KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine — One of the most iconic buildings in the heart of Dock Square is on the market.
Pack Maynard, a real estate firm in Kennebunk, is listing the Colonial Pharmacy building at 40 Dock Square for $2.6 million.
“Spanning three levels, this property is being sold ‘as is,’ offering a unique opportunity for transformation,” the company states on its website. “With considerable work, this iconic structure could be revitalized into an amazing space, blending its rich history with modern possibilities.”
Heidi Maynard is the designated broker for the property, which is 10,025 square feet.
“It’s the heart of Dock Square,” Maynard said.
Local historian Sharon Cummins chronicled the story of the site in a recent post for the Kennebunkport Historical Society. Cummins also expressed hopes for what the buyer of the building will do with the property.
“Maybe (the new owner) will decide to keep the building’s rich history in mind as (they) renovate what some of you remember as The First National,” Cummins wrote.
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According to Cummins, the site first featured a shoe factory that was built in 1865. Sylvester Brown, a retired sea captain in town, became the sole proprietor of the footwear store within the factory in 1868. This building only lasted so long, as the two-story factory building went up in smoke during the 1877 fire in Dock Square.
Brown wasted no time getting his operation back up and running, however. As Cummins put it, he designed a “bigger and better” structure to replace the burnt one – the very one that’s on the market today.
According to an issue of the Eastern Star at the time, the frame of the new building arrived on the schooner Martha in early 1878.
“The Captain’s new store opened for business that spring,” Cummins wrote. “He sold hats, caps, boots, shoes, and men’s furnishings of all kinds on the first floor.”
As for the new building’s third floor, Brown made that the Masonic Hall, to “the exact specifications of his beloved” Arundel Lodge 76, according to Cummins. The Masons rented that third-floor space until 1930, when its current Lodge opened on Temple Street.
“The Captain continued as proprietor of the ‘Brown Block’ until his death in 1889,” Cummins reported. “His wife and daughter took over the business and eventually sold it to George Bonser, the Kennebunk clothing and souvenir salesman.”
Today, the building is not precisely where Brown had it built. On March 1, 1896, the old wooden bridge connecting Dock Square to Lower Village collapsed during a freshet. According to Cummins, the county commissioners decided that fall the buildings on the Kennebunkport be moved back to accommodate a wider roadway to the new bridge. Brown’s building was moved back 6 feet.
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For decades now, the first floor of the building has been a pharmacy and drug store. It’s also been a place to get cards for special occasions, a paperback novel, magazines, beach toys, or a tee-shirt or mug as a souvenir if you’re a tourist.
As Cummins noted, however, many kinds of businesses have occupied that first floor throughout the building’s past. A barber shop once operated there, for example. In 1927, a First National grocery store opened there – and stayed open until the late 1950s. Colonial Pharmacy opened there at the end of that decade.
On the second floor, the staff of The Wave, a summer newspaper, worked in offices in the late 1800s, according to Cummins. The Kennebunkport Visiting Nurses also had offices on that level from 1947 through the late 1950s.