From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
Main Street - Castine, Maine F35
View of Main Street in Castine, ME. Visible in image: flagpole at intersection, Rowell's Market, building with "Ship Chandlery" painted on wall, grocery store with advertising signs, other stores, automobiles,
Details
LB2010.9.117819
[included in the "Hancock County Through Eastern's Eye" exhibit] LB2010.9.117819 Main Street - Castine, Maine F35 This photo, taken from the town wharf area looking up Main Street, shows the Castine business district in the late 1940s. Wardwell's Sanitary Market, on the left, fronts on Water Street on the other side of the building, two doors down from Ma McLeods Sandwich Shop (photo #117817). In the 1920s Wardwell's was one of five grocery stores in Castine. Today the building is owned by Maritime Academy and used for offices. The building on the right is referred to as the Brick Block. One story states it was built in 1786 from bricks salvaged from the ruins of Fort George, built by British in 1779. In the early 1800s it was home of the Witherle and Jarvis Shipping Company and Ship Chandlery; various Witherle family businesses, including general merchandise stores, occupied the building through the 1800s. The cannon near the flagpole came from the Canova, a ship built in Winterport in 1823 for Castine owners. In 1895 the cannon was placed near the flagpole and fired in salute to the USS gunboat Castine on her first visit to the town. By the 1930s it stood in front of the Castine Town Hall but was later returned to the foot of Main Street, where it remains today. Credit: Paige Lilly, Castine Historical Society
