Contesting History in 1899:
Kevin D. Murphy
Contesting History in 1899: The Old Gaol at York, Maine
H
istoric buildings have
tent of that history. Accounts of the origins
been implicated in de-
of early museums such as the Old Gaol tell
bates over the content
us that history mattered intensely to many
and control of histori-
turn-of-the-century
cal interpretation ever
stories also reveal to us the ways in which
New Englanders.These
since the idea of restoring past architectural
historical projects became a means of achiev-
monuments became a preoccupation in Eu-
ing political and social objectives as well.
rope at the middle of the nineteenth cen-
The notion of contested interpretations
tury. In the United States, as Elisabeth Blair
of history implies the existence of two on-
MacDougall
going debates-over
has suggested, architecture has
the contents of narra-
consistently been seen as“a symbolic expres-
tives concerning a given moment in the past,
sion of a culture’s ideals and achievements
and between rival groups having particular
and as an instrument
interests in controlling the dissemination of
for intellectual
moral improvement.“‘Thus
and
historical knowledge
the preserved or
through institutional
restored monument has been credited with a
means. Conflict over building preservation
certain power to persuade its public to a given
or restoration has occurred when constituents have disagreed over the validity of the
view of history. As the example of the Old Gaol in
historical perspectives embodied in a given
York, Maine, illustrates, the nascent preser-
structure. A second sort of battle takes place
vation movement
when one group challenges another group’s
in New
England raised
questions about who were the rightful guard-
very right to shape historical knowledge
ians of local history, and about the very con-
through preservation.
Old-Time
New England
Fall 1995
Page 7
Because architectural preservation and restoration require substantial financial re-
the region itself or brought in by visitors) that can bear the costs of preservation.“*
sources, as well as expertise in a number of
The Piscataqua River region of sea-
areas, in the history of restoration in the
coast New Hampshire and southern Maine
United States these projects have not infre-
is an area that corresponds to the criteria for
quently been controlled by the possessorsof
appropriation Lynch has outlined.3 In this
both economic capital and specialized edu-
area, as elsewhere in northern New England
cation. Kevin Lynch has described in gen-
beginning in the 186Os, economic depres-
eral terms the economic pattern that, at least
sion ensured the survival of examples of co-
in the Northeast part of the United States,
lonial architecture that urbanites took up as
produced conditions that were conducive to
representations of a more homogeneous and
the appropriation of a region’s material his-
stable past.The first building in the Piscataqua
tory by “outside" groups.Lynch observes that
region to be preserved and operated as a
“many now charming New England towns
museum was the so-called “Old Gael” (fig.
and farming areas” experienced periods of
1). Believed to date from the seventeenth
prosperity in the early nineteenth century that
century, the Old Gaol was more likely the
were followed by decline as a result of“the
result of a series of additions made to two
westward wave of national expansion”:“This
stone cells constructed at the center ofYork
stagnation must then be followed by a sec-
Village in 1719.The most significant expan-
ond period of wealth (whether belonging to
sion provided quarters for the jailer and his
Page 8
Fall 1995
Old-Tune
New England
family in a one-and-one-halfstory, hall-and-
but it still had not recoveredits 1850 level.7
parlor house added to the east side of the
A kind of tourism that capitalized on
cells in 1729. The appearanceof the build-
bothYork’s coastline and its historic charac-
ing was regularized by the gambrel roof that
ter was the engine of the town’s rebirth
unified the series of added parts; the stone
around the turn of the twentieth century, as
walls of the cells are still visible in the west
historian Dona Brown has demonstrated.s
elevation of the expandedbuilding.4After the
The Old Gaol occupied a particularly im-
transferof the seatof York County from the
portant placeinYork asa summer resort,both
town of York to Alfred in 1832, the use of
in the literal geographicsenseand on a more
the Old Gaol for its original function de-
ideological level.The Old Gaol standson a
clined, although the jailer’s quarters were
rock outcropping above the center ofYork,
rented out by the town to individuals who
in closeproximity to the Town Hall and the
sometimes gave tours of the building as its
Congregational Church (fig. 3).These build-
notoriety spread.5Photographs(fig. 2) of the
ings flanked an area that wasreworked at the
Old Gaol from the last two decadesof the
end of the nineteenth century as a village
nineteenth century show that during those
green.Between 1899 and 1904, the OldYork
years the building was dilapidated but ten-
Historical and Improvement Society,an or-
anted.
ganization dominated by wealthy “summer
In the last quarter of the nineteenth
people”who would go on to restorethe Old
century, York began to recover fi-om what
Gaol, planted shrubs and trees around the
was generally acknowledged to have been a period of economic decline. As George Alex Emery commented in the 1870s,“While the town had been stationary,if not nearly retrograding,for many years up to a recent date, its advantagesasa watering-place have since then attractedincreasingattention, and have given a new impulse to its growth.‘16This
wx
a somewhat optimistic statement
Fii.
2.
