Business Block Entrepreneurs

1870 – Business Block - 241-287 Main Street

Part of South Berwick Historic District, this business block is also part of the South Berwick Village District on the National Register of Historic Places. With their awnings and granite hitching posts, the shops of the new business block opened to great fanfare in 1871, on the site where a dozen businesses and homes were destroyed in a fire the summer before. In newspaper ads, the connected row of new stores advertised products “such as to make the mouth water and the eyes glitter” -- tin stoves and leather boots, cornmeal and fine jewelry, ladies’ hats and croup syrup. Over the years, the Central Square stores at the Corner have offered South Berwick shoppers products from baby bottles to coffins. With the coming of Hollywood pictures in the 20th century, there was even a movie theater. For more than 150 years the block at The Corner has been an icon of South Berwick village, is now a cornerstone of the South Berwick Historic District and still contains popular local businesses.

Located at the junction of Main and Portland Streets, two ancient roads from the Salmon Falls River landings in the south to Berwick in the north and Portland in the east, the site has attracted commerce since the 1700s.

The fire of July 1870 destroyed South Berwick’s main assembly space, so the new building also featured two upstairs halls. Residents formed a Newichawanick Hall Association (Newichawannock) to create a large upstairs community center in the middle of the block; it sported all kinds of entertainment and became known in recent times as the Wadleigh Gardens Ballroom. 

The Masons’ fraternal order also built a new, 75 square foot Masonic hall upstairs at the south end of the block (shown towards the left of the photo below); this upper story collapsed and was demolished in the late 1970s.

The Business Block has been host to a variety of establishments through the years.

From The York County Atlas of 1872:

18-N.W. Kendall Stationer
17- Chas. E. Whitehead Tailor
16- Geo. W. Brookings Photo & Sewing Machine
15- C. J. Tyler Jewelry Store
14- Chas. Maloy, Boots and Shoes
13- Chas. E. Hobbs, Grocer
12- Rebecca Smith Millinery Store
11- S. W. Ricker Fancy Goods
10- C. C. Merrill Shoe Store
9- Union Store
8-J. P. Davis Stoves & Tinware
7-E. R. McIntire Hardware Store
6-8 Masonic Hall Block      6-N. Hanson, Druggist   

(This page was written by Wendy Pirsig and revised in November 2020.)