One of Maine’s most popular destinations, in the 20th century, had modest beginnings which sprang into a true and enduring legend. And that destination was located right in the heart of downtown Brunswick.

Fred J. Harrigan first opened his small “lunchroom” in 1902, “at the head of Middle Street,” where Hannaford stands today. It was a little eatery that quickly found popularity with locals and travelers alike.

When the famous Tontine Hotel burned down just two years later, “leaving Brunswick without a first-class hotel,” Harrigan seized an opportunity to expand his little enterprise.

Harrigan was a “Brunswick boy” who had experience in managing hotels and he wanted to build a new, grand hotel in Brunswick. Harrigan’s small lunchroom “was moved back” to form a new kitchen, as “the addition of 20 rooms” was built, along with an office and vast dining room. The new enterprise was called the Hotel Eagle, and it opened on June 15, 1904.

Within three years Harrigan created additions to the Hotel Eagle. “A new kitchen, a larger dining room, and 40-additional … sleeping rooms … were fitted-up.” With its fine fare, and comfortable arrangements, the Hotel Eagle became a very popular place, known as “a model of neatness and excellence.”

By 1909, just five years after opening, the Hotel Eagle underwent its third renovation and now stood four stories tall with “60 rooms, furnished in the missionary style, with electric lights, steam heat, hot and cold water, private telephones” and “plumbers” were working to install “private baths … with nickel-trimmed fixtures.”

On the south side of the building, “a broad piazza faced a large lawn” and the property was full of “tall, stately elms” whose canopies provided great shade in the summer. “The Hotel Eagle” now ranked “high among the leading hotels of Maine.”

In December of 1911, after a total of five expansions and remodels, Fred Harrigan sold his 60-room Hotel Eagle to Massachusetts hotelier Fred L. Blinn, then Harrigan “retired” to his farm on Mere Point Road.

Just three years later, the Hotel Eagle survived the Great Fire of 1912, which decimated the downtown area, having started at the Maine Central Rail yard located just next door to the hotel.

Blinn operated the Eagle for the next nine years, and saw his menu become popular for its “shore dinners of lobster stew, steamed clams with drawn butter, and whole broiled lobsters,” all served in the dining “seat of excellence … for just $1.”

Local business and civic organizations called the Hotel Eagle home as their annual dinners, Christmas parties, stockholders meetings, and dinner dances, were regularly held at the Eagle.

When Blinn died in January of 1921, the famed hotel changed hands for the third time in just 20 years, this time it was sold to Massachusetts hotelier Alexander A. Joslin. For the next 22 years, Joslin continued to build upon the hotel’s legendary reputation.

At 11 p.m. on Monday, May 1, 1944, as World War II raged in Europe and in the Pacific, disaster struck at the Hotel Eagle when a fire “started near a chimney in the rear” of the hotel and “spread through the third and fourth floors.”

“Firemen of Brunswick, Bath” and the newly opened “Brunswick Naval Air Station” fought “a stiff three-hour battle” to save the Eagle. Brunswick firefighters, “handicapped by a lack of ladders and a strong wind,” were aided by sailors and Marines who joined in the battle.

When the fire was brought under control “three-fourths of the roof had collapsed … consumed by flames … and the first and second floors [suffered] considerable water and smoke damage.”

One of the largest employers of Brunswick now lay in a hulk of smoldering ruins.

Immediately, Joslin committed to rebuild the iconic hotel as an army of tradesmen descended upon the Hotel Eagle. By Nov. 16, just seven months after the fire, the Hotel Eagle “re-opened … as a record crowd visited … the extensively modernized” hotel.

What once offered 60 sleeping rooms was reduced to just 40 rooms, as private baths were added.

“Polished hardwood floors” led visitors to an “expanded dining room … which seated over 200 diners … a glassed-in sun porch … and a new cocktail bar,” all made the new Hotel Eagle the pride of Brunswick for the next four decades.

By April 16, 1968, as urban renewal swept across Maine, Brunswick’s Hotel Eagle was sold “to make way for a Cottle’s Super Market.” One month later, eight buildings and the “famed Hotel Eagle,” including her “stately elms,” were reduced to splinters, and the new Brunswick Shopping Plaza was born.

Today, the legend of Brunswick’s Hotel Eagle is ensconced in the history of the Midcoast and is now remembered in our “first-class” Stories from Maine.

Lori-Suzanne Dell is a Brunswick author and historian. She has published four books and runs the “Stories from Maine” Facebook page.