Carvers Harbor (2015)

[VY-NUL-haa-vehn] is an island town in Knox County, incorporated on Jun e 25, 1789 from portions of North and South Fox Islands. It ceded land in 1846 to form the town of Fox Isle, now North Haven.

In 1878, Hurricane Isle, part of Vinalhaven, broke off to form its own town. But in 1921 it surrendered its status and was an unorganized township until reincorporated into Vinalhaven in 1937. Poet Harold Vinal, after whose ancestor (John Vinal) the town was named, wrote a poem about Hurricane Island.

The portion of the building housing the Chamber includes a Visitors Center and restrooms.

Settled in 1765 by the Carvers of Massachusetts, Vinalhaven became a major granite quarrying center, supplying the stone for New York’s Church of St. John the Devine and the Brooklyn Bridge.

According to one source: An island benefactor donated the granite eagle believing it was originally made of Vinalhaven granite. It was salvaged from part of a roof support. At the unveiling a “granite expert” revealed that the granite was not of Vinalhaven origin.  The town folks shrugged it off and kept it anyway. Sculptor artist Robert Indiana had a studio within a stone’s throw of the eagle..

In October of 1836 the island, and nearby North Haven, witnessed a horrible fire aboard the Royal Tarr, a sidewheel steamer from New Brunswick carrying ninety people and a cargo of animals as a traveling circus.  Thirty one people drowned in the incident.

Granite quarrying was an important industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries, both on the main island and on nearby Hurricane Island, which is in the town of Vinalhaven.  The Granite Cutter’s Union was organized in 1877 and the Paving cutter’s Union, in 1901.  In the early 20th century, the use of concrete and rail transportation diminished the market for granite and ended the industry.

The island town is home to two nature preserves, both managed by the Nature Conservancy. Lane’s Island Preserve consists of rolling moors that run down to meet the sea on a 43 acre island joined to Vinalhaven by a stone causeway. Rough trails lead to beaches and bold shoreline, where the surf is spectacular on a stormy day.

Vinalhaven- North Haven Archipelago Preserve features six islands (Big Garden, Big White, Sheep, Smith, Brimstone and Little Brimstone) that orbit the larger islands of Vinalhaven and North Haven in Penobscot Bay.

Supporting an impressive array of birds, most of the islands, with the exception of Brimstone, are without trails though are nice location for picnics and walks along the beach.

Granite mining was a major industry on the islands, as on many others in the nineteenth century. It attracted a large number of Irish workers, many of whom formed the first Fenian Circle in Maine.  The Fenian’s membership oath reflected their ultimate goal “. . . I will work with earnest zeal for the liberation of Ireland from the yoke of England and for the establishment of a free and  independent government on Irish soil . . . .”*  In 1866 hundreds of Fenians arrived in Eastport intent on invading English-ruled Canada.

A huge wheeled monster vehicle known as a”galamander,” listed below among Historic Places, was used for lifting and transporting granite blocks to awaiting ships.  See photos of the Robertson Quarry Galamander in Franklin.

The State Ferry Service provides transportation, for passengers and vehicles, to and from Rockland six times daily (in 2011).

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<== Up West                                                        Downeast ==>

 

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Form of Government: Town Meeting-Select Board-Manager.

Brady G. Williams photos: Carver’s Harbor, Chamber of Commerce, Eagle Sculpture, Shops in the Village, The Waterfront.

Additional resources

Armstrong, Amy. Granite by the sea [moving image recording] : the History of Granite Quarrying on Vinalhaven Island. Vinalhaven, Me. Vinalhaven Historical Society. c2002.

*Barker, Matthew June. The Irish of Portland Maine: A History of Forest City Hibernians.  History Press. 2014. pp. 108-109.

A Brief Historical Sketch Of The Town Of Vinalhaven, From Its Earliest Known Settlement. Prepared By Vinalhaven (Me.). Centennial Committee. Rockland, Me. The Free Press Office. 1889.

A Brief Historical Sketch Of The Town Of Vinalhaven, From Its Earliest Known Settlement. Prepared By Vinalhaven (Me.). Centennial Committee. Rockland, Me. Press of the Star Job Print. 1900.

Clinton, Kelly. “Star of Hope Lodge.” Maine: the Magazine. August 2015. http://themainemag.com/travel/2776-star-of-hope-lodge/ (accessed March 10, 2017)

Crossman, Phil. Away Happens. Hanover, N.H. University Press of New England. c2005.

*Firebird (a traveling blogger who visited Vinalhaven in 2014)  http://firebirdtofundy.blogspot.com/2014/12/21-from-yarmouth-ns-to-maine-and.html (accessed April 22, 2017)

Gordon, John. The Burning of the Royal Tar Near Vinalhaven, Oct. 21st, 1836. Vinalhaven, Me. Gordon Press. [1937?]

