MAINE'S FIRST BUILDINGS The Architecture of Settlement, 1604-1700 By Robert L. Bradley, Ph.D. Architectural Historian Maine Historic Preservation Commission MAINE'S FIRST BUILDINGS he Architecture of Settlement, 1604-1700 Robert L. Bradley, Ph.D. chitectural Historian ine Historic Preservation Commission This booklet was published in April, 1978 by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission with private funds provided by Citizens for Historic Preservation and the Society for the Preservation of Historic Landmarks in York County, Inc., matched by Federal funds provided by the Commission through the Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service, Department of the Interior. EARLE G. SHETTLEWORTH, JR. State Historic Preservation Officer THE MAINE HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION was created by the 105th Legislature in 1971 to administer the National Register Program in Maine. The Commission is responsible for conducting a statewide survey of historic, architectural, and archaeological resources and the nomination of properties to the National Reg- ister of Historic Places. In addition, the Commission administers a 50% matching Federal Grants-in-Aid Program for the excavation of archaeological sites and the restoration of historic buildings. CITIZENS FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION is a state-wide historic preservation organization linking the efforts of local preservation groups and historical societies. Citizens publishes a quarterly newsletter covering local, state, and national preservation activities and since 1971 has sponsored annual conferences on preservation issues, including Historic Districts, Buying Antique Houses, and Maine Archaeology. THE SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF HISTORIC LANDMARKS IN YORK COUNTY, INC., is a non-profit organ- ization dedicated to the preservation of York's colonial heritage. The Society maintains Jefferds Tavern, the George Marshall Store, the John Hancock Warehouse, the Elizabeth Perkins House, and the Old Schoolhouse as historical museums. Landmarks such as the Old Burying Ground, Maude Muller Spring and Snowshoe Rock are cared for by the Society. Cover and Title Page: 19th-century photograph of the now Booklet designed by Frank A. Beard, Historian lost Junkins Garrison, York, C. 1707 Maine Historic Preservation Commission Contents Introduction try to reconstruct a century of building in Maine which is now all but vanished. Survivals From the moment that European settlers first 5 There are four principal sources of information in splashed ashore in Maine early in the 17th century, the study of Maine's 17th-century architecture: buildings of various sorts were constructed to Written Records surviving structures or parts of structures, con- 7 meet their temporary as well as long-term needs. temporary written records, contemporary drawings, Those settlements which flourished quickly saw and archaeological excavation of early remains. Pictorial Records 9 the appearance of dwellings, storehouses, barns, In approaching the subject from these four mills, taverns, jails, churches, smithies-in short, directions a remarkable amount of evidence can Archaeological Evidence 12 all of the structures which frontier villages and be collected to piece together a picture of Maine's towns need to function as communities. first buildings. Final Notes 16 For several generations, from the 1620's to 1676, early colonial Maine thrived. And then disaster For Further Reading 16 struck. King Philip's War raged throughout New England as the Indians made a futile effort to turn back the English tide. Most of Maine's settlements were completely destroyed or badly damaged in this conflict and, what is even worse, King Philip's War ushered in nearly a century of bloody strife in Maine between the English and Illustration Credits: the allied French and Indians. Due to this strife and the normal ravages of time, virtually no "The Old Garrison" by Winslow Homer courtesy trace of Maine's 17th-century architecture survives of Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the Smithsonian above ground. Institution's National Museum of Design. This booklet is intended to be a companion to "Piscataway River in New England" courtesy of Frank A. Beard's 200 Years of Maine Housing: the British Library Board. A Guide for the House Watcher, Second Edition (Augusta, Maine Historic Preservation Com- Plan and Sketch, Turfrey's House, Saco Fort; mission, 1977). Maine's architecture of the Casco Bay Fort; and Pemaquid Barracks courtesy settlement period is little understood, but through of the Public Record Office, London, Crown research more is being learned about it every Copyright (C.O. 700, Maine 2, 11, 10.2). year. This booklet will attempt