Rosemary E. Davis (1924- 2011 ) Oral History May 2001

Rosemary E. Davis (1924-2011) during an oral history

recording session at Atria Senior Living in Kennebunk,

ME on March 20, 2001.

On March 20, 2001, Seashore Trolley Museum volunteers, Edward (Ed) Dooks and Phil Morse visited

Rosemary E. Davis, at her Atria residence in Kennebunk, Maine. The purpose of the visit was to record oral history recollections from Rosemary from when she was growing up in Biddeford, Maine, early in the 20th century.  Here are portions of the transcript from the recording that were transcribed by Susan Blaisdell.

A resource for teachers 

Maine Historical Society has created companion lesson plans inspired by Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride - These State-standard-based lesson plans are for classroom use in grades 6, 7, and 8. The lesson plans and companion vocabulary and reading activities are available as free downloads through the Seashore Trolley Museum's website at www.trolleymuseum.org/elegantride/ or Click Here.

The eight Social Studies/ELA units were also uploaded to the Maine Memory Network and are available with other statewide lesson plans K-12. 

The audiobook is now available Click HERE to go to the Audible page. The eBook is available Here

This blog post was created specifically to support the new lesson plan titled:

* Then and Now: Life in Maine

Objectives:

* Students will practice the skills involved in analyzing primary sources.

* Students will be able to describe life on an early 20th-century Maine family farm and how life has changed in Maine since the early 1900s.

* Students will be able to describe the differences between attending school in the early 20th century and attending school today.

     This post is to provide supplemental information, images, and descriptions in support of research using the primary source from the collection of an oral history recording of Rosemary E. Davis in 2001 when she was 77 years old.

Transcript segments from March 20, 2001 interview recorded at Atria Senior Living in Kennebunk, ME:

Rosemary Davis: My name is Rosemary E. Davis, and I was born on March 6, 1924. 
I was born on Pool Road, Biddeford, that’s just beyond where the Westbrook Skating Rink
used to be.

Phil Morse:  So, you had some experience riding in trolley cars?

Rosemary Davis: Oh, yes.  We had to walk a mile to town and then we’d take the trolley
car to Old Orchard and ride around the loop - up around up Elm Street and around Five
Points and down Alfred Street and get off at Pool Street and walk home.

The "Loop" Rosemary mentions is seen here on the

map of the Biddeford and Saco Railroad.  The 8 miles of

track had a loop that started on Main Street at the corner of

Alfred Street traveled up Main Street and turn left on Elm

Street. Heading south on Elm Street to Five Points

and then left onto Alfred Street. North on Alfred to Main.

The tracks crossed the bridge and went up York Hill

to Maine Street, Saco then turned right onto Beach Street.

Travel under the railroad overpass and then pass the 

trolley carbarn on the left and then turn left onto

Old Orchard Road and past the Biddeford & Saco

Golf club on the right on the way to Halfway

the intersection at Saco Avenue. Turn right onto 

Saco Ave and head towards Old Orchard Beach.

It would cost a nickel to travel around the loop.

It would cost a nickel to travel from Maine Street

in Biddeford to Halfway. And it would cost a nickel

to travel from Halfway to Old Orchard Beach.

Map from the 1956 publication by O. R. Cummings,

"The Biddeford and Saco Railroad"

Phil Morse:  Now, why would you ride the trolley?

Rosemary Davis: Well, if we were going to Old Orchard we would get on the trolley car.

A postcard showing several open trolley cars lined up in

Old Orchard Beach. PWM

[1:33]

Phil Morse:  What was there in Old Orchard that was such an attraction for you?

Rosemary Davis: Oh, the merry-go-round, the pier, everything in Old Orchard.

Postcard of the pier at Old Orchard Beach. PWM

Phil Morse  Well, for some folks, of course, they hear Old Orchard, but they don’t know
what was at Old Orchard, so maybe you can just tell a story… I mean to walk a mile to
catch a trolley to go to Old Orchard?

Rosemary: Oh, we walked a mile to do anything that was uptown!  Just to go shopping
or the grocery store, or anything like that.

