GazetteOTHIssueDigital

Orig. published 2012 Revised 2021
Old Town House:
Pride of Place & Place of Pride
“Hmm. That little place on Route 9—it’s old, isn’t it? Is it some kind of meeting house? Wasn’t it a school?
Or a little church, or something? It’s not really near anything. What did people use it for?”
North Yarmouth’s Old Town House sits on a quiet stretch of road not far from the Royal River,
at the entrance to Old Town House Park. There hasn’t been much activity at this modest
19th- century structure for almost ten years, ever since Maine Preservation advised North
Yarmouth Historical Society against allowing public gatherings inside the building. Since then, Old
Town House has patiently endured engineers peering into its nooks and crannies and consultants
examining some alarmingly stressed roof timbers and ceiling supports. While we work to raise funds
to put Old Town House back into operation through moving and renovation, it’s a good time to
take a look at the long, rich history of North Yarmouth’s oldest surviving public building. This
special issue of the Gazette celebrates the history of Old Town House, and of North Yarmouth itself.
All material © North Yarmouth Historical Society. The North Yarmouth Gazette is published three times yearly and is a benefit of membership
in North Yarmouth Historical Society. We welcome suggestions, comments, contributions, and inquiries. Please direct all correspondence to NYHS,
10 Village Square Road, North Yarmouth, Maine 04097; nyhs1680@gmail.com Visit us at northyarmouthhistorical.org.
The GAZETTE 1

More Than 40 Years Ago...
North
Yarmouth
Historical
Society
Board of Directors
Katie Murphy, President
Sandy Burnell, Treasurer
Dixie Hayes, Secretary
Charles Bacall
Susie Doyle
Sandy Green
Mark Heath
Joy Malloy
Linc Merrill
Contact Info
NYHS, c/o NY Town Office
10 Village Square Road
North Yarmouth, Maine 04097
(207) 846-4379 (Pres.)
nyhs1680@gmail.com
northyarmouthhistorical.org
NYHS Archives
Walnut Hill Station
463 Walnut Hill Road
North Yarmouth
(also the home of North
Yarmouth Fire and Rescue)
Open 9 AM—12 noon, first
Saturday of each month
Information about town
history...your old house...your
road...family history...more!
For more info, call 846-4379.
NYHS is a member of Maine Archives
and Museums, a contributor to the
Maine Memory Network, and a grateful
recipient of grants from Maine
Historical Society’s Maine Community
Heritage Program and the MHRAB/
New Century Community Program.
During North Yarmouth’s Tricentennial year in 1980, Old Town House returned to its roots with a
reenactment of a Special Town Meeting, held at Old Town House on March 6, 1980. Town Selectmen
William Priest, M. Sandra Grover, and Scott Seaver, (photo, top left) presided, and “Major Robert
Hazelton of the Militia [in costume top right] arrested Pat Jackson from Yarmouth, who was wearing a red
coat and was suspected of infiltrating the meeting and spying on townspeople.“ The New Marblehead
Militia, a reenactment group, made an appearance complete with cannon.
From the Evening Express, March 7, 1980. Photos by Grace Hutchinson.
Sources consulted from the collections of North Yarmouth Historical Society:
• Pre-1849 and post-1849 Town Records collections
• Vertical file: obituaries, various subjects
• Diaries: Susie Sawyer, Ellen Marston Lawrence,
Samuel Sweetser
• Charlotte Lawrence, oral interview
• Ames, Pamela: “The Old Town House,” North
Yarmouth Gazette, v. II, Issue 4, Summer, 1976
• Baier, Ursula: Excerpts from Town Records (roads)
• Gerry, Sue: Early Yarmouth Schools, 1994
• Leighton, Nellie: Excerpts from Town Records
N
• Maule, Elizabeth Singer: Town of North Yarmouth, Maine
Inventory for Records, ca. 1681-1849
• Merrill, Linc: From Corner to Depot, © 2000, NYHS
Other sources:
• Diary of Isabel Hayes (private collection)
• Six Town Times (Maine Historical Society)
• Interviews with Dick Baston, Ginger Sawyer Collins,
Dot Freeman Hayward, Bill Hayward, Joan Tompson Labbe.
• Maineanencyclopedia.com; Ancestry.com
GAZETTE Writers through the years: Robert Appleby, Eric Austin, Hannah Austin, Charlie Bacall, Matt
Baier, Mary Bakke, Anne Bowdoin, Matti Bradley, Sue Clukey, Jill Copeland, Susie Doyle, Gordon Corbett,
Wayne Fordham, Ken Gallant, Dixie Hayes, Mark Heath, Holly Hurd, Karen Hutchinson, Tuck Irwin, Linc
Merrill, Tara Merrill, Katie Murphy, Everett Parker, Lorraine Smith, Norm Smith, Karen Stockmann, Shirley
Verrill, Bill Whitten, Kathy Whittier, Laurie Wood, Winty Woodbridge, Rob Wood, Kristi Wright.
2 The GAZETTE