to bridge the gap in the study of architecture between the earliest Spirit Pond Sod House artist's conception, colonization of our State and the re-emergence courtesy of Edward J. Lenik. of prosperity in Maine in the 18th century. It will 3 4 "The Old Garrison" (Junkins Garrison), York, by Winslow Homer Survivals One of the most difficult problems in architectural history is the precise dating of buildings. This problem is particularly acute in dealing with buildings of the 17th and early 18th centuries, which were constructed before newspaper accounts and other published records became common; and long before the architect became a respected and established professional in the eyes of society. Often our earliest buildings can only be dated by in- terpreting deed transfers and stylistic details. Because of the not unnatural urge of owners to claim the earliest dates possible, the construction of many a building has been assigned to times which far predate the surviving structure. And often confusion arises when an early building is replaced by a later one, the earlier date being assigned to the present structure. In this way numbers of buildings in Maine have been attributed wrongly to the 17th century. The McIntire Garrison in York, for example, was long thought to have dated from 1645. It now seems that it was built after 1707. Nevertheless, its form derives from 17th-century architecture and it is thus a valuable witness to its predecessors. The house is small by later standards and consists of McIntire Garrison, York, C. 1707 two stories with a large central chimney (rebuilt not designed to allow settlers to pour boiling water structures were built of hewn or sawn logs, in 1909). Clapboard sheathing hides walls of sawn logs which are carefully dovetailed at the corners. onto hapless attackers huddling against the wall! others were of frame construction. In any case The most conspicuous feature is the overhang of 17th-century log houses must not be confused the second story, a structural detail invented in "Garrison" is a much misused word. In the 17th with the log cabin famous on other American Medieval Europe to compensate for crowded, century the term did not refer to a specific type frontiers of the 18th and 19th centuries. The latter narrow streets by increasing second-floor space. of building, but rather to houses which were was introduced subsequently by central and 5 Contrary to popular thought, this overhang was refuges or bases for militia. While some of these northern Europeans. The Mitchell Garrison in Kittery, again probably is misnamed, for it was built C. 1750 using parts dating from the early 18th century, is also of log of a late 17th century structure by that name. construction. This building, however, barely quali- And while the earliest part of the Elizabeth Per- fies as a survivor since only its first story walls kins House in York may have been built C. 1686, remain. These have been dismantled and it has been submerged by numerous later additions moved to a safer location for reassembly and and enlargements. However, the Fernald House interpretation on the grounds of the Kittery His- in Kittery, possibly dating from the 1690's, is a torical and Naval Museum. fine example of a one room deep, two-story frame dwelling with large central chimney. Viewing Maine's architectural survivals of the 17th century all too clearly indicates that they hardly exist. One has to look at structures of the Frost Garrison, Eliot, C. 1738 early 18th century to gain an impression of earlier building types. In this regard Maine's oldest standing Cape Cod style dwellings hint at their humble ancestors of the 1600's-very small one-story frame houses with loft overhead, a chimney to one side and a single room downstairs. This type of house was easily expandible into the center-chimney cape SO typical of Maine's later colonial period. Fernald House, Kittery, C. 1700 never a dwelling (there was no chimney for heat Mitchell Garrison, Kittery, detail, early and cooking); rather, it functioned as a barn 18th-century and was intended as a refuge in times of peril. The Frost Garrison in Eliot is the most military Although it dates from the 1730's, it might as well in nature of these early log buildings in Maine. have been built much earlier. This large, barn-like structure is of one and a half stories with an upper story overhang at the The field-stone cell block of York's Old Gaol was gabled ends of the building. Loopholes are cut into once thought to date from 1653, but is now known the first story log walls for musket fire. This was to postdate 1720. The Storer Garrison in Wells In 1633 John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay ordered that no man there shall build his chimney mentioned primitive shelters on the Maine coast: Written