[1:54]

Phil Morse:  So, for you to spend, probably from Biddeford to Old Orchard, a nickel.
How much time would you spend in Old Orchard?

Rosemary Davis: We’d have an hour or so before the trolley car came back, and then
we’d get on and ride back home again.

[2:12]

Phil Morse:  So, what would you do during that hour or so?

Rosemary Davis: Oh, walk out on the pier and look out at the different things and go
on the merry-go-round - not the roller coaster though.  I never liked the roller coaster. 

Biddeford and Saco Railroad purchased several cars from

the Portland Railroad in the mid-1930s. Open car no. 246

was a former Portland Railroad car, seen here in Old

Orchard Beach. O.R. Cummings Collection

[2:26]

Phil Morse: The merry-go-round.  What was the merry-go-round like?

Rosemary Davis: Well, the horses went up and down, up and down.  Oh yeah, that’s right,
I forgot, they used to put the little rings and have the rings come down, and if you caught
one, then you could ride free the next time.

[3:30]

Phil Morse:  Was it an open car trolley or a closed one?

Rosemary Davis: They had open ones and closed ones.

[4:03]

Phil Morse:  We are building these educational stories, hearing from people who actually rode trolleys, and kind of the life and times of that era and what people did.  Today, just think of people on Pool Street in Biddeford and you said you probably had to walk a mile to town to catch a trolley to go to Old Orchard Beach.  Somebody growing up in the last 30 or 40 years would go “why would they do that?”  So that’s what we’re trying to capture.

Rosemary Davis: Well, I used to walk a mile to go to school.. up to the Washington Street School and I used to go home at lunchtime and back again!  We had an hour and a half for lunch, and I used to walk home and back again at lunchtime.

[4:49]

Phil Morse  So, now tell us the story about how you used to go to Old Orchard Beach.

Rosemary Davis: Sigh, I can’t remember…

[5:01]

Phil Morse:  Well, would you go by yourself or would you be with your brothers and sisters?

Rosemary Davis: Oh, my sisters and I used to go.  I had six sisters, and three or four of us would go at a time together.  We would go down there and go on the different things.  Not too many things because we didn’t have that much money to spend always, but you could go on the merry-go-round for a nickel then.  

[5:36]

Ed Dooks:  What else did you do while in Old Orchard?

Rosemary Davis: Oh, we’d walk out on the pier and get an ice cream cone.

Ed Dooks:  Did you ever go swimming?

Rosemary Davis: I didn’t, no.  If we wanted to go swimming, we went to Fortunes Rocks, down our way. 
Fortunes Rocks Beach.

[5:51]

Ed Dooks:  Did you walk to that also?

Rosemary Davis: Oh no.  No, that was almost 10 miles down to Fortunes Rocks.

Ed Dooks:  How did you get there?

Rosemary Davis: Well, we had a car.  We’d get down there once in a while.
 
[6:09]

Ed Dooks:  We’re interested in stories about trolley cars.  What kind of stories can you tell us about trolley cars and adventures you may have had?  Even if you’re repeating something you may have already said.

Phil Morse:  You had an uncle that was an operator?

Rosemary Davis: Yes, and he used to take us…

[6:26]

Phil Morse:  Tell us about that.  What’s your uncle’s name?

Rosemary Davis: My uncle’s name was Franklin Spofford.  He has a granddaughter that works here too.

Ed Dooks:  How would you spell his last name?

Rosemary Davis: S P O F F O R D

[6:44]

Ed Dooks:  And what did he do on the.. did he work for the Biddeford & Saco Railroad?

Rosemary Davis: He ran the trolley cars between Biddeford, Saco, Old Orchard, and if he’d see us uptown he’d say “Come on, get on” and we’d get on and he’d put his hand over the thing.  So, we used to get on and he’d ride us around and let us off at our street again.  So, we had a good ride for nothing!  Perhaps I shouldn’t tell that story.

[7:23]

Ed Dooks:  I don’t think he has to worry about it now.

Rosemary Davis: Not now.