North Yarmouth’s Old Town House: A History
Pride of Place
The birth of Old Town House really began 163
years ago in 1849 when, after years of squabbling, North
Yarmouth and Yarmouth parted ways. The separation story
itself is a fascinating tale, better told in another Gazette
article. For the purposes of this narrative, though, we can
start with the date of August 20, 1849, when the Maine
State Legislature approved the secession of Yarmouth from
North Yarmouth.
A few years ago in 2007, when Chebeague Island separated
from Cumberland, legislative approval was needed. It was the
same case back in 1849. The Maine State Legislature voted
to approved the secession of Yarmouth from North Yarmouth
in Chapter 264 of the 1849 Private and Special Laws, setting
most terms for the dissolution. Yarmouth was ordered to pay
North Yarmouth its share of taxes collected; the School Fund,
established in 1806, went to North Yarmouth; the boundary
between the two towns was established.
Haskell Rd.
GRAY
Gray Rd.
CUMBERLAND
(Rte. 115)
Mill Rd.
Lufkin Rd.
Walnut Hill Rd. (Route 115)
Thunder Rd.
New Gloucester Rd. (Route 231)
Parsonage
Rd.
Milliken Rd.
North Rd.
POWNAL
YARMOUTH
The Legislature also ordered a commission to be
appointed by Cumberland County to deal with several
other matters; one was to “estimate and determine the
Cluff Rd.
Hallowell Rd. (Route 9)
The Lane
When
Cumberland (1821)
and Yarmouth (1849)
split off from North Yarmouth,
property owners along the
new bounds had to choose their
town of residence, resulting in uneven
“zipper” lines along the southwestern and
southeastern borders of North Yarmouth.
Route 9
Sweetser Rd.
Route 115
West Pownal Rd.
ROYAL RIVER
Sligo Rd.
North Rd.
Royal Rd.
Mountfort Rd.
In the official record book of the new town, constable Barbour
B. Porter wrote that he had “duly notified and warned the
Inhabitants of the town to meet ... at North Yarmouth’s first Town
Meeting ...” This significant event required a ceremonial touch!
value of the town house;” then located at the fork between
West Main Street and Sligo Road. Yarmouth was told to
“pay to the town of North Yarmouth its proportion of the
sum … according to the valuation.” In a sense, this could
be seen as “seed money” for the eventual building of what
would become Old Town House.
North Yarmouth retained the name of the original 1680
plantation, an important distinction for the “Northers,” or
farmers, of our now inland town. (Merchants and shipowners
in the new town of Yarmouth were called “Southers.”)
Although coastal Yarmouth is the site of the original European
settlement, inland North Yarmouth was granted possession
of the original town record books including the Proprietors’
Records—a bound book of handwritten pages dating to 1681
and documenting the administration of Ancient North
Yarmouth, which comprised seven current-day towns. The
records were kept a large iron safe in Yarmouth’s town house.
The possession of these early bound record books
involved great responsibility. In 1849, the records were
initially taken to the Walnut Hill Meeting House (North
Yarmouth Congregational Church), although many were
probably kept by individual town officers. This, however,
wasn’t the perfect solution. North Yarmouth’s new town
officials needed to have a secure place to store the records,
and a real administrative center from which to govern.
For four years after its first Town Meeting on August
28, 1849, North Yarmouth meetings and planning sessions
jumped around between the Walnut Hill Meeting House,
the Methodist Meeting House on the West Pownal Road,
and, at one point, a private home—Charles Mitchell’s house,
according to the record book. It was here on September 23,
1852, that residents met and voted (Article 3) to build a town
The GAZETTE 3

But two weeks later, on November 15, 1852, the committee
reported on yet another offer of land, and Dunn’s proposal
was rejected. Instead, the record shows that residents voted
to approve a new town house location on land donated by
Enoch Morse, a farmer with 117 acres on Route 9, mostly
planted out in corn and oats. His house sat where the current
Untracked.com supply center (once Gillespie’s Farm Market)
is located.
North Yarmouth’s first town meetings
after 1849 were held at
the Walnut Hill Meeting House
(above), the Methodist Meeting
House (upper right), and at
the Mitchell home on the New
Gloucester Road, Route 231.
house. A committee of nine—one representative from each
of the town’s school districts—was appointed and ordered to
start planning.
Aside from the schoolhouses and the property on
which they sat, the new town owned no lots of land,
so it was up to the town to buy a plot or a resident to
donate a parcel. Of course, the latter was preferable.
The committee went to work and, on November
2, 1852, they reported that they had successfully
located a site. The minutes of the meeting record
that it was voted “to accept the proposal of James
Dunn to give the town a lot to build the Town
House on if the town saw fit to do it.”
East North Yarmouth vs. Walnut Hill
There is no written record of why James Dunn’s proposition
was abandoned—no discussion was recorded and James
actually passed away scarcely two months later, on December
31, 1852, leaving his two sons to divide up the farm and the
store/post office. Perhaps James kept a diary that could shed
light on this situation, but we don’t know if one exists.
The new location for the town house, farther away from
a center of business and transportation, seems like an odd
Dunn lived and ran a prosperous enterprise,
Dunn’s Depot, at the North Road/Route 9 intersection,
at what was quickly becoming the heart of
the village of East North Yarmouth. The property
offered by Dunn was likely at this location.
Central to Dunn’s Depot were the tracks of the
Atlantic & St. Lawrence Railroad (later Grand
Trunk), which had come through in 1849, on land
purchased from Dunn. By 1852, the train offered
twelve daily stops to pick up and deliver passengers,
mail, and freight. From the Depot one could catch
a stagecoach and ride north to Pownal Center and
Durham or travel by boat on the Royal River to
Yarmouth. The Depot boasted a store and a post
office (James Dunn, postmaster), a district school,
and farms and houses at or near the road intersection.
Dunn’s would have been an excellent location, at a
developing commercial center with transportation
connections to Yarmouth, Portland, and beyond.
Above: Looking out at Dunn’s Depot from the store and post office. The photo was
taken on July 4, 1892. Tracks leading to the left went into Yarmouth. Below: Enoch
Morse’s place around 1900, then the Sawyer farm. Like other connected farmhouses,
the original structure was probably a one-story ell. Above photo courtesy Linc Merrill
4 The GAZETTE