Records with wood, nor cover his house with thatch. "News of the taking of Machias by the French. Ironically, Dudley's own house burned in 1632, Mr. Allerton of Plimouth, and some others, had as reported by an eye-witness, Peter Force: " set up a trading wigwam there ,, And again The hearth of the Hall chimney burning all night An early but today anonymous visitor to New in 1643: "Mr Vines landed his goods at Machias, upon the principal beam. River sedge and rye England wrote that Maine "will prove a very and there set up a small wigwam " We can straw were used to thatch the roofs " Thatch flourishing place, and be replenished with many only imagine what an English 'wigwam' amounted was clearly the simplest and most easily used fair towns and cities, it being a Province both to, since it was never precisely defined, though roofing material for many years for all buildings. fruitful and pleasant". This was a good prediction, the term was used repeatedly by early eye-witnesses. Winthrop reported that a thatched barn burned but towns and cities take time to build, requiring Johnson wrote of New England in general in 1642, in Salem in 1647 (already an aged structure by efficient saw-mills and systematic brick-making. The Lord hath been pleased to turn all the them, presumably) and that the new Dorchester The first European residents of Maine and New wigwams, huts, and hovels the English dwelt meeting-house of 1632 was thatched. Yet by 1646 England had to improvise shelter for a few in at their first coming into orderly, fair, and Winthrop implied that thatched roofs were a well-built houses." months or longer after arrival. These earliest thing of the past when he noted that a certain structures nowhere survive, were never pictorially man "took up his lodging in a poor thatched represented, and seldom leave buried remains Occasionally we get glimpses of construction house". for the historical archaeologist to identify. However, details of the first generation of buildings. At they are liberally mentioned in contemporary Plymouth, Bradford mentioned in 1623 the loss of In general these roofs were of gabled form. For journals and letters. a "storehouse, which was wattled up with bowes, example, Winthrop cited an unfortunate incident in the withered leaves whereof ye fire was kindled." in 1636: "One Mr. Glover of Dorchester, having Edward Johnson, writing of the first settlement The structure's walls were made of wattle and laid sixty pounds of gunpowder in bags to dry in of the Boston area in 1630, noted that "The first daub which consisted of branches plastered the end of his chimney, it took fire and some station they took up was at Charles Towne, where roughly with clay or mud. Winthrop, on the other went up the chimney; other of it filled the room they pitched some tents of Cloath, others built hand, in 1632 noted a house near Boston "made and passed out at a door into another room, and them small Huts In 1636 the first settlers of all of clapboards". blew up a gable end." Concord, west of Boston, used a different type of shelter, according to Johnson, "They burrow Most, if not all, of early buildings in New England Foundations clearly were of stone, not quarried themselves in the Earth for their first shelter were covered with thatched roofs. We know this granite as in the 19th century, but rocks gathered under some Hill-side, casting the Earth aloft upon because of the frequent reporting of fires, many from the fields. The difficulty of building sturdy Timber; they make a smoakey fire against the of which were incorrectly blamed on the roofing foundation walls with rounded New England Earth at the highest side." William Bradford, material (actually, wooden chimneys were the field-stone was wryly noted by Johnson in referring writing of the first weeks at Plymouth in 1620, chief cause). Fires became SO common in the to two men trying to build à church in Salem was unfortunately far less specific: "After they early years that Thomas Dudley wrote in 1630 to in 1629: "One of them began to build, but when had provided a place for their goods, or comone Lady Bridget, Countess of Lincoln, "For the they saw all sorts of stones would not fit in the store [they] begune some small cottages for prevention whereof in our new town [Cambridge], building, as they supposed, the one betooke him to their habitation, as time would admit." intended this summer to be builded, we have the Seas againe, and the other to till the Land." 7 Cellars are mentioned fairly frequently by early This remarkable passage, although confusing in The tents, pit-houses, wigwams, huts, and hovels writers. This is hardly surprising, given the places, tells us a great deal about a first generation which served as improvised shelter for the first New England climate where frost-free