The construction of Alfred Street was ordered by the County Court in 1828. It was intended to pass through the center of valuable mill sites and connect directly to Main Street, Saco. Protests and petitions over this originated in . . . — — Map (db m186157) HM
Biddeford became a city in 1855. The city government met in the Somes Building on Washington and Main Streets. When the Central Block burned down in 1858, it had been thel largest wooden building north of Boston. It contained . . . — — Map (db m186176) HM
Welcome to Biddeford
An early Industrial Revolution site, Biddeford was settledin 1630 by proprietors John Oldham and Richard Vines. They received their land grant as payment for services to the Plymouth Company in 1629. John . . . — — Map (db m186151) HM
Welcome to Biddeford
An early Industrial Revolution site, Biddeford was settledin 1630 by proprietors John Oldham and Richard Vines. They received their land grant as payment for services to the Plymouth Company in 1629. John . . . — — Map (db m186168) HM
Alfred Bonneau started publishing La Justice, a weekly French-language newspaper, in 1893. It was published until 1950. Joseph C. Bolduc was the last editor. Alfred Bonneau was a prominent citizen and one of the foremost . . . — — Map (db m186160) HM
The Indians burned the township of Saco in 1688. Fort Saco was built on the future site of the Laconia Mills to protect the settlers in 1693. The fort served as stables during the construction of the Laconia mills in 1841. Yo Cat Gully . . . — — Map (db m55718) HM
The Biddeford Daily Journal as a weekly abolitionist paper. Saco publishers Cowen and Noyes purchased the Eastern Journal which became the Union Journal in 1858, then the Biddeford Daily Journal in 1858, . . . — — Map (db m186172) HM
Frederick Douglas was denied the pulpit of the Second Parish Congregational Church in Biddeford. Abolitionist members of the church were disappointed and met in a pavilion tent erected for the 1855 Maine Republican Party . . . — — Map (db m186181) HM
The parade highlighting Painchaud's Band, in the lower photo, is going down Adams Street. The occasion is a flag raising on April 14, 1917 supporting World War I. In the background is the Nickel Theater, an early motion picture . . . — — Map (db m186170) HM
"Squire" Samuel Peirson's House was located on the site of Phillip's garrison house destroyed by the Indians in 1675 during King Phillip's War. The house shown here was erected in 1767 by Jeremiah Hill who died in 1820. Samuel . . . — — Map (db m186155) HM
Bishop Heley and Father Pierre-Emmanuel Dupont of St. Joseph's Church decided that a second church for Franco-Americans was needed. In 1899, they called upon Rev. Louis Bergeron, pastor in Fairfield, Maine, to organize St. André's . . . — — Map (db m186187) HM
The organization of St. Joseph's Church was begun by Rev. Jean-François Ponsardin, January 5, 1870, under Bishop Bcon's orders to organize a French-Canadian parish in Biddeford. The old Methodist Church on Alfred Street was used from . . . — — Map (db m186185) HM
In 1848, Irish Catholics celebrated their first mass in the Emery House at the foot of Emery Street in Biddeford with Father McGuire of the parish of St. Dominic's in Portland. Around 1850, Catholics started to congregate . . . — — Map (db m186182) HM
The Water Street area once had several shipyards. The painting is of the Mt. Washington clipper ship done while in Canton Harbor, China. Built in 1867 at the height of the China trade, the ship was the largest built on the Saco . . . — — Map (db m186152) HM
The International Order of Odd Fellows block was built in 1870. Its members alternated with the Masons in laying cornerstones with the Masons in laying cornerstones and dedicating new buildings throughout the city. Fraternal . . . — — Map (db m186161) HM
James Sullivan was born in Berwick, Maine in 1744 and came to Biddeford in 1769. Around 1770, he built a two-room house at the corner of Main and Hill Streets and in 1774, his enlarged house became one of the best in the village. He . . . — — Map (db m186153) HM
The first mill in Biddeford was the Laconia Compny founded by Samuel Batchelder in 1841. Production of cloth began in 1845. Some twelve million bricks were used in the construction. A large machine shop and foundry were constructed . . . — — Map (db m186156) HM
The Lincoln Street Mill went into production in 1853. With additions it contained eight million square feet of floor space. Power from the Saco river arrived in 27-foot diameter brick-lined tunnels. Turbines converted the flow into . . . — — Map (db m186164) HM
Biddeford, Maine was known for its good theater. It was the second stop on the summer stock route out of Boston. The Opera House shown here is the third on this site. The first was called Beethoven Hall built in 1850 and it could . . . — — Map (db m186179) HM
The fraternal society, "La Société Saint Jean-Baptiste de Bienfaisance," built its quarters at the corner of Main and Elm Streets in 1895. Organized in Biddeford at the close of the Civil War, July 15, 1867, its founders were . . . — — Map (db m186183) HM
Hotel Thacher was built in 1847 by the Saco Water Power Co. and was originally known as the Biddeford House. It was renamed Hotel Thacher in 1894 in honor of Judge George Thacher. The lines of the block, its roof, and its windows . . . — — Map (db m186166) HM
Reverend Tracy of the second Congregational Church and later Pastor of the Second Parish Congregational Church of Saco built this large late Federal style house in 1826. Reverend Tracy came to Biddeford from Cambridge, Massachusetts . . . — — Map (db m186180) HM
