The Kennebec Historical Society’s May presentation, “The Long Ago Summer Cottages on Little Chebeague Island,” is scheduled to feature speaker Lock Kiermaier.

The talk will be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 17, at the Augusta City Center, 16 Cony St. in Augusta.

Little Chebeague Island, located in Casco Bay near Portland, is immediately adjacent to its larger namesake, Chebeague Island, according to a news release from the society.

Dating back to the 19th century, the little island was home to various farms, a vibrant summer colony centered around a massive Victorian hotel (burned to the ground in 1893) and occupation by the U.S. Navy during World War II, according to Kiermaier’s research. The occupation of the little island by the Navy in World War II necessitated the eviction of the residents of the 11 summer cottages and other outbuildings in 1942.

Since that time, the cottages have been uninhabited and left to deteriorate. After approximately 80 years, the cottages are mostly gone with a few recognizable features evident in the ruins of several of the once elegant cottages.

Little Chebeague Island is accessible at low tide from Chebeague Island . The island is easily visited by those wishing to walk across on the connecting sand bar.

After several visits to the little island, Kiermaier, a part-time Chebeague resident, became fascinated with the cottage ruins and set out to develop a slideshow which depicts the cottages as they originally looked and how they deteriorated over the years to their present condition. The slideshow also delves into the history of the cottages and who lived there, and features collected anecdotes and stories of what life was like.

Kiermaier has lived in Maine since 1975 and been an Augusta resident since 2003. After retiring from his professional career as a legislative analyst at the Maine Legislature in 2007, he has involved himself in a variety of projects and interests — most of which involve history, old houses and islands. Most recently, he spends half of every week living on Chebeague Island with his wife Marty Trower. That experience led him to his latest project, compiling a slideshow on the history of a colony of long-ago summer cottages which existed on Little Chebeague Island.

The presentation is free to the public; donations will be accepted. For more information about the program, call Scott Wood, society executive director, at 207-622-7718.

 

 

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