“Old Jail in York,Maine with Old Church Spire,”
photograph by Emma Colman, 1882.
ofyork’s fortunes. Between 1850 and 1870 the population ofYork declined
public buildings and cemetery along York’s
fi-om nearly 3,000 inhabitants to 2,654. De-
main streetto createthe impressionof a com-
spiteincreasingtourism, the number of year-
mon green spacein the absenceof an exten-
round residentsinYork dipped to 2,463 in
siveopen areaat the center of the town. Some
1880 and dropped by twenty more by 1890.
of these efforts at “improvement”
By 1910, when the censuslisted2,802 people
thwarted by the local water company,which
inYork, the population had begun to climb,
destroyed a grass plot constructed in the
Old-Time
New
England
Fall 1995
were
Page 9
of my time in telling you who we are and what we think of you.” Stewart portrayed the populace ofyork as simple, self-sufficient farmers and mariners whose rural ways were disturbed by the “ruthless invader.” Soon, summer people wanted to “purchase our ancestral acres,” Stewart reported. “Part with our heritage? Never! We locked our doors and pulled down our curtains that we might not even see you pass!Still you persisted.You wearied us by your constant importunings and in a moment of weakness we yielded.” Abruptly,
the tone of Stewart’s
remarks
changed and he thanked the recent arrivals for their efforts at “improvement,” which had brought new roads,schools,churches,houses, and libraries.” Both the newcomers and the natives Fig. 3. Derail o_f%rk villqefiom
1872 Atlas ofyork
traded on a mythic view of York’s past.The
County. Among the buildings labeledme (clo&ise~m
summer residents brought toYork an ideal-
upper leji) the CongregationalChurch, Cemetery.Town
ized notion of a picturesque “colonial” vii-
Hall, Methodist Church, the “old jail,” and “Ancient
lage center, in which the Old Gaol would become a component. On the other hand,
Cemetery.”
Stewart, and perhaps other longtime residents middle of the main street,and by vandalswho
otyork aswell, thought of themselves ashav-
pulled up the trees the Historical and Im-
ing a more legitimate claim on the history of
provement Society had planted along the mad
York by virtue of being descended from ear-
that led Tom the village to the beach.9
her inhabitants.While
Stewart asserted that
This contest over improvements to
York’s landmarks had been snared from their
York’s landscape made manifest the tensions
long-standing owners by wealthy outsiders,
that existed betweenYork’s “native” popula-
in fact many of the town’s best-known colo-
tion and the vacationers. In his “welcoming”
nial- or federal-period houses were used as
addressat the celebration of the town’s 250th
summer residences by families with histori-
anniversary in 1902,York resident John C.
cal ties to the town. For instance, Coventry
Stewart explicitly addressedthe relationship
Hall (1794-96), which is York’s finest resi-
between the two groups. Stewart suggested
dence built before the mid-nineteenth cen-
that the year-round and summer residentshad
tury, was lived in summers by the Reverend
been passingone another for years“without
Frank Sewall, a descendant of the original
becoming really acquainted.” He continued:
owner.”
“You will, I know, pardon me if I take some Page 10
Fall 1995
If “invaders”were not actually in conOld-Time
New England
trol of all of the most valuable landscapesand
The Old Gaol provided a spacefor the
monuments, they had nonetheless acted in
interpretation ofwomen’s history and repre-
very public ways to enhance the historical
sented an effort on the part of its women
character of the town. Moreover, everyone
organizersto take a public role in the com-
acknowledged that tourism was responsible
munity. Its colonial history was an impor-
for WingYork out of the economic doldrums
tant aspect of the town’s identity, and the
that attended declinesin shipping,shipbuild-
period room proved a powerful method of
ing, and agriculture af%erthe middle of the
conveying the lessonsof the past.Making the
nineteenth century. Local resentment of the
Old Gaol a museum enabled its animators to
economic superiority of the “outsiders” was
advance two interpretations of colonial his-
most palpable when the summer residents
tory (with which men and women visitors
used their money seemingly to take control
identitied to ditberentdegreesand in distinct
of the town’s past.
ways, it is presumed) at the same time that
Despite confhcts between “natives” and “invaders,” wealthy members of both groupscould act in consortwhen united by the interestsof their class.Such was the case with the restoration of the Old Gaol, “rescued” in 1899 by a committee headedby two wealthy women, “native”
Elizabeth B.
Davidson and summer resident Mary S. PerkinsThe committee made few physical repairs to the building and concentrated its ef-
Fig. 4. A the Old Cool Museum in 1907, womenattemptIO
forts instead on assemblinga col-
recreate theritualof“colonial”teaparries against
lection
ofeighfeenrhand ninefeenth-century objects lent by memkm oJ
of objects with local
provenance to exhibit in the Old
a
background
the community.
Gaol during the summer months. The resulting“Museum of Colonial Relics”
the project meant that upper-middle-class
and vaguely period rooms portrayed two as-
women with access to economic capital
pects of local history. First, they presented a
would control public understanding of local
traditional understanding of colonial history
history,at least to the extent that it was rep-
through displays of heraldry, firearms, and
resented in the building. The architectural
artifacts associatedwith famous men. Sec-
envelope,which included jail cells as well as
ond, in the period rooms, women enacted
domestic spaces,was ideally suited to illus-
scenes of “colonial” domesticity that in-
trate both the supposedlysuperior penal sys-
eluded tea parties (fig. 4). spinning thread,
tern of the colonial period and the idealized
and open-hearth cooking.
colonial home, which during the last quar-
Old-Time
New England
Fall 1995
Page 11
Fig. 5. Gmien F’arty,Ymk, Maine, 1899. The clorhingincludesboth “colonial”
ter of the nineteenth century was perceived
One of the ladiesofYork, Mrs. Davidson, the
asthe setting for the cultivation of moral quali-
banker’s wife, was so impressedby thesewords that
ties that were found lacking in contemporary
she induced her husbandto hire the jail, and then, in
urban society. Several interpretations of local
co-operation with Mrs. Newton Perkins (who owns
history could be incorporated into the Old
and livesin the oldestprivate house in the town),
Gaol because it had spaces that represented
Mrs. Davidson undertook to get up some entertain-
both public and private life and because pres-
ment to securemoney for repairs [fig. 51.
