but sleigh bells, and in fact every kind of metal work of which his customers had need.” He was also a jeweler and skillfully fashioned the medals and jewels worn by the officers of the local Masonic Casco Lodge. Rowe also recounts: “Among the files of old papers may be found many indentures of his apprentices whom he engaged to teach ‘the mystery and science of clock making.'” In later years, the house was owned by ship carpenter Albion Seabury, who had established his own shipyard on the northeast side of the river around 1830. According to Rowe, Seabury became one of the most prominent shipbuilders, launching his first vessel, the brig “Henry,” in 1831 and following it up with several more brigs and schooners until 1842. His daughter Annetta Seabury Dresser, pictured below, continued to use the home as a summer house until the early decades of the 20th century.
5. Stockbridge Hall and Herbie, 68 East Main Street: Known locally as Stockbridge Hall, the house at the corner of East Main Street and Yankee Drive has a long history that predates the name. Parts of it may have been built around 1720-1730 by Peter Weare, whose family ran a saw mill and grist mill at the first falls of the Royal River. The house expanded over the following decades, doubling in size around 1790. Nineteenth-century owners included Deacon Calvin Stockbridge, who also used it as a store, as well as members of the shipbuilding Seabury family. By around 1900, Alice and Minerva Dufour had rented the house and were using it for a private girls’ school named Stockbridge Hall. The house fell into deep disrepair in the 20th century and was purchased by Ron and Diana Gosses in 1999. The two embarked on an exhaustive and thorough restoration of the house, winning Maine Preservation’s Statewide Historic Preservation Honor Award in 2001.
Herbie, Yarmouth’s champion elm tree, grew only a few yards east of Stockbridge Hall at the opposite corner of Yankee Drive. At 110 feet high and with a 20-foot circumference, the tree was known for many years as the largest elm in New England. Unfortunately, like so many other elms in Yarmouth and around the country, Herbie succumbed to Dutch elm disease and was cut down on January 19, 2010. Analysis of tree rings set Herbie’s planting date to 1793, making it a 217 year old tree. Longtime Yarmouth tree warden Frank Knight cared for the tree from 1956 until 2010 and was buried in a casket made from its wood. A section of the trunk’s base is on permanent display at the Yarmouth Town Hall on Main Street.
6. Royal River Cabins, near the intersection of East Main Street and Spring Street: In the mid-20th century, Adaline Crockett, owner of the nearby Royal River Inn at 51 East Main Street, expanded her hospitality business with a complex of tourist cabins, coffee shop, and other amenities at the intersection of East Main and Spring Streets. These Royal River Cabins operated from about 1930 until 1951, a time when automobile travel boomed and the main tourist thoroughfare followed the path of today’s Route 88 (formerly Route One). According to contemporary advertising materials, the 14 cabins could accommodate about 80 guests and boasted amenities like electric lights, running water, electric ranges, showers, and flush toilets. A small coffee shop was on site. Also within easy reach were opportunities to fish, swim, boat, and golf. Indeed, the aerial view above shows the prime riverside location which would have been close to other roadside attractions, shops, and restaurants. Accommodation at the cabins was available for about $1 per person per night. When the business closed in the 1950s, this area had already undergone significant changes. Route One had been relocated to its present path in the late 1940s, diverting a lot of tourist traffic away from Yarmouth’s harbor area. Some of the cabins were repurposed as homes that still stand in this area today. A few were moved offsite to other locations and some were likely razed.
The Royal River Cabins made the news in 1946 when Eleanor Roosevelt and her dog Fala spent the night. Roosevelt, on her way to Campobello to dedicate a memorial to Franklin Roosevelt, had booked a room at the Eastland Hotel in Portland, but declined to stay when hotel staff informed her that Fala would not be allowed in the room and could instead stay in a kennel in the hotel garage. The two continued on their way and found accommodation in Yarmouth instead. In her syndicated newspaper column for August 6, 1946, Eleanor Roosevelt recounted:
Some of the papers in the Maine area made a good deal of the fact that, on my trip up to Campobello Island, I could not stay overnight at a hotel in Portland because I had Fala with me. Since it was a hotel rule, the clerk was quite right to stick to it and I had no complaint. I did not know of the rule because I had never stayed in that hotel before, and I would not have telegraphed for rooms there if I had not forgotten the name of the hotel where I usually stay. I remembered this hotel because my son had stayed there when he made a speech in Portland last spring.
The fault was mine, since I had not mentioned that I would have a dog with me. And it made no difference because, when I stopped for supper in Yarmouth, I asked if there were any cabins nearby that would take me in with a dog, and I found a place at once and had a very comfortable night.
