Eastport
History
Eastport was incorporated as
a Town in 1798. Despite foreign
occupation and devastating fires, shipping, shipbuilding and sardines brought
growth and prosperity to this island seaport throughout the 19th
century.
Foreign Occupation During
the War of 1812, American forces stationed at Fort Sullivan succumbed to an
armada of British war ships, making Eastport one of only three American cities
ever under foreign rule. During its
four years of British occupation, Eastport became part of New Brunswick, Canada
and was returned to the United States as part of the Treaty of Ghent.
Fort Sullivan and the Powder
Magazine sites contain archeological remains and, as it was for the small band
of American defenders, offer amazing views of the passage taken by the invading
armada. The British Barracks now houses the aptly named Barracks Museum, which
presents its own historical perspective, as do the private homes once
commandeered by British officers.
Fires Three
devastating fires laid the Eastport waterfront to waste, the first and second
in 1839 and 1864, the last and worst in 1886, after which the Boston Globe
reported, “No city in this country has ever had its business portion so
completely obliterated as has Eastport.”
Under the direction of
Boston architects Gridley Bryant and Henry Black, downtown Eastport was rebuilt
with masonry the following year – and remarkably, looks very much the same
today as it did in 1887.
With 19 of its 29 historic
buildings attributed to Mr. Black, downtown Eastport is unique for its
consistent design – expressed through the predominant use of Italianate style,
in fashion from the late 1880s to early 1890s, and denoted by ornate brick
corbelling and arched windows. Additionally, all downtown buildings are two to
three stories in height with similar floor plans and storefront styles, lending
the streetscape an architectural unity rarely found in small cities.
Downtown Eastport is on the
National Registry of Historic Places.
It is truly a national treasure, and for our tiny town, a means of
recapturing the health and prosperity its 19th Century buildings
represent.
Shipping, Shipbuilding, and Sardines
By 1833, Eastport was second
only to New York as a trading port, and hundreds of ships constructed locally
sailed from Eastport’s harbor to Europe, Africa, Asia and South America.
Shipbuilder Caleb Huston reportedly built 100 vessels between 1844 and 1875.
One of his Clipper Ships, Gray Feather, epitomizes the period in an oil
painting by Walter Francis.
Eastport
is also where the U.S. sardine industry was born, with the first successful
American cannery opening here in 1875.
Shipping and shipbuilding were already languishing, but sardines filled
the void. By 1882, there were 18 canneries, and downtown Eastport bustled, its
buildings full of shops, its streets thronged with people for whom Eastport was
the center of commerce and entertainment.
Turning
Point
Population
peaked in 1900 at 5,311. Shipping and shipbuilding were gone. Sardine output continued
to climb, rising to $4.3 million in 1904, but its decline was immanent. Through
World War II, the sardine industry sustained with about five factories, then
lingered with two from about 1960, and finally succumbed when the last cannery
closed in the 1980s.
What’s left are remnants of
wharf pilings that once supported shoreline canneries and fading memories of
how distinctive sardine-factory whistles called people to work – two blasts for
processors, three for flakers and four for packers. All else is gone, except
the “Woody” that once transported cannery workers to and from their jobs, and
today provides island tours aboard a real piece of local history.