winter building on the Maine coast which was designed wave of settlers were soon replaced by far better, storage and a cool larder in the summer are as the headquarters of a successful fishing station. yet still primitive, thatched cottages, often with desirable. Increase Mather at Plymouth cited an The building, 40 by 18 feet in ground dimensions, dangerous wooden chimneys. In due course larger Indian in 1621 "observing in one of the English was equipped with a single large chimney buildings with brick chimneys appeared. By the Houses a kind of Cellar, where some Barrels of apparently containing two very large back-to-back mid-17th century Johnson's description of Boston Powder were bestowed." And Winthrop wrote of fireplaces. A wing was evidently used for storage suggests the rapid advance of architecture in a Boston house in 1648 equipped with a "well and the hand-milling of corn. At least two major New England within barely more than a generation in the farther end of the cellar". rooms were serviced by the fireplaces on the first of the first settlement: "The chiefe Edifice of floor, a kitchen-mess hall and an office ("steward this City-like Towne is crowded on the Sea-banks, Most eyewitness accounts of early 17th-century room"). Upstairs was a large dormitory, another and wharfed out with great industry and cost, buildings in New England concern eastern bedroom used for storage, and a small store room. the buildings beautifull and large, some fairly Massachusetts (e.g., Plymouth, Boston, Salem). This was no wigwam. set forth with Brick, Tile, Stone and Slate " However, one of the best contemporary references to a dwelling of the period comes from the pen Building contracts often contain information of of John Winter, agent for Robert Trelawny on value. For example, from the Biddeford Town Richmond's Island, off Cape Elizabeth, in 1634: Records come these 1686 specifications for a "I have built a house heare. that is 40 foote framed minister's house: " shingled ye in length and 18 foot broad within the sides, sellare dug and stoned, ye chimbes made of besides the Chimnay, & the Chimnay is large with brick". an oven in each end of him We Can brew & bake and boyle our Cyttell [kettle] all at once While certain generalizations about the size, in him with the helpe of another house that shape, and construction materials of early 17th I have built under the side of our house, [cellar?] century buildings in Maine and New England can where we sett our Ceves [sieves] & mill & morter be made on the basis of contemporary written In to breake our Corne & malt & to dres our records, it is well to remember that in any period meall in, & I have 2 Chambers [upstairs bedrooms] there is great variation from the norm. A one- in him, and all our men lies in on[e] of them, & story house with a central brick chimney and a every man hath his Close borded Cabbin [bunk]: flat roof just nine feet high is hardly typical of and I have Rome [room] Inough to make a early colonial architecture as we understand it. dozen Close borded Cabbins more, yf I have need Yet Winthrop described just that in 1646: "A of them, & in the other Chamber I have Rome most dreadful tempest at northeast with wind and Inough to put the ships sail into and I have rain, in which the lady Moodye her house at a store house in him & underneath I have a Salem, being but one story in height, and a flat Citchen for our men to eat and drink in, & a roof with a brick chimney in the midst, had the steward Rome , and every one of these romes roof taken off " 8 ar Close with loockes & keyes vnto them." a detailed drawing survives showing an elaborate Pictorial Records village within a massive fortification of irregular star form. This drawing by a John Hunt is dated October 8, 1607; and since it is known that the Because virtually no 17th-century buildings survive site of the settlement was not selected until August in Maine and because written accounts leave 18th, many details in the drawing must be much to the imagination, early sketches and critically viewed. Cannon of various calibers paintings depicting buildings of the settlement belch smoke from most of the bastions, and the period are extremely valuable as a source of land and water entrances are surmounted by information. elaborate turreted gates of medieval form. The buildings shown within Fort St. George (as it The two earliest documented European attempts was named) include a chapel with a tower at one at colonizing the Maine coast have left us the end, along with more than a dozen dwellings, most dramatic graphic records of the 17th-century, storehouses, and workshops. There is more uni- Ironically, each enterprise failed within a year, St. Croix Colony, 1604 formity here than at St. Croix. All the buildings and it seems likely that the