Searsport, Maine 186

Searsport, Maine 186

Here is a view of the south blockfront of Main Street, encompassing the commercial buildings toward the west end of the town's business district. The street is still packed dirt and the sidewalks are wood plank. Power poles and lines are only a recent development. A horse and buggy are visible farther down the street in front of another short row of earlier frame buildings, including a jeweler's store that has a large, round clock hanging from a bracket. A man and a boy exit the shop; close by is a bicycle leaning against the storefront. From the far left are three early-mid 19th-century wood frame commercial buildings that pre-date the neighboring brick blocks. The larger, middle one bears a sign: "J.F. Wheaton Meats Fish & Vegetables."The next, smaller shop's sign reads: "D. Sullivan Boot & Shoe Manufactory." The brick Nichols Block, built in 1868, has a sign "Wm. Parse[...] Hats Caps Boots & Shoes." Just beyond is the Sargent Block (1869), advertising "Gilkey & Havener Cigars & Tobacco." Both these buildings, which are generically Italianate in style, show the modernizing change in the roofline profile of the later 19th century, with the roof no longer showing because it is sloping back away from the street. The ground floor storefronts, however, still exhibit the early 19th-century granite post-and-lintel model. The last brick building, a miniature vernacular version in the French Second Empire style popular in the 1870', features a characteristic Mansard roof, Classical dormers and a boldly projecting cornice. This is the Searsport Savings Bank, later known as the Searsport National Bank, and subsequently The Merrill Trust Bank. Beyond, across Mosman Street, is another rown of wood frame shops, the first and second of which appear to be a jeweler's. In the distance is the imposing, Victorian Searsport House, as it looked following its rebuilding in 1895-- which helps us date the image. Part of a residential neighborhood built in the 1830s and 40s can be seen on the same side of the street where it dips near the Mill Stream. [Ref: National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination form for Searsport Historic District, 1979.]