[7:26]

Ed Dooks: So, where would you meet him?  When you rode around, where would you go?

Rosemary Davis: Usually we were on Main Street in Biddeford when he’d see us, and he’d go down through Saco and Old Orchard and then come back the Old Orchard Road and on to Route One and then go Route One up to Five Points and back around Alfred Street and then leave us off at Pool Street and we’d go home.

Postcard of Main Street, Biddeford, with an open car.

[8:01]

Ed Dooks:  How long would that trip take you?

Rosemary Davis: Oh, a good half-hour anyway, or longer.

[8:13]

Ed Dooks:  What did he have to do…  As you went with him on this trip, what would he be doing with the car, or what would you observe him doing with the car, interacting with passengers, and so forth?

Rosemary Davis: I don’t remember…

[ 8:38]

Ed Dooks:  You’d stay on the car the entire time with him, would you not?

Rosemary Davis: All the way around, yes.  Of course, they were on tracks.  Those cars were on tracks.  Trolley tracks.

[8:52]

Phil Morse:  Now when he got up to Old Orchard, did he turn the car around, or did he drive it somewhere to turn it around?

Rosemary Davis: No.  I think he’d go to Old Orchard, and it seems to me, they went over and they came back up the Old Orchard Road onto Route One.

[9:13]

Phil Morse:  At the end of the tracks in Old Orchard, right by the railroad tracks, isn’t that where it would stop?  The trolley would stop right by the railroad tracks.

Rosemary Davis: Yes, I think they did.

[9:24]  

Phil Morse:  And, that was a dead-end for the trolleys.  And yet, they drove in one way and then they came out the other way, so how did they do that?

Rosemary Davis: Seems like somehow or other the thing did turn around, but I don’t remember how.

[9:40]

Phil Morse:  Now, your uncle, he operated, did he also collect the money from the folks or was there another, like a conductor on the car as well?

Rosemary Davis: No, there was a machine that you put your money into when you got on.

[9:54]

Ed Dooks:  So, he had one of the closed cars.  He didn’t have an open car?

Rosemary Davis: He sometimes had the open ones, and sometimes he was on the closed ones.

[10:02] 

Ed Dooks  Did he like one better than the other?

Rosemary Davis: I don’t know.  I liked the open one better myself.

Ed Dooks:  Why?

Rosemary Davis: Oh, I don’t know... it was just kind of breezy and you didn’t feel closed in at all.  I liked those.

Kelley's turnout on Old Orchard Road, Saco, was a regular
meeting point for Biddeford-Old Orchard trips. Circa 1935

[10:15]

Ed Dooks:  When would you ride them?

Rosemary Davis: In the summertime.

[10:20]

Phil Morse:  Did you ever go out to Old Orchard for the fireworks, when they had fireworks out there?  Go out by trolley and watch the fireworks, and then come home by a trolley?

Rosemary Davis: No, we didn’t need to because our house on Pool Street was almost in a straight line with Old Orchard and we could watch the fireworks from our upstairs windows.

[10:44]  

Ed Dooks:  Apparently everybody in Saco did that!

Rosemary Davis: We lived in Biddeford.  We could see them probably better than they did when they were down in Old Orchard.  It was just a short way.  See, we lived on the river, the Saco River, and it was just down this way and Old Orchard was right there.  We weren’t too far from Old Orchard but if you were going to go there, you had to go uptown and around and down to get across the bridge.

[11:13]

Phil Morse:  Did you ever visit any family members by a trolley?  Walk into town and catch a trolley to go visit any aunts or uncles or grandparents?

Rosemary Davis: No.

[11:20]

Phil Morse:  Did you ever have any family come to visit you from out of town or out of state that came by a trolley?

Rosemary Davis: No.  My relatives, most of them, lived in Goodwin’s Mills.  The trolley didn’t go there.  

[11:34]

Ed Dooks:  Did you ever use the trolley to go down to, say, like York Beach or another…

Rosemary Davis: No.

Ed Dooks:  So, you just stayed around the Biddeford and Saco area?