Hollywood Comes to Vinalhaven [moving image recording]: the making of “Deep Waters”, a film by Army Armstrong. Vinalhaven, ME Vinalhaven Historical Society. c2007. “A documentary celebrating the 60th anniversary of the filming of Deep waters … Deep waters, an adaptation of Ruth Moore’s Spoonhandle, was filmed on Vinalhaven in 1947 …This documentary includes behind-the-scenes anecdotes, archival photographs and home movies, and reminiscences from island residents old enough to have experienced the production and young enough to remember”–Container DVD

Island Winter [moving image recording]. Produced by Accompany. Concord, NH. Accompany. c1998.

Lasansky, Jeannette. Island Saltwater Farms: Farming on Vinalhaven, 1820-1960. Vinalhaven, Me. Vinalhaven Historical Society. 2006.

**Maine. Historic Preservation Commission. Augusta, Me.  Text and photo from National Register of Historic Places: http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/text/92001292.PDF, http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/photos/92001292.PDF

Browns Head Light Station: 83000460.PDF
Heron Neck Light Station: 87002266.PDF
Murch Family House: 93000205.PDF
Pleasant River Grange No. 492: 99001190.PDF
Saddleback Ledge Light Station: 88000158.PDF
Star of Hope Lodge: 82000767.PDF
Union Church: 84001388.PDF
Vinalhaven Galamander: 70000049.PDF
Vinalhaven Public Library: 88003014.PDF
Webster, Moses, House: 88003014.PDF

Richardson, Constance. Finest kind [moving image recording]. Cambridge, Mass. Dover Productions. c1976.

Sustainable Design for two Maine islands [Vinalhave and Peaks]: Final Report. Institute for Energy Conscious Design, Boston Architectural Center.  Boston, MA  BAC, c1985. Edited by Leslie Horst and Sarah P. Harkness.

Thibault, Sally. Vinalhaven [moving image recording]: Maine Msland Memories 1950-1990. Vinalhaven, Me.? Sally Thibault. 2007.

Vinalhaven [moving image recording]: a Historic Portrait of this Island Community. Pproduced by Accompany. Concord, NH. Accompany. c1996.

Vinalhaven Island. Vinalhaven Historical Society. Dover, NH. Arcadia. c1997.

Wilmerding, John. Robert Indiana and the Star of Hope. Rockland, Me. Farnsworth Art Museum.; New Haven, CT Distributed by Yale University Press. c2009.

Winslow, Sidney L. Fish Scales and Stone Chips. Vinalhaven, Me. Vinalhaven Historical Society. 1989. Rockland, Me. Courier-Gazette, Inc.

Winslow, Sidney L. Intimate Views Of Vinalhaven: History, Home Life And Personal Recollections. Rockland, Me. Rockland Courier-Gazette. 1944-1946.

National Register of Historic Places – Listings

Browns Head Light Station

[Browns Head] The light tower at Browns Head is one of the earliest designs, having been built in 1832 on order from President Andrew Jackson. It is the type of station in common use in the days before the Civil War. There was much shipping on Penobscot Bay when the light was erected and it became a key navigational aid particularly as a guide,to the entrance of the busy Fox Islands Thoroughfare. The keeper’s house dates from 1857 when the station was rehabilitated. The tower is original. This lighthouse has long been a mecca for summer visitors sailing their small boats on the Bay and Thoroughfare.**

Heron Neck Light Station

[Heron Neck, Greens Island] Heron Neck Light Station was established in 1853 as a guide to Carvers Harbor and Hurricane Sound. It is a component in the system of navigational aids in Penobscot Bay.

One of the principal communities served by the Heron Neck Light was Vinalhaven located at the north end of Carvers Harbor.

Incorporated in 1789, Vinalhaven’s population in 1850 was 1,252 persons, most of whom probably combined fishing with limited farming. Later in the century, Vinalhaven witnessed the development of a local granite quarry and tourist industry.

The Heron Neck Light was also sited at the southeast entrance to Hurricane Sound, a body of water framing the west side of Vinalhaven Island and punctuated with islets.

The station’s distinctive character reflects a combination of mid- and late 19th century light station design and construction.* [Frank A. Beard photos, 1986]

Murch Family House

[Calderwood Neck SE side, 2 miles northeast of North Haven Road] The Murch Family House is the only granite house on Vinalhaven, an island whose chief economic importance in the 19th century was the granite industry. It was built by a local mason at a time when the granite quarries were just beginning to develop national markets for building stone and monuments. The house and its nearby barn together illustrate conditions of subsistence farming on Maine islands in the 19th century. William Murch settled on Vinalhaven in the 1830s. By the 1850 census he was listed as a mason living with his wife, Rebecca, and five children. At that time his eldest son, Isaac, age twenty-six, was a fisherman and along with his wife Bianca, lived with his father.

