The program will be held at Berwick Academy’s Jeppesen Science Center on Academy Street at 7:30 pm on Thursday, November 19.  Refreshments will be served by volunteers.

In 1860, Lincoln visited the east coast to make his famous Cooper Union Address and visit his eldest son at Phillips Exeter Academy. He had his photograph taken by celebrated 19th century photographer Matthew Brady.  During the New Hampshire stop, Lincoln made speeches and campaigned in several cities, including Dover.

Fletcher, an upper school history teacher at Berwick Academy, will trace Lincoln’s steps in the Seacoast area, exploring the stories and myths generated by the visit. He will also talk about the dividends the visit paid at the Republican Convention in Chicago two months later, which set Lincoln on the road to the White House in November.

This event is part of the Old Berwick Historical Society’s 2009 series of talks, walks and historical events. The series, supported by member donations and a grant from Kennebunk Savings Bank, includes seven monthly evening presentations as well as other local history events around South Berwick, including the society’s Counting House Museum.

More information on all the Old Berwick Historical Society’s programs is available at info@obhs.net, or by calling (207) 384-0000.

Historic New England presents a walking tour of the Hamilton House grounds and surrounding neighborhood on Thursday, Oct 15 at 4:30 p.m.  Stroll through Oldfields, the oldest part of South Berwick and home to the Hamilton House built circa 1785.  Site manager Peggy Wishart will lead the tour. “We’ll try to imagine the landscape as it was when Jonathan Hamilton occupied the big house and the river was busy with ships and gundalows,” said Wishart. 

The tour will begin in the Hamilton House Visitor Center located in the brown garden cottage and proceed up Vaughan’s Lane to the Vine Street Cemetery to visit Hamilton’s grave.  Along the way, Wishart will point out colonial homesteads and the former site of the garrison and First Parish Church.  “We’ll discuss aspects of the early community – the saw mills, the Indian threat, the maritime economy- that shaped the lives of the people of Oldfields,” explains Wishart.

Pre-registration for the tour is requested.  To register, call the South Berwick office of Historic New England at 207-384-2454.  Tour admission is $5 for Historic New England members, $10 for non-members.  Please note, the walking tour will not include a tour of the interior of the Hamilton House.  Those wishing to tour the house may arrange to do so at no additional cost when calling to register for the walking tour.  Hamilton House closes for the season after the October 15 walking tour.

Photo by Geraldine Aikman.

Legends about strange occurrences and ghostly apparitions along the coast of New England will be the subject of a talk sponsored by the Old Berwick Historical Society on Thursday, October 22.  The program, entitled “Coastal Ghosts, Lighthouses, Legends and Hauntings,” will be held at 7:30 pm at Berwick Academy’s Jeppesen Science Center on Academy Street.

Retired Professor William O. Thomson of Kennebunk will give the talk based on his recent book, “Coastal Ghosts & Lighthouse Lore.” Admission is free, and refreshments will be served by volunteers.

In his book, Thomson explains that the small New England towns lined with taverns, inns and old seafarers’ homes facing the Atlantic Ocean are known for their legendary ghosts and folklore heroes. Yankee residents have passed down the briny tales, which, like the sea, have surged, intensified and expanded into classic legends and “yarns.”

A native New Englander, Thomson taught history 33 years at Salem State College in Salem, Mass., and retired as a professor emeritus in 1996.  He has written many books about New England’s heritage and has produced documentaries that aired on major New England television stations.

Thomson has appeared on six national lighthouse programs shown on PBS, Discovery, Travel, HGTV and the History Channel, and he lectures at local schools and civic groups.

In 2003 he received a national award for community service and outstanding citizenship from the Sons of the American Revolution.

This event is part of the Old Berwick Historical Society’s 2009 series of talks, walks and historical events. The series, supported by a grant from Kennebunk Savings Bank, includes seven monthly evening presentations as well as other local history events around South Berwick, including the society’s Counting House Museum.

More information on all the Old Berwick Historical Society’s programs is available at info@obhs.net, or by calling (207) 384-0000.

Matthew H. Edney, a professor of cartography at the University of Southern Maine and an internationally renowned expert on map history, will present the lecture at 7:30 pm in the Jeppesen Science Center at Berwick Academy. Admission is free, and refreshments will be served by volunteers.

This event is part of the Old Berwick Historical Society’s 2009 series of talks, walks and historical events. Supported by a grant from Kennebunk Savings Bank, the series includes seven monthly evening presentations as well as other local history events around South Berwick, including the society’s Counting House Museum.

