Wawenock Block • 1858

Wawenock Block . 1858. Wiscasset, Maine. , Alexander Johnston, Jr. designed and named this commercial building after the Wawenocks, a band of the Penobscots, Native Americans who lived in this area for many years before the first English settlements. Local builder Henry Bragdon completed the block in 1858., By 1891, the block was fully occupied. The Wiscasset Savings Bank, established in 1866 promoting a "very strong incentive toward the formation of prudent habits", was on the second floor. Barbers (or hair dressers as they were called then), possibly Nute Rines and Wilbur Merrill, can be seen here looking out the window next to their poles. F. E. Johnson Druggist and E.T. Dana Hardware were on the street level next to Charles B. Seekins' "One Price" dry goods store., Frank Johnson sold patent medicines, chemicals, paint, varnish, lead and sundries. He advertised 25 years experience compounding remedies. Johnson's Invigorator and Blood Purifier was said to permanently to [sic] cure headache, jaundice, heart palpitations and blood disease. It contained "Yellow Dock, Dandelion Root, Peruvian Bark, Black Cherry, Gold Thread and Sarsaparilla." The large mortar and pestle on the street in front of the shop proclaimed the success of his business., [Photo captions read] , . Wawenock Block, c. 1891., . Beaslee Pharmacy, c. 1906.