Kinney Shores Association History

Back in 1917 my parents bought "The Sea Gull Cottage" here in Kinney Shores, Saco, Maine from Mitty Kinney. Mr. Jay Smith sold the land to "Mitty" Kinney, thus the name Kinney Shores. Mitty Kinney hired a Mr. John Brennan, a carpenter, to build many of the original cottages here. He was Liz Morse's grandfather—Liz Morse, postmistress at the Ocean Park Post Office, lives on Massachusetts Avenue in Ocean Park, Maine.

The following year, on July 3, 1918, I, Helena Coffey, was born at the then Trull Hospital in Biddeford, Maine. So we have been here summers ever since.

At that time we had no phone or car, so Mr. Fred DeMerritt used to drive over in a small truck, take the order down on a grocery slip, go back to the store, and deliver the order on return. I was the ninth child born, so you can understand we needed groceries every day. We also had our milk delivered at the door by Mr. Earl Fenderson every day.

Mother had to pack three large trunks with all the linens and clothes we needed for the summer. We came to Old Orchard Beach by train, took the "Dummy" to the station on Palmer Avenue, which was in back of the Bibeau cottage, to our cottage here at 81 Oceanside Drive.

The "Dummy", a standard-gauge steam-operated railroad, came pretty close to the Old Orchard Beach branch of the Boston and Maine Railroad. The name "Dummy" was given to the train, as it left Old Orchard Beach going forward, making stops along the way on the shore. The 3.24 mile branch line opened on June 26, 1880 and stopped at Camp Ground Baty's Cottage, Oceana Avenue, (opposite DeMerritt's store at Ocean Park), went over the trestle crossing Goosefare Brook, then stopped at Kinney Shores, Bay View House, Ferry Beach Park, Grovemere, and Camp Ellis. It could not turn around, so it had to go backwards to return to Old Orchard Beach. The name the "Dummy" came from the type of engine—it was very quiet running.

The "Dummy" train stopped, on notice to the conductor, at any cottage to load or unload passengers who were residents of the beach area. The trestle at Goosefare Brook at Kinney Shores crossed the town line of Old Orchard Beach into the City of Saco.

When the Old Orchard Beach branch ("Dummy") was projected, it was planned, for all intents and purposes, to operate as a sort of transplanted city transit line, using open transverse-bench cars for summertime passenger hauling only.

As many as fifty trunks a day were unloaded from trains from Boston, Mass., and reloaded onto the "Dummy" for delivery along the shore from Old Orchard Beach to Camp Ellis.

Two trains of these open cars each carried out the schedule. The fare from Old Orchard Beach to Ocean Park was 5 cents, then 10 cents the rest of the trip to Camp Ellis! It took twenty minutes, and then returned from Camp Ellis (5-cent fare back to Old Orchard Beach). The train ran from the middle of June to the middle of September, at an average speed of about 10 miles per hour. They started about 6 a.m. and the last trip departed from Old Orchard Beach around 10:30 p.m. One sad day in 1923 the Boston and Maine Railroad decided it would abandon all service on the "Dummy".

Things we remember in our childhood are: The daily "Lowell Courier Citizen" newspaper being thrown off by the conductor of the "Dummy", and our older sisters carrying us over the sand dunes to pick up the paper.

The Altschuler's cottage used to be "The Club-House" for the early property owners, to socialize, play cards and games, and also to play tennis on the courts—now the Altschuler's front yard.

There was a "Dummy" station at the rear of Maloney's cottage at Palmer Avenue.

Our cottage was the third cottage on the waterfront from Goosefare Brook; then came Fergerson's "rooming-house", which then had a five-stall garage, where our dad kept his car when he was home from work.

The next cottage on the waterfront was the Goodman cottage, owned by Jane and Florence Goodman from Bath, Maine. Then there was the priest's (Father LaFlamme) cottage, next, the Morgan sisters, and then the Roullings (which was moved because of a wash-out during a bad sea storm, and is now located on the hill on Outlook Avenue, and owned by Mike Roussin.) The last cottage on the waterfront was the Briggs cottage and garage, which was the end of Oceanside Drive at that time, and is now owned by Mrs. Jeannette Corbin.

We used to have to drive out Dune Avenue to Seaside Avenue (Route 9) to Outlook Avenue and back to the beach to Dr. Charest's home; then, the last cottage was the Pierce cottage, now the Stone cottage. Palmer Avenue only had Mrs. Hawks' cottage, now the Patavano family. On the corner, left side of Palmer Avenue and Seaside Avenue, was the Frank Carey cottage. He was a jeweler in Biddeford. One of the only buildings we could remember on Seaside Avenue when we were young was the Candy-Ice Cream store and the Odds and Ends store on the right going towards Bay View, now the Smith and Law cottage.

