Contributed by Penobscot Marine Museum
Description
Local residents called the harborfront land just south of the bridge over the Passagassawakeag River the Puddle Dock, Dock Square, or Sandy Beach. People in the region used area primarily used for dockage, with water let in through a sluiceway at high tide. Beginning in the 1870s, railroad tracks crossed the water, initially supported by trestles. Later, rock and earth fill supported the tracks, with openings in the berm to allow the flow of tides.
Modest dwellings, commercial structures, and industrial buildings along the waterfront comprised the Puddle Dock area. In 1911 the Lubec Canning Company built the sardine packing plant between the bridge and railroad tracks. A cement bridge replaced the wooden one in 1921.
At that time people used the water between the railroad tracks and harborfront as a dump. By the 1950s the area was solid land. The sardine plant, last owned by Stinson Canning Company, closed in 2001, and the property became part of the Front Street Shipyard in 2011. The railroad tracks were gone by 2013, when construction on Belfast's Harbor Walk began.
About This Item
- Title: Puddle Dock, Belfast, ca. 1915
- Creator: Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co.
- Creation Date: circa 1915
- Subject Date: circa 1915
- Location: Belfast, Waldo County, ME
- Media: Glass Plate Negative
- Dimensions: 12.7 cm x 17.8 cm
- Local Code: LB2007.24.114627
- 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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This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. No Permission is required to use the low-resolution watermarked image for educational use, or as allowed by the applicable copyright. For all other uses, permission is required.
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