choice. What caused the town to choose Morse’s land over
Dunn’s? Perhaps, after some wrangling, the decision was a
compromise between the town’s two villages.
The Royal River bisects North Yarmouth and, on
either side, two villages developed. East North Yarmouth
was literally east of the Royal River, with schools, the
Methodist Church, and a growing business/rail center
at the North Road/Route 9 intersection. Walnut
Hill, west of the Royal and three miles distant, had
its own schools, the Walnut Hill meeting house, and
a commercial center at Routes 9/115—although the
railroad would not come to Walnut Hill until 1870. Each
village had developed its own separate identity over time:
[b]y the 1890s, feelings of pride and competition
caused newspaper articles to refer to residents
from the other village as being “from away.” This
continued on into the 1920s when the Memorial
Highway was created with monuments at either
end, in both villages .... because townspeople
would not agree to place a traditional monument
in one village to the exclusion of the other!
—Hurd and Merrill, Around North Yarmouth
These days, we give little thought to crossing bridges that
span the Royal River on the New Gloucester Road (Route
231) and the Hallowell Road (Route 9). But in 1852, roads
were rough and high water or heaving ice could wreck a
bridge. Crossing the Royal to get to the town house can’t
have been a popular with Walnut Hill residents.
And so, a compromise was struck. Even though savvy
businessman James Dunn almost sealed the deal for East
North Yarmouth, apparently cooler (or hotter!) heads,
probably from Walnut Hill, prevailed at the November 2,
1852 meeting. The Morse land was chosen, a location that
avoided a river crossing for Walnut Hill, but was closer to
East North Yarmouth’s village.
Oral tradition has always referred to Old Town House as
sitting at “the geographic center of North Yarmouth.” This is
probably not the primary reason for picking the Morse site, but
the concept could have helped convince the unconvinced.
There were still rumblings. A year later, at the April 25,
1853 Town Meeting, construction on the town house still
hadn’t begun and the Warrant included an article “to see if the
town will authorize the committee … to set the [town house] at
or near the center of travel—said committee being authorized
to ascertain as near as can be to the center of travel.”
Again, no discussion is recorded, and all we know is that
both articles were dismissed—with irritation, I’m sure! The
construction of the Town House was finally on track.
Top: The Town House in Yarmouth, originally built in 1833. It once stood next
to the two brick schoolhouses at the Sligo Road/Main Street intersection.
Above: The North Yarmouth Town House in a pre-1900s photo.
Finally, a Time to Build
Supervising the Town House construction were Reuben
Humphrey, Barbour B. Porter, and Benjamin Cole. Their
instructions were that the building contract be awarded to
the lowest bidder and that “said house [was] to be placed on
stone posts,” that it “be completed by Sept. 1, 1853…[and]
a suitable fireproof safe in said house [be built] of brick or
stone”—for storage of the town records.
The builders no doubt started during the summer or fall of
1853. The construction was simple and spare, very similar to
Yarmouth’s Town House. No front porch; that would come
more than half a century later. brick room with a heavy iron
door for records storage was included. This small Town House
serviced the town’s population of just over 1,000.
It must have been a proud day on March 27, 1854, when
Town Meeting was held for the first time in the new town
hall.
The GAZETTE 5

Town Meetings
The Town House was used by selectmen and other town
officials, but was probably at its busiest during Town Meeting
day. North Yarmouth’s meetings were always held in March,
so ordered of all towns by the Massachusetts General Court
(our colonial legislature) in 1691.
Horse-drawn carts and wagons would have crowded the
yard. Town meetings, then as now, could be long, drawn-out
affairs, and, while residents discussed and debated, animals
stood out in the cold. In 1879, hitching posts were set for
horses, and the animals were truly given relief from the
weather sometime after the 1924 Town Meeting. Selectman
Bert Lawrence had assembled a team of volunteers to construct
horse sheds using materials that came from the old Sligo Road
schoolhouse in the preceding year, and he was recognized at
Town Meeting for his efforts. It was ordered that the men who
labored on the construction of the sheds be paid.
Ironically, the automobile was on a rapid rise throughout
the country in the 1920s. A growing number of residents
owned the contraptions, but horses still worked farmland
and provided transport.
The Scene
We can tell from early town records that Town Meetings
were often well-attended events, falling at a time when
winter weather prevented most outdoor farm work, and
gatherings of any sort, social or business, were especially
welcome. Dick Baston, who was born in North Yarmouth in
1927, recalls that there were often spontaneous “caucuses”
on the porch behind the Town House, when one or more
attendees strolled outside with a bottle in his pocket during
a break in the proceedings.
Men attended, mostly; any mention of Town Meeting
by Ellen Marston Lawrence in her journals (1868 to 1932)
notes only that her male family members went to Meeting.
Women gained the right to vote in 1919, so it’s unlikely they
were welcome before then, anyway. It has only been within
the last seventy years that women were represented at the
town’s administration, beginning with Asenath York, Town
Clerk from 1946–1963.
Isabel Hayes (1887–1965) served as a ballot clerk for many
years and had quite a lot to say about Town Meeting in her
voluminous diary, now in the possession of her granddaughter
Dixie Hayes. On Monday, March 9, 1959, she wrote: “Town
Meeting day and our first crack at the Australian ballot
system thanks to some crackpot at last year’s meeting. I don’t
How They Did it in Freeport
from the Six Town Times, Dec. 1, 1892
The Town Meeting was called for Saturday Nov. 26,
called out a large crowd, mostly noisy boys and
decided farmers. The town clerk called the meeting
to order and the warrant read. Hon. J.C. Kendall was
chosen moderator.
The article to see if town would instruct selectmen
to pay $700 to Electric Light Co. was read, when a
farmer rose and made a motion to dismiss the article.
This motion was lost by a vote of 126 to 137.
Several motions were then made to see how they
should vote on this article, but the noise of the boys
prevented any business. The boys were hollering all
the time, and some men were not slow. Tax collector
went round and collected poll-taxes from many.
Remarks by Hon. E. B. Mallets, Jr. against the town laying
out money at present for such purposes. Remarks
by gentlemen from Portland in favor of it. Finally the
constable arose and made the startling statement that
the meeting was not legal as the notice had not been
posted long enough, whereupon the entire crowd
vanished to await the expiation of time of calling a
legal meeting.
remember who but if I have him pointed out today I’ll tell
him what I think of him … I dread this day … from 1 o’clock
to who knows what time in the evening.” (Between 1954
and 1971, residents cast their ballots on Town Meeting day
from 1 PM on, and the meeting itself started at around 7 PM.)
Despite her previous comments, Isabel notes the next day
that “Dwight Verrill’s wife Patricia cast the first vote under
the new Australian system. A very good meeting all in all,
was home just before midnight with 136 ballots cast.”
Discussions could last for a good part of the day as participants
made careful decisions about how to spend precious tax
dollars, and reading the warrants and minutes gives the sense
of some painfully long debates. “Putting in a culvert would be
good for half an hour,” laughs Dick Baston. “And if there was
disagreement, well, there’d be a secret ballot.” At that point,
he said, everybody would be called to vote. This would include
the three or four women who contributed to Town Meeting by
providing a meal during the midday break in the proceedings.
6 The GAZETTE

