A glimpse at old homes

Christi Mitchell, a staff member of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission in Augusta, spoke about the National Register of Historic Places, at a Feb. 7 meeting of the Westbrook Historical Society.

Since 2001, her primary responsibility has been to coordinate nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, and architectural surveys throughout the state. She also provides assistance to members of the public who have questions about the technical aspects of maintaining historic properties.

She showed us pictures, and described many of Maine’s old homes, lighthouses and churches. Many of the homes were owned or occupied by famous Mainers. We saw a picture of the Brunswick home of the famous author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1852), there when her husband was a professor of religion at Bowdoin College. Her book was immensely popular and was translated into at least 23 languages. In 1853, she made a journey to Europe and was lionized in England by people from all walks of life.

Mitchell showed us several Westbrook buildings, including the Walker Memorial Library (1894), my favorite building in Westbrook, and the house where Rudy Vallee lived, on Monroe Avenue, when he was a youngster. Mitchell expressed interest in researching the Dana Warp Mills on Brown Street, established in 1866. It was one of the important cotton manufacturing plants in Maine.

In other business, Ellie Saunders, of the Library and Acquisitions Committee, told us of the merger of the three Catholic churches in Westbrook. St. Hyacinth Church has had to move its collections from its museum. Phil LaViolet has invited a committee from the historical society to select anything pertaining to the city of Westbrook. On the committee were Diane and Byron Dyer, Suzan Norton and Ellie, going over the selections with LaViolet.

They came away with four cartons of memorabilia – scrapbooks, school pictures, Blue and Whites, city reports, city promotional brochures and a hotel desk bell. Ellie called this an important and generous gift, and a fine addition from our early French culture. The committee is sorting and cataloging, which will take some time. She thanked Phil LaViolet for giving us this opportunity to add important information to our archives.

She showed us the bell, and rang it for us. She said the bell is labeled “Saccarappa Inn,” and would like to know if anyone knows where it was located.

‘Mouse gets fiery revenge’

The above headline in a 2006 New York Post article told of quite a tragedy. A homeowner in Fort Sumner, N.M., tried to dispose of a mouse he caught inside his house. He wanted to get rid of it, had some leaves burning outside, and threw the mouse into the fire. Then the mouse, on fire, ran back in the house. It ran beneath a window, flames spread up from there, and then throughout the house.

The owner reported this from a motel room. Everything in the house was destroyed.

The fire department captain said, “I’ve seen numerous house fires, but nothing as unique as this one.”

Pitcher’s obituary of interest

In the Feb. 7 New York Times, I was interested to read about the famous Milwaukee Braves pitcher, Lewis Burdette, who died at the age of 80 of lung cancer.

What interested me was this paragraph: “Selva Lewis Burdette Jr. was born and reared in Nitro, W. Va. His high school had no baseball team, so he developed his arm throwing rocks in contests with neighborhood youngsters.”

He flourished soon after joining the Braves, who moved to Milwaukee in 1953. He threw a fastball that sank, a slider and a screwball out of a variety of pitching motions. After throwing three complete game victories over the New York Yankees in the 1957 World Series, he won 20 games, then started against the Yankees three more times in the 1958 World series, winning once and losing two other times, including Game 7. He retired after the 1967 season and was the Atlanta Braves pitching coach in the 1970s.

In the final paragraph he said, of his ritual while on the mound, when he was forever fidgeting, wiping his brow, fussing with his cap and heresy, “I’d go through my ritual, going to my hat and then crossing my chest. I got so many Catholic medals and Sacred Heart medals in the mail. I had a whole drawer of mementos which fans sent to me, ‘from one good Catholic to another.’ I was a Southern Baptist.”

His manager wasn’t so charmed: “Burdette would make coffee nervous,” he once quipped.

Heavenly treat

Today’s recipe is from “A Taste of Trinity,” 2005, a cookbook from Westbrook’s Trinity Lutheran Church.

KATIE’S FRUIT SALAD

1 cup of apples, chopped

1 cup pineapple chunks, drained

1 cup mandarin oranges, drained

1 cup strawberries

1 cup grapes

1 cup sour cream

1 cup miniature marshmallows

1 cup coconut

Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate 4 hours before serving.

Submitted by Deborah King

Lewis Burdette threw a fastball that sank, a slider and a screwball out of a variety of pitching motions.