Contributed by Penobscot Marine Museum
Description
The downtown buildings in Stockton Springs housed a variety of businesses and organizations in the early 1900s, when horses, wagons, and buggies still were the primarily means of local transportation.
On the east side of the street, the so-called Denslow Block housed Mate LaFurley's store and an upstairs dance hall, also used for meetings and other gatherings. Walter Trundy's store was on the east side of Mate's, with other businesses to the west. The Rebekah Lodge and the Eastern Star both met upstairs in one or another of those buildings. In later years, Shep Edwards had a store in the downstairs of the westernmost end building.
Across the street, the westernmost building housed Norm Staples’ grocery in the 1930s and '40s; it later became the town office. Mel Pinkham's Grocery and Ice Cream Parlor was on the corner of School Street, opposite the hotel. Next to that was the old garage that during World War II housed a small contingent of soldiers, several of whom married local girls and became Stockton residents.
A long wooden building across the street from the garage was Sanborn's store. It was probably the most used grocery in town since it took orders and made deliveries twice a week. It also sold men's work pants, boots, and other merchandise in an addition to the store. A blacksmith shop was next door.
According to longtime Stockbridge resident Marion Fisher, “Somewhere in an upper room of one of the Main Street buildings my grandmother's sister Ida Merrithew had a dressmaking establishment. She was a good seamstress with few social skills...an old maid in the most negative connotation of the word. But she could make a beautiful gown.”
While the hotel building remains in the early 21st century, many of Stockton Springs' downtown buildings have been torn down.
About This Item
- Title: Downtown Stockton Springs, ca. 1910
- Creator: Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co.
- Creation Date: circa 1910
- Subject Date: circa 1910
- Location: Stockton Springs , Waldo County, ME
- Media: Glass Plate Negative
- Dimensions: 12.7 cm x 17.8 cm
- Local Code: LB2007.1.102606
- Collection: Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co.
- Object Type: Image
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For more information about this item, contact:
Penobscot Marine MuseumPO Box 498, 5 Church Street, Searsport, ME 04974
(207) 548-2529
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