Good Evening - Welcome to Seashore Trolley Museum - 2024 is its 85th Anniversary!
The Biddeford & Saco Railroad open-car No. 31 arrived here 85 years ago, at what is now
known as the main entrance to the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine
The Biddeford & Saco Railroad open-car No. 31 arrived here 85 years ago, at what is now
known as the main entrance to the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine
Some version of this question always pops up in my mind when I see a particular photo.
Maybe I read about or visit one of the cars in the collection; or, in some cases,
when I read about a departed member/volunteer and their dedicated, passionate,
contributions made to the Museum, I may feel a need to seek answers to those questions
that present themselves to me. I want to know the story.
Visitors to the Museum often have questions…
They too would like to know the story that is connected to many of the sites/items they see/experience while visiting the Museum. Everything and everyone has a story...
I began looking into the activities associated with the founding members of Seashore
Trolley Museum last summer. Thank you to many members and friends who provided
answers, leads, and encouragement to me as I looked into the early years of the Museum.
There were many local individuals and families in the neighborhood where the Museum
is located that helped the early members with various activities in the early years. That
local support has continued throughout the years the Museum has existed. The above
image on the left is longtime member, Jim Hamlin when he was building the stone
flowerbed that circles the base of the Museum's main entrance sign in 1974. Jim,
Judy Warner, Mike Simonds, Ken Bustin, Ernie Eaton, and me, were all attending
Kennebunk High School in the early 1970s. Mike Lennon helped bring the Silent
Policeman to the Museum - another story. The "delivery road" on the left is the
original right-of-way (ROW) of the Atlantic Shore Line Railway. Car 31 was
unloaded in 1939, maybe 50 feet or so further north from the point you can
see of the ROW - another story. So many incredible stories related to just this
one location seen in these two photos. Every vehicle, all the related parts,
equipment, all the buildings brought to the Museum, all the members, all the
volunteers, and the patrons that have visited the Museum's main campus have all
entered the property using this entrance area - for 85 years.
The walking-talk tour taking of this original ten acres from 1939, will
have some photos to accompany several of the many stories that will be shared.
I'm the Narcissus Project Sponsor. Basically, for me, that means I promote the Narcissus
Project and seek help in various ways to move the project forward. Getting the word out
to the greater public audience is important. I was strongly encouraged to kick my
comfort zone to the curb when it came to creating some social media accounts to help achieve
the goals of expanding awareness for the Narcissus Project. The beautiful, high-speed interurban will play a significant role in representing historic electric railways in Maine; its connection to Theodore Roosevelt, and the Seashore Trolley Museum would be well received. Thank you, Patricia Erikson, for encouraging
me and helping me create the Narcissus1912 Blog and my Facebook page.
Earlier in March (2024), the Narcissus1912 Blog's total page view count surpassed 500,000.
Over time, the Narcissus1912 Blog has expanded its content to include histories of
all the Maine Electric Railways for Maine's Bicentennial celebration, including posts on
Maine Trolley Parks, and Individuals that played an important role in Maine Electric Railways.
Restoration progress on the Narcissus. Posts on segments of Seashore's history.
Theodore Roosevelt's connection to various communities in Maine has also been included. Each post
has a link that can be shared with online sites that may benefit from viewing/reading the
posts. Local communities, school teachers/students, homeschoolers, historical societies, etc.
Today, who would have thought, that here, in Maine, in 1915, during that single year, when the total population of the State was about 775,000; with ninety communities having electric railway
services, that in total, they all carried more than Fifty-Seven million passengers! One year...just in Maine.
Posts shared on social media group pages that feature local communities in Maine continue to submit comments that occasionally lead to local electric railway information, questions, and sharing of information on photos, artifacts, and other interesting ephemera. The Narcissus1912 Blog posts have become a great resource for educators, electric railway researchers, and folks who are curious about life back in the day. You will see QR codes on display throughout the weekend that will lead you directly to certain Blog posts you may find interesting.
Click Here: To see and use the QR code list from the NEATO Convention 2024
Life back in the day - Postcards played an important role as one of the social media sources.
I enjoy reading notes on postcards that share experiences when visiting a local community, especially if the transportation used to access the site was the local electric railway. The 1999 publication, The Light from the River, is a great resource for learning about the early years of an electric company in Maine and how in the very earliest days, the electric companies relied on contracts with mills, towns/cities, and on electric railways for their consistent revenue sources. It wasn't until after 1910, that personal homes began to be a growing revenue source for electric companies.
The text in the above slide asks those attending to think about what daily life was like back in the early 1880s before electricity became a common source to power various daily life resources.
Especially in the winter months in Maine. The sun set early and the sunrise was later in the morning. Lighting and heating a home, a working barn, a workshop, etc. was challenging. Transportation, especially in the more rural areas was limited. Mud season and rainy weather also limited consistent transportation modes. Electricity changed everything.
