Visitors to the Windham Historical Society Museum, 234 Windham Center Road, can view artifacts from one of the most currently controversial places in Windham – Pikes Hill. This is the site where a quarry is being proposed, but few know the real history of the place.

There’s a really tall building on Munjoy Hill in Portland. Some folks may have visited this tower, the Portland Observatory, which was built in 1807. What many may not know is that the supporting timbers for this 86-foot-tall structure came from Windham, and from a site which has been in the local news for past couple of years.

If the word “quarry” is mentioned in Windham, nearly everyone will respond and think of the corner of Nash Road and Route 302. Travel back in time to April of 1807 when Benjamin Gould of Windham owned this property, known then as Pike’s Hill. Gould made an agreement with Capt. Lemuel Moody of Portland to provide Moody with “eight sticks (white pine) of 65 ft. in length to be delivered to Portland by the first of May.” The eight “sticks” were sold for $12 each. Other timber from the hill was also cut and used in the Observatory construction.

Pike’s Hill was so named because at one time a man named Timothy Pike lived in the area. Later it became known as Nash Hill, named also for the family who lived there.

In the early 1800s, few people – other than the old Austin, Gould and Libby families – lived in the area and there may have been only a couple of houses within view of the hill. Timber was big business and one can only imagine the process of getting the order and within a month, cutting down eight 65-foot plus tall trees, limbing them out and transporting the trees (or sticks) into Portland.

According to a 1989 publication on building the Observatory, the eight pines were cut down, “squared in the woods and hauled to Pride’s Bridge, launched into the Presumpscot River, floated over the River falls in Falmouth, around Martin’s Point to a hard sand beach at the foot of Hancock Street in Portland. Wheels were backed into the water and at high tide the long posts were floated to their place on the wheels. When the tide ebbed, they were drawn up Munjoy Hill to the site of the Observatory.”

Here Moody’s crew cut them to the desired dimensions of 65 feet, 4-inches long, 14-inches square at the bottom, tapering to 10 inches square at the top. They were then set into place and raised to provide the support posts for the octagonal tower.

The Portland Observatory was capped with a 21-foot decked, windowed and domed cupola, making it 86 feet above ground level. From here, Portland shipowners and residents could watch for ships arriving in the busy port of Portland.

Some years ago when the Observatory was being repaired, a piece of one of these original 1807 timbers from Pikes Hill found its way to the Windham Historical Society, where it has been on display ever since.

On Saturday, Nov. 18, the Historical Society will hold an Open House at its headquarters and main museum, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visitors will have a chance to purchase unique historic gifts not available anywhere else, enjoy refreshments and visit the various displays including timber from Pikes Hill!

For more information on the Portland Observatory construction, visit Maine Historical Society in Portland and the Lemuel Moody Collection.