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    Old Orchard Beach
    Old Orchard Beach
    Old Orchard Beach
    Ebook170 pages37 minutes

    Old Orchard Beach

    By Daniel E. Blaney

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    About this ebook

    From 1631 to the present, Old Orchard Beach has had a singularly rich history among New England's summer communities.


    Old Orchard was originally a small seacoast farming community nestled on the shore of Saco Bay. When the railroad came in 1873, the coast exploded into one of the grandest Victorian settings in Maine. It boasted famous religious camp meetings, transatlantic flights, big bands, big fires, harness racing, and automobile racing on the beach. The Kennedy family, Bette Davis, Fred Allen, Rosa and Carmen Ponselle, Pierre Trudeau, and Charles Lindbergh all rejuvenated themselves in this community. Old Orchard Beach is still a vacation mecca, and residents and visitors alike will find enjoyment and education within these pages.

    Author Daniel E. Blaney was born in Old Orchard Beach and still lives in the house he was born in. He has been a member of the Old Orchard Beach Historical Society since 1970 and has served as its president, vice president, trustee, and historian.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateMar 28, 2007
    ISBN9781439634554
    Old Orchard Beach
    Author

    Daniel E. Blaney

    Daniel E. Blaney was born in Old Orchard Beach and still lives in the house he was born in. He has been a member of the Old Orchard Beach Historical Society since 1970 and has served as its president, vice president, trustee, and historian. This selection of postcards comes from his immense personal collection.

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      Book preview

      Old Orchard Beach - Daniel E. Blaney

      Cole.

      INTRODUCTION

      There are 432 towns, 22 cities, and 34 plantations in the state of Maine. Without a doubt, one of the most interesting, notable, most talked about, most visited, and most liked towns must be Old Orchard Beach. In 1603, explorer Martin Pring walked the sands of Saco Bay. However, Saco Bay was much different when the last glaciation occurred. The ice was estimated to be one mile thick when it reached Old Orchard Beach. Geologists state that Prouts Neck and Wood Island were connected until the weaker rock in between separated and was deposited into the ocean, leaving the sandy deposits on our shore.

      In 1636, Thomas Rogers, our first settler, arrived and planted an apple orchard. In 1675, Native Americans destroyed all of Old Orchard, and the community was abandoned for 42 years, until people dared to return. Rogers’s old, abandoned orchard became known as the old orchard, hence our name.

      In 1776, the men of Old Orchard proudly served in the Revolutionary War. In 1790, the Staples family moved to Old Orchard and took in guests in their house. Stagecoach was the main mode of transportation until the Boston and Maine Railroad built the tracks right through the heart of Old Orchard. With the depot on Old Orchard Street, near the ocean, the tourists came in droves. The 1880s saw the building of many of the large hotels and boardinghouses. In 1898, the great steel pier was constructed. Several years later, during one of the town’s best seasons ever, fire struck the downtown area. Many of the large hotels and boardinghouses were destroyed. Reconstruction started immediately, and ideas were born on how to bring the tourists back. Auto racing on the beach was one of these ideas, and visitors came in large numbers. The 1920s saw many transatlantic flights originate on the sands of Old Orchard Beach. In the 1930s, we saw marathon dances, the longest and biggest in New England. The 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s brought all the big bands. From Louis Satchmo Armstrong to Si Zenter, Old Orchard was the place to play in all of Maine for big bands.

      In 2000, the federal census lists Old Orchard Beach’s population at 8,858. In the summertime, our population explodes into hundreds of thousands, who still come to enjoy what Old Orchard Beach has to offer, the beach. Old Orchard Beach can claim itself as the longest, cleanest, sandiest, and busiest beach in the entire Northeast.

      Only 127 pages are used in the postcard series books, and it is difficult to show the real Old Orchard Beach. Hopefully the postcards in this book will give the reader a glimpse of the Old Orchard, as it was, in all its glory. I hope you, the reader, enjoy this work as much as I enjoyed preparing it. Enjoy.

      —Daniel E. Blaney, November 2006

      Postcards originated in Europe in the 1860s. The United States government recognized postcards in 1893. In 1898, postcards could be mailed for 1¢ instead of the 2¢ envelope rate. Local historians utilize postcards to study the past.

      Many postcards were printed in the United States. However, during the golden era, 1900–1915, more than 75 percent were published in Germany. U.S. planes stopped all that during World War I. It is estimated that more than 4,000 different postcards were printed with views of Old Orchard Beach, more than any other town in Maine.

      One

      TRANSPORTATION

      The great conflagration of August 15, 1907, not only destroyed many hotels, houses, and businesses, it put a damper on tourism. A way was needed to bring back the large crowds that once came to Old Orchard Beach, for the day, the week, or the summer. An answer was found in auto racing on the beach. The year was 1911.

      Old Orchard Beach was proclaimed the fastest auto-course in the world. The first auto races held in Old Orchard Beach were on Labor Day weekend, September 4–6, 1911. Crowds of 50,000 people would come to town for a day of auto racing.

      Race cars are seen here turning at the mile-and-a-quarter pole at the foot of Atlantic Avenue. The other pole was located one and a half miles north of the pier. The start and finish line was in front of the grandstand, at the foot of Old Orchard Street. One loop would make a five-mile race. The above race was held on July 4, 1912.

      Cloth tarps were draped behind the grandstands to obscure the view of many nonpaying racing enthusiasts. Ropes were strung up and down the beach for five miles to hold back the onlookers. Newspaper stories of the day stated that Boston pickpockets were having a free-for-all.

      Joe Nikrent, in his Case car, finished in first place in 10 minutes 28 seconds in the Class C division (nonstock) 231-to-300-cubic-inch piston displacement class. His winning speed was slightly less than 60 miles per hour in this 10-mile race.

      The above postcard shows a section of the steel pilings that were removed to allow race cars to pass under the pier with some margin of safety. Local honorary race referees were town clerk Fred Luce; Judge Percy N. H. Lombard; and well-known local mechanic Harry E. McGrath.

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