Rosemary Davis: And Old Orchard…

[11:46]

Phil Morse:  You might come around down Alfred Street and then, well actually down Elm Street, and then come down Main Street, right by City Hall.  The Atlantic Shoreline used to come, the trolley tracks used to come in right by the City Hall and met up with the Biddeford-Saco.  Did you ever see a streetcar by City Hall that wasn’t on the Biddeford-Saco line but came in by the side of city hall?

Postcard of the city hall on the corner of Main and Adams Street.

The trolley car on the left is on Admas Street and is a trolley car

from the Atlantic Shore Railway. Passengers would use these

trolleys to travel south from Biddeford to Kennebunkport,

Kennebunk, Sanford, Wells, York, South Berwick (ME), and Dover,

New Hampshire, Kittery (ME), and Portsmouth, NH.

Rosemary Davis: I don’t remember that.  Maybe that was before my time.

[12:14]

Phil Morse:  It might very well have been.  I just thought perhaps...

Ed Dooks:  What kind of traffic would the trolley cars encounter on the streets then?  Was there a lot of cars?

Rosemary Davis: Horse and buggy.  [Chuckle] Oh, there were some horse and buggies, and there were automobiles then too.  Some people came to town with their horse and buggy then.

[12:35]

Ed Dooks:  Did they get in the way of the trolley cars or?

Rosemary Davis: No, not that I know of.

Ed Dooks:  So, if you were riding along… did you ride the opens out to Old Orchard?

Rosemary Davis: I did sometimes.

Ed dooks:  Let’s say, let’s imagine.  Let’s step back and we’re riding in an open trolley car to Old Orchard.  What would be some of the things you’d see along the way?

Rosemary Davis: That was a long time ago.  

Ed Dooks:  Do you remember those?  Take your time.

[13:06]

Phil Morse:  Well, if you came around the corner from Main Street, Saco by the big white church that burned down last year.

Rosemary Davis: You’d go down Ferry, down that road.

Phil Morse:  Down Beech Street, you’d have to go under the railroad.

Rosemary Davis: Under the railroad bridge, yea.  And then, I don’t remember exactly which way we went.  But then they’d come back, up the Old Orchard Road and when they’d get to Beech Street in Saco, they’d come straight Elm Street to Biddeford and around the Five Points and back down.  Then we’d usually get out at Pool Street when they came back down Alfred Street.  Is that clear as mud?

[13:57]

Ed Dooks:  He understands it better than I do because I don’t live around here.  I think I know what you’re talking about though.

Phil Morse:  Did you ever encounter, when you were on the car going under the railroad bridge on Beech Street, on Ferry Road, any problems with automobiles or that the trolley would have to slow right down to go under the bridge or anything?  If there was a lot of rain, any big puddles that you’d have to go through?

Car 31 in 1939, shortly before retiring to Seashore Trolley

Museum, just squeezing under the B & M RR overpass

at Beach Street in Saco. Image from O.R. Cummings' 1989

Car 31 was saved in 1939 by the founders of the

Seashore Trolley Museum. In 1999, to commemorate

the saving of Car 31, it returned to Saco,  Biddeford,

and Old Orchard Beach in 1999. 

Car 31 is listed in the National Register of Historic Places

and is designated as a Save America's Treasures Project.

Rosemary Davis: No, I don’t remember that too much.

[14:21]

Phil Morse:  When you would come back from Old Orchard, did you ever notice when the car might stop halfway picking up people that might have picked blueberries at halfway, that might have had buckets of blueberries?

Old no. 10 at Halfway in Old Orchard Circa 1939.
O. R. Cummings Collection

Rosemary Davis: I wasn’t… I didn’t pay attention I guess.

[14:39]

Phil Morse:  I am saying things that might trigger a thought, a memory, or something… and a lightbulb goes off, and you say “oh yeah, you know what, I remember the time when.”  So that’s why I toss little things out to see if it triggers a memory like your uncle picking you up and giving you a free favor.. you and your sisters.

Rosemary Davis: I shouldn’t probably tell that story.

