Yesterday

Society Dedicated to the Preservation of Castine’s History

Jim Day took time away from gardening chores Thursday to show off the Castine Historical Society’s Abbott School, which houses its headquarters and museum. The two-and-a-half-story brilliantly white building is one of four landmarks at the corners of Castine’s Common—the others are the Unitarian Church, Adams School, and Witherle Memorial Library.

Dressed in workboots and a military-issue olive-drab sweater, Day looked right at home in the first-floor museum, which, again this year, features a 20th-century theme: A Sense of Place: Castine 1900-2002. Today, one room off the main exhibit space is dedicated to 20th century wars, from WWI through Vietnam. Day looks like he could step into that room as a model.

Another society member, David Smith, was busy placing a skiff built in Castine years ago into a display under the society’s Bicentennial Quilt, a handsome work of art with seven panels depicting the history of the town from 1613 to 1996. It was designed and stitched by 60 of Castine’s community and presented to the society, which keeps it in a place of honor.

Next year, the society will put on an exhibit of the Penobscot Expedition of 1779, in which Continental naval forces met the British and lost 14 ships—all scuttled in the Penobscot River. Although it was not considered a high point of the American Revolution and the commander of the naval group was court-martialed and relieved of his command, it is an important event in Castine lore.

Day, who is president of the society, said the group had no headquarters when it was started in 1991 with only a small and dedicated group of people who feared that the story of an important region over which French, English and Indians fought might be lost forever. Standing in the museum, in front of handsome models depicting the steamships Pemaquid and Castine, Day said the early keepers of Castine’s historic treasures kept them wherever they could borrow space, even in town buildings, but there had been little organization until the present headquarters was found.

The building started its existence as a normal school in the 1850s under a state grant, and later became a high school. Eventually, small class sizes forced town officials to abandon the school, which at one time had only about 12 students, and the building was used for apartments.

Many of the town’s historical documents and artifacts now are held by such institutions as the Maine Historical Society, the Penobscot Marine Museum and Harvard University, because there had been no one in town to look after them, Day said. But he has hopes that the society’s museum and headquarters may become a center for historic research. And, why not? he asks. Better in Castine where the history happened than in Boston or even Augusta.

As the society collects and stores documents and memorabilia, its members also publish a quarterly newsletter, The Castine Visitor, which tells of news in the society and contains such articles as How Wadsworth Cove Got Its Name, or, in the Spring 2002 edition, Summers in Castine: Contact Prints: 1955-1965, by poet Philip Booth about his friendship and professional association with fellow poet Robert Lowell. Other editions have contained articles on Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit to Castine in 1935. One story, Skippers’ Race Began in Controversy, is about one of the town’s most famous events that brings sailors from all over to this small coastal village that locals say has the best sailing bay in the world.

Other publications done by the society include the book, Images of America: Castine, printed in 1996 by Arcadia Publishing for The Castine Historical Society. In its 127 pages are packed hundreds of images and tales of a robust community.

The museum as it appears today is a collection of photographs that show 20th century people, and of many items once considered commonplace and indispensable to the shop or household. There is much more that is not shown but is awaiting future exhibitions.

Touring the large exhibit room is an education for the young and a remembrance for the older visitor. It is Castine as it was long ago and most recently, and as it never can be again—something that if not collected and recorded and put in a place to be seen, will be gone forever.

Francis Whiting Hatch wrote about his grand-uncle, Charles J. Whiting: Civil War Hero.

“On Memorial Day the Castine town fathers provide 160 red geraniums and jaunty little flags for the graves of the town’s servicemen,” Hatch says in the article. “With justice I move the tribute each year a bit to the left, so that Aunt Pheobe, who sleeps alongside will share. I know the Colonel would have wanted it that way.”