Along Oceanside Drive was the Bibeau cottage, now the Maloney family home. On Dune Avenue at that time was the Batchelder cottage, now the Shumway cottage, then the Fortier cottage, and on the left side corner of Seaside Avenue was Loiselle's cottage.

In "The Grove" section, now West Palmer Avenue, was the Brown cottage, now the McNabb family. Across the street was Mrs. Loomis' cottage and the Dagenais cottage.

Thibeau's cottage was originally located on Oceanside Drive at Goosefare Brook until the high tides washed out the land, so Joe Thibeault and his sons, with a team of horses and logs, moved the house over the old Dummy Line to where it is now located on the corner of Seaside and Palmer Avenue!

A family by the name of LeFebvre built the next cottage on Oceanside Drive, now owned by the Sparrow family. On Oceanside Drive, Kinney Shores, in back of this cottage Charles Mead built the small cottage on the right of Cottage Avenue, now the Pratt cottage. The Brunnelle cottage was moved over from Old Orchard Beach.

Shore Avenue was a sand and gravel street. The first house built was the Whitcomb family's, now owned by the Blasko family. Then, around 1935, the Log Cabin cottage was built by the Pattee family. After a few years the "Blue Shutters" on the corner of Shore and Seaside Avenue was built for the Skonberg family. They were sisters.

Eventually a small cottage was moved across Shore Avenue at Seaside Avenue, owned then by the Skonbergs, and now by the Urbans.

On the left side of Curtis Avenue, on Seaside Avenue, was the Dentico family. Then, on the corner of Outlook Avenue and Seaside Avenue (Route 9) was the Auger family, now the Berkhoudt family, who are associated with the Salvation Army in the Camp Ground section of Old Orchard Beach.

In those days we had no City of Saco garbage collection or rubbish collection. We buried it in our spare lots. Once in a while a farmer used to come with his horse-drawn wagon to collect the garbage!

Marnie Pattee, who lived in the Log Cabin on Shore Avenue, used to have a garden on her husband's property on Bay View Road. She raised wonderful vegetables, and our brother Ted went door to door to sell Marnie Pattee's vegetables.

Eventually, many other cottages were built here in Kinney Shores, Saco, Maine.

Goosefare Brook would fill up and flood over many times during heavy sea storms, thus undermining many cottages, requiring them to move away from the brook (i.e., McCaffreys, Winnies, Thibeaults, Kennedys, and Woods families).

When we were very young we used to dig clams (which was legal then). We would dig for hours. After our mother had taken enough for our family, (for steamed clams for a meal for fourteen children), we could go door to door to sell them at fifty cents, a peck!

And we used to pick high bush blueberries at the pond in Bay View. Our milkman used to drive us up to that area. Like the clams, after Mother had enough berries for three pies, we were allowed to sell the rest at twenty-five cents a quart box!

We used to walk many times on the beach to Old Orchard Beach, and to Camp Ellis.

When we were in high school, our parents allowed us to go to Old Orchard Beach to "The Pier" on Saturday evenings to dance to the Big Name Bands, as long as we were home by "The Jitney" by midnight which, incidentally, we did.

In the earlier days, while here in Kinney Shores, we always had a huge bonfire on the beach for the Fourth of July celebration, usually on the eve of the Fourth, weather permitting. It was attended by all our neighbors here in the Shore Avenue area. We had hot dogs, roasted marshmallows, and someone would bring cut-up watermelon and tonic (soda). The bonfire would end with everyone singing songs.

When we first came, there were no cottages or homes on the right side of Seaside Avenue (going from the bridge over Goosefare Brook up as far as the Bay View Hotel, now the Bay View Convent).

Our oldest brother helped nail roofing on Jack McCullock's (called Honest Jack's) house and store combination (now where the Smith-Law house is on Seaside Avenue, facing Dune Avenue).

Jack McCullock's family owned a large farm on the left side of Bay View Road (going from Route 9 (Seaside Avenue) to Ferry Road). While he was working at a tire factory, he was injured and lost his sight in one eye. The company settled with him financially, so he decided to build a small store with living quarters in the back of the store.

In the year of 1948 Arthur Winnie stopped in to visit and while here asked our mother and dad what they thought about this area known as "Kinney Shores Property Owners" forming an Association. Well, after a long discussion, Mom and Dad agreed, saying it would be very beneficial to all residents and property owners. Arthur went house to house, covering the entire area of Kinney Shores. Thus, "The Kinney Shores Association" was formed.

Well, we hired a lawyer, Miss Mary Bradbury, to set up the Charter. The purposes were:

1. To obtain garbage and rubbish collections weekly;

2. To have more police patrolling the area;

3. To have a life guard on the beach;

4. To have the City clean the beach of seaweed.