William built the stone house for Isaac using stone quarried from a nearby point called “Starboard Rock”. Isaac and Bianca were deeded two acres in 1855 shortly after the birth of their first child, Albert. The house was probably built at that time. It was certainly completed by 1860. By that time William was apparently deceased and his widow and three small children lived close by.

Little more is known about Isaac Murch except that he was the first of a long line of fisherman to occupy the house. In 1861 he was well enough regarded to be chosen selectman to fill an unexpired term, and during the Civil War he served as a Lieutenant. Isaac Murch was killed at Ft. Donaldson in 1863 and the property descended to his wife and two sons. By 1870, however, she had left the island and it is not clear who occupied the house.

All of the Murches were fishermen, harvesting lobster and any kind of fish for which there was a market. They generally kept a few animals in the barn, such as cows, chickens, sheep, and horses. An apple orchard and small plots of vegetable gardens were scattered all over the property wherever enough soil could be found.* [Roger Reed photos, 1992]

Pleasant River Grange No. 492

[Round Island Road, 0.15 miles east of junction with North Haven Road] The Pleasant River Grange No. 492 is a modest wooden frame building originally built as a boarding house for workers in a nearby granite quarry. It was moved across the Pleasant River to its present site during the winter of 1908-09 and dedicated on December 31, 1909, although work continued on the building until 1912.

Pleasant River Grange No. 492 was organized on October 23, 1908, at the home of Watson H. Vinal. Shortly thereafter, Captain A.M. Webster closed his granite quarry on the opposite side of Pleasant River and donated the former boarding house to the newly formed grange.

An historic photograph documents the move of the building across the ice to its present location during the winter of 1908-09. The work of repairing and remodeling the building apparently lasted until 1912. It was occasionally used for church services and dances that helped to raise money for the project. The original interior plan was substantially altered to accommodate the new use. A dining room, kitchen, two storerooms, and a staircase on the first floor, and the meeting hall on the second floor were the results of the project. The walls and ceilings were sheathed in narrow tongue and groove hard pine, and a new hardwood floor was installed in the meeting hall. As of 1999 Pleasant River Grange No. 492 still owned, maintained, and used the building.* [Kirk F. Moheny photos, 1999]

Saddleback Ledge Light Station

[Saddleback Ledge, Isle Au Haut Bay] Established in 1839 on a precarious rock outcropping, Saddleback Ledge Light Station marks an eastward approach to Penobscot Bay. Saddleback Ledge light was the second to guide maritime traffic into and out of Penobscot Bay. Eventually it was one of six principal navigational aids built along this important waterway. However, it was the only one of these six to have been classified as a secondary sea-coast light. The station was automated in 1954. The tower at Saddleback Ledge was designed by Alexander Parris (1780-1852) and is similar in its overall form to the tower he designed two years earlier at Mount Desert Light Station.

Saddleback clearly shows a proficiency in the use of granite as a material for construction, a characteristic for which the architect was well known. It is one of five known Parris designed towers or keeper’s houses in Maine. A sixth, the tower at Whitehead Light Station, is also attributed to him. The station’s distinctive character embodies the work of a master and reflects an unusual design for a light station in the first half of the 19th century.* [Kirk F. Mohney photo, 1987]

Star of Hope Lodge

[Maine Street] The Star of Hope Lodge is a notable architectural landmark. It is the only building of its period remaining on Maine Street, which once boasted a row of similarly distinctive structures. This impressive collection of buildings in what has now become a quiet resort and fishing community, dated from the great years when Vinalhaven was the center of the Maine granite industry.

The great columns in the nave of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City and the carved granite eagles which used to adorn Pennsylvania Station are but two outstanding examples of the products of this great industry. All this is over now, but the Star of Hope Lodge, once belonging to the International Order of Oddfellows, stands as a reminder.

Until recently the building, no longer used by the Oddfellows, was falling into a state of decay. Fortunately, it was purchased by Robert Indiana, the noted pop artist, known especially for his painting of the letters L, O, V, E that appeared on a postage stamp. Indiana was, in 1981, restoring the building for use as his residence and studio, retaining the important interior features, particularly the ornate and exotic lodge hall which occupies the entire top floor.** [Brady G. Williams photo]

In 2015 it was reported that the building’s 12 rooms hold decades of Indiana’s work. “”Bob is an inveterate collector and archivist of his own life. He has kept things for over 70 years now,” says (Farnsworth Art Museum Michael) Komanecky, who explains that the now-86-year-old artist still has drawings from when he was eight years old. Curators at the Farnsworth Art Museum discovered the prodigious collection inside Indiana’s island home, and soon after held an exhibit that pulled 80 works from his dwelling.”***

