View at Manchester, Me. 35.

View at Manchester, Me. 35.

"View at Manchester, Me. 35." Image shows the center of Manchester, looking east along the unpaved road and trolley tracks. Known locally as "The Forks", the main road is now Route 202; Kearns Hill Road leads in at the right foreground. The trolley line connected Manchester with Augusta. According to a local source, the 19th century the house at the left was Phillip's Tavern; later it was the John Dagggett home. The early 19th century house at the right, built c. 1802, was a tannery, also a cabinet maker's home. In the 20th century it was at times owned by the Larochelle and later the Babb families (1960-1980.) In the early 1980s the house was divided in half, and moved to the Worthing Road. At some point the house became the home of the family of Samantha Smith, who in 1982 at the age of ten became known for having written a letter to Russian Secretary Yuri Andropov, asking him why there was so much tension between the U.S. and Russia. At Andropov's invitation she visited Russia. After her return she wrote a book about the experience with her father, an academic. Samantha was widely interviewed by the press and became famous as a "child diplomat" and goodwill ambassador. In 1985 she and her father were killed in a plane crash.