New book provides peek at Saco's past
By Gillian Graham
Staff Writer
A man stands on the shore, Cataract Falls thundering behind him.
Another man stands in the door of his butcher shop, slabs of meat sitting in the open window beside him.
And a group of school children try with varying levels of success to sit still for a school photo.
These are some of the historic images of Saco seen in the newly published “Saco Revisited” Images of America book. The photo book, compiled by staff of the Dyer Library and Saco Museum, includes images from public and private collections.
The book was compiled by Leslie Rounds, executive director of the Dyer Library and Saco Museum, museum director Jessica Skwire Routhier and museum collections manager Marie O’Brien.
Routhier said she was contacted about producing the book a year and a half ago, shortly after she began working at the museum. The proposal was tempting, she said, because it would cost nothing to produce and all profits from the book go directly to the museum and library.
“It seemed like a total win-win situation,” she said. “We only stand to benefit from it.”
Routhier also saw the benefit of sorting through hundreds of photos to learn more about local history.
“Personally, putting this book together was a crash course in Saco history,” she said.
For Rounds, the project “sounded like a lot of fun” and provided an opportunity to delve into the photo collection maintained by volunteers. Many of the photos had little or no information with them, so the three spent hours researching the places and people photographed.
“We wanted this book to have more impact than just the photographs,” Rounds said.
O’Brien said she used Saco and Biddeford city directories to gather much of the new information about people and businesses. The library has directors from 1848 through the 1960s, which are one of the best resources available to research local history, she said. The directories list the name, location and occupation of each person living in the city at that time.
The three all said they learned new and interesting information about the history of the city.
Though she had heard of Squando’s Curse on the Saco River, Rounds said she never knew the story behind the curse. In the late 17th century, the wife and child of an Indian chief named Squando died when three British sailors tipped their boat. Distraught over his loss, Squando cursed the water to claim the lives of three white men each year, she said.
Rounds said seeing the images of Pepperell Park were fascinating. The park, which was located where Fairfield School now sits, was built after Cornelius Sweetser bequeathed $10,000 in 1881 to make it “a place of exceeding beauty.”
“It was this huge park that was lavishly landscaped with ponds and hundreds of kinds of trees,” Rounds said. “It was apparently spectacularly beautiful.”
O’Brien said she enjoyed the process of choosing and researching photos because they illustrate “how much things change and how much they stay the same.” While Thornton Academy’s original building still stands at the center of campus, gone are the butcher shops with open windows and blood dripping on the sidewalks, she said.
One of O’Brien’s favorite photos shows Joseph G. Weymouth standing outside of his Main Street butcher shop, a skinned animal pinned to the side of the building and the windows open to display other available cuts of meat. In addition to selling various meats, Weymouth also offered neat’s-foot-oil, which was used to soften leather. His family operated a slaughterhouse into the 20th century.
The authors also are fans of the many photos showing groups of school children with their teachers. In one, girls pose with their hands clasped to their cheeks while the boys try to look serious. In another, a group of children sit and stand without smiling while one girl – at the center of the back row – stands with her arms across her chest. That, said Routhier, is the same pose used for bodies in caskets.
“When you really begin to look at the people, you realize there are all these stories we can’t capture,” Routhier said. “You can only guess.”
“Saco Revisited” sells for $21.99 and is available at the library, museum and area bookstores. Rounds said the library and museum benefit most from books purchased directly from them.
Staff Writer Gillian Graham can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 213.
Staff Writer
A man stands on the shore, Cataract Falls thundering behind him.
Another man stands in the door of his butcher shop, slabs of meat sitting in the open window beside him.
And a group of school children try with varying levels of success to sit still for a school photo.
These are some of the historic images of Saco seen in the newly published “Saco Revisited” Images of America book. The photo book, compiled by staff of the Dyer Library and Saco Museum, includes images from public and private collections.
The book was compiled by Leslie Rounds, executive director of the Dyer Library and Saco Museum, museum director Jessica Skwire Routhier and museum collections manager Marie O’Brien.
Routhier said she was contacted about producing the book a year and a half ago, shortly after she began working at the museum. The proposal was tempting, she said, because it would cost nothing to produce and all profits from the book go directly to the museum and library.
“It seemed like a total win-win situation,” she said. “We only stand to benefit from it.”
Routhier also saw the benefit of sorting through hundreds of photos to learn more about local history.
“Personally, putting this book together was a crash course in Saco history,” she said.
For Rounds, the project “sounded like a lot of fun” and provided an opportunity to delve into the photo collection maintained by volunteers. Many of the photos had little or no information with them, so the three spent hours researching the places and people photographed.
“We wanted this book to have more impact than just the photographs,” Rounds said.
O’Brien said she used Saco and Biddeford city directories to gather much of the new information about people and businesses. The library has directors from 1848 through the 1960s, which are one of the best resources available to research local history, she said. The directories list the name, location and occupation of each person living in the city at that time.
The three all said they learned new and interesting information about the history of the city.
Though she had heard of Squando’s Curse on the Saco River, Rounds said she never knew the story behind the curse. In the late 17th century, the wife and child of an Indian chief named Squando died when three British sailors tipped their boat. Distraught over his loss, Squando cursed the water to claim the lives of three white men each year, she said.
Rounds said seeing the images of Pepperell Park were fascinating. The park, which was located where Fairfield School now sits, was built after Cornelius Sweetser bequeathed $10,000 in 1881 to make it “a place of exceeding beauty.”
“It was this huge park that was lavishly landscaped with ponds and hundreds of kinds of trees,” Rounds said. “It was apparently spectacularly beautiful.”
O’Brien said she enjoyed the process of choosing and researching photos because they illustrate “how much things change and how much they stay the same.” While Thornton Academy’s original building still stands at the center of campus, gone are the butcher shops with open windows and blood dripping on the sidewalks, she said.
One of O’Brien’s favorite photos shows Joseph G. Weymouth standing outside of his Main Street butcher shop, a skinned animal pinned to the side of the building and the windows open to display other available cuts of meat. In addition to selling various meats, Weymouth also offered neat’s-foot-oil, which was used to soften leather. His family operated a slaughterhouse into the 20th century.
The authors also are fans of the many photos showing groups of school children with their teachers. In one, girls pose with their hands clasped to their cheeks while the boys try to look serious. In another, a group of children sit and stand without smiling while one girl – at the center of the back row – stands with her arms across her chest. That, said Routhier, is the same pose used for bodies in caskets.
“When you really begin to look at the people, you realize there are all these stories we can’t capture,” Routhier said. “You can only guess.”
“Saco Revisited” sells for $21.99 and is available at the library, museum and area bookstores. Rounds said the library and museum benefit most from books purchased directly from them.
Staff Writer Gillian Graham can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 213.
Comments