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This year we took in the Christmas decorations at the Victoria Mansion in downtown Portland. Beautiful house with gorgeous decorations even Scrooge could appreciate (post ghosts of course). Hope you enjoy these images from our visit.
Click on images for larger photos.
Please forgive any fuzziness – no flash allowed and I didn’t have a tripod. I’m thankful they allow photos at all under new rules this year.
More pics coming soon of Christmas at Strawberry Banke in Portsmouth, NH.
Growing up in Bangor, my life was entwined with that of St. Mary’s Church. Attending St. Mary’s school, we had first Friday mass at the church just across the school yard (followed by Gosselin’s donuts and hot chocolate since the fast before communion prevented having breakfast – how would you like to be the nun with a class full of kids hopped up on that sugar rush!)
Month of May included the living rosary at the shrine of Mary on the corner between church and convent. First communions. Confirmations. Forgetting your chapel veil and bobby pinning a kleenix to your head. The excitement of Christmas morning mass followed by gift opening. The mystery of the teens in the family going to Midnight Mass. All part of my childhood. And so even though I started separating from the church in the mid 70′s, it came as a personal shock the night the great church burned down on Feb 3, 1978, at the hands of an arsonist.
While going through some old photos this weekend looking for family shots, I came across these pictures I took the night of the fire, and the next day. I blame the blurriness on subzero temps combined with seeing your personal history burn down before your eyes. More than thirty years later I thought some of my fellow former parishioners might find them interesting.
Do you remember where you were the night of the fire?
Click on image to view largest available size.
It’s been a while since I added a post, and even longer since I downloaded the photos from my camera. So it was fun after yesterday’s trip to the transportation museum to download some summer memories. What to do in Maine? here are a few ideas:
The antique autos here are works of art all on their own, but with some I couldn’t resist taking a little artistic license. The day we visited there was also an antique motorcycle rally. I’ve been meaning to visit here for years and glad that we finally did:
Train travel is a very relaxing way to travel, and the trip from Brunswick to Rockland and back makes for a lovely day trip here in Maine.
This photo is the calm before the storm – sunset on Beech Hill Pond the night before Hurricane Irene.
Last year a friend of mine told me about the story of Shiloh in Durham, Maine, took me past the last remaining building from a strange period of Maine’s history more than a century ago and gave me the book Fair Clear and Terrible: The Story of Shiloh, Maine.
Ever since that time, I’ve been trying to tell the story here on my blog, but kept getting writer’s block when I thought about how to cover the scope of a real life story that reads far more like fiction. It starts with the conversion of a charismatic minister in 1880, and ends 40 years later when the members were finally told by their leader to go out and work. In between those years are blind faith, perceived miracles, starvation, disease, a manslaughter trial, a doomed voyage on the schooner Coronet, hardship and absolute control over his flock.
When we approached the bottom of the hill leading up to Shiloh I seriously felt an Alfred Hitchcock moment of chill when looking up at the Chapel. Even though it is a beautiful building built with the best of intentions at the time, there is an eerie feeling in its aspect. My photos show the only portion left standing of the campus, but there are some wonderful old photos of the full complex from more than 100 years ago.
When reading the book, I was also surprised to realize that even after the Scattering, many remained a part of the movement, and were buried in the Shiloh Cemetary decades later.
A summary of the story can be read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Sandford. To really get the inside story though I recommend reading the book written by a descendant of the Shiloh family. Your best bet may be to get it at your local library, or you may find a well priced used copy through Amazon. A new copy will cost you quite a bit more. The book is Fair, Clear and Terrible by Shirley Nelson.
I remember when we were kids, we would all pile in the car and take a Sunday Drive, just to see what we might see. This weekend was absolutely gorgeous as spring has come to Maine about 3 weeks early (my forsythia shrub is already turning bright yellow!) so Thom and I took a road trip to Bar Harbor on Saturday just for the fun of it. Here are some of the stops we made along the way:
In Stockton Springs there is a graveyard with a stone that has always intrigued me since I came across it many years ago. The memorial for a Captain Albert Partridge that has the outlines of continents carved in a large granite globe. My thinking is the named locations were regular ports for the Captain. If anyone has more on this story I’d welcome your comments.
No day trip to the coast is complete without a photo of a lighthouse, so here’s a shot of Bass Harbor Headlight:
We also took a ride around some of the beautiful homes in Northeast Harbor, but what really caught my eye was the greening of the moss covered stones with sunlight dappled through the trees. Surely spring is really here to stay!
A. The same company that was responsible for design/build of the famous Brooklyn Bridge designed and built the suspension footbridge from Brunswick to Topsham Heights.
Although I’ve lived in Brunswick, Maine for almost 4 years now, it was just a few months ago that I finally stopped at that little pedestrian suspension bridge over the Androscoggin River. The bridge was built when the tenement housing in Brunswick (for workers of the Cabot Manufacturing textile mill – mostly immigrants from Quebec) became overcrowded. Additional housing being built in Topsham Heights required a way to cross the River when walking to work.
I stopped again today on a very, VERY, cold day in January. Walking out to the middle of the bridge and standing there briefly while freezing winds whipped through the cables brought to mind the mill workers who walked it each day on their way to work. My commute starts with pushing the remote control starter on my car to get a little warmth going before I leave home. Then it often requires a swing through the drive up at the local Tim Hortons for coffee. From there, it’s a 30 minute drive down I-295 to the Portland waterfront. By comparison, the commute must have been a cold uncomfortable walk for the mill workers. The deck of the bridge was iced over, the winds caused a slight sway, making the cable squeak with cold. 
The walking commute would have probably been the beginning and end of a 14 hour day in a noisy dust filled mill, 6 days a week. Something to think about while I sip my coffee and wait for my computer to warm up.
A few of the details:
The A.J. Roebling Sons Company built the bridge in 1892.
It was almost lost during a spring flood in 1936, but the bridge was repaired and the original wire suspension cables are still in use. (See archive image of flood damage to bridge.)
It was built for the mill workers, but also used by students and church goers as it provided access to St. John Catholic School and Church, as well as the Brunswick High School
For more information and some terrific old photos visit the Maine Memory Network.
More on Cabot Mill and the French Canadian immigrants that worked there.
Since I’m snowed in for the weekend, I’m finally starting the New Year with a long overdue blog post. This past week I visited the Victoria Mansion in Portland, decorated beautifully for the Holiday Season. My original intention was to share this visit with you through photographs, but unfortunately I found that they do not allow interior photos to be taken. When I asked a couple of volunteers why photography was not allowed, I was told:
1) Security – If photos were seen it could encourage someone to steal the antiques. (Apparently the detailed photos for sale in the gift shop are not a risk?)
2) Flash might hurt the delicate paint on the walls.
When I mentioned I was hoping to use photos in my blog post, a very nice volunteer did encourage me to contact the management which might supply me with some approved photos. (That would take all the fun out of it for me. The exterior photos shown are mine.)
This got me thinking about how much has changed, not only since the time the house was built, but since the time this policy must have been set. Indoor photos can be easily taken without flash by most cameras. Blogging is a common way of sharing information that would encourage more visitors to enjoy historic landmarks such as the Victoria Mansion, but a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. What do you think?
I decided to view the house anyway ($15) and it was indeed lovely. Today is the last day it will be open this winter, but if you are in Portland you will be able to enjoy it starting in May.
http://www.victoriamansion.org/tour.html
