Fires Changed the Face of Winter Harbor Again & Again

Fires Changed the Face of Winter Harbor Again and Again. . , Fires were all too common in the days of open flames, wood stoves, candles, and oil lamps. Bucket brigades and hand-pump fire engines were often not enough. Fires reshaped Winter Harbor in 1887, 1891, 1902, 1915, 1922, and 1931. Yet determined residents rebuilt the town each time, meeting local needs for essentials of the day. They re-erected stores which sold everything from groceries to apparel, hardware, plumbing supplies, livery, and even luxuries such as women's hats., To spot buildings built after the major fires, look for flat-fronted facades which replaced the traditional peaked roofs of earlier times., June, 1891 Fire: The luxurious Beacon Hotel [above] with its shady porches and turreted rooms towered above Inner Harbor. It was taken by fire at the start of its fourth season. In under 3 hours the hotel was gone., July, 1902 Fire: A mighty blaze started at 1:30 am at the Schoodic Inn and ultimately consumed the 1888 Tracy Block/F.D. Foster's Store [right] which was located near 368 Main Street], the Schoodic Inn, a livery stable and a private home., November, 1922 Fire [above] On the side of the street with the A.B. Whitehouse store, [bottom photo], most of the buildings erupted in flames. Undaunted, local store owners immediately set about rebuilding., The A.B. Whitehouse Store [right] at 349 Main Street burned in 1922. [See photo at top right, after the fire] The Sunday afternoon fire started when a small oil burner was left burning upstairs., Main Street after fire in June,1915 that burned the, newly-rebuilt Tracy-Bunker block - which itself replaced buildings destroyed by fire in July, 1902., To learn more, visit www.schoodicbyway.org, Winter Harbor Site-prepared for MaineDOT by Nancy Montgomery Design Photos: Winter Harbor Historical Society with the help of Neil Buffet, Details from Ironbound Books' Musquito Harbor by Allan Smallidge