L. L. Gentner House 1903

L. L. Gentner House 1903

Dr. Eugene L. Stevens House at 82 Church St. The 1900 census shows that Dr. Eugene L. Stevens and his wife; Varietta Bailey, and the well-known shipbuilder George Gilchrest (1851-1926) and his wife lived there (originally 34 Church). Other evidence suggests that Stevens was at the old 12 Church address, but perhaps that was an office. The house was originally the Lathrop house, and was built in 1835. Major renovations were added in 1868. Dr. Eugene Leslie Stevens, son of Augustus and Sarah J. (Dyer) Stevens, of Troy, was born 20 September, 1865. He graduated at Bates College in 1889, was Principal of the High School at Absecom, New Jersey, 1889-90, and received the degree of M.D. at the Medical School of Maine, in 1892. He practiced first at Howard, Rhode Island, and came to Belfast in 1895. He was City Physician in 1895, 1897, and 1899. He was one of the Waldo County Board of Pension Examining Surgeons. George A. Gilchrest was born in St. George May 27, 1851, but had lived in Rockland and Belfast the greater part of his life. For many years he spent the winter seasons in Fruitland Park, Fla. Always a lover of boats and vessels, he was successful in his work of shipbuilding and leaves a record of work well done on an unusually large number of ships, as well as in repair work on vessels of all kinds. Mr. Gilchrest built in Belfast in 1889, the schooner Olive Pecker and the barkentine, R. A. C. Smith. In the years following in Rockland in the following order he built: Schooners Carrie Cookson, Laura M. Lunt, Len R. Dixon, Olive T. Whittier, Laura L. Sprague, Thelma,; steamers Gov. Bodwell, Ruth; schooner Theoline. Returning to Belfast in 1900 he built the Henry B. Fiske, Frank Barnet, and Theoline 2nd; in 1901-2 Government dredges Cumberland and Key West. In 1916 he built in Thomaston the Schooner Nancy Hanks which was followed by the Government ship Utoka for the Emergency Fleet Corporation. In early life he became a Mason in Rockland and was a member of Claremont Commandery of that city at the time of his death. In 1900 he bought the Marine Railway in Belfast and lived here until 1916, building several vessels, including two in the Cottrell shipyard. From 1916 to 1922 he was in Rockland and engaged the most of that time in Government shipbuilding. This is a tricky one! Charles Coombs had this mis-identified as the L. L. Gentner House, which was on Main Street. The house, though, is clearly at 82 Church St.