5c
- 1870 - The Business Block 
South Berwick, Maine - 241-287 Main Street
5c
- 1870 - The Business Block
South Berwick, Maine - 241-287 Main Street
Over the years, the Central Square stores at the Corner have offered South Berwick shoppers products from baby bottles to coffins. With the coming of Hollywood pictures in the 20th century, there was even a movie theater.
Located at the junction of Main and Portland Streets, two ancient roads from the Salmon Falls River landings in the south to Berwick in the north and Portland in the east, the site has attracted commerce since the 1700s. The present long brick business block was built after a devastating fire in July 1870 destroyed about a dozen shops and homes that had stood on this side of the square for generations. Within the year, the South Berwick business community rallied and rebuilt the present brick row.
The fire had destroyed South Berwick’s main assembly space, so the new building also featured two upstairs halls. Residents formed a Newichawannock Hall Association to create a large upstairs community center in the middle of the block; it sported all kinds of entertainment and became known in recent times as the Wadleigh Gardens Ballroom.
The Masons’ fraternal order also built a new, 75 square foot upstairs Masonic hall at the south end of the block; this upper story was demolished in the mid-1900s.
From The York County Atlas of 1872:
In June 1871, the business community published The Cornucopia, a newspaper with ads that appear below.
N. Hanson, Druggist (today SoBo Books and Coffee)
Brothers Nicholas Hanson, Jr. (1831-1904) and Ebenezer S. Hanson (1825-1905) were in the pharmacy business together as early as the 1850s. In the Maine Business Directory of 1857, Ebenezer was also listed as an “ink manufacturer.” Nicholas was a Master Mason and member of St. John's Lodge, No. 51, and made his home in the Jedediah Jenkins House at 105 Portland Street. In 1872 he also ran a furniture business across the street in the former Brown Store.
E. R. McIntire Hardware Store (today Edward Jones Investments)
Edward R. McIntire (1826-1886) established his hardware business in 1859, according to the History of York County. He lived on Grant Street and operated a shingle mill on a water-powered factory using the creek that today still runs under Salmon Street (Lower Main Street).
J. P. Davis Stores & Tinware (today Edward Jones Investments)
The Davis family’s tinware business dates back to at least the 1830s, when they operated from a building toward the near Quamphegan Landing, not far from the Baptist Church. “Gilpatric and Davis carried on an extensive tinware manufactory,” wrote resident George Washington Frosst in a memoir. “They employed several men as peddlers who penetrated York County far and near, exchanging their wares for either cash, old iron, rags, sheepskins, old pewter, brass, and lead. In fact, almost anything was accepted in those days in the way of trade.” The business also had a location on Liberty Street, and in the 1870s Joseph Porter Davis made his home there. An account of the fire of 1870 in the Dover Enquirer claimed that the blaze originated in Davis’s tin shop.
Union Store (today Portico Realty )
This was the South Berwick chapter of the first consumers’ cooperative in the United States. “Union Store No. 79: General Goods was established by the New England Protective Union, with headquarters in Boston, Mass., about 1849, as a branch union,” reported the 1880 History of York County. “The store was once burned, but opened soon after. John S. Pike has been the agent since it first commenced business in the place.” Pike (c. 1815-1888) had earlier had a “hat, cap and fur business,” according to a memoir by Mary Jewett. In 1871, Pike lived in the Elisha and Sally Jewett House, 176 Portland Street, with his wife, Abby.
C. C. Merrill Shoe Store (today Signs by Mo and Marlene’s Beauty Salon)
The newspaper ad below from The Cornucopia of 1871 shows that shoemaker Charles C. Merrill (1831-1876) had been in the Huntress Block, but then moved into the new brick block in 1872. His son, Benjamin (1855-1930), became a shoemaker also, according to Vital Records of Berwick, South Berwick and North Berwick, and so was perhaps in business with him.
Read a Jewett story about a shoemaker who moves into a business block.
S. W. Ricker Fancy Goods (today South Berwick Pizza)
The Maine Business Directory of 1857 listed Shipley W. Ricker as an agent in insurance, and Mary W. Ricker as a dealer in “millinery and fancy goods,” and likely they were related. Vital records and cemetery stones show that Mary Walton Ricker (c.1790–1869) had been married to Capt. Elijah Ricker, who was lost at sea in 1826, aged 40. Apparently she then kept a “fancy goods” shop, possibly out of her home, in the area later burned in the fire of 1870. Shipley Ricker (1827-1905), perhaps her nephew, established a general store in 1846, with products that included West Indies goods. His daughter, also named Mary W. Ricker (1863-1912), later managed the fancy goods shop, according to some local memoirs, until she married. In 1872, Shipley Ricker, active with the insurance business and many mercantile ventures, lived in the Nathanael Low house on Portland Street.
Rebecca Smith Millinery Store (today JASS Fitness Machines)
Rebecca K. Smith lived from 1830-1919 and is buried in a family plot in Portland Street Cemetery. The 1880 History of York County reports that she had established her business in 1865. She may have been the unmarried daughter of a shoemaker named Frederick W. Smith (1802-1849), and have later helped support his wife, Mary Kenison Smith (1806-1875). Hers was one of the businesses destroyed by the fire of 1870.Chas. E. Hobbs, Grocer (today Emporium Framing)
Charles E. Hobbs of South Berwick married Anna B. Wilson of Kittery in August 1871, just after the opening of his grocery store. The Hobbs shop may have later become the Maddox grocery store.
Chas. Malloy, Boots and Shoes (today Vacuum Village)
In October 1853, Charles Malloy of Rollinsford, NH, married Ellen J. Wentworth of Greenland, NH, according to Vital Records of Berwick, South Berwick and North Berwick. Like many of the business people opening in the new business block, Malloy had owned one of the shops destroyed in the 1870 fire.
C. J. Tyler Jewelry Store
Geo. W. Brookings Photographer & Sewing Machine Agt.
(today Rideout’s Hardware)
In the 1880 History of York County, George W. Brookings was listed as selling musical instruments and sewing machines. For a time he also had a photography shop in Salmon Falls Mill Village.
Chas. E. Whitehead Tailor
Charles E. Whitehead (c. 1817-1878) was married to Mary B. Whitehead (1826-1908). They seem to have lived in South Berwick as early as the 1850s, and his shop was one of the ones destroyed in the fire of 1870. They had at least six children, and lived at 324 Main Street at the corner of Norton Street. Their son, John B. Whitehead, born in 1852, continued in his father’s profession and operated a men’s clothing store in South Berwick. He died in 1942.
N. W. Kendall Stationer (today South Berwick Pharmacy)This stationary store seems to have been at this location only a short time after 1871. The store then seems to have been occupied by the Whitehead tailor shop.