ervation had not yet become professionalized
“Let’s have a lawn party at my house,”said Mrs.
to the extent that women were excluded from
Perkins.“Well,” said Mr. Howells, slipping a bill into
the field.12
her hand,“1 want to be your first patmn.“13
Nonetheless, these women failed to reThis piece of writing suppressed the ceive sole credit for the project publicly. A less progressive motivations behind the pres1901 article on the Old Gaol attributed the idea to William Dean Howells, a summer resi-
ervation project, which were noted in 1952 by a Mrs. Tabor, the daughter of James T.
dent ofyork during the 1890s and editor of and Elisabeth B. Davidson.Tabor recalled that the Atlantic Monthly: her father, whose home was adjacent to the It was Mr. William Dean How&
Old Gaol, “ was annoyed by the people who
who suggestedthat
the old jail ought to be saved...
lived in the Gaol at that time,““undesirable
“This is the oldestpublic building in this part of
neighbors” who “took in to board some of the
the world,” remarked Mr. HoweUs,“and it is a very
rough foreigners who had been brought here
interestingplace.Why can’t somethingbe done about it?’
to work on the railroad.” Tabor continued:
Page 12
Fall 1995
Old-Time
New
England
An opportunity
century. Of six hundred families living in the
arose and Mr. Davidson had a chance
to get them out of the gaol by renting it himself,
town in 1850, he continued, only ten were
which he did. It appears that about this time Mr.
from other states, and none were European
Davidson,Wiiam
immigrants. Banks acknowledged that “alien
Dean Howells, and Mrs. Newton
Perkins met at some social function and discussed the
immigration has never been a problem in this
possibility of rescuing the old gaol. Mr. Howells
homogeneous Anglo-Saxon
immediately offered a donation to start the ball
The census returns for 1910 corroborate the
rolling, and Mrs. Perkins said that she would give a
claim of homogeneity: among the popula-
community?
garden party at her place, the proceeds to go to this
tion of 2,802, the number of native whites
pmject.This
with native parents amounted to 2,290. An
was the start of the Old Gaol Museum.14
additional 263 inhabitants were native whites
To remove the immigrants from the
born to foreign or mixed foreign and native-
Old Gaol, it was only necessary for Davidson
born parents. Less than ten percent of the
to rent the building himself, but Davidson
population consisted of foreign-born whites and his a&rent
collaborators went further: (244), and there were only five African
they contributed to the larger objective of
Americans or Asians listed asliving inYork.16
their class, which was to give York a more
The “rescue” of the Old Gaol from convincingly colonial appearance. The Old immigrant workers is only one example of Gaol, a well-known
landmark by the turn of the use ofpreservation to disassociateminor-
the century, was an important component of ity groups from monuments associated with the mythologizedYork.
Not only did it stand the history of the dominant (Anglo-Saxon)
at the center of the village; it also spoke of a culture. The “rough disciplined colonial community.
foreigners”
in York,
which was otherwise a virtually homoge-
The importance attached to the Old neous community, were ousted fi-om the Old Gaol above other local landmarks helps to Gaol because of prejudice but also, I would explain the animosity felt for the “foreignassert, because they were not considered to ers” living in the jailer’s quarters. Immigrants have any particular claim on the history of represented only a tiny proportion
of the
the community. At the public celebration of
town’s population. Whereas other cities in northern
the 250th anniversary of the town ofyork in
New England experienced great
1902, speaker Thomas Nelson Page, a novel-
influxes of immigrants in the second half of
ist and local summer resident, contrasted the
the nineteenth century, the fact thatYork had
town’s original colonists and their descen-
virtually no industry meant that the town
dants, “all of the same race” and all sharing
could offer little permanent employment to
“the same history,” with immigrants else-
unskilled laborers, who went elsewhere in southern Maine.
Local historian
Edward Banks acknowledged
where who “have not the past that we have,
Charles
but...
this demo-
found themselves in a liberty which they
graphic phenomenon in 1931 when he wrote
know not how to appreciate or to preserve.“”
that “York was still in the sole possession of
Not only could immigrants not be counted
its ancient peoples” in the mid-nineteenth
Old-Time
New England
bred under tyranny, have suddenly
on to preserve the political traditions of the
Fall 1995
Page 13
United States,Page might have continued,
NOTES
but they were hardly reliable guardiansof the architecturalmonuments that were associated
Elisabeth Blair MacDougall, “Before 1870: Founding Fathers and Amateur Historians,” in
with the birth ofAmerican democracyin the
The ArrhiterturalHisrorianin Ameriu, ed. Ehsabeth
colonial period.
Blair MacDougall (Washington, D.C.: National
The example of the Old Gaol illus-
Gallery ofArt,
trateshow preservationbecame a ground on which variousinterpretersof history clashed.
1990). 15.