They would stop their bean dinner preparations in the kitchen
and would come cast their ballots.
Hearty food was necessary. The weather often played a
big part in Town Meeting. March weather could howl, and
Isabel’s diary recalls details of blizzards, heavy winds, and
whiteouts. On the morning of that 1959 town meeting,
Isabel says that “I am very sure that I came out of hibernation
a little early. 10 degrees when I got up, and at 9 AM only
about 20 degrees and snowing hard.” Three years earlier, on
March 17, she records “20 inches of snow in some parts of
Maine, and I guess that’s us … the kids were bug-eyed with
excitement. Went to bed by kerosene lamplight. Certainly
was a humdinger, lots of accidents.” All this was nothing new:
On March 9, 1931, Ellen Lawrence wrote that “They had the
Town meeting, not so many out as usual. They went over
the road with the tractor and down through our dooryard …
couldn’t get through the drifts …”
Accoutrements and Activities
After its construction, the Town House was outfitted and
residents were paid for its care and maintenence. Receipts
through the years note payment for maintaining the wood
floor, mowing the grounds, painting, supplying stove wood,
filling oil lamps, repairs, and supplying janitorial services
(billed to the town by Chester Lawrence, 1937). Supplies
were bought, too, and Dick Baston commented that
selectmen tried to be fair in their purchases by patronizing
businesses in both Walnut Hill and East North Yarmouth!
Charlotte Lawrence 1908–2003, niece of Chester,
remembered the Town House in a 1977 interview. There
were “unpainted wooden benches with sawdust on the floor.”
Spittoons were placed around the room. Oil lamps were set
in brackets along the walls, and there was a woodstove in the
corner.
The stove was vented by a chimney in the building’s large,
open room (see photo, p. 5). Sometime later, the Town House
was altered and the front section of the building was walled
off, creating a selectmen’s office to the left and a kitchen to
the right. Two corresponding chimneys were installed for
stoves to warm the crowd during those cold March meeting
days. Dick Baston remembers that these stoves had to be well
fed. “I’d go to Meeting with my father, when I was a boy of 10
or so, and I’d be underfoot. ‘Go get a stick of wood,’ he’d say
to me. That would be my job.”
On election day, voting booths were set up in the main
hall, Charlotte remembered. She recalled casting her first
vote at age 21 at the Town House in 1929.
Dick Baston recalls
that the town
always tried to be
fair by purchasing
from both East
North Yarmouth
and Walnut Hill
businesses.
In 1923 it was decided to “allow the Selectmen to let the
Town Hall to such parties and for such occasions and for
what price they judge to be right.” As a result, said Charlotte,
many lively events were held at the Town House—card
parties, dances, and minstrel shows. From an insurance bill
dated 1924, we know that the Town House was outfitted
with a piano!
Susie Sawyer lived next door in the former Chase house
with her parents Herbert and Minnie and four siblings. In
a 1937 diary, she records going to the movies at the Town
House several times during the summer. Horror and drama
were on the bill—she and “Millie Millard and Mary and Ed”
saw the 1934 Black Cat with Béla Lugosi and Boris Karloff. The
Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923, with Lon Chaney Sr.) was
shown on another night. Dot and Bill Hayward remember that
George Crichton ran the projector for Town House movies.
But of course, the Town House’s purpose was for official
business. Selectmen and other town officials used it as an
office, although in later years this was somewhat sporadic
and dependent on where they lived. According to town
historian Ursula Baier, Tax Collector and Treasurer Ernest
Allen and Town Clerk Carle Henry worked from their
The GAZETTE 7

homes in the 1960s. Since early times, active or current
records were often kept with the Town Clerk or Treasurer
in his or her home. Dick Baston remembers that selectmen
would meet for several days before Town Meeting to get
everything organized and this would often be done at each
others’ houses. “They’d be here, sitting around the dining
room table,” he says; Dick’s father Harold was a selectman at
one time; his grandfather served as town treasurer. In earlier
years Selectman Bert Lawrence spent much time at the Town
House; he lived nearby on North Road. Bert’s father James
Lawrence was often at the Town House on town business,
and he attended North Yarmouth Mutual Fire Insurance
meetings there. We know this from the diary of his wife,
Ellen Marston Lawrence. Samuel Sweetser, in his 1889–1891
diary, also records his attendance and both Fire Insurance
and School Fund meetings.
Still Not Happy
The Town House was in regular use, but around the turn of
the century some were still not happy with its location—and
it’s very possible that it had something to do with the roads.
Few roads were consistently good in pre-asphalt days, but
Route 9, not completely paved until the 1950s, could be
particularly bad. Walnut Hill residents traveling north along
Route 9 to the Town House would be on a downward slope
after the crest of the hill passing through the current Toddy
Brook Golf course. (The railroad overpass was not built until
1911.) Walnut Hill resident Sam Sweetser records in March
1890 that “The county road from Railroad [Route 9] is about
as bad as it can well be, deep mud, and very sticky.” ... [Route
115 from Gray] is very muddy but not nearly as bad as the
town house way…”
Coming from East North Yarmouth, residents had to
contend with crossing the bridge over the Royal River
to get to the Town House, and that was often extremely
problematic. “Big flood,” recorded Ellen Lawrence on March
1, 1896. “Rained hard all day. … Bert and Chet went up with
the boat and carried people across the river. Road bridge by
the station gone.” Town Meeting that year was a little more
than a week later, on March 9. Was there enough time to get
any kind of bridge back up by then?
Like any building that had to weather Maine winters, the
Town House also had its share of maintenance costs. Early
town reports often cite the cost of maintaining the town’s
school buildings; the town house was another public building
demanding taxpayers’ money for stove wood, oil lamps,
supplies, and upkeep. Voters were asked every few years to
The Six Town Times was a sixcolumn,
eight-page weekly
“devoted to local news of
the six towns which anciently
comprised the towns of North
Yarmouth, Cumberland,
Pownal, Yarmouth, Freeport and
Harpswell.” The newspaper was
published from November 3,
1892 until September 29, 1916
by Libby & Smith in Portland,
selling for $1.50 per year.
Charles Thornton Libby was
the editor, “a most industrious,
enterprising and persevering
man.” (Report of the Maine Press
Association,1884)
Other local newspapers of the
era include the Cumberland
Globe (1877–1880), published
by Cumberland resident
George Blanchard and George
B. Bagley; and F. E. Merrill’s
Freeport Sentinel (1889 to
1892). Both papers were
merged with the Six Town Times
with the June 17, 1898 issue.
authorize repairs on the Town House and, although money
was sometimes raised, it was also recorded that voters often
turned down expenditures of larger sums of money for repairs.
Irritation over the Town House’s condition and its location
again seems to have come to a head at the March 12, 1900
Town Meeting. Voters were asked to decide whether the
town should “repair Town House or build new” and “change
location of the Town House.” The idea was to rebuild closer
to the Route 9/North Road intersection, adjacent to the
Dunn’s Depot Post Office.
The final vote that day gave thumbs up for a new Town
House, with $2,000 to fund its construction, but thumbs
down on moving it closer to Dunn’s Depot.
As in 1852, some were not happy with this decision. Two
weeks later, a special town meeting was called to consider a
8 The GAZETTE