pictorial record of are one story tall and all have gabled roofs with each is either an exaggeration of what actually stories; to a pair of handsome residences (R), central or end chimneys. Yet it is hardly credible was built, or a 'blueprint' for what was planned consisting of attached two-story buildings with that such a community could have been built in but only partially completed. central chimneys and hipped roofs. Whether just over seven weeks. prefabricated in France or built with local In 1604 France established a colony on St. Croix materials, it is known that these buildings were While the St. Croix and Fort St. George drawings Island (Dochet Island) off of the modern Calais. of frame construction. Some at least were dis- are both suspect in detail, they nevertheless give The unfortunate combination of an exposed site, mantled and shipped in 1605 to the new site at a good impression of the architecture of the first a very severe winter, starvation, and disease Port Royal, Nova Scotia. While there is no reason French and English settlements. And even if they decimated the settlers, and in the following sum- to believe that all of these buildings were not were works of fiction, they would show, as in a mer the colony was removed to Nova Scotia. The constructed, Champlain's drawing almost certainly blueprint, the intentions of the earliest colonists. great explorer Samuel de Champlain was a exaggerates their size and complexity. Archaeologi- participant in the effort, and his detailed drawing cal excavations may yet resolve the issue. From the mid-17th century comes a map signed of the settlement in the St. Croix River was "I.S." of "The Piscataway River in New England". published in 1613. This charming drawing shows In the summer of 1607 a party of Englishmen This depicts many individual houses dotting the buildings and gardens at the northern end of under the leadership of Sir John Popham estab- coast and river banks of what are now Kittery the island. These range in type from a kitchen lished a settlement near the mouth of the Kennebec and York. Practically all of the buildings shown (I) of one story with a flat or shed type roof; to River. The site of the Popham Colony has for are one-story frame dwellings with central chimneys quarters and shops for smiths and carpenters generations been disputed, but it may lie on the and gable roofs. Occasionally a half-story facade (E, F) consisting of gable-roofed row-houses of west side of the river at Atkins Bay in Phippsburg. dormer is present along with a low gable-roofed one and a half stories; to the residence of the Like the St. Croix settlement, this colony was ell. No other source SO graphically reflects how settlement's leader, the Sieur de Monts (A), a defeated within a year of its foundation by poor humble were most buildings in Maine even by small hip-roofed dwelling of one and a half morale and a severe winter. And as with St. Croix, about 1660. 9 By the 1690's circumstances had changed, partly tions of what were termed "garrison houses", because of continued development and partly along with houses not termed garrisons. Thomas because of the unsettled times which began in Spinney's house on Great Cove is typical of the 1676 with the first of a long series of wars with latter type and consists of a frame dwelling of the French and Indians. The Kittery Town one and a half stories, central chimney, and gable Records for the end of the century contain sketches roof with central facade dormer. It appears that of buildings on maps by William Godsoe, "Sur- Godsoe's perspective has brought the gable-ends veyor for the Town of Kittery". These sketches, around to the facade, creating a false appearance while crude, are the only contemporary representa- of three facade dormers. Much larger at two or "Piscataway River in New England" detail, C. 1655-60 two and a half stories is "Mr. Wilson's Garrison" on Spruce Creek. This dwelling features a large central chimney, one (possibly three) gabled facade dormers, two large casement windows in the second story with diamond-shaped leaded glass panes, and what appears to be a palisade surrounding the building. A flagpole with a banner is attached to the left end of the building, probably as a warning mechanism. It should be Occudental. noted that without the palisade and the flagpole, the Wilson Garrison is a thoroughly residential, non-military building. 