|
Quamphegan Landing Overview |
|
 “ I have always wished to know something more of the history of the quaint little packet storehouse which, until within a year or two, stood in the mill-yard, just below the falls. It was built of heavy timbers, as if it might some day be called upon to resist a battering-ram. The stories were very low, and the upper one projected over the water with a beam, to which was fastened a tackle and fall to hoist and lower the goods...Nobody knew how old it was; it was like a little old woman who belonged to a good family, now dead, save herself; and who could remember a great many valuable people and events which everybody else had forgotten. It was the last of the warehouses that used to stand on the river-banks, and I was sorry when it was pulled down. The old wharves have almost disappeared, too, though their timbers can still be seen here and there.”
– “River Driftwood,” Sarah Orne Jewett, 1881
By far the oldest part of South Berwick Village is Quamphegan Landing , often called the Upper Landing (to distinguish it from the deep-water anchorage near the Hamilton House , the Lower Landing or Pipe Stave Landing )—or just The Landing.
On what we now call the Salmon Falls River, Indians camped, farmed and fished at Quamphegan Falls for countless generations. In 1650, native leader Sagamore Rowls sold the area to Thomas Spencer for five pounds, and Quamphegan then passed on to other owners eager to build mills and land cargoes.
 Below the falls, tidal salt water leads to the sea 10 miles away. In the 1700s and early 1800s, before the advent of railroads, the tidewater port connected South Berwick to the Piscataqua, Portsmouth and the world. Before the construction of bridges at Portsmouth, the bridge at Quamphegan was also the overland gateway to Maine. Middle Street was a mast road for ox teams to round the corner to the river. Several sea captains and merchants lived in the neighborhood as well as mill operators on the falls.
Much of today's neighborhood at the Landing dates from the construction of the Portsmouth Manufacturing Company cotton mill about 1830. On Main Street, many historic double houses and boarding houses built for workers still contain homes and apartments today.
 Many Landing landmarks of today appear on this South Berwick map of 1877 by Ruger & Stoner.
|
|
|
1 – c. 1830 The Counting House -- Main and Liberty Streets |
 The last remaining building of the Portsmouth Manufacturing Company textile mill, the Counting House once provided office space for the company's agent and paymaster and their staffs. Samuel Hale was mill agent until 1869, when he was succeeded by his son Frances. Grandson Samuel Hale ran the corporation through the 1880s until the mill's closure in 1893. The Counting House has been owned and maintained as the Counting House Museum by the Old Berwick Historical Society since 1964. It is open to the public on weekends throughout the summer and fall, as well as by appointment . The first floor, that once provided office space for the Company's Agent and Paymaster, now contains exhibits as well as about 10,000 historic records and photos of South Berwick and the surrounding area. Upstairs, the building still contains one of northern New England's last textile mill ballrooms. Years ago the mill entertained dancers each autumn when gas lamps were illuminated for a "Lighting Up Ball." The Counting House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
 Read a Jewett story, “The Gray Mills of Farley”
|
|
2 – 1917 Salmon Falls Hydro Station – Liberty Street |
|
Built in the 1917 by the South Berwick Electric Company just above Quamphegan Landing, the building powered the first electricity in town. It is located on the Quamphegan Falls site that has been a source of power since the early 1600s. It still generates electricity today. |
|
3 -- Counting House Park – Quamphegan Landing |
|
 Part of South Berwick Historic District, the Town of South Berwick's new Counting House Park is on the site of the historic Quamphegan Landing, one of the community's oldest places of settlement dating to the 1600s, when it was the community's transportation link for supplies from Portsmouth and the world beyond. For generations this was the spot where tall pine logs were loaded into the river to be taken downstream to shipyards to become masts. The 1830 Portsmouth Manufacturing Company cotton mill stood here until about 1917. Before the arrival of European settlers Quamphegan was a fishing place of Native Americans, and it still attracts fishermen today, as well as kayakers and canoeists at the new town boat ramp, and residents enjoying the natural setting of the Salmon Falls River. It is a regular destination of Central School students during their annual Hike Through History, and the gundalow replica “Capt. Adams” visited in 2005. The park is named for the adjacent Counting House Museum.
Read the 1914 essay: “The Landing Mill and its Time” 
|
This house may appear on late 19 th century photographs and maps.
Middle Street , formerly known as Tremont Street , was once a mast road where ox teams carried huge white pine logs to the river. |
|
This house may appear on late 19 th century photographs and maps. 
30 Middle Street is probably second from the left in this photo, behind the post.
|
|
6 – c. 1900 36 Main Street |
 A Methodist Episcopal Church on this spot was the target of arson by anti-temperance forces in 1849. It was rebuilt and then moved in 1888.
Read about South Berwick's Temperance Controversy and Crime Wave, 1845-55 |
|
|
|
|
|
Tour South Berwick Village 