[15:00]  

Ed Dooks:  That’s a good one.  That happened a lot in those days.  That’s kind of the thing we’re looking for.  It’s people’s experiences and it’s interesting that a lot of the people we’ve talked to just used the trolley cars and never really thought about it.  They were just there.

Rosemary Davis: Well, for us it wasn’t that they were just there.  We had to walk a mile to get up to town to take the trolley cars.

[15:39]

Phil Morse:  Do you have any other anecdotes or any particular stories or thoughts about the trolley cars that you’d like to share?

Rosemary Davis: I wasn’t very old when they had those trolley cars.  I mean, I rode them.  I remember riding on them and my uncle motioning for us to get on and things like that but I don’t remember other things too special about it.  

[16:04]

Phil Morse:   Did you ever notice if they had any whistles or bells?

Rosemary Davis: I don’t remember that either.

[16:10]

Phil Morse:  Going to Old Orchard, after they went under the bridge, on Ferry Road.  Of course, the car barn was off to the left-hand side.  You go under the bridge, up the hill a little bit, and around the corner and the car barn is on the left-hand side.

Rosemary Davis: Yup

Phil Morse:  Oftentimes we see photographs of lots of trolleys and barns in kind of rough shape.  (Did you) ever see any activity at the car barns when trolleys were being moved around or cars being pulled out? 

Rosemary Davis: Not that I remember.  I guess I’m not very…

[16:41]

Ed Dooks:  You’re doing great!  You gave us that nice little story about your uncle picking you up.  You used to do that for pleasure.  Those are things that are very useful.  It gives a flavor of what it was like to live in those times and ride the trolley.

Rosemary Davis: I guess we were kind of … we used to stand in front of the Ligget’s store… no, it wasn’t Ligget’s.

[17:05]

Phil Morse:  The pharmacy?

Rosemary Davis: Yes, it used to be on Main Street.  We used to stand there just hoping he’d come along and pick us up.  And he quite often did if the car wasn’t too full.  If the car had a lot of people on it, he wouldn’t.  But if he didn’t have many people, then he’d pick us up and give us a ride around.

 Car 31 and its three sister open cars arrived in Saco in

June 1900. Image from the O. R. Cummings Collection

In 1939, Car 31 is the first trolley acquired by the founders of

Seashore Trolley Museum. Below, you can watch/listen to a

personal  interview of the leader of those early members, Ted

Santarelli, and his accounting of saving Car 31.

Click Here to go to the YouTube video

Ed Dooks:  That’s nice.

Rosemary Davis: We liked it!

We are still in need of funds for creating the interpretation programs that will tell this fascinating 100+-year-old story of the Narcissus. For information on donation options, scroll down this post and find the one that best fits your position. Fund 816 to help with the restoration and Fund 817 (PLI Education-Interpretation programs ) should be noted when making a donation.

   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Click Here for the post that has the short virtual 3-D video of the digital model of the Narcissus, with components added to the file from earlier this year (the gold leaf file had not been added yet).

Restoration work continues on the Narcissus. The Narcissus is more than 110 years old now and has so many incredible stories to share. The restoration of this majestic icon of Maine's electric railway history is but one of those incredible stories.

     The Narcissus is featured in the national Gold Award-winning novel, Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride. The "Elegant Ride" is the Narcissus. Theodore Roosevelt was a passenger on the Narcissus on August 18, 1914, between Lewiston and Portland, Maine, while campaigning for the Progressive Party candidates.

Independent book publisher, Phil Morse, holding

the Gold Book Award Winner plaque for

 the Middle Reader category for The Eric

Hoffer Book Award. Congratulations to

award-winning Maine author,

Jean M. Flahive

Seashore Trolley Museum Promo Video 

     

     The paperback edition of Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride can be purchased online through the Seashore Trolley Museum's store website. Books purchased through the Museum's website directly benefit the Museum and the Narcissus project. 

