Hayford Block

Hayford Block

View of the Hayford Block at Church and Beaver Streets from Post Office Square during the 1903 Old Home Week celebration of Belfast's Semi Centennial of becoming a city. Beginning on the left down Beaver Street a sign for a Stable can be seen. Following to the right is C. L. Fletcher's Fish and Oyster market, then Edward A. Wadsworth's business (unknown). Around the corner, on Church Street is the Opera House. A poster at the corner as well as another at the side of the entrance to the Opera House is advertising a performance by Kate Claxton. An article from the Republican Journal of Aug. 20, 1903 announces as follows: "The Belfast Opera House had three dates last week, with highly satisfying entertainments. Wednesday and Thursday Kate Claxton played 'Bootles' Baby' and 'The Two Orphans,' and fully sustained her high reputation as a star actress. She had good support. Friday evening the famous 'Old Jed Prouty' was given before a good audience. The play abounds in funny situations from the rise to the fall of the curtain and the audience was convulsed with laughter." KATE CLAXTON Kate Claxton (August 24, 1848 - May 5, 1924) was an American actress, born Kate Elizabeth Cone at Somerville, New Jersey. She made her first appearance on the stage in Chicago with Lotta Crabtree in 1870, and in the same year joined Augustin Daly's Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York. In 1872 she became a member of A. M. Palmer's Union Square Theatre, playing largely comedy roles. She created the part of Louise in The Two Orphans and then became known as one of the best emotional actresses of her time. Her first starring tour was in 1876. In 1878 she was married to Charles A. Stevenson. She was performing the play The Two Orphans at the Brooklyn Theatre (Brooklyn, New York), on the night of December 5, 1876 when fire broke out eventually killing 278 persons. It was, and still remains, one of the greatest fires in New York City history. Claxton married twice, first in 1865 to Isadore Lyon; they later divorced. On March 3, 1878, she married Charles A. Stevenson, and in 1911 they divorced. Her son Harold Stevenson committed suicide in 1904. Claxton died due to a cerebral hemorrhage in her apartment in New York City, and was buried in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery. BOOTLES' BABY SYNOPSIS The child is the daughter of two young people who are married unhappily, the father an officer in an English regiment, the "Scarlet Lancers," in which a young man bearing the euphonious nickname of "Bootles" is a popular member. The young mother of the child, desiring to keep her vow regarding the secrecy of her marriage, but unable to support her baby, decides to leave it in the father's rooms and force him to provide for it. By mistake she enters the wrong door and leaves the child in the room of "Bootles," much to that young gentleman's surprise when he finally appears upon the scene sometime after and finds the baby snugly tucked away in his favorite armchair. "Bootles" is naturally somewhat awed at the new honor thrust upon him and, not knowing just how he should act under the circumstances, summons his boon companion of the regiment to advise him. The father of the child is among the group that gathers about the bedside where the little girl sits enthroned, but he decides to keep silence and leave "Bootles" to care for the child or dispose of it as he chooses. Our hero, after a further conference with the Colonel of the barracks and the latter's good wife, decides upon the former course and assumes the guardianship of the little foundling, who rewards him by providing a most companionable and lovable little lady. Two years later, at a house party where "Bootles" is spending some time, there comes a strange young woman as the secretary or companion of one of the titled guests, and though she keeps her own counsel we realize at once that she is the mother of the little girl. And then fate takes a hand and makes our friend "Bootles" fall desperately in love with the unassuming little secretary. It nearly breaks his heart when she acknowledges her love for him but tells him that she may not marry him. Then the scene shifts to a gentleman's race, in which the father of the child meets with a fatal accident. Before he dies he confesses his relationship to the little girl, but not to her mother; and so, when "Bootles" receives a letter in a strange hand from a woman who tells him she is the child's mother and asks for her return, he prepares to give up the little one about whom his heart strings are closely woven, and takes her to the address given in the letter. Of course he meets with a surprise there, but it is one of those surprises which not only makes him happy but makes the spectator feel quite proud of having known it all along. There is additionally a poster advertising "Old Jed Prouty." Richard Golden (1854-1909) was a noted comedy actor of the stage whose most famous role was "Old Jed Prouty" in his play of the same name. The play helped to create and nationalize the genre of Down East humor, and helped make Golden one of the more celebrated comedians of his generation. Golden was born in Bangor, Maine the son of an Irish immigrant and dry goods merchant, Golden joined a Mexican circus (Allie's Allied Shows) touring the U.S. at the age of 13. He later married actor and singer, Dora Wiley, and initially toured with her as a member of the "Dora Wiley Opera Company". The company became stranded in Albany, New York in 1885 when it experienced financial difficulties and Golden contracted malaria. The couple's fortunes had turned by 1888 when Wiley sang "Home, Sweet, Home" in front of President Grover Cleveland at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York,[4] and, the following year, Golden impressed audiences in New York, and soon the country, for his portrayal of Old Jed Prouty in his original play of the same name. Wiley had a singing part in the production, and came to be known as "The Sweet Singer of Maine". Golden's Old Jed Prouty, which he wrote with William Gill, premiered in New York's Union Square Theatre on May 14, 1889, and moved to the Harlem Opera House later that same year. Prouty was a comedic Maine Yankee tavern keeper living in the coastal town of Bucksport, the birthplace of his wife Dora Wiley and not far from Golden's own home-town of Bangor. Just past the Opera House is the C. L. Wright Plumbing store and office is located in the Opera House block. The store kept a line of kitchen furnishings and goods usually found in a tin ware shop; but that is only a small part. His plumbing and heating business was one of the largest of the kind in the county. He recently completed, for Ira M. Cobe, at his Northport cottage, one of the most important and largest jobs ever done in this area. He had the contract for installing the entire plumbing system in the cottage and other buildings. It was one of the most particular and expensive jobs of the kind ever done by him or any other Belfast contractor. Mr. Wright was a native of Montville but worked at his trade in Belfast for many years. He established the business in1900. The workshop and storehouse is in the rear of the store and occupied three floors. Four experienced men and two apprentices were employed in the conduct of the business. He carried a large line of stoves and ranges and had the agency for the Crawford stoves, ranges and heaters. The company was said to have the best equipped foundry in the country. He was also an agent of the Direct Importing Company and had a fine line of teas, coffee and spices in his store. The next business which can be identified is the City Bakery owned by Mr. A. L. Curtis whose policy was to produce the best possible products, - from choicest ingredients and prepared under ideal bakery conditions. The baking department was a model of order and with modern improved dough mixers and other mechanical equipment it is not necessary to touch material with the hands. In the portable ovens 1500 loaves of bread were made every day, each loaf being wrapped in wax paper and sealed before delivery. Also, thousands of the daintiest cookies and cakes were baked as well as delicious pies and pastry of all kinds. In addition to the large city trade, there was an extensive patronage throughout the county where Mr. Curtis sends wagons loaded with the City Bakery's goods, fresh every day. Goods were shipped by express to points where the wagons did not go. Mr. Curtis was a native of the city of Belfast. Across Church a billboard advertising Fred A. Johnson's Dry Goods store in the Masonic Temple building on High Street can be seen. Below the billboard a group has gathered to observe something. It will, however, remain a mystery for now.