Museum in the Streets

At the Town Meeting of April 5, 1819, Hallowell voters approved a warrant “to see if the Town will give directions for building a Magazine for the safe keeping of powder”.  By June of 1820 the Powder House building  was erected here on Couch’s Ledge, land owned by Ebenezer T. Warren, and once owned by Continue Reading

Sign Number: 7 Location: Second St. Method of Display: Attached to building North Side Permits/permissions required, date obtained: Town Properties LLC , 245 River Road, Topsham, ME 04086 Row House, built in approximately 1840 by Isaac Gage, is the sole remaining example in Maine of a wooden row house, a typical form of labor housing Continue Reading

Location: Liberal Cup Building Perley Lane Method of Display: Affixed to buildingWilson Hall (this building) was built by Charles Wilson in 1872 at a cost of $10,000 “in answer to popular demand for a place of public amusement”. The first floor was occupied by a meat and provisions market; the second floor housed a dining Continue Reading

Sign Number: 15 Location: Boynton’s Market Method of Display: affixed to building Henry Pope Clearwater was a pharmacist who identified himself as Dr. Clearwater and began his career at the City Drug Store on Water Street. Around 1900, Dr. Clearwater started a successful mail-order patent-medicine business, named the Heart Cure Co. One of his most Continue Reading

Sign Number: 14 Location: Cotton Mill Apartments north west corner Method of Display: Steel pole The availability of cheap cotton from the South in the pre-Civil War years prompted local businessmen to construct a spinning mill here in 1845. During a typical week, it used 35 bales of cotton shipped from New Orleans and burned Continue Reading

Hallowell house was designed and built by John D. Lord, who had previously supervised the construction of the Maine State Capitol building. Construction began in 1832 in the hope that it might swing favor towards Hallowell becoming the Capital of the newly annexed state. The hotel became home to legislators and hosted visits by Daniel Continue Reading

MUSEUM IN THE STREETS   Sign Number: 3 Location: City Hall 1 Winthrop St. In 1898-99, Eliza Clark Lowell, great granddaughter of Hallowell’s first settler Deacon Pease Clark, donated $20,000 for the construction of a City Hall.  She said, “Build it strong that it may last for years to come.” Its auditorium served as a Continue Reading

Kennebec Turnout Sheppard’s Point, the small peninsula located where Vaughan Stream enters the Kennebec River, was first settled by Briggs Hallowell, who built a house there to look after the business interests of his father, Benjamin Hallowell. Commercial activity flourished on the Point. A brewery and distillery established by John Sheppard was said to produce Continue Reading

Sign Number: 18 Location: Key Bank Building Method of Display: Attached to Building Hallowell’s early settlers brought their passion for education to their new home. The first town meeting in 1771 voted funds for public schools. A private school, The Hallowell Academy, founded in 1795, offered a top rate classical curriculum with a program in Continue Reading