10 Fort St. George, Popham Colony, 1607 Spinney House, Wilson Garrison, Kittery, In 1699 the great English military engineer, Col. additional sleeping quarters. This was frontier Redknap's plan and perspective drawing shows Wolfgang W. Romer, drew precise plans of a architecture of a basic nature. Yet it hardly differs barracks ranged along one of the sides of the number of existing forts on the Maine coast. from the smallest and earliest surviving 'capes' of curtain-wall. These were to be covered with a flat One of these was Saco Fort, built in 1693 and the early to mid-18th century. roof rather than the more common shed roof. commanded by Capt. John Turfrey, among others. Heat was to be provided by at least one pair of Romer's plan and sketch of the installation shows back-to-back corner fireplaces. Paired casement Turfrey's house outside of the fort. This building windows and doors at regular intervals were to was of frame construction, one story high, with give light and access to the various vaulted com- a gabled roof. A small northern extension was partments. While strictly military in character, covered with a shed type roof. In plan the house this drawing depicts living quarters which were from south to north consisted of a major room Casco Bay Fort, detail, 1705 planned for the Maine coast shortly after the close and a smaller room divided by a partition and of the 17th century. back-to-back fireplaces. A third room beyond Casco Bay Fort was built near the mouth of the was unheated, as was the shed at the northern Presumpscot River in Falmouth by Col. Romer in end. There may have been a loft overhead for 1700 to replace Fort Loyal (located in present- day Portland and destroyed by the French and Indians in 1690). In 1705 Casco Bay Fort was greatly enlarged by Col. J. Redknap, another military engineer. Redknap's plan of the old and new forts survives and shows the internal buildings in plan and section. These include storehouses and barracks. They were frame buildings with posts set directly into the ground supported by buried rock footings. Both gable and shed type roofs were used. Pemaquid was first established as a settlement about 1625 and became England's northeastern- most bulwark against French Acadia. As such, it was provided with a wooden fort in 1677 (destroyed by the French and Indians in 1689) and a stone fort in 1692 (destroyed by the same alliance in 1696). The loss of the second fort was a strategic blow to English Maine, and in 1699 Col Romer drew detailed plans of the lost fort and a much larger one planned to replace it. Plan and Sketch, Turfrey's House, Saco Fort, In 1705 Col. Redknap did the same. Although 1699 neither of the proposed replacements was built, Pemaquid Barracks, 1705 11 Archaeological Evidence The fourth valuable source of information on Maine's earliest colonial buildings is historical archaeology. This science, through careful excava- tion, closely analyzes the physical remains of individual buildings or whole settlements which have lain buried for three centuries or more. Areas of flagstone paving, cellar holes, stone footings, stone steps, post-holes, and certain types of artifacts, such as hinges, latches, and window glass, all contribute to the understanding of 17th- century architecture in a state where practically nothing of that period survives above ground. Spirit Pond Sod House, Artist's Conception Historical archaeology is a very young science in Maine, but it is now growing rapidly. This is was a fire-pit. Very few artifacts were encountered, Sabino Head in Phippsburg, because of its close important, since the state is richer than most in but one of them was a bowl of an English white resemblance to the shoreline depicted on John early colonial sites, given its low population density clay tobacco pipe which dates from the early 17th Hunt's plan, has been tentatively identified as the and the relatively small amount of heavy industrial century. Recall Edmund Johnson: "They burrow site of Fort St. George and the Popham Colony development. In the past generation enough themselves in the Earth for their first shelter of 1607. In 1962 and 1964 excavations were con- excavation has taken place on 17th-century sites under some Hill-side, casting the Earth aloft upon ducted at this location with disappointing results. to provide significant information about the lost Timber Although several artifacts were found which could buildings of the first settlement period. However, date from the early 1600's, no architectural such field research has only begun. In 1950 excavations were conducted by the Na- features of the fort or its buildings were encoun- tional Park Service on St. Croix Island. In this, an tered. Perhaps the site has been mostly washed In 1973 and 1974 excavations were carried out on attempt was made to locate the footings of one into Atkins Bay. Or perhaps the site of the exca- the Shore of Spirit Pond in Phippsburg. The or more of the buildings of 1604 depicted by vations is not the site of the colony. More field object of this work was two prominent depressions de Champlain. Only a small area was uncovered, survey and excavation in that part of Phippsburg within small mounds