In his talk, Edney will make use of original maps from 1617 to 1794 and explore the ways colonial New Englanders surveyed, mapped and settled on their political boundaries. He will also discuss why old maps are in fact irrelevant to the lingering boundary dispute between Maine and New Hampshire.

The history of colonial Massachusetts Bay is largely a history of territorial aggression, Edney explains. At one point, the colony included a large “Eastern District” that eventually became Maine. And for a long time, the colony’s imperial tendencies ignited boundary disputes, which were played out between residents, colonial administrators, and officials across the ocean in London.

Edney holds the Osher Chair in the History of Cartography at the University of Southern Maine and also directs the History of Cartography Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. An internationally renowned expert on map history, he has explored the cartographies of colonial New England since arriving in Maine in 1995. For more information, see www.usm.maine.edu/~maps.

More information on all the Old Berwick Historical Society’s programs is available at info@obhs.net, or by calling (207) 384-0000.

A three-year project to gain South Berwick national recognition of much of its downtown area comes to fruition this month with a public meeting about the National Register of Historic Places, the nation’s official list of significant sites in American history.

On Tuesday, September 15 at 6:00 pm, the South Berwick Historic Preservation Commission will host a meeting giving a brief historical and architectural overview of a new designation of about 100 properties as a district on the National Register. The meeting will be held in the Town Hall Auditorium and the public is welcome.

Staff members from the Maine Historic Preservation Commission will be on hand to discuss the National Register program and what this designation will mean to property owners.

The National Register of Historic Places is our nation’s list of those properties that retain integrity of design, materials, workmanship, setting, location, association and feeling, and which are significant within the fields of architecture, archaeology, engineering, culture or history.

South Berwick properties to be recognized include a sea captain’s house, a former one-room schoolhouse, the home of one of Maine’s first congressmen, a one-time stage coach tavern, a house built by a Civil War soldier, Sarah Orne Jewett’s homes and that of her school teacher, and many other points of interest.

“This is an honorary designation for the town, recognizing the excellent examples of architecture and historically significant spaces,” said South Berwick Historic District Commission chair Dan Boyle.  “It has positive implications for South Berwick businesses and homeowners alike.”

A National Register listing places no obligation or limitation on owners, who remain in complete control of their properties.  There is no requirement that owners open their properties to the public, restore them, or even maintain them, if they choose not to do so. Owners can do anything they wish with their property provided that no Federal license, permit, or funding is involved.

The National Register is a list maintained by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, as an honorary recognition. To be listed, Maine towns first must research their history and present it to the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.

In 2007, South Berwick hired an historic preservation consultant to document over 100 buildings in the village for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Funds were provided by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Kennebunk Savings Bank, the Old Berwick Historical Society, Preservation Timber Framing, Civil Consultants, and Edward Jones Investments of South Berwick.

About 100 houses, stores, churches and other buildings built in the late 1700s through the early 20th century on Main and Portland Streets, Academy Street and Highland Avenue were researched in county probate records and the archives of the Old Berwick Historical Society.

“The benefits of listing are simply that the National Register gives official recognition to the historic and cultural importance of South Berwick Village as part of the nation’s heritage,” said Boyle.  “Some commercial and rental properties in the National Register may also qualify for certified rehabilitation tax credit incentives under the historic preservation provisions of the Tax Reform Act of 1986.”

The South Berwick project grew from the Town of South Berwick’s 1998 survey that concluded that many houses and stores in the area were eligible for listing on the national registry.  Since then, citizens have expressed the desire to complete this process.

A public meeting was held in 2007 to outline the proposed new National Register district. At the meeting, a representative of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission gave a slide presentation about the process for listing properties individually or as districts, and provided information.

Questions or concerns, or offers to help with the project by volunteering should be directed to Dan Boyle, Historic District Commission chairman, at (207)384-5652.

Dr. Bischof will talk about “Writing Friendships and the Founding of the Women’s Rest Tour Association of Boston,” an organization founded by two women, a poet and a teacher, interested in promoting independent travel abroad among American women at the end of the 19th century.  After a walking tour of England, the two friends published the book “A Summer in England” which recounted their trip but also served as a handbook for other women travelers offering advice on places to stay, sights to see, and other practical matters.  The book, published in 1890, became the founding document of the Women’s Rest Tour Association established the following year.

Dr. Bischof will share her research on the fascinating, but little known, organization and the prominent New England women —authors, artists, teachers and social activists— who belonged to it.  Dr. Bischof will also talk about the association’s newsletter, The Pilgrim Script, in which members were encouraged to contribute short prose pieces recounting their own travels.  This rare publication contains some lovely reminiscences by Sarah Orne Jewett among others.