Kevin Lynch, What Time isThisPlace?(Cambridge, Mass., and London: The MIT
Differences between longtime residentsand
Press,
1972). 31. Other historians argue that in addition
recent arrivals that were basedon economic
to westward migration, variations in weather
inequities erupted into disputes over who
patterns in southern Maine during the nineteenth
should controlyork’s history,yet the elite of
century also contributed to the decline of
both groupswere united when members of
agriculture in the area. See David C. Smith,
a minority group installed themselvesin the
William R. Baron, Anne E. Bridges, Janet
very heart of the town’s historic center.
TeBrake, and Harold W. Barns, Jr., “Climate
The historical narratives that are pre-
Fluctuation and Agricultural Change in Southern
sented in the preserved buildings of the United States promote certain ideologies
and Central New England, 1776-1880,“in Maine: A History through Selected Readings, eds.
concerning the development of democracy, David C. Smith and Edward 0. S&river
the role of the home in the eighteenth cen-
(Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt,
1985). 467-76.
tury, and many others. However, it is less See Kevin D. Murphy, “The Politics of
often acknowledged that preservation was Preservation: Historic House Museums in the
usedto advancecertain socialobjectivesthat Piscataqua Region,” in ‘A Noble and Dignijed
make us uncomfortable today,among them Stream”:The Piscataqua Region in the Colonial
the exclusion of minority groups from cerRevival,1860- 1930, eds. Sarah L. Gil&n and
tain areas.It is tune to contest the history of Kevin D. Murphy
(York, Maine: Old York
preservationitself, to go beyond the analysis Historical Society, 1992), 193-204.
of history as disputed intellectual property, On the structure of the Old Gaol, seeJohn
to see how the restoration of historic buildHecker, “Historical and Structural Analysis, Old
ings made them instrumentsin political, ecoGaol,York, Maine” (typescript, Old York
nomic, and social struggles. Historical Society, 1976), and Tom Jester, “Structural Analysis and Documentation
Kevin D. Murphy is assistant profasorof Prepared..
architecturalhistory at the University of
. for
the OldYork
(typescript, OldYork
Historical Society”
Historical Sociery, 1988).
Virginia. Between 1990 and 1992 he diSee Murphy, “Old Gael Museum,” in “A Noble
rectedan NEHfunded study,organizedby and Di&ied Stream,”205.
OId York Historical Society,of the role of George Alex Emery, AncientCity oj Gogeana and
the PiscataquaRiver regionof Maine and ModernTownofyak (Maine), 2d ed. (1873; reprint,
New Hampshire in the Colonial Revival York, Maine: Courant, 1894), viii.
movement. The SeventhCensusof rhe United States: 1850 Page 14
Fall 1995
Old-Time
New England
(Washington, D.C.: Robert Armstrong, 1853);
Berkeley (Washington,D.C., and London:
77w Statistics of thePopulation of Ihe UnitedStates,
Smithsonian Institution Press,1989).
Ninth Census[1870] (Washington,DC.:
13 Pauline Carrington Bow& “Women Welcome
Government Printing Office, 1872); Population of
VisitorsWhere WitchesWere Confined,” The
the UnitedStates,Eleventh Census of the US. by
Sunday Herald (Boston),August 25, 1901,37.
Minor Civil Divisions,1890 (Washington,D.C.:
14 Old Gaol Museum, Reports and Minutes,July
Dept. of the Interior, CensusOf&e, 1891);
11,1952. Old York Historical Society,York,
7’hirteenrhCemusofh United.9&s [1910].
Maine. I am grateful to FrancesH. Lord and
Abstractofthe Census with Supplementfor Maine
Sarah L. Giffen for making this account known to
(Washington,D.C.: Government Printing Office,
me.
1912). 8
15 Charles Edward Banks, Hisroory ofyork, Maine
Dona Brown,“Purchasing the Past:Summer
(1931; reprint, Baltimore: Regional Publishing Co., 1967), 2:385-86.
People and the Transformation of the Piscataqua
9
Region in the Nineteenth Century,” in ‘A Noble
16 Thirteenth Census ofrhe United States /1910].
and oignijied Stream,” 3-14.
17 “Thomas Nelson Page’sAddress,”in Agamen~icus,
Sarah L. Giflen,“OldYork
Bristol, Coxeana, York, 116-17.
Historical and
Improvement Society,”in “A Nob/eand Dignijed Stream,” 91-93.
IO Hon. John C. Stewart, “Citizens’ Welcome,” in Agcrmenticus,Bristol, Gqeana, York:An Oration
D&en-d 6y the Hon.james Phinney Baxter
theTM
... on
Hundred and Fijieth Anniversary of the Toum
(York, Maine: Old York Historical and Improve-
ment Society, 1904), 99-101. 11 On the issueof summer residentswith ties to York, see Dona Brown. “Pu&asing the past.” 10-l 1. On Coventry Hall (the Judge David Sewall House) see Richard M. Candee, “ ‘The Appearanceof Enterprise and Improvement’: Architecture and the Coastal Elite of Southern Maine:’ in “@able
SiUafions”:Socie#
Cornmew,and Art in Southern Maine, 1780- 1830, ed. Laura F Sprague (Kennebunk, Maine: The Brick Store Museum, 1987), 75,77,78-79; Frank D. Marshall, “Historical Sketch ofyork,” in Agammticus, Bristol, Gqeana,
Yorl, 72.