which clearly seemed to be suggesting substantial disturbance of the site by will perhaps resolve the issue of the Popham the work of man. These features turned out to cultivation in the ensuing centuries. However, two Colony's location once and for all. be primitive shelters dug into the bank and parallel stretches of field-stone footings almost roofed over with logs and turf. The larger of the sixty feet long may represent the foundation of a There is no such problem with the important two structures measured some 32 by 21 feet on storehouse (B, in de Champlain's drawing). Other- plantation at Pemaquid. The location of this early the outside, enclosing an internal chamber of wise little was found in the way of architectural settlement was never forgotten, and much research 12 about 21 feet long by 7 feet wide, with a rock-lined features. Clearly, more work needs to be done and field work on this site was undertaken in entrance. Located near the middle of the chamber on St. Croix Island. the last decades of the 19th century. In 1923 further excavations were conducted, but the princi- before Indians descended on the abandoned Many of the stone foundations at Pemaquid are pal archaeological effort has taken place since settlement in the first of the Indian Wars. very small in dimensions. One, for example, 1965 and continues at this time. Besides work on measures just 11 by 7 feet. This is not to say, the site of Pemaquid's forts of 1677, 1692, and 1729, Another of the village structures excavated at however, that a frame building of that size occupied excavations have uncovered the remains of some Pemaquid is more residential in character and the site. Clearly many if not most 17th-century fourteen village structures. These remains consist dates from the mid-17th-century. This dwelling buildings were equipped with partial cellars, the of clay-mortared field-stone foundations of rectan- measures 16 by 18 feet over its stone foundation. balance of a building covering a crawl-space. Very gular or nearly square buildings, in most cases At about the center of the north-west side was an careful excavation and a trained eye must search provided with cellars. In date these structures entrance to the cellar. Near the east corner and for post-holes and stains in the ground marking range from about 1630 to the early 18th century. built into the wall was a shallow well about 3 the positions of sleepers and sills. And rain water feet in internal diameter which contained a wooden falling from a roof often creates a drip-line out- One of the earliest buildings uncovered at Pem- barrell as a lining. Recall Winthrop's mention in side a building's walls, indicating to the archae- aquid consists of the stone foundation of a 1648 of a Boston house with a "well in the ologist the extent of the roof overhang of a long- structure roughly 40 by 24 feet with a cellar farther end of the cellar". vanished structure. entrance and steps facing the harbor, as well as flagstone flooring at another entrance on the opposite end of the cellar. A cache of 108 cannon balls of various calibers B was found in one corner of the building, and artifacts definitely dated it to before 1676. The foundation facing the harbor was twice the B thickness of the other three sides, suggesting fear of bombardment by a water-borne enemy. What we have here is almost certainly the remains of "Fort Pemaquid", actually a fortified trading post built about 1630 as a deterrent to piracy A - STEPS (the French and Indians at this early date were B BEDROCK not yet a threat). The building failed in this Remains of a fortified storehouse PAVING purpose, since it is known to have been rifled by at Pemaquid, built in 1630, the English pirate, Dixy Bull, in 1632. attacked by pirates n 1632 and destroyed by Indians in 1676. 10 feet Historical records indicate that this building, which would have been of frame construction on stone footings, survived this raid and was de- molished in 1676 by Pemaquid residents shortly 13 A A entrance B well 10 feet 14 Dwelling, Pemaquid, C. 1650 Since 1970 archaeological excavations have been conducted on the site of the Clarke and Lake Company on Arrowsic Island. This remarkable industrial complex which included a fort, a trading post, mills, foundry, and shipyard, was established by two prominent Boston merchants in 1654. In 1676, as with other English settlements, it was attacked and destroyed by the Indians. The in- vestigation of this site has concentrated on one of at least half a dozen structures. B Excavation of this building, while not finished, has revealed more about the structure than everything written about the company's physical plant and operations. In all likelihood, it was the trading post or headquarters. What has been uncovered is the stone footings of a building