Creation of the Harbor

The footbridge history embodies or reflects Boothbay Harbor's development after it was set off from the town of Boothbay in 1889. Back in the early to mid-1880s, the commercial interests in the Harbor felt hampered by the lack of a water system, believing their insurance costs were way too high without piped water to fight fires. The desired system was initially planned to supply just the built-up commercial area of Townsend Avenue and Atlantic Avenue. Never mind that salt water was only yards away from those streets. But those in favor of a water system were easily outvoted by the far-flung rural population. Those residents wouldn't directly benefit but their taxes would rise. The businessmen in the Harbor believed if they could form a much smaller town, they could get votes through for their chosen projects—like a little gated community.

But despite the Harbor's being set off in 1889 following a caustic battle, there was still little support for a project that benefitted only those in a tiny area of a smaller town. It took six years to achieve the water project, but it finally was fact thanks to local summer residents from Augusta who lobbied their friends, state legislators. And the legislators saw that a water supply was taken from Boothbay by eminent domain. You can imagine what Boothbay residents thought about that. A Harbor man born in 1898 who I used to visit in the early 1990s, said to me, "The best thing the Harbor ever did was to get that millstone of Boothbay off our necks." And that was then the prevailing attitude of the Harbor business community.

Luther Maddocks

Once set off, the Harbor was bouyant, engendering countless attempts to encourage new industries, such as sardine factories introduced by the Greenlaws in the mid-1890s. That bouyant energy was personified in Luther Maddocks.

Maddocks was continually in motion, coming up with complicated business schemes requiring visits to Washington, New York, Boston, Portland, and Augusta to push his agenda, borrow money, and to acquire permits. Most of his schemes centered on fish, power, or ice. Men who remembered him nearly all said the same thing to me, "He'd always be down at the steamer wharf headed somewhere. He'd come up close to you, poke his forefinger into your chest repeatedly, and say, 'I'm going to Boston on very important business, very important business.' He was a doer."

The leading townspeople, meaning Maddocks mostly, also introduced various civic projects to exemplify their new-found pride and hopes for growth and prosperity. He masterminded a fountain in Custom House Square to give the town some class. But it was not a success—ice problems resulted for those traversing the area if it was the least bit windy and below freezing, and the lights kept shorting out since electricity and water don't get along. Maddocks pushed for and brought about the Opera House in 1894 to double as a town office and a steam-powered electric plant in 1895. Having more power than he needed for one of his factories, it evolved into the Boothbay Harbor Light and Power Company, which eventually obtained its power from Damariscotta Mills.

Maddocks's ideas all revolved around the idea of a thriving, bustling metropolis. In the days of waterborne transportation, a town's location at the end of a peninsula was no impediment at all. Steamer captain Clarke Rowe said at times there were 22 vessels a day coming and going with freight and passengers to Boothbay Harbor. Nevertheless, Maddocks, always looking for more tentacles, pushed for a land-based railroad spur from Newcastle in the 1890s. The drawing of the unrealized route is owned by the Railway Village.

The Footbridge

One success for Maddocks was the footbridge. Like separation from Boothbay, it was controversial and stayed that way for many years after it was built in 1901. Maddocks thought it would be a boon to pedestrians including workers and store customers, who could avoid the walk around the head of the harbor or a ferry ride across for about a nickel. In the late 1800s, Mitchell Brewer had the ferry, which was called by a musical horn, maybe a cornet? The ferry was taken over by Joseph Taggart in 1892, but always there were boys who were glad to make a couple of pennies rowing folks across if the ferry was busy. I'm sure those who opposed a footbridge had loss of business for themselves in mind, inability to get to the head of the harbor effortlessly by boat, or a new ongoing town cost, such as building, repairing, and rebuilding—not to mention paying a bridgetender to open and close it.

The 1901 March warrant article to build the bridge was passed with a 15-year bond issue of $1,500. For context, the amount the town collected annually in taxes was about $20,000. Maddocks did all the arrangements and was the contractor, supplying sardine cannery workers to build the bridge. When completed by June or July, the bridge was 885 feet long, seven feet wide, and had a 75-foot draw. While there are stories of Maddocks charging a penny for crossing it, the town did always own the bridge as shown in the town reports.