LB2016.15.645

LB2016.15.645

Workers inside the Dr. D.P. Ordway Plaster Company located in Tannery Lane, Camden, Maine. The Ordway Plaster Company was a major business in Camden in the early 1900s. The company used several different buildings in town during its years in business. The "plasters" were an important part of the patent-medicine industry and were a pungent mix of ingredients, often including mustard. Reuel Robinson reported in 1907 that "Dr. D. P. Ordway Plaster Co., manufacturers of plasters and other patent medicines . . . is doing a very prosperous business through the mail and it is principally because of this business that the Camden Post-Office has been made a first class office and is the best paying office in this section of the state. This Plaster Company employs about 100 hands, principally young women, for a large proportion of the year and has an annual pay-roll of from $15,000 to $20,000." The company occupied a big three-story building and had a thriving business, even in South America. Dr. Ordway wanted someone to advertise for him. A man in the south, who wanted to do the advertising, had his daughter write his business letters. Her writing was so beautiful, Dr. Ordway asked her to marry him (a mail order bride). She did come up to marry him and was a beautiful southern belle. Job and Charles Montgomery took over the management of the factory; Dr. Ordway left town with his secretary (so the story goes). This left the “southern belle” to fend for herself. In 1903, She (Mrs. Ruth Ordway) bought a mansion and first opened the main house as the Whitehall Inn. Here in 1912 Edna St. Vincent Millay read her poem "Renascence" and began the literary career that won her a Pulitzer Prize. In 1953 a room at the Inn was dedicated to her and much Millary memorabila is displayed there. The inn has welcomed a king, a U.S. President (Bill Clinton) and other political notables, many fabled screen stars and sports heroes. And the guest list includes a supermodel, a legendary TV anchorman and a world-renowned singer-songwriter. Featured in two Hollywood productions, including the original 1957 Peyton Place and more recently Stephen King’s Thinner.