12 On the professionalizationof preservation,see Gail Lee Dubrow, “Restoring a Female presence, New Gods in Historic Preservation,”in Architecture,A Placefor Women, ed. Ellen Perry
Old-Time
New England
Fall 1995
Page 15
Contesting History in 1899: The Old Gaol at York, Maine
H
istoric buildings have
tent of that history. Accounts of the origins
been implicated in de-
of early museums such as the Old Gaol tell
bates over the content
us that history mattered intensely to many
and control of histori-
turn-of-the-century
cal interpretation ever
stories also reveal to us the ways in which
New Englanders.These
since the idea of restoring past architectural
historical projects became a means of achiev-
monuments became a preoccupation in Eu-
ing political and social objectives as well.
rope at the middle of the nineteenth cen-
The notion of contested interpretations
tury. In the United States, as Elisabeth Blair
of history implies the existence of two on-
MacDougall
going debates-over
has suggested, architecture has
the contents of narra-
consistently been seen as“a symbolic expres-
tives concerning a given moment in the past,
sion of a culture’s ideals and achievements
and between rival groups having particular
and as an instrument
interests in controlling the dissemination of
for intellectual
moral improvement.“‘Thus
and
historical knowledge
the preserved or
through institutional
restored monument has been credited with a
means. Conflict over building preservation
certain power to persuade its public to a given
or restoration has occurred when constituents have disagreed over the validity of the
view of history. As the example of the Old Gaol in
historical perspectives embodied in a given
York, Maine, illustrates, the nascent preser-
structure. A second sort of battle takes place
vation movement
when one group challenges another group’s
in New
England raised
questions about who were the rightful guard-
very right to shape historical knowledge
ians of local history, and about the very con-
through preservation.
Old-Time
New England
Fall 1995
Page 7
Because architectural preservation and restoration require substantial financial re-
the region itself or brought in by visitors) that can bear the costs of preservation.“*
sources, as well as expertise in a number of
The Piscataqua River region of sea-
areas, in the history of restoration in the
coast New Hampshire and southern Maine
United States these projects have not infre-
is an area that corresponds to the criteria for
quently been controlled by the possessorsof
appropriation Lynch has outlined.3 In this
both economic capital and specialized edu-
area, as elsewhere in northern New England
cation. Kevin Lynch has described in gen-
beginning in the 186Os, economic depres-
eral terms the economic pattern that, at least
sion ensured the survival of examples of co-
in the Northeast part of the United States,
lonial architecture that urbanites took up as
produced conditions that were conducive to
representations of a more homogeneous and
the appropriation of a region’s material his-
stable past.The first building in the Piscataqua
tory by “outside" groups.Lynch observes that
region to be preserved and operated as a
“many now charming New England towns
museum was the so-called “Old Gael” (fig.
and farming areas” experienced periods of
1). Believed to date from the seventeenth
prosperity in the early nineteenth century that
century, the Old Gaol was more likely the
were followed by decline as a result of“the
result of a series of additions made to two
westward wave of national expansion”:“This
stone cells constructed at the center ofYork
stagnation must then be followed by a sec-
Village in 1719.The most significant expan-
ond period of wealth (whether belonging to
sion provided quarters for the jailer and his
Page 8
Fall 1995
Old-Tune
New England
family in a one-and-one-halfstory, hall-and-
but it still had not recoveredits 1850 level.7
parlor house added to the east side of the
A kind of tourism that capitalized on
cells in 1729. The appearanceof the build-
bothYork’s coastline and its historic charac-
ing was regularized by the gambrel roof that
ter was the engine of the town’s rebirth
unified the series of added parts; the stone
around the turn of the twentieth century, as
walls of the cells are still visible in the west
historian Dona Brown has demonstrated.s
elevation of the expandedbuilding.4After the
The Old Gaol occupied a particularly im-
transferof the seatof York County from the
portant placeinYork asa summer resort,both
town of York to Alfred in 1832, the use of
in the literal geographicsenseand on a more
the Old Gaol for its original function de-
ideological level.The Old Gaol standson a
clined, although the jailer’s quarters were
rock outcropping above the center ofYork,
rented out by the town to individuals who
in closeproximity to the Town Hall and the
sometimes gave tours of the building as its
Congregational Church (fig. 3).These build-
notoriety spread.5Photographs(fig. 2) of the
ings flanked an area that wasreworked at the
Old Gaol from the last two decadesof the
end of the nineteenth century as a village
nineteenth century show that during those
green.Between 1899 and 1904, the OldYork
years the building was dilapidated but ten-
Historical and Improvement Society,an or-
anted.
ganization dominated by wealthy “summer
In the last quarter of the nineteenth
people”who would go on to restorethe Old
century, York began to recover fi-om what
Gaol, planted shrubs and trees around the
was generally acknowledged to have been a period of economic decline. As George Alex Emery commented in the 1870s,“While the town had been stationary,if not nearly retrograding,for many years up to a recent date, its advantagesasa watering-place have since then attractedincreasingattention, and have given a new impulse to its growth.‘16This
wx
a somewhat optimistic statement
Fii.
2.