Hamilton House is located at 40 Vaughan’s Lane in South Berwick.  It is one of 36 properties owned and operated by Historic New England, the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive regional heritage organization in the country.  For more information call the South Berwick office of Historic New England at 207-384-2454 or visit www.HistoricNewEngland.org.

Fancy sheep known as the Berwick Flock in the early 1900s appear in one of 14 historic photographs featured in a new 2010 calendar published by the Old Berwick Historical Society.  It sells for $12 at South Berwick Pharmacy and the Counting House Museum.

An old fire truck, the South Berwick town hall when it used to be in a church, sheep known as the Berwick Flock, and a mystery house on Witchtrot Road – these are all examples of local historic photos featured in a new calendar for 2010, published by the Old Berwick Historical Society.

Selling for $12, the calendars are now available at South Berwick Pharmacy, the Counting House Museum and all Old Berwick Historical Society events.  Proceeds benefit the museum and the society’s year-round public local history events.

Each calendar contains 14 large historic photographs and an excerpt of the map of South Berwick from the Atlas of York County, 1872.  The map identifies individual houses by the owner’s name.

The Counting House Museum, owned by the historical society, is a repository for documents, photographs and historic curiosities covering a spectrum of community life in and around the Berwicks.  It is open weekends from 1 to 4 pm through October and year round by appointment.  Admission is free.

*This program is part of Historic New England’s Year of the Kitchen, a celebration of the role of the kitchen in times past and present. Through special programs, house tours, exhibitions, and more, discover the technological and social changes that have taken place in the kitchen and why this room still symbolizes warmth and comfort. Visit www.AmericasKitchens.org for a complete listing of programs and events throughout the region.

Items from the collection are now on display in a small new exhibit at the museum, which opens June 6 for regular weekend summer hours.  They are from 1 to 4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays through October.  Admission is free.

Wildré Pelletier, who grew up on what is now often called lower Main Street, and attended St. Michael’s parochial school in the building that contains South Berwick Town Hall, entered the Army in 1943.  He was one of two sons to do so in his French Canadian immigrant family of nine children.  Their mother, Clementine, raised them alone after their father, Henry, died of pneumonia.

Six months before Pelletier enlisted, his wife, Jeannette, had given birth to a daughter, Elaine.  The couple exchanged letters every day of his almost three-year absence.  Jeannette worked in General Electric and other factory jobs while living in Berwick, caring for Elaine and, like so many young wives, waiting for her husband’s return.

After basic training in 1943 an 1944, Pelletier was about to be sent to Europe for the D-Day invasion when he was singled out for his fluent French language ability and sent to the South Pacific for over 17 months.

In the Foreign Service Association Pacific Theater, he became interpreter for the large Allied base on the French island of New Caledonia, where he was a member of the 208th Army military police and attained the rank of sergeant.

After the war, the Pelletiers settled in Berwick and raised Elaine and her younger brother, Norman.  Wildré worked many years at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and died in the 1986, and Jeannette in 1999.

The Counting House is also a small local history research center offering thousands of documents, photos, books and historic objects gathered by local residents.  The collection is under the care of local amateur historians or professionals who donate their time and will assist visitors in doing research.

In addition to its regular summer weekend hours, the museum is open by appointment.  The Old Berwick Historical Society also offers a schedule of monthly lectures and walking tours throughout the year.

Volunteers are needed to staff the Counting House Museum on occasional afternoons throughout the summer and fall.  Previous experience is not required.

More information about the Counting House Museum is available at www.obhs.net, by calling (207)384-0000 or by writing info@obhs.net.

These bits of local history will be visited on the Old Berwick Historical Society’s Tour of Quamphegan Landing to be held on Saturday, June 6 from 1:00 to 2:00 pm.  This free event led by Wendy Pirsig begins at the Counting House Museum at Main and Liberty Streets, and includes Counting House Park along the Salmon Falls River as well as the surrounding 19th century neighborhood.  The rain date is Saturday, June 13.

The tour coincides on June 6 with South Berwick Kids Day, and families are welcome.

Participants are also invited to visit local history exhibits at the Counting House.  The museum is open from 1 to 4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays through October.  Admission is free.

The Counting House Museum is a small local history research center offering thousands of documents, photos, books and historic objects gathered by local residents.  The collection is under the care of local amateur historians or professionals who donate their time and assist visitors in doing research.

More information is available at www.obhs.net, by calling (207)384-0000 or by writing info@obhs.net.