Skulls of history in a forgotten tomb
Where was he, the most noteworthy man who ever called my town home? Back and forth I wandered, searching. Where was the life-sized portrait of Sir William Pepperrell? At the […]
Kittery history
Globalization, circa 1807, curses the Lady Pepperrell House
Lady Mary Hirst Pepperrell had impeccable taste. So say many sources, but the best indicator is the home she built in 1760 on Route 103 in Kittery Point. The Lady […]
The Ghost of a Pepperrell Lady
Elizabeth Royall was a royal – a member of New England’s informal royalty. When she was a tween girl, she and her older sister Mary sat for a young John […]
Why I go to church on Christmas Eve
Growing up in an Irish-Catholic suburb south of Boston, I went to church 60 days out of the year: 52 Saturday or Sunday masses, seven holy days of obligation, and […]
Nathaniel Sparhawk and the art of swagger
“A wealthy merchant of Kittery, Maine”. So reads the caption, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, beneath this John Singleton Copley portrait of Nathaniel Sparhawk, one of Kittery’s […]
On Bridges and the Jet Set
At our Rice Public Library, I recently attended a fascinating slide show featuring photographs of “old Kittery” that was put together by Frank Totman of Kittery Point. Of special interest […]