The earliest electric companies generated revenue from three basic sources in the earliest days; the lighting of main streets in cities/towns, supplying electricity to mills to operate their equipment, and, electricity to operate electric railways. Walter Wyman, who along with his partner, formed one of the early light companies that in 1910 became Central Maine Power, was employed after college, at the Waterville & Fairfield Railway. From there he would acquire a partner and start an electric company and later own, CMP would acquire various electric railways throughout Maine
Click Here: 1960 Electric Railroad Edition - The Exciter Magazine by Central Maine Power Company.
Click Here: Amos Fitz Gerald became known as the Electric Railway King of the Pine Tree State
Click Here: W. Scott Libbey - Owned mills in Lewiston, an electric light company, and the Portland, Gray & Lewiston Railroad
Bangor, Maine, had the first electric railway to operate in Maine. A story I enjoyed hearing
was the one describing how the shop staff expressed success when the first cars were being tested inside the Bangor carbarn shop. Electricity was a new thing and a lot of questions revolved around dealing with it. The staff report to the local newspaper was testing was deemed successful in part due to no negative impact on any of the staff's pocket watches. The pocket watch pictured in the slide was given to me by my grandfather. He purchased the watch for $2, at the age of 12 in 1917. It was made in the late 1880s.
The early single-truck streetcar had one of the early trolley poles on its roof that had a box-shaped conductor to the overhead wire to conduct electricity to the car to operate. The box would troll along behind the car as it moved forward...hence the word trolley. It was very shortly after beginning operations that the brass trolley wheel replaced the early box contraption. The interior seating of the earliest cars was very basic as seen in the photo. Over time seating would change and have a variety of options.
Augusta, Maine, along with neighbors Hollowell and Gardiner was the second community to have electric railway service in Maine. The motorman would operate the car from the open platform in every weather condition you can think of. It wasn't until 1906 when Maine laws were made for all cars to have enclosed vestibules to help protect the motormen. Depot Station in Gardiner - Loudon Hill Trestle - 1890 (L.E.Brown Collection)(10-bench open car - Hollowell Public Library - No. 5 of the Augusta, Hallowell & Gardiner Railroad - 16-foot closed car - one of the original cars from 1890 - post Office in Augusta.
Heating the closed cars initially had a coal stove...then electric heaters were installed in 1894.
July 4, 1896 - Augusta Gala Independence Day Event - 10,500 fares collected that day. Oakwood Park opened in 1895 - Britts' Gully off State Street (Vaudeville and variety shows used and outdoor theater) and in 1900 Cresent Park opened in Farmingdale...both were closed before 1903 when Island Park opened at Lake Cobbosseecontee.
Great photo of one of the 15-bench, double-truck open cars - a "Breezer."
There aren't many close-up photos of the open cars when they are full of happy passengers en route or returning from a trolley park. Passengers had such a fun time riding an open car in the summer
Here is one of Seashore Trolley Museum's 15-bench, double truck open cars. Now you see
a car full of happy passengers!
Beautiful!
Click Here: to watch the Birth of Seashore Trolley Museum. An interview with one of the founders of the Museum, Theodore Satarelli de Brasch
This is Kelly's turnout at the Saco-Old Orchard Beach line on June 18, 1939.
Car 31 has Ted Santarelli and many friends aboard during the fan trip to raise money to
acquire Car 31. His comments in the above slide were made as he described his experience
during this very stop.
Ted mentions, nostalgia. Ted grew up in Boston and while attending elementary and middle school at
St. Joseph's Academy in Wesseley Hills (1924-1932), he used the Boston & Worcester Street Rwy.
to travel to school every day. He boarded a B&W car at Park Square (seen above).
During his years of traveling on the B&W cars, he made friends with motormen and conductors.
On occasion, he was able to be upfront with the motorman. Over the years, he visited B&W carbarns and shops and witnessed the various transitions taking place in the electric railways; open cars being removed from daily seasonal service. Only a few remained for special events. Conversion of some existing cars from two-man operation to one-man, and scrapping of many cars. The above group photo of B&W operators is in the Ted Santarelli Collection.
The open car in the above photo was converted to a closed-car one-man car.
Ted and his railway fan friends, over many years, had experienced
numerous emotional episodes as certain types of cars, or perhaps a whole line
closed or it was replaced. One week after Ted finished 8th grade in 1932,
the B & W St. Rwy ended all service.
B&W St. Rwy. car No. 149 was not scrapped when removed from service. The body was sold to become a private home and later would be acquired by Seashore Trolley Museum and arrived on campus in the summer of 1959.
In 1932, Ted began attending the Roxbury Latin School in West Roxbury, MA. He would attend school by traveling daily on the surface line streetcars of the Boston Elevated Railway. On weekends, Ted would purchase a "Ride All Day" ticket for $1 from the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway, and travel to dozens of different communities from Lowell, MA, north of Boston, to Fall River, MA, southwest of Boston, and every stop in between.
Ted got into building models of electric railways and tracks, etc. for building model layouts to operate the model cars on. He enjoyed spending time researching details about, track design, and overhead design, at the Boston Elevated Railway Library. He spent a lot of time looking through many issues of Electric Railroad volumes as he constructed models, tracks, etc. Ted became friends with other electric railway fans while traveling to school and on weekends while traveling on the Eastern MA lines and while learning to build models and layouts.
