Willard Beach
The loss of our beloved Fishermen's Shacks.
The fishing shacks, which predate the city itself, were moved to what's now called Fishermen's Point in the early 1880s. Two were lost in Saturday's storm.
"A little bit of history about Fisherman’s Point :The Simonton family arrived in 1718 with a large group of Scots-Irish settlers . “ The Simonton family had a large wharf and warehouse on the point in the 1700s. The point was previously known as Wharf Point; it was then known as City Point for a time, after it was acquired by the City of South Portland. "It is now known as Fishermen's Point, found at the south end of Willard Beach. Once Europeans began settling in the Simonton Cove area, they built their homes in the surrounding area, including fishing shacks along the beach that were used to store their gear. Later in the 1870s and 1880s, & about 10 to 15 fishing schooners were based out of Simonton Cove, and the cove was on sometimes called Gurry Cove "because of the fish. And in the early 1880s, a private resident purchased a lot of land along the beach, and most of the fishermen who had shacks on the beach had moved them to the point. "When the City acquired the point in the early 1900s, the fishermen using the shacks were allowed to keep using them by paying a fee to the City each year," and Over the years, most of the shacks were lost, to vandalism and storms."Two other shacks at the point were destroyed in an earlier storm in 1978, "The reason for the confusion of our recent loss of the 2 shacks is that one of those shacks looked like two shacks, but were actually attached to one another, "There were two doors, which I believe used to be used to go into two separate spaces, likely separated by an interior wall. When we went in the shacks with SMRT, however, there was no interior wall, so both doors opened into just one giant space. So we are now just calling that one "one shack" - so both that one and the other one washed away." - The Friends of Willard Beach
News & Updates:
Willard Beach Master Plan
The City of South Portland has put together an extensive and impressive management plan to direct the future of the preservation of our cherished cove. Please take a look here:
Trolley, in front of old Willard Casino, 1896. Poster from TD Bank in 2009
"The Willard Beach Casino, at the foot of Willard Street in South Portland, opened June 9, 1896, a year after electric street car service came to South Portland.The casino featured a dance hall and "orchestrian," an automatic pipe organ.The casino burned Jan. 16, 1898. The fire was controversial because the company that built the casino, Cape Shore, had fire insurance and planned on opening the new Cape Cottage Casino a few miles away later that spring." - Friends of Willard Beach