Tag Archives: Maine history
The dark-eyed little girl in the picture: Old photos tell the story of an immigrant family from Greece
Browsing through the archives of Digital Maine, this photo of young Mary Gekas invites questions. Born in 1915, she would have been 5 or 6 when this photo was taken at the Mark Dennett School in Kittery, Maine, and saved … Continue reading
Posted in Seacoast (mostly) History
Tagged Alien registration, Kittery history, Maine history
13 Comments
The summer when Kittery aliens landed at the Town Office
In late June of 1940, 39 aliens officially called Kittery home. Some had dwelled among the town’s residents for more than 50 years, others for just a few weeks. When Governor Lewis E. Barrows signed an executive order requiring all … Continue reading
Posted in Seacoast (mostly) History
Tagged Alien registration, Kittery history, Maine history
8 Comments
Fragments of history: When the KKK marched in Kittery, Maine
Why and how did Kittery-ites join the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s? The Foreside parade in this undated J. Frank Walker photo likely took place on either June 30, 1924, or August 17, 1925, when Portsmouth Herald articles document these … Continue reading
Posted in Seacoast (mostly) History
Tagged J. Frank Walker, Kittery history, Maine history, Seacoast history
15 Comments
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 Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, nobody seemed to know, … Continue reading
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 Thanksgiving, which was recommend by the church but not required, … Continue reading
