Gardiner on the Kennebec

Prior to the American Revolution, Dr. Silvester Gardiner, a prominent Boston physician, acquired land on Maine's Kennebec River. His grandson, Robert Hallowell Gardiner, later devoted himself to the civic, industrial, educational, and religious development of the community founded there. In this fascinating pictorial history, Gardiner's story is traced from Colonial times to World War II. The images deliver us to intriguing destinations: along the picturesque Kennebec watching the steamer Star of the East sail to its wharf, and Depot Square in 1884 at the peak of the railroad era. We visit an ice house on the river, where "frozen gold" was harvested; Water Street during the destructive 1896 flood; and Pulitzer Prize-winner Laura E. Richards' "Yellow House," during the visits of her mother, Julia Ward Howe, and her colleague, Helen Keller.

Earle G. Shettleworth Jr. is director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission and a frequent lecturer on Maine architecture and history. Danny D. Smith is genealogist and curator of special collections for the Gardiner Public Library and has done extensive work with the Richards family history, resulting in the preservation of The Yellow House Papers and other Gardiner family histories. The result of their collaboration is a book that will surely become a community centerpiece.