Union Church of Vinalhaven

[East Main Street] This distinguished example of the Shingle Style was designed by one of the founders and foremost practitioners of the style, Maine’s most noted architect John Calvin Stevens. The very large number of National Register properties in Maine designed by Stevens attest to the distinction of his work. Though small, this church ranks with the best examples of the period in Maine and elsewhere. Construction on the Union Church was begun in 1899 to replace an earlier church built in 1860. At the time of the erection of the 1860 church, Vinalhaven had become the “granite capital” of Maine and great prosperity had come to the community. This was undoubtedly the reason why so distinguished an architect was retained and the finest materials used.* [Frank A. Beard photo,

Vinalhaven Galamander

[The Bandstand Park] The Vinalhaven Galamander is the restoration of a machine used for the transportation of huge blocks of quarried granite. A wagon about 25 feet long and 10 feet wide, it was drawn by an eight-horse team. Made of the best oak lumber with iron reinforcements, it was almost entirely handmade. Different from other stone carrying wagons, the Galamander was equipped with a derrick or lever with attached rope tackle and later with wire ropes. They were hand operated for lifting large pieces of stone from the ground and carrying them between the two rear wheels of the vehicle. Machines like this were common in Maine during 1860 to 1914. Platform stone, curbings and other stones too large or cumbersome were taken to the cutting yards or polishing mill in the Galamander.

The original Galamander stood on Bandstand Park until weather deteriorated the wood. In 1966 the Town investigated its condition. The iron parts were retrieved and used in the reconstruction; only the oak lumber and blue paint are new.** [Town of Vinalhaven, Committee for the Restoration of the Galamander photo]

Another Galamander, possibly the only other one, may be seen in the town of Franklin.

Vinalhaven Public Library

[Carver Street] Built in 1906 from plans drawn by the Boston firm of Clough and Wardner and financed by a grant from Andrew Carnegie, the Vinalhaven Public Library is a handsome unaltered building of quarry faced granite. Its decided Prairie style configuration makes the library unique among its related property types in Maine. The public library movement in Vinalhaven that culminated with the construction of this building had its beginnings in 1887.

At that time Governor J. R. Bodwell, the president of the Bodwell Granite Company, pledged to provide a space for a collection providing that there was public support for it. Bodwell had a quarry on the island.  Local granite workers raised $118 and in 1888 the town voted to establish a public library. This initial collection was augmented by 800 volumes in 1890 when the ladies of the Vinalhaven Circulating Library agreed to discontinue their organization.

In 1895 the library was installed in the newly dedicated Memorial Hall, and here it remained until the present library building was completed. Construction of the facility was made possible by a $5,200 grant from Andrew Carnegie awarded on April 22, 1906. It is one of only eighteen such gifts to public libraries made in Maine by Carnegie.* [Kirk F. Mohney photos, 1987]

Webster, Moses, House

[Atlantic Avenue, 0.05 miles east of junction of Main Street and Atlantic Avenue] The 1873 Moses Webster House is a well preserved and an exuberant example of the Second Empire style for the local granite magnate of that name. The bold detailing on the exterior of the building is lavish and reflects the taste for florid design among the wealthy in America during the Post Civil-War period. A native of Hudson, New Hampshire, Moses Webster came to Vinalhaven in 1851 with J.R. Bodwell (also a native of New Hampshire and later Governor of Maine, 1887), to exploit the high quality granite that abounds on the island. While historical records indicate that granite was quarried on Vinalhaven beginning about 1826 , no large-scale mining of the stone had occurred on the island by the middle of the 19th century.

In 1852, Webster and Bodwell began operating the East Boston quarry on the island under the firm name of Bodwell and Webster. The 1850s saw significant growth in the business with the company’s award of a contract to provide stone for the construction of Petit Manan Light Station in 1854. The next year a larger agreement with the federal government for finished stone for the New York Navy Yard.

In 1872 the company was renamed the Bodwell Granite Company with Moses Webster as co-owner and vice president. In that year the Bodwell Granite Company employed 600 workers for the quarrying and cutting of stone for the State Department Building in Washington, D.C. and piers for the East River Bridge in New York City.

In 1872 or 1873, Moses Webster began construction of his house on Atlantic Avenue. The conspicuous siting of this large house (clearly visible from the commercial center of the town) combined with its opulent decorative detailing was a statement of Webster’s economic and political influence on Vinalhaven during this period. At this point Webster was effectively running the company on the island as J.R. Bodwell had moved to Hallowell, Maine to pursue the firm’s quarrying enterprise in that area. Moses Webster probably lived in the house with his wife and children until his death in 1887. [James Hewat photos, 1997]