new proposal: to build the new town house “on land of Horatio
Hamilton, nearly opposite the house of S.C. Loring, the lot to
extend from New Gloucester Road to the Hallowell Road.”
In other words—in Walnut Hill.
No diaries have been found that give an idea of the
disagreement. The Six Town Times gives some cursory mention
of the debate, but no more than that. The official record gives
less! Without any eyewitness accounts it’s hard to know just
what went on at that meeting, but we can assume there were
more than a few angry words, judging from the motion made:
to overturn the $2,000 expenditure for a brand new Town
House and to cancel all other ideas about repairing the existing
building OR moving it away from its present location.
The final vote was 96 yeas and 54 nays. East North
Yarmouth had prevailed; the Town House’s granite supporting
posts, it might be imagined, burrowed themselves a little
deeper into the soil!
Updating and Upkeep
For the next several town meetings, any article that dealt
with repairing the Town House was promptly dismissed.
Finally, in 1914, a Town House Committee composed of local
contractor A. E. (Albert) Hodsdon and the Selectmen—A.
L. Dunn, J. M. Prince, and E.M. Lombard—were appointed
to “investigate” building a new Town House. But at the 1915
Town Meeting voters postponed any action on this idea and
instead allocated $100 to shingle the building.
Starting in the summer of 1917 through 1924, there was a
flurry of activity, and the Town House was renovated. After a
1918 presentation of a plan by Albert Hodsdon, the town raised
$400 for repairs ($9,000 in current dollars). Old furniture was
disposed of. Windows were revamped; a new one was installed
in the gable end. The abandoned Sligo Road schoolhouse
was moved to the Town House lot and its materials were used
to construct the Town House’s horse sheds. (The District #9
schoohouse known as the Washington School, located across
from 881 Sligo Road, had closed in 1903.)
The Selectmen were directed in 1918 to “procure a Roll
of Honor for those men that have been called to the service
from this town [to] be framed and hung in the Town Hall
and … a copy of the Roll of Honor be given to the Town
Clerk ...” If this was done, it has not survived. But instead
(or in addition to) this idea, a committee was formed to raise
funds for developing a North Yarmouth Memorial Highway,
the stretch of Route 9 between Walnut Hill and East North
Yarmouth that stands today as a unique remembrance to the
town’s veterans.
In 1923 the Selectmen’s office was finished off, and the
modern administrative center of the town was now nicely
updated. This was the last extensive work done until 1943
when the building was altered to accommodate schoolchildren,
and until 1976 when North Yarmouth Historical Society
volunteers restored the interior to its 1920s appearance.
The modern era arrived at the Town House on June
28, 1931, when Henry G. Rogers installed electric lights.
Electricity for the town’s schoolhouses, however, was voted
down at Town Meeting that year! It was finally done in 1936.
Town Records
The town turned its attention to the care of its old records
in 1919. Possibly, this was the result of some urging by
Edward Loring after a scare. An undated newspaper clipping
noted that “Town Clerk E. D. Loring says that in the recent acts
of vandalism connected with the town house at North Yarmouth
none of the town records were destroyed. Other papers and articles
were damaged by the vandals, but the town clerk’s records were
not disturbed. This statement is a very important one, because
many historical facts connected with the early history of six towns
are determined by the early records of old North Yarmouth …”
These early records refer to late 17th and 18th century
bound volumes, including the Proprietors’ Records. Since
the Town House’s “brick safe [was] beginning to leak &
door needs repair” it was voted in 1923 to spend $500 on
a “modern” safe for the most valuable records, probably to
Loring’s great relief. (Edward Dafforne Loring served as
Town Clerk for 50 years until his death at age 81 on February
13, 1923.) The brick safe was demolished and in its place
a “ladies” dressing room” was constructed.This area is now
the kitchen; no sign remains of any brick construction.
A great deal of loose receipts, voters lists, election results,
tax records, and notes had also been kept over the years. At
the end of a certain period of time, and/or at the end of their
tenure, clerks would bundle up the records with strips of paper
as wrappers. Each wrapper was given a date and notes about
the contents. These were all packed in boxes and stored in
the Town House attic. More about these papers later.
Around 1933, the Works Progress Administration (WPA)
inventoried the town records, sorting them and putting
them into wooden boxes. They rebound one early volume;
some typescripts were created. They also uncovered many
items not known to exist, including a letter from Thomas
Jefferson. This document unfortunately disappeared in the
1960s. However, thankfully, WPA workers had carefully
photographed the letter.
The GAZETTE 9

