Main Street, Limerick, Maine L27

Main Street, Limerick, Maine L27

Image shows a streetscape in the center of a small town on a quiet summer day in the late 1950s. A man watches a couple of pedestrians from the doorway of the Amoco gas station office. At the left is the Limerick library, housed in a small gabled frame building. To the right is a late-19th century Queen Anne style building. Next door, set back, is the garage, identiifed by a circular metal sign hanging from a tree, advertising "American Amoco Gas" with a large "Coca Cola" sign mounted on a pole nearby. The Limerick Academy Building, with a bandstand in front of it, is visible on the rise at the far end of the street. Chartered in 1803, the Academy occupied this building after it was built in 1881 until the institution closed in 1926. The school offered both a Latin and a General course of study. At the time this image was taken, the building was owned by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. A military recruitment sign stands near the library. The style of the signs, the peoples' clothes, the heavy automobiles, and elm trees give this scene a classic, mid-20th century feel.