Ted's senior year write-up in the yearbook of the Roxbury Latin School summarized Ted's years attending school there and gave some insight as to his future in the electric railway field.
As a railway fan, Ted would occasionally participate in a fan trip with some of his electric railway friends.
One such fan trip was organized by the Portland, Maine chapter of the Electric Railroaders Association. That local chapter issued a newsletter named, The Maine Electric Transiteer (Thank you, Kevin Farrell, for sending me two of the newsletter:), and took place on April 19, 1939, in Lewiston, Maine, on the Kennebec Railway. Ted joined his friends, John Amlaw and Gerry Cummingham to attend that fan trip. As Gerry got into John's car, he blurted out to Ted and John, "The buses have been ordered!" Meaning, a favorite one of their electric railways, the Biddeford and Saco Railroad in Saco, Maine, had ordered buses and would be replacing all their streetcars with buses beginning on June 18, 1939. Ted, John, and Gerry used the fan trip time together with friends to talk about how they would like to try and save one of the B&S cars...over the next few weeks, their plans started to come together. With help from from fellow electric railway fan friend, Charles Brown, a fan trip was organized to take place using three cars of the B&S on what was to be the final day of trolley operations...June 18, 1939. The fan trip kept its date even though the date of the final use of trolley cars was delayed to July 5, 1939.
The June 18, 1939 fan trip was meant to gather fans to participate in the fan trip to hopefully attract attendees to donate some money so that one of the B&S trolleys could be saved from being scrapped...with thoughts on keeping the complete and in the future being able to operate it.
Three trolleys were used for the fan trip; first was one of the early single truck closed xar, No. 10, second was a single truck Birney car (a former Portland Railroad car), No. 607, and the final car was the 12-bench, double-truck, open car, No. 31. While the fans were riding Car 31, the early members of what would become Seashore Trolley Museum, decided Car 31 would be the car they would try and save.
Enough money was raised to make a deposit of $108 for Car 31, on July 5, 1939. The balance
payment of $42 was made on July 14. Car 31 was transported to a ten-acre piece of property in Kennebunkport next to what was the former right-of-way of the Atlantic Shoe Line Railway,
close to what is now the main entrance to Seashore Trolley Museum. The photo above is of
Car 31, on July 15, 1939, while awaiting the final approach to being delivered in
Kennebunkport. A rented old Mack Truck's rear end far left, with rails secured to its top
that are extended from beneath the end of 1900 Biddeford & Saco Railroad open car
No. 31 with a young unknown boy on his bicycle looking at the unknown photographer.
The right end of Car 31 is held up by Bob Smart’s Mack Truck wrecker. To keep the front
end tires of the wrecker on the ground, the wrecker’s front end is chained to
the rear end of Everett Greenlef’s dump truck, seen to the right of the wrecker.
This “Chained” together parade of vehicles was about 90-feet long. #31 was backed
into the ROW.
Look at the photo below and think about how challenging that would have been.
The drawing on the right shows the slight curve of the Biddeford Road in the south. The original
en acres of land where car 31 was delivered was the shape of an acute angle with that angle being
about 22 degrees. The double line on the west side is the former ASL right-of-way..The ten acres
included about 2,000 feet in distance parallel to the right-of-way. Car 31 had to be backed into the
ROW, heading north, far enough to where the property was wide enough to accommodate all of Car 31.
Top left - the southern-facing end of Car 31 is resting in the former ASL ROW. The light & power company that owned the ROW mandated that Car 31 must be off the ROW before winter arrived.
Top right: 10-28-1939. Success was achieved on Armistice Day (now Veterans Day), November 11, 1939.
Bottom left: 11-11-1939. Bottom right: position of Car 31 after 11-11-1939 - photo taken spring 1940.
The Clough’s driveway was torn up a bit.
The next day, Ted, summering on Peaks Island in Casco Bay (Portland); boarded the ferry
The next day, Ted, summering on Peaks Island in Casco Bay (Portland); boarded the ferry
boat, “Nancy Helen”, at the wharf in Portland walked to the Customs Building and took a
Portland RR trolley to Monument Square, where he boarded a Portland bus for Old Orchard Beach,
then board a Biddeford and Saco Bus RR bus for Five Points, then he walked to
Granite Street Extension and continued walking about four miles along the former
ASL ROW to the Cloughs. Borrowed rake and shovel, repaired their driveway, and returned
to Peaks’ Island; by foot, bus, bus, trolley, and ferryboat (roundtrip 62
miles/12 miles of walking by foot).
miles/12 miles of walking by foot).
We are still in need of funds for creating the interpretation programs that will tell this fascinating 110+-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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Restoration work continues on the Narcissus at Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine. The only surviving interurban of the Portland-Lewiston Interurban Railroad. 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
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-resolution 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!
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
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 every 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 in 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
* 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
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
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