Searsport, Maine 184

Searsport, Maine 184

This image shows the row of mid-19th commercial brick blocks lining the south side of Main Street, and a more distant view of the route as it heads west in to a more residential neighborhood. A forest of recently installed electrical poles rises from the middle ground. The dirt street looks newly worked; a horse stands hitched to a york rake on the far right. Tall elm trees grace the north side of the street in the distance. A man laden with items walks down the street away from the photographer, drawing our eye into the distance. The wood frame structure partially visible at the far left, possibly the property owned by "S. Shute" on the 1859 Searsport Map, was torn down in 1978. Several signs animate the stark brick storefronts of the Merithew Block (1847) on the left: "Post Office" is painted picturesquely on the windows. A large sign reading "S.M. Webber" and its accompanying advertising of "Hats-Caps-Gloves" and Shoes-Boots-Rubbers" marks the storefront behind the fire hydrant. Just beyond this are signs for the the businesses of "Geo. F. Smith" and "F.[?]A. Curtis." The steeply-sloped roofs with their skylights and chimneys, and plain brick facades below, with their simple granite lintels and stoops opening directly on to the wood plank sidewalk, are characterstic of early and mid-19th century small town Maine business districts. The image is also striking in how it captures the original curves and rise and fall of the street as it makes its way west. [Ref: National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination From for Searsport Historic District, 1979.]