Click Here to go to the Museum Store web page to order online

Click Here to go to the Amazon page to order the ebook or audiobook online

Paperback books are available at these local bookstores in 

Androscoggin Historical Society, Lewiston

Eliot Historical Society, Eliot

Gray Historical Society, Gray

Kennebec Historical Society, Augusta

Letterpress Books, Portland

Maine Historical Society Store, Portland

Morph Gallery & Emporium, Kennebunk

New Gloucester Historical Society, New Gloucester

Roosevelt Campobello International Park, Welshpool, NB, Canada

Seashore Trolley Museum, Kennebunkport

Sherman's Maine Coast Book Shops, All Locations

Thompson's Orchard, New Gloucester

Winthrop Maine Historical Society, Winthrop

Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride

by Jean M. Flahive

Illustrations by Amy J. Gagnon

Listen to a 2-minute, 30-second, Retail Audio Sample of the Audiobook 

     Millie Thayer is a headstrong farmer's daughter who chases her dreams in a way you would expect a little girl nicknamed "Spitfire" would run full-tilt and with her eyes on the stars. Dreaming of leaving the farm life, working in the city, and fighting for women's right to vote, Millie imagines flying away on a magic carpet. One day, that flying carpet shows up in the form of an electric trolley that cuts across her farm. A fortune-teller predicts that Millie's path will cross that of someone famous. Suddenly, she finds herself caught up in events that shake the nation, Maine, and her family. Despairing that her dreams may be shattered, Millie learns, in an unexpected way, that dreams can be shared.

A resource for teachers 

Companion curriculum State-standard-based units,

vocabulary, and reading activities for use in grades 3-8

are available online as downloadable resources through

Seashore Trolley Museum's website

www.trolleymuseum.org/elegantride/

Maine Historical Society has created eight companion lesson units in Social Studies and ELA that were inspired by Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride - These State-standard-based lesson plans for use in grades 6, 7, and 8 are easily adapted for use in grades 3-5.  Vocabulary and Reading activities for grades 3-8 along with the eight lesson plan units are available free and may be downloaded through Seashore Trolley Museum's website www.trolleymuseum.org/elegantride/

Go to the Teacher Resource Page in the pull-down for more details.

A 60-second intro to Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride by author, Jean Flahive

Click Here to watch the video on YouTube 

Award-winning author, Jean M. Flahive

    

Please Consider a Donation to the Narcissus Project to help us tell the incredible story of the Narcissus through the interpretation portion of the Narcissus Project.

     Here is an example of how donations to the Narcissus Project now will help with the interpretation portion of the project. The interpretation programming will include exhibits, displays, and education programming. In 2019, through generous donations to the Narcissus Project, we were able to conserve, replicate, and have high resolutions digital image files made of the original, 1910, 28.5-foot long, surveyor map of the elevation and grade of the 30-mile private right-of-way of the Portland, Gray, and Lewiston Railroad (Portland-Lewiston Interurban)  Click Here 

Thank You!

Theodore Roosevelt on the Narcissus when addressing

the crowd gathered in Gray, Maine on August 18, 1914.

Image courtesy of Gray Historical Society

The Narcissus as the Sabattus Lake Diner in Sabattus, Maine,

circa 1940. Photo by John Coughlin in the Kevin Farrell

Collection at Seashore Trolley Museum

L. Henri Vallee (right) and family members in the

Narcissus, when it was Vallee's summer camp in

Sabattus, Maine circa 1958. Photo courtesy Daniel Vallee

The Narcissus in the restoration shop in 2022 PWM

   Inside the Donald G. Curry Town House Restoration Shop, the Narcissus is in the midst of major work as we strive to complete its restoration. We are now planning the interpretation portion of the Narcissus Project. Donations to the Narcissus Project may be used in the future to help tell the incredible 100-plus-year-old story of the Narcissus. Your donation to the Narcissus is helping to make the dream of the project's success, a reality.

See below for Donation options -

It starts with YOU

Your Donation Matters

Make a Donation TODAY

Please Help the Narcissus. 

Donation Options to Help the Narcissus Project:

The New England Electric Railway Historical Society

is the 501c3 organization that owns and operates the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, ME, and the National Streetcar

Museum in Lowell (MA). 

The New England Electric Railway Historical Society registered with the IRS (EIN# 01-0244457) and was incorporated in Maine in 1941.