“Old Jail in York,Maine with Old Church Spire,”
photograph by Emma Colman, 1882.
ofyork’s fortunes. Between 1850 and 1870 the population ofYork declined
public buildings and cemetery along York’s
fi-om nearly 3,000 inhabitants to 2,654. De-
main streetto createthe impressionof a com-
spiteincreasingtourism, the number of year-
mon green spacein the absenceof an exten-
round residentsinYork dipped to 2,463 in
siveopen areaat the center of the town. Some
1880 and dropped by twenty more by 1890.
of these efforts at “improvement”
By 1910, when the censuslisted2,802 people
thwarted by the local water company,which
inYork, the population had begun to climb,
destroyed a grass plot constructed in the
Old-Time
New
England
Fall 1995
were
Page 9
of my time in telling you who we are and what we think of you.” Stewart portrayed the populace ofyork as simple, self-sufficient farmers and mariners whose rural ways were disturbed by the “ruthless invader.” Soon, summer people wanted to “purchase our ancestral acres,” Stewart reported. “Part with our heritage? Never! We locked our doors and pulled down our curtains that we might not even see you pass!Still you persisted.You wearied us by your constant importunings and in a moment of weakness we yielded.” Abruptly,
the tone of Stewart’s
remarks
changed and he thanked the recent arrivals for their efforts at “improvement,” which had brought new roads,schools,churches,houses, and libraries.” Both the newcomers and the natives Fig. 3. Derail o_f%rk villqefiom
1872 Atlas ofyork
traded on a mythic view of York’s past.The
County. Among the buildings labeledme (clo&ise~m
summer residents brought toYork an ideal-
upper leji) the CongregationalChurch, Cemetery.Town
ized notion of a picturesque “colonial” vii-
Hall, Methodist Church, the “old jail,” and “Ancient
lage center, in which the Old Gaol would become a component. On the other hand,
Cemetery.”
Stewart, and perhaps other longtime residents middle of the main street,and by vandalswho
otyork aswell, thought of themselves ashav-
pulled up the trees the Historical and Im-
ing a more legitimate claim on the history of
provement Society had planted along the mad
York by virtue of being descended from ear-
that led Tom the village to the beach.9
her inhabitants.While
Stewart asserted that
This contest over improvements to
York’s landmarks had been snared from their
York’s landscape made manifest the tensions
long-standing owners by wealthy outsiders,
that existed betweenYork’s “native” popula-
in fact many of the town’s best-known colo-
tion and the vacationers. In his “welcoming”
nial- or federal-period houses were used as
addressat the celebration of the town’s 250th
summer residences by families with histori-
anniversary in 1902,York resident John C.
cal ties to the town. For instance, Coventry
Stewart explicitly addressedthe relationship
Hall (1794-96), which is York’s finest resi-
between the two groups. Stewart suggested
dence built before the mid-nineteenth cen-
that the year-round and summer residentshad
tury, was lived in summers by the Reverend
been passingone another for years“without
Frank Sewall, a descendant of the original
becoming really acquainted.” He continued:
owner.”
“You will, I know, pardon me if I take some Page 10
Fall 1995
If “invaders”were not actually in conOld-Time
New England
trol of all of the most valuable landscapesand
The Old Gaol provided a spacefor the
monuments, they had nonetheless acted in
interpretation ofwomen’s history and repre-
very public ways to enhance the historical
sented an effort on the part of its women
character of the town. Moreover, everyone
organizersto take a public role in the com-
acknowledged that tourism was responsible
munity. Its colonial history was an impor-
for WingYork out of the economic doldrums
tant aspect of the town’s identity, and the
that attended declinesin shipping,shipbuild-
period room proved a powerful method of
ing, and agriculture af%erthe middle of the
conveying the lessonsof the past.Making the
nineteenth century. Local resentment of the
Old Gaol a museum enabled its animators to
economic superiority of the “outsiders” was
advance two interpretations of colonial his-
most palpable when the summer residents
tory (with which men and women visitors
used their money seemingly to take control
identitied to ditberentdegreesand in distinct
of the town’s past.
ways, it is presumed) at the same time that
Despite confhcts between “natives” and “invaders,” wealthy members of both groupscould act in consortwhen united by the interestsof their class.Such was the case with the restoration of the Old Gaol, “rescued” in 1899 by a committee headedby two wealthy women, “native”
Elizabeth B.
Davidson and summer resident Mary S. PerkinsThe committee made few physical repairs to the building and concentrated its ef-
Fig. 4. A the Old Cool Museum in 1907, womenattemptIO
forts instead on assemblinga col-
recreate theritualof“colonial”teaparries against
lection
ofeighfeenrhand ninefeenth-century objects lent by memkm oJ
of objects with local
provenance to exhibit in the Old
a
background
the community.
Gaol during the summer months. The resulting“Museum of Colonial Relics”
the project meant that upper-middle-class
and vaguely period rooms portrayed two as-
women with access to economic capital
pects of local history. First, they presented a
would control public understanding of local
traditional understanding of colonial history
history,at least to the extent that it was rep-
through displays of heraldry, firearms, and
resented in the building. The architectural
artifacts associatedwith famous men. Sec-
envelope,which included jail cells as well as
ond, in the period rooms, women enacted
domestic spaces,was ideally suited to illus-
scenes of “colonial” domesticity that in-
trate both the supposedlysuperior penal sys-
eluded tea parties (fig. 4). spinning thread,
tern of the colonial period and the idealized
and open-hearth cooking.
colonial home, which during the last quar-
Old-Time
New England
Fall 1995
Page 11
Fig. 5. Gmien F’arty,Ymk, Maine, 1899. The clorhingincludesboth “colonial”
ter of the nineteenth century was perceived
One of the ladiesofYork, Mrs. Davidson, the
asthe setting for the cultivation of moral quali-
banker’s wife, was so impressedby thesewords that
ties that were found lacking in contemporary
she induced her husbandto hire the jail, and then, in
urban society. Several interpretations of local
co-operation with Mrs. Newton Perkins (who owns
history could be incorporated into the Old
and livesin the oldestprivate house in the town),
Gaol because it had spaces that represented
Mrs. Davidson undertook to get up some entertain-
both public and private life and because pres-
ment to securemoney for repairs [fig. 51.
ervation had not yet become professionalized
“Let’s have a lawn party at my house,”said Mrs.
to the extent that women were excluded from
Perkins.“Well,” said Mr. Howells, slipping a bill into
the field.12
her hand,“1 want to be your first patmn.“13
Nonetheless, these women failed to reThis piece of writing suppressed the ceive sole credit for the project publicly. A less progressive motivations behind the pres1901 article on the Old Gaol attributed the idea to William Dean Howells, a summer resi-
ervation project, which were noted in 1952 by a Mrs. Tabor, the daughter of James T.
dent ofyork during the 1890s and editor of and Elisabeth B. Davidson.Tabor recalled that the Atlantic Monthly: her father, whose home was adjacent to the It was Mr. William Dean How&
Old Gaol, “ was annoyed by the people who
who suggestedthat
the old jail ought to be saved...
lived in the Gaol at that time,““undesirable
“This is the oldestpublic building in this part of
neighbors” who “took in to board some of the
the world,” remarked Mr. HoweUs,“and it is a very
rough foreigners who had been brought here
interestingplace.Why can’t somethingbe done about it?’
to work on the railroad.” Tabor continued:
Page 12
Fall 1995
Old-Time
New
England
An opportunity
century. Of six hundred families living in the
arose and Mr. Davidson had a chance
to get them out of the gaol by renting it himself,
town in 1850, he continued, only ten were
which he did. It appears that about this time Mr.
from other states, and none were European
Davidson,Wiiam
immigrants. Banks acknowledged that “alien
Dean Howells, and Mrs. Newton
Perkins met at some social function and discussed the
immigration has never been a problem in this
possibility of rescuing the old gaol. Mr. Howells
homogeneous Anglo-Saxon
immediately offered a donation to start the ball
The census returns for 1910 corroborate the
rolling, and Mrs. Perkins said that she would give a
claim of homogeneity: among the popula-
community?
garden party at her place, the proceeds to go to this
tion of 2,802, the number of native whites
pmject.This
with native parents amounted to 2,290. An
was the start of the Old Gaol Museum.14
additional 263 inhabitants were native whites
To remove the immigrants from the
born to foreign or mixed foreign and native-
Old Gaol, it was only necessary for Davidson
born parents. Less than ten percent of the
to rent the building himself, but Davidson
population consisted of foreign-born whites and his a&rent
collaborators went further: (244), and there were only five African
they contributed to the larger objective of
Americans or Asians listed asliving inYork.16
their class, which was to give York a more
The “rescue” of the Old Gaol from convincingly colonial appearance. The Old immigrant workers is only one example of Gaol, a well-known
landmark by the turn of the use ofpreservation to disassociateminor-
the century, was an important component of ity groups from monuments associated with the mythologizedYork.
Not only did it stand the history of the dominant (Anglo-Saxon)
at the center of the village; it also spoke of a culture. The “rough disciplined colonial community.
foreigners”
in York,
which was otherwise a virtually homoge-
The importance attached to the Old neous community, were ousted fi-om the Old Gaol above other local landmarks helps to Gaol because of prejudice but also, I would explain the animosity felt for the “foreignassert, because they were not considered to ers” living in the jailer’s quarters. Immigrants have any particular claim on the history of represented only a tiny proportion
of the
the community. At the public celebration of
town’s population. Whereas other cities in northern
the 250th anniversary of the town ofyork in
New England experienced great
1902, speaker Thomas Nelson Page, a novel-
influxes of immigrants in the second half of
ist and local summer resident, contrasted the
the nineteenth century, the fact thatYork had
town’s original colonists and their descen-
virtually no industry meant that the town
dants, “all of the same race” and all sharing
could offer little permanent employment to
“the same history,” with immigrants else-
unskilled laborers, who went elsewhere in southern Maine.
Local historian
Edward Banks acknowledged
where who “have not the past that we have,
Charles
but...
this demo-
found themselves in a liberty which they
graphic phenomenon in 1931 when he wrote
know not how to appreciate or to preserve.“”
that “York was still in the sole possession of
Not only could immigrants not be counted
its ancient peoples” in the mid-nineteenth
Old-Time
New England
bred under tyranny, have suddenly
on to preserve the political traditions of the
Fall 1995
Page 13
United States,Page might have continued,
NOTES
but they were hardly reliable guardiansof the architecturalmonuments that were associated
Elisabeth Blair MacDougall, “Before 1870: Founding Fathers and Amateur Historians,” in
with the birth ofAmerican democracyin the
The ArrhiterturalHisrorianin Ameriu, ed. Ehsabeth
colonial period.
Blair MacDougall (Washington, D.C.: National
The example of the Old Gaol illus-
Gallery ofArt,
trateshow preservationbecame a ground on which variousinterpretersof history clashed.
1990). 15.
Kevin Lynch, What Time isThisPlace?(Cambridge, Mass., and London: The MIT
Differences between longtime residentsand
Press,
1972). 31. Other historians argue that in addition
recent arrivals that were basedon economic
to westward migration, variations in weather
inequities erupted into disputes over who
patterns in southern Maine during the nineteenth
should controlyork’s history,yet the elite of
century also contributed to the decline of
both groupswere united when members of
agriculture in the area. See David C. Smith,
a minority group installed themselvesin the
William R. Baron, Anne E. Bridges, Janet
very heart of the town’s historic center.
TeBrake, and Harold W. Barns, Jr., “Climate
The historical narratives that are pre-
Fluctuation and Agricultural Change in Southern
sented in the preserved buildings of the United States promote certain ideologies
and Central New England, 1776-1880,“in Maine: A History through Selected Readings, eds.
concerning the development of democracy, David C. Smith and Edward 0. S&river
the role of the home in the eighteenth cen-
(Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt,
1985). 467-76.
tury, and many others. However, it is less See Kevin D. Murphy, “The Politics of
often acknowledged that preservation was Preservation: Historic House Museums in the
usedto advancecertain socialobjectivesthat Piscataqua Region,” in ‘A Noble and Dignijed
make us uncomfortable today,among them Stream”:The Piscataqua Region in the Colonial
the exclusion of minority groups from cerRevival,1860- 1930, eds. Sarah L. Gil&n and
tain areas.It is tune to contest the history of Kevin D. Murphy
(York, Maine: Old York
preservationitself, to go beyond the analysis Historical Society, 1992), 193-204.
of history as disputed intellectual property, On the structure of the Old Gaol, seeJohn
to see how the restoration of historic buildHecker, “Historical and Structural Analysis, Old
ings made them instrumentsin political, ecoGaol,York, Maine” (typescript, Old York
nomic, and social struggles. Historical Society, 1976), and Tom Jester, “Structural Analysis and Documentation
Kevin D. Murphy is assistant profasorof Prepared..
architecturalhistory at the University of
. for
the OldYork
(typescript, OldYork
Historical Society”
Historical Sociery, 1988).
Virginia. Between 1990 and 1992 he diSee Murphy, “Old Gael Museum,” in “A Noble
rectedan NEHfunded study,organizedby and Di&ied Stream,”205.
OId York Historical Society,of the role of George Alex Emery, AncientCity oj Gogeana and
the PiscataquaRiver regionof Maine and ModernTownofyak (Maine), 2d ed. (1873; reprint,
New Hampshire in the Colonial Revival York, Maine: Courant, 1894), viii.
movement. The SeventhCensusof rhe United States: 1850 Page 14
Fall 1995
Old-Time
New England
(Washington, D.C.: Robert Armstrong, 1853);
Berkeley (Washington,D.C., and London:
77w Statistics of thePopulation of Ihe UnitedStates,
Smithsonian Institution Press,1989).
Ninth Census[1870] (Washington,DC.:
13 Pauline Carrington Bow& “Women Welcome
Government Printing Office, 1872); Population of
VisitorsWhere WitchesWere Confined,” The
the UnitedStates,Eleventh Census of the US. by
Sunday Herald (Boston),August 25, 1901,37.
Minor Civil Divisions,1890 (Washington,D.C.:
14 Old Gaol Museum, Reports and Minutes,July
Dept. of the Interior, CensusOf&e, 1891);
11,1952. Old York Historical Society,York,
7’hirteenrhCemusofh United.9&s [1910].
Maine. I am grateful to FrancesH. Lord and
Abstractofthe Census with Supplementfor Maine
Sarah L. Giffen for making this account known to
(Washington,D.C.: Government Printing Office,
me.
1912). 8
15 Charles Edward Banks, Hisroory ofyork, Maine
Dona Brown,“Purchasing the Past:Summer
(1931; reprint, Baltimore: Regional Publishing Co., 1967), 2:385-86.
People and the Transformation of the Piscataqua
9
Region in the Nineteenth Century,” in ‘A Noble
16 Thirteenth Census ofrhe United States /1910].
and oignijied Stream,” 3-14.
17 “Thomas Nelson Page’sAddress,”in Agamen~icus,
Sarah L. Giflen,“OldYork
Bristol, Coxeana, York, 116-17.
Historical and
Improvement Society,”in “A Nob/eand Dignijed Stream,” 91-93.
IO Hon. John C. Stewart, “Citizens’ Welcome,” in Agcrmenticus,Bristol, Gqeana, York:An Oration
D&en-d 6y the Hon.james Phinney Baxter
theTM
... on
Hundred and Fijieth Anniversary of the Toum
(York, Maine: Old York Historical and Improve-
ment Society, 1904), 99-101. 11 On the issueof summer residentswith ties to York, see Dona Brown. “Pu&asing the past.” 10-l 1. On Coventry Hall (the Judge David Sewall House) see Richard M. Candee, “ ‘The Appearanceof Enterprise and Improvement’: Architecture and the Coastal Elite of Southern Maine:’ in “@able
SiUafions”:Socie#
Cornmew,and Art in Southern Maine, 1780- 1830, ed. Laura F Sprague (Kennebunk, Maine: The Brick Store Museum, 1987), 75,77,78-79; Frank D. Marshall, “Historical Sketch ofyork,” in Agammticus, Bristol, Gqeana,
Yorl, 72.
12 On the professionalizationof preservation,see Gail Lee Dubrow, “Restoring a Female presence, New Gods in Historic Preservation,”in Architecture,A Placefor Women, ed. Ellen Perry
Old-Time
New England
Fall 1995
Page 15