rectangular in plan, some 40 feet long and 15 feet wide. The northern end of the structure is occupied by a stone chimney base and the stone- paved hearth of an enormous fireplace which was 12 feet wide and which faced south. Traces of sills and planks indicate that the frame building had a wooden ground floor. A lock and key found near the east end of the hearth suggest the position of an entrance. Fragments of window glass were not concentrated sufficiently to indicate fenestration, although there was a major grouping near the center of the east wall. Attached to the north-east corner is a projection about 5 feet wide which runs northward. This may represent an enclosed entrance or an attached shed. Its northern terminus has yet to be uncovered. A curious feature lies to the west of the building. This consists of what may have been a narrow paved alley, only 2 to 3 feet wide, between the west wall of the building and another wall farther to the west. Future excavation should determine the exact nature of this feature. The tools of archaeology have only begun to be used at the Clarke and Lake Company Site, and even at Pemaquid much remains to be done. Whole villages, such as Sheepscot Farms, await excavation. In the coming decades historical archae- ology should contribute invaluable data to the study of Maine's 17th-century architecture. 10 feet of Residence, Arrowsic, 1654 15 Final Notes For Further Reading The Trelawny Papers, ed. by James P. Baxter (Portland, 1884). Winthrop, John, History of New England Beware the Mainer who claims a home of the SURVIVALS: (Boston, 1825-26, 1853). 17th century. It is not so. To study the architecture Candee, Richard M., "The Architecture of of the state's first European settlements one must Maine's Settlement: Vernacular Architecture to examine early 18th-century buildings which reflect About 1720" in Maine Forms of American ARCHAEOLOGY: earlier construction methods. Contemporary written Architecture, ed. by Deborah Thompson, Camp, Helen B., Archaeological Excavations accounts and descriptions are invaluable. And (Waterville, 1976). at Pemaquid, Maine, 1965 - 1974 (Augusta, archaeology is providing a fourth primary source Cummings, Abbott Lowell, Architecture in of information. Archival and field research is 1975). Early New England (Sturbridge, Mass., re- Hadlock, Wendell S., "Recent Excavations at producing new data every year. As this research vised edition, 1974). DeMonts' Colony, St. Croix Island, Maine", proceeds, our view of Maine's earliest buildings Myers, Denys Peter, Maine Catalog, Historic is becoming clearer and clearer. This is important American Buildings Survey (Augusta, 1975), Old-Time New England, XLIV, 4 (1954), 92-99. if we are to understand the entire history and 1-13. evolution of Maine's architecture, an evolution Lane, Gardner, An Archaeological Report on Excavations Carried out at Sabino Head in now covering nearly four centuries. Popham Beach, Maine, the Site of Fort St. CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS: George, 1607 - 1608 A.D. (unpublished type- Bradford, William, History of Plimoth Plan- script, Bureau of Parks & Recreation, Augusta, tation (Boston, 1901). 1966). Force, Peter, Tracts and Other Papers Relating Leamon, James, Archaeological Report on the Principally to the Origin, Settlement and Pro- Clarke and Lake Settlement, Arrowsic, Maine gress of the Colonies in North America (Wash- for 1970 - 1975 (unpublished typescript, De- ington, D. C., 1836-46). partment of History, Bates College, Lewiston). Johnson, Edward, Wonder-Working Provi- Lenik, Edward J., The Spirit Pond Sod dence, a History of New England, 1628 House (Milford, N. H., 1973). 1651, ed. by J. Franklin Jameson (New York, 1910). Jones, Augustine, The Life and Work of Tho- mas Dudley, the Second Governor of Massa- chusetts (Boston, 1899). Mather, Increase, A Relation of the Troubles which have hapned in New-England, By reason of the Indians there From the Year 1614 to the Year 1675, ed. by Samuel Drake (Albany, N. Y., 1864). Maine Historic Preservation Commission Publications This booklet is one of a continuing series of publications documenting Maine's historic, architectural, and archaeological heritage. Sponsored by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, each study may be ordered free of charge on a one per person basis by sending 50c for postage and handling to the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, 242 State Street, Augusta, Maine 04333. Beard, Frank A., 200 Years of Maine Housing: A Guide for the House Watcher (1976). Mundy, James H. and Shettleworth, Earle G., Jr., The Flight of the Grand Eagle: Charles G. Bryant, Maine Architect and Adventurer (1977). Bradley, Robert L., Maine's First Buildings: The Architecture of Settlement, 1604- 1700 (1978).