Trails and Treasures

About 75 years before the Army started to build a new training camp near West Point, Kentucky that would be named in honor of Henry Knox, the Army began building a massive fortification on the Penobscot River in Maine that bore the name Fort Knox.  Knox was the Continental Army’s chief of artillery during the Revolutionary War whose retirement home Montpelier in Thomaston, Maine I described in an earlier post. 

Fort Knox on the Penobscot River across from Bucksport

Control of the Penobscot River, almost directly west of the southern tip of Nova Scotia, made it important to both the British and the Americans.  It was the scene for the fledgling break-away colonies first major naval defeat in 1779, and the British regained control during the War of 1812.  Thus, it was a logical location to place one of about 40 forts started as part of the Third System of defense in 1844.  Construction on Fort Knox continued for almost 25 years, but as the Civil War drew to a close, concerns about a sea-born invasion waned and the fort’s barracks were never completed.

Interior of Fort Knox from the rooftop battery

Doorways connect the unfinished enlisted men's quarters

Fort Knox is a massive granite-walled fortification with mounts for 135 cannon, some in batteries and some in casemates.  A diagram showing the layout of the fort can be found here.

The exterior granite walls are indicative of the fine quality of workmanship

The largest number of troops ever stationed at the fort was 575 when a Connecticut regiment lived outside the walls in tents for a month during the Spanish-American War.  During the Civil War 20 to 54 troops were garrisoned at the fort.  For the best part of fifty years, after construction stopped in 1869, a non-commissioned officer served as the sole guardian of the fort.

Battery B

Series of vaulted-ceiling casemates

Only 74 cannon were ever placed on the 135 mounts

This will probably be my last post about my trip to Maine, so let me close with one of those quintessential Maine seaport views.  This one was taken from the roof of the fort’s casemates.

Bucksport and the Penobscot River

Waldo-Hancock Bridge over the Penobscot River

In 1931 the Waldo-Hancock Suspension Bridge began carrying Route 1 traffic over the Penobscot River.

Waldo-Hancock Bridge

Now on the list of National Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks, this bridge was one of two concurrent bridge projects to first use prestressed wire rope strand cables.  It was also the first suspension bridge built with the Vierendeel truss.

In 2006 a new bridge was completed.

Old and new bridges over the Penobscot

The new Penobscot Narrows Bridge is the only observatory bridge in the Western Hemisphere and the tallest in the world at 420 feet.

The observatory is at 420'

The obelisk towers may remind you of the Washington Monument.  That’s because they were designed to pay homage to the local granite industry which harvested granite from nearby Mount Waldo for the construction of the monument.

Penobscot Narrows Bridge

From the observatory one gets a bird’s eye view of nearby Fort Knox, which I’ll discuss in my next post.

Fort Knox from the observatory

Doesn't it remind you of the Washington Monument?

The old and the new from the tower

The new bridge does have its problems though.  One day I saw an article in the Bangor Daily News about how the elevator tends to stop working–especially in high winds, and each 911 call costs the local community $1,000.  On October 10th, the elevator got stuck twice–once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

Bridges over the Penobscot

All the travel brochures for places in New England feature at least one photo of a town square lined with black-shuttered, Federal-style buildings or a simple white, steepled church–the quintessential New England scene, usually featuring some bright orange or red-leafed tree.  Well, there are lots of villages where one can replicate these photo scenes–if the sun shines.  Unfortunately, most of the days when I was meandering the back roads of DownEast Maine it was at least overcast, if not raining.

As to churches, there are a lot of Congregational churches, most of which are simple white structures which still have the original box pews.

Saunders Memorial Congregational Church

Bar Harbor Congregational Church

Somesville church interior

 Every once in a while I came across one that didn’t quite fit the mold.

West Gouldsboro Union Church

I did visit one that had stained glass windows.

Stained glass, Congregational Church, Searsport

Of course, the most famous stained glass windows are the ten Tiffany windows in St. Savious’s Episcopal Church in Bar Harbor.  Personally, I preferred the more modern window by Susan Dunlop (1966).

Susan Dunlop, 1966, St Savior's Episcopal, Bar Harbor

Many villages have areas which have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.  One of my favorites was Cherryfield which made it onto the list on October 1, 1990.  The walking tour includes 81 sites and structures.  The oldest home in the village was built for General Alexander Campbell, a lumberman and Massachusetts State Senator from 1791 to 1796, in 1790.  (Maine did not gain statehood until 1820.)  His home is still occupied by his descendants.

Gen. Alexander Campbell House, Cherryfield, 1790 Federal

 Local architect Charles Allen designed this second empire house with a curving porch and bell-cast mansard-roofed tower for a Campbell descendant in 1875.

Frank Campbell House, 1875, 2nd Empire, Cherryfield

 Alexander Campbell’s grandson Samuel built this Queen Anne home in 1883.  The current owner’s have their own website about Campbell Hill.  I unfortunately did not get the opportunity to see the Santa Fe; maybe on another trip.

2nd Samuel Campbell House, Cherryfield, 1883, Queen Anne

 The William M. Nash Home is the largest in the Cherryfield Historic District and is considered to be one of Charles A. Allen’s masterpieces.  Allen didn’t start from scratch to build this home; he was hired to update and expand a temple-style Greek Revival dwelling.

William M. Nash House, 1840-1888, 2nd Empire

 Unlike Cherryfield, many of Camden’s historic homes are now used to provide tourists with overnight accommodations.  Of course, in this case, many (including the Whitehall Inn where I stayed) were originally built for that purpose. 

Whitehall Inn, 1834

Maine Stay Inn, Camden, 1802

1805 Federal-style home, Camden

One of the most photographed places on Mount Desert Island is a simple white bridge in Somesville.

Somesville bridge

Another view of the Somesville bridge

Not all of the buildings which I found interesting in DownEast Maine were in such good shape.  This building is now a community arts center. 

Seamark Deer Isle High School

Old barn on Blue Hill Peninsula

Do you want to make a grand impression on first time visitors to your home?  Try a flying-staircase.  Shirley Plantation near Williamsburg, Virginia has one that dates from the first half of the 18th-century.  When this country’s first Secretary of War General Henry Knox retired in 1795 to his wife’s property in Thomaston, Maine, leaving his friends like Washington and Jefferson with their grand plantation homes behind, he specified that his new home Montpelier contain many of the architectural details he must have seen in their homes–including a flying staircase.

Montpelier"s semi-flying staircase

By 1871, seventeen years after the last Knox abandoned the house, Montpelier had fallen into such a state of disrepair, it was razed to make way for a railroad station.

Montpelier 1871

Then in 1929 the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution gained sufficient financial support to build a replica of the mansion on a knoll at the edge of town.  The new Montpelier lacks the grand river view of the original, but it contains a remarkable number of items that belonged to the family plus copies of architectural elements salvaged when the original home was destroyed.

Montpelier 2010, street-front view

About twenty years after Knox built his home in Thomaston, Judge Thomas Ruggles built a new home in Columbia Falls.  His home was much more modest in size than Knox’s and it lacked the land and river view,

Ruggles Home, Columbia Falls

but almost one-third of the Ruggles Home was devoted to a flying staircase.

Ruggles staircase

Another architectural element common to both homes was the classic Federal-style front entranceway with two side lights.

Ruggles Home front door

Montpelier's classic Federal-style front door

I was also impressed by the non-flying staircase at the Barncastle Inn where I stayed in Blue Hill.

Barncastle Inn Staircase, Blue Hill