Contributed by Penobscot Marine Museum
Description
This photo, taken a short distance north of Roque Bluffs State Park, shows Nepp Point, the far shoreline, and part of Pond Cove Island a little closer.
Nearly obscured in the background is a summer cottage built for Orris Vose of Machias about 1890. In 1893 Andrew and Sarah Dow purchased it as a home, and then in 1917 it became a summer cottage again.
Just in front of that house is "Messauquatesk," the first summer cottage to be built in Roque Bluffs. It was built about 1877 for Clement B. Donworth, a Machias lawyer, and was still in the family in 2013.
Construction of the house in the foreground began by John B. Wallace in 1894, shortly after his house, store, smoke shed, boathouse, and storage building a short distance away had been lost to fire. Wallace, who was a well-known Downeast fisherman who had a passion for boats, built the Opal and Mascot before the 1893 fire.
The building that appears to be a barn was originally built as a 30’ x 50’ boatshop. The 42-foot Vera, a gaff-rigged sloop with an auxiliary steam engine, considered an innovation, was launched from here in 1899.
The boatshop was lengthened to accommodate the building in 1902 of the Uncas, a 53-foot gaff-rigged sloop launched in May 1903.
According to family legend, it was the first Downeast fishing boat to use a gasoline engine. In 1904 six copies of the Uncas were built at Maurice Dow’s boatshop at Roque Bluffs for the Seacoast Canning Company of Eastport.
About This Item
- Title: View at Roque Bluffs, ca. 1925
- Creation Date: circa 1925
- Subject Date: circa 1925
- Location: Roque Bluffs, Washington County, ME
- Media: Glass Negative
- Dimensions: 12.75 cm x 17.75 cm
- Local Code: LB2007.1.111424
- Collection: Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co.
- Object Type: Image
Cross Reference Searches
Standardized Subject Headings
- Cabins--Maine--Roque Bluffs
- Vacation homes--Maine--Roque Bluffs
- Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company
- Photographs--Maine
- Postcards--Maine
- Beaches--Maine--Roque Bluffs
- Shorelines--Maine--Roque Bluffs
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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
Website
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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