School Days
In 1942 School Superintendent Rolf Motz proposed that
students in the upper grades be grouped together in the
Town House to try to solve overcrowding in the town’s oneroom
schools. The town granted the School Commission
permission to do so, starting with grade 8. By 1948, grades 7
and 8 were also meeting in the Town House.
Students at the “Town Hall School” shared the building
with North Yarmouth selectmen, who occupied the small
room at the front of the building for town business. For eight
years school and town administration shared space until
the big day in 1950 when the North Yarmouth Memorial
School opened its doors. Finally, all of North Yarmouth’s
schoolchildren from four one-room schoolhouses and the
Town House were gathered under one roof.
The new school building was so modern, warm, and wellequipped
that it was proposed that the town offices be moved
there. But this idea was turned down by the electorate and
instead, more money was raised at Town Meeting to make
repairs to the Town House. In fact, voters even decided to
buy a new safe for the town records in 1952.
A Quiet Time
With the schoolchildren gone, the Town House was a quiet
place once again, although some extracurricular groups found
a home there. Starting in the fall of 1946, North Yarmouth
Girl Scouts began meeting after school at the Town House.
Dot Hayward remembers that she convinced her mother,
Madelyn Freeman, and Mrs. DeRoche to start the troop since
girls from North Yarmouth didn’t have one of their own and
had to go to Yarmouth. Other leaders were Minnie Long, a
Dunn School schoolteacher, and Marion Reed, who farmed
Spring Brook Farm along with her husband Norman.
The Scouts practiced cooking, tobogganed down the steep
slope behind the Town House, played baseball in the side
yard, and hiked to Bradbury Mountain.
The Town House’s major function was finally taken away
when the last town meeting was held there on March 11,
1957. The following year, on March 10, 1958, Town Meeting
moved to the newly completed Wescustogo Grange Hall.
The inevitable move of the town’s administrative presence
from East North Yarmouth to Walnut Hill began this year.
East North Yarmouth had become a quiet place after
World War II. The depot store and post office had closed
in 1943 and the railroad ceased its stops. The automobile
brought mobility, and people took their business and activities
elsewhere. In contrast, Walnut Hill had a small commercial
center including, for a time, a post office. The Grange
provided a social life to the town’s farming population. The
Congregational Church and the school were close by. The
Town House continued to serve as North Yarmouth’s town
office but since the town’s population and the responsibilities
of its officials were growing, and it was clear that the Town
House, with its now truly isolated location and constant
repair needs, was becoming obsolete.
Decline
Its obsolescence became a reality at a special town meeting
on October 23, 1967, when voters made the big decision
to move ahead on plans for a new municipal building. In
June 1968 the building committee was ordered to draw up
specifications, and by early fall construction had begun.
By Town Meeting in March, 1969 it was reported that the
building would be done that year “as weather permits.” North
Yarmouth was on its way into the modern age.
And now there was another decision to be made: What
was to be done with the soon-to-be “Old” Town House?
Carle Semmes suggested that the building be remodeled into
a town garage at little expense. Instead, the selectmen “voted
to turn [the Town House] over … for use as a Boy Scout, Cub
Scout, Girl Scout, and Four-H center. We have hope … that
these kids will turn this into something to be proud of.”
For the next few years, it appears that some in town worked
mightily to turn Old Town House into a Youth Center. In
1971 $300 was appropriated for “repair and maintenance
of the Youth Center,” and a committee—Robert Dorr,
Thomas Golding, John Sloat, John Ames, Ernest Allen,
Kenneth Allen, Fulton Brown, Merle Campbell, and Cedric
Brackett—was appointed to oversee its use.
From 1972 to 1975, the Center had mixed success. Lack
of leadership for Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts was a great
disappointment, as was the lack of “facilities” at the old
building! The Royal River Snowmobile Club installed some
rudimentary toilets, but it doesn’t appear they were long-lived.
Vandalism in 1974 resulted in “over 40 glass panes (broken)
and front door broken in.” This seems to have knocked the
wind out of the Youth Center committee and occupants,
because there are no further reports of their activities.
Beyond a new rear exit installed in 1948 “to meet State
fire laws,” thanks to the initiative of the newly formed North
Yarmouth Fire Company, the Town House’s recent renovations
had been no more than utilitarian.
10 The GAZETTE

Old Town House in 1976. Although
it had suffered from neglect in recent
years and looked at its worst in these
photos, its “bones” still showed it as
a beautiful old building.
Partitions had been put up to box in the toilets, and
sewer pipes ran to a septic tank. An oil-burning heating
system installed in 1961—acquired as government
surplus for $37—heated the building, but no one would
call it elegant. A utilitarian boiler with huge 12-inch
heating ducts suspended by wires from the ceiling filled
the entire front room opposite the selectman’s office,
which was heated by smaller oil-burning stove; both
units were fueled by an underground oil tank.
The selectmen’s office was outfitted with rudimentary
furniture. A safe and shelving containing some reference
books and other material remained, but most of the town’s
early bound record books, other volumes, and a collection
of papers had made their way to the new town office.
In 1961-1962, an investigative committee of Neal York,
Maurice Hayes, and Elizabeth Woodward took a look at the
remaining loose records in the attic, reporting on “numerous
boxes in various states of preservation.” As a result, the papers
were placed in 24 labeled metal filing cases (docket boxes)
and stored in one of two huge iron safes in the Town House.
They also announced that the best way to preserve the town’s
reports might be to “procure steamer trunks or something of
that nature and place them in a Bank Vault” and it was voted
to raise $100 for “preserving old town reports.”
In 1968, the planning committee for the new municipal
building included a vault in their list of requirements for
the new building, and a small room was constructed for
that purpose. Records were gathered from the homes of
selectmen, the town treasurer, the town clerk, and from the
two Town House safes. According to John Ames Sr., the safes
were so big that the door casings had to be removed from the
selectman’s office to get them out!
North Yarmouth Historical Steps In
Ongoing efforts to preserve the town records by a highly
motivated group of volunteers—long time residents and
newcomers alike—led to the founding of North Yarmouth
Historical Society (NYHS) in March 1975. Both the town’s
written record and its architectural heritage were high on the
The GAZETTE 11