Check or Money Order ***** should be made payable to:

New England Electric Railway Historical Society

In the memo: for a donation to the Interpretation programming

please write: PLI Education Fund 817

For a donation to help with the restoration write: Narcissus Fund 816

Mail to: Seashore Trolley Museum

              P. O. Box A

              Kennebunkport, ME 04046

Credit Card ***** donations can be one-time donations or you

may choose to have a specific amount charged to your card

automatically each month. Please contact the Museum bookkeeper, via email at finance@trolleymuseum.org or by phone, at 207-967-2800 ext. 3.

Online Donations - may be made by using a Credit Card: 

Click Here to make an online donation through the Museum's website - When at the Donation page: Fill in donor info, etc., when at "To which fund are you donating? Scroll down to "Other" and type: 816 Narcissus, then continue filling in the required information.

Click Here for PayPal - to make an online donation: you can use email: finance@trolleymuseum.org and in the message box write:

For "Narcissus Fund 816" - if supporting the restoration

For "PLI Education Fund 817" - if supporting Interpretation programs

Donation of Securities ***** We also accept donations of

securities. You can contact the Museum bookkeeper, via email at finance@trolleymuseum.org or by phone, at 207-967-2800 ext. 3,

for brokerage account information for accepting donated securities.

BONUS ***** If you work for a company/corporation that will

"match" an employee's donation to an approved 501c3 non-profit

educational organization, please be sure to complete the necessary paperwork with your employer so that your donation is matched :)

Questions? ***** Please contact Narcissus project sponsor:

Phil Morse, narcissus@gmail.org or call 207-985-9723 - cell.

Thank You :)

Thank You for our Current Funding Partners

* 20th Century Electric Railway Foundation - 2020/2018 - Major Gift, 2017/2014 Matching Grants
* Renaissance Charitable Foundation (LPCT) by Fiduciary Trust Charitable Giving Fund

* Mass Bay RRE - 2018 Railroad Preservation Grant 

* Thornton Academy (Saco, ME) - Staff & Alumni - Matching Grant Challenge 2014

* New England Electric Railway Historical Society (Kennebunkport, ME) - Member Donations

* Amherst Railway Society - 2015 Heritage Grant

* National Railway Historical Society - 2016 & 2015 Heritage Preservation Grants

* Enterprise Holding Foundation - 2015 Community Grant

* Theodore Roosevelt Association - Member Donations

* John Libby Family Association and Member Donations

* The Conley Family - In Memory of Scott Libbey 2018/2017/2016/2015

* The W. S. Libbey Family - Awalt, Conley, Graf, Holman, Libbey, McAvoy, McLaughlin, Meldrum, O'Halloran, Salto, - 2018/2017

* The Hughes Family 2017/2016/2010

* New Gloucester Historical Society and Member Donations

* Gray Historical Society and Member Donations

* Gray Public Library Association - Pat Barter Speaker Series

* Scarborough Historical Society - PRR/PLI

* LogMein - Matching Employee Donation

* IBM - Matching Employee/Retiree Donations

* Fidelity Charitable Grant - Matching Employee Donations

* Richard E. Erwin Grant - 2017/2016

* Seal Cove Auto Museum

The Narcissus, with interior back-lit, stained glass windows is majestic.

Make a donation today to help restore the interior of this Maine gem.

Help Theodore Roosevelt's Maine Ride get back on track! Once restored,

you will be able to ride in luxury on this National Register Treasure at

Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine.

PWM photo

Please Consider Making a Donation to the project of the National Register of Historic Places member, Narcissus. We are currently raising funds to advance the restoration and to tell the incredible story of this Maine gem.

Various News stories during the summer of 2015 about the

Narcissus and its connection to Theodore Roosevelt. TR

was a passenger on the Narcissus on August 18, 1914.

Photo by Patricia Pierce Erikson

The Narcissus - July 31, 2015. Make a donation today.

Help Theodore Roosevelt's Maine Ride get back on track!

Once restored, you will be able to ride in luxury on this

National Historic Treasure at

Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine.