Not many people can say they have a family cottage. Fewer still can say that their family had the forethought to buy a cottage at Goose Rocks Beach in Kennebunkport, Maine; fewer still can say that the cottage has been in the family since 1896. Yes 1896!
This year is unique and a new chapter for our family cottage. Before we get into why it is unique, a little history.
The Cottage was built in 1894. We have been very fortuitous that the cottage has survived 5 generations as well as mother nature. There have been storms that knocked over the house at the top of Bartlett ave and Hurricanes that took the tops off the trees. We were also lucky the cottage did not burn in the fire of 1947, where both ends of the beach burned. If you know the beach, from about the Tides in the North to the General Store in the South was the section spared in the Fire of '47. My father tells of driving up from Hartford not knowing if the cottage was standing; driving along seeing everything burned. My great aunts Lib and Cath owned it about then. The same great aunts who are little girls on the front porch in 1902 (?), ages about 1 and 3 pictured here:
Well, the cottage has changed over the years but remarkably little has changed too.Stepping back a decade before The Fire, it was owned by my Great Grandfather Joel F. Larrabee Jr. In about '35/36 JFLjr, (seated in the chair on the left with his sister in the picture above) made some renovations. He took off the front porch, and added bedrooms on the second floor: Probably the bathroom too otherwise you had to go out to the privy in the barn. Here it is in '30 with the porch and "Father's Chevrolet 1930"
And now with the renovations in '36. The work is just completed or still being done because the new clapboards still have not been finish painted. I can't see power lines yet, so electricity still has not made it down from Kings Highway:
Now here it is today:
Check out the tree to the right of the front door, in all three of the photos. In 1902 it was 12" in diameter, it is now close to 4 feet. If it ever comes down in my lifetime, that prominent branch 20' up will become the the prow of my boat!
Now the introductions and history lesson is done. There will be more history I am sure, but for now you still might still be thinking, why is this spring unique for the cottage? It is going to become our home and for the first time in 116 years, Larrabees will be living here year round.
So this blog is to record the before, the during and the after. I hope you will see entries, and I am sure corrections to my posts from my wife Heather, as well as entries from our children Jackson, Alex and Abby as we make this our home, while still keeping the family history and the cottage feel alive.
I will try to post some inside "before" photos next so you can see what we start with. Jon