list of priorities, so it was no wonder that
the alarm went off for NYHS when, at the
March 13, 1976 Town Meeting, a warrant
article was proposed “to see if the town will
authorize the Board of Selectmen to sell or
dispose of the Old Town Hall ...”
Some in town felt that the neglected
building was obsolete and probably beyond
repair; it was suggested that it be destroyed
by pushing it over the edge of the slope
created by the Royal River-associated
landslide of the 1830s.
Fortunately, the idea of losing what
they knew was an integral part of North
Yarmouth’s history galvanized the newly
formed historical society and a group of
residents, especially Nellie Leighton,
Ursula Baier, and Shirley Fountain sprang
into action.
Signatures with pledges of money and
volunteer effort needed to refurbish Old
Town House were collected and certificates
were issued to supporters (at right). A special
town meeting was called on August 16,
1976 and it was then that North Yarmouth
Historical Society officially purchased Old
Town House for $1.00, beginning an era
of remodeling and upkeep of the building
by Society members and residents. This
has been proudly remembered as a time of
wonderful community cooperation.
A massive renovation effort occupied
many volunteers over the next four years,
financed by acquired pledges. A crowd of
workers assembled on at least six Saturdays
over three years and tackled the project,
inside and out.
The lawn was seeded and mulched one
warm May day in 1977, and the town fire
truck was brought up to wet the ground.
Windows were replaced by Ed Hall and Dick Baston. Matt
Baier organized a Boy Scouts workday, and the troop cleaned
and painted the exterior. A fence was added, and a large
garage door on the back of the building was removed by John
Ames, Dick Baston, Jere Townsend, and Ed Hall. The door
had ben added to accommodate Maynard Scott’s boatbuilding
business, which had rented the structure around 1970.
Roll of Honor: Old Town House
Restoration Sponsors & Workers
• Nellie Leighton • Clark &
• Shirley Fountain
• John & Beth Ames
• John & Pam Ames
• Linda Wentworth
• Philip Knight
• Marjorie Leighton
• Richard &
Rosalyn Baston
• Lee & Ursula Baier
• Ann Warner
• Sue Clukey
• Helen McLean
• Gray Leighton
• Gladys Hamilton
• Elizabeth Stowell
• Martin Stowell
• Kathleen Jones
• Douglas &
Esther Mitchell
• Harriet Bowie
• Charlotte Lawrence
• David Boynton
• Ulysses Hincks
• Liza Chandler
Kathy Whittier
• Vena Aldridge
• Ronald &
Carol Burgess
• John Schnupp
• Russell Ross
• Donna Curtis
• Mildred Baston
• Ruth Swanson
• John Sloat
• Gloria Burrell
• Linda Dexter
• Richard &
Judith Maddox
• James &
Blanche Mays
• Ed & Joyce Gervais
• Myra Barter
• McIntire, Meggier
Insurance, Inc.
• Frances Barter
• Polly Grindle
• Suzanne McGuffey
• Judy Marden
• Trudy Pilsbury
• Harold Freeman
• Donald McLean
• Hazel Anderson
• Jane Curtis
• Donald Smith
• Carroll Baston
• Nancy &
Harold Hopkins
• Donna Olsen
• Edward Vogeler
• Claudia Quatticci
• Herman &
Phyllis Smith
• Pat Emmerson
• Sharon Miller
• Jennifer Curwood
• Joan Kidman
• Corinne Greene
• John Vento
• George Warchol
Donna Thurston
• Donald &
Harriet Thurston
• Joyce Lawrence
• Florence Baston
• Lucy Hatch John
• Theodore &
Isabel Clark
• James Baker
• WIlliam &
Carolyn Verrill
• Neil &
Peggy Jensen
• Vivian Rodick
• Angelia Foster
• David & Jane Ayers
• Shirley Verrill
• Ted & Karen Walcott
• Jere, Pat, &
Tiffany Townsend
• Ed Hall
• Bill & Dot Hayward
• Al Grover
• Dana, Jim, &
Kellyjean Kelly
• Dare Foley
• Norman &
Marion Reed
... and many others
Ursula and Lee Baier, Joyce Gervais, Liza Chandler,
and Suzanne (Quirk) McGuffey removed the rotting
upper bricks from the selectmen’s office chimney. The
oil-burning furnace and underground fuel tank were
removed, freeing the front room for a replicated oldfashioned
kitchen. The new kitchen’s chimney was rebuilt
and re-lined by mason Rick Hossman of the Royal
River Brickyard. A six-plate schoolhouse woodstove was
12 The GAZETTE

May 22, 1977. Left: Tiffany Townsend, Jim Kelley, and John Ames at the rear of Old Town House. Right: Some of the work crew. Standing in door: Sandi
Boynton. On porch, l-r: Pat Townsend, Pam Ames, Ursula Baier, Matthew Baier, Lee Baier, Simon Baier. Standing: Nellie Leighton, Linda Wentworth.
October 16, 1977. Left: Nellie Leighton and Pat Townsend inspecting the details. Center: Ed Hall at work on the windows; he removed them with Dick
Baston and painted them all at home. Right: Ursula Baier and Ros Baston taking a break.
Left: Donna Thurston atop the porch roof. The sign below her was painted by Gray Leighton (restored in 2011 by Rob Dransfield). Right: The Route 9
scene as a new privy was transported to Old Town House by four yoke of oxen in May 1985.
The GAZETTE 13

found for the large room by Donna Thurston in Windham;
it was repaired by Les Peters and hooked up to the chimney.
A wood-burning cookstove for the kitchen was donated by
the Jensen family. Original brackets that held kerosene lights
in the large meeting room were left in place. They are there
to this day.
Signage for Old Town house was executed by Gray
Leighton and Sue Clukey, who painted the plaque documenting
North Yarmouth’s history in shorthand. It was
mounted to right of front door. (This plaque is currently
being evaluated for restoration by signmaker Rob
Dransfield.)Charlotte Lawrence donated a flag to fly over
Old Town House. The flag was used at the funeral of her
grandfather James Lawrence, a Civil War veteran who died
in 1939.
To solve the problem of “facilities” at Old Town House it
was proposed that a privy be built to replace the outhouses
that once stood on a platform behind the building when
it was in use as a school. In the spring of 1985, Wendall
McCollor’s Industrial Arts class at Greely High School took
on this unusual community service project and built a brandnew
privy for Old Town House. A unique delivery for the
outhouse was proposed and, on a rainy May day, the Brass
Knobs 4H Steer Club loaded the privy onto a sturdy cart and
transported it up Route 9, drawn by an impressive team of
eight oxen!
Landscaping for the building included transplanted yew
bushes from the original Memorial School that had burned
down in 1976. In 1980, two sugar maples were planted in the
side yard to mark the town’s Tricentennial. Lilacs from a 100-
year old stand were donated by Elizabeth Woodward.
Hundreds of hours of work restored and enhanced the
once neglected old building, accentuating its classical lines
so that its design heritage as a Greek Revival structure can
now be seen. To mark its successful restoration, a sign was
installed on the south side of the building naming it as the
home of the North Yarmouth Historical Society.
A Place for the Community
Since its renovation, Old Town House has hosted Historical
Society meetings and programs, community gatherings,
contradances, daycare activities, a May Day celebration,
senior luncheons, reunions, a flower show, weddings, several
band concerts, birthday parties, Boy Scout campouts, sports
team celebrations, a colonial reenactment (see p. 2) and
many other celebrations. Two annual programs, Cider Day
and NYHS’s Holiday Party, deserve special mention.
Liza Chandler and Kathryn Dion at the wood cookstove in 1998.
On a fall day not long after the building was renovated,
NYHS members borrowed a small cider press from Maine
Audubon, gathered together a few donated bushels of apples,
and tried their hand at pressing a few gallons of cider. Not
long after, NYHS became the proud owner of its own cider
press thanks to Liza Chandler, who heard about one through
Mario and Lucretia Pascarelli of Durham. It came from
the Sagadahoc chapter of the Maine Organic Farmers and
Gardeners Association (MOFGA) and had been stored in a
barn in Arrowsic.
For at least 20 years, this venerable cider press has made
Soup and Cider Day possible. Hansel’s Orchard, a historic
property on the Sweetser Road, donates bushels of apples for
the event and dozens of volunteers, from Old Town House
caretaker Ed Antz to soup makers Joyce Gilbert and Kathryn
Dion, to bakers Holly Day and Holly Hurd, have brought
contributions; everyone gets the chance to turn the crank,
and the press works its magic as the cider flows. Leftover
gallons are frozen until the NYHS Holiday Party and North
Yarmouth potluck and treelighting in early December.
North Yarmouth Historical’s first Holiday Party was a
small gathering at Old Town House in December 1985. As
NYHS developed the party into a deliberately simple nod to
times past, its simplicity has attracted families eagar to put
aside the commercialism of December holidays. Volunteers
contribute gingerbread dough for kids to roll out and decorate
with raisins and red hots. The tree is festooned with paper
chains, and everybody sings “Jingle Bells” and “Dreidel”
around the piano. Partygoers stitch simple balsam pillows,
making the Holiday Party probably one of the few places
these days where a youngster can learn how to use a needle
and thread!
14 The GAZETTE

Clockwise from top left: Cider Day in 1997 with the Kressbach and Chandler family; The scene
at the 2010 Holiday Party; stringing cranberries and popcorn and making pomanders; Margie
Hansel of Hansel’s Orchard, generous providers of apples for Cider Day.
The Future
Throughout the years, Old Town House has had a few
modest upgrades. A handicapped-accessible ramp was built
by David Sprague in 1990. A historically accurate stone
post fence encloses the building’s side yard, constructed in
2004 by John Tarbox as an Eagle Scout project. The roof was
reshingled in 2008. A new rear door was installed by Alex
Rose in 2011. But more than four decades after its last major
renovation, the “OTH” now needs some major “TLC.” This
simple structure has stood the test of time but, without careful
restoration, we can’t expect it to last another 168 years. A
detailed study by Resurgence Engineering of Portland has
provided North Yarmouth Historical Society with a long list
of recommendated updates.
Old Town House is now poised for new life. It is the
town’s oldest civic building, and its recent past use as a space
for events and programs by North Yarmouth Historical is
another part of town history that is ready for revival. Its
deteriorated state might hide its authentic 19th–century
bones and its isolated location might cause passers-by to
ignore it completely. But its presence is essential to the
town’s history and its re-siting and restoration will give it
new prominence and enable new programming and activity.
North Yarmouth Historical invites everyone to participate
in bringing Old Town House to the center of North
Yarmouth: to be a visible and vital symbol of a community’s
history and an active participant in its future.
The GAZETTE 15

Collections and Records: In Need of a New Home
Back in 1976, when every nook and cranny of Old
Town House was explored by North Yarmouth
Historical Society volunteers, boxes and papers
were found in the building’s attic and in the unoccupied
Selectmen’s office. They were “… trash and clutter
at first glance,” as Joyce Gilbert wrote in 1995.
“Fortunately, someone in North Yarmouth did a poor
job of housekeeping and shoved bunches of papers into
[storage]. The papers … were removed by caring hands
during renovation. Dusty, dog–eared, flat, rolled, fastened
with rusty pins and clips—and altogether marvelous.”
Tattered, worn, and aged, but
still “marvelous.”
This material joined the
collection of town records
that, back in the late 1960s,
had been emptied out of
Old Town House’s safes
and transferred to the new
municipal building’s record
storage room.
The entire collection was—
and is—astonishing. “There are some 300 handwritten
books, most in very fragile condition, as well as many
printed Province and state law books,” reads a 1980
report to the Town. “There are two dozen metal boxes
tightly packed with very old papers, covering a variety
of subjects from schools to military affairs. Another twenty
archival boxes contain partially sorted miscellaneous
papers. There are many old maps and surveyors’ plans.”
Although much of the material was remarkably wellpreserved
(due to good quality paper), documents were
water-damaged, covered with mildew and mold, and
fouled by vermin. The collections were taken to the Maine
State Archives to be fumigated. The town’s old record
books were also microfilmed there.
In 1980, clear-headed NYHS members proposed a
modern facility for protection and storage. With $22,500
from the town, NYHS built a workroom and an enlarged,
fireproof vault as an addition to the municipal building,
now North Yarmouth’s Fire Rescue headquarters and
current location for NYHS’s workroom and archives.
Volunteers worked hard to arrange for cleaning and
fumigation but, after a visit by a consultant from the
Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover,
Massachusetts, it became clear that a professional
archivist’s services were needed to envision, plan, and
organize this huge preservation project. In 1999, NYHS
was awarded a grant from the Maine Historical Records
Advisory Board and archivist Elizabeth Maule was hired
to direct the separation of pre- and post 1849 documents
(the year North Yarmouth and Yarmouth split). In 2000, a
grant from the Maine Cultural Resources Information Center
was awarded to NYHS to fully process the records. The
Town of North Yarmouth funded the purchase of acid free
storage boxes and folders.
Under the direction of Ms. Maule and historian Ursula Baier,
volunteers pored through a cache of bills, correspondence,
tax lists, road records, and other documentation. A finding
aid was created. A timeline of early North Yarmouth history
was written. Treasures were discovered: Militia records,
early road, school, cemetery, and tax records, surveys,
deeds, records about the care of the poor, voter lists, maps,
a book of cattle and sheep markings, and more.
Several years later, a
post-1849 collection
of papers and records
were organized by
another volunteer team
under the direction of
historian Holly Hurd.
Thousands of records,
papers, ephemera, and
artifacts are now packed
into the NYHS vault
at North Yarmouth’s
Fire Rescue Station.
This historical record
has been successfully
saved, but without a
display space, these
items are rarely seen
and difficult to access
for research. The plan to
re-house these items in a
secure, below-groundlevel
area of Old Town
House is a long-awaited
solution for preserving
North Yarmouth’s
340+ history.
The NYHS vault: Archives overload.
16 The GAZETTE