Old Orchard Beach, ME
Old Orchard Beach takes its name from an apple orchard that once stood above the long stretch of sand along Saco Bay. For years, the trees were a landmark for sailors approaching the coast. In the nineteenth century, the beach began drawing visitors from farther away. Local families took in summer boarders, and in 1837 Eben Staples expanded his home to welcome people who came for the sea air and shore. Other inns and hotels followed
The railroad changed the scale of summer life here. With trains stopping in Old Orchard Beach by 1873, visitors could travel from Boston and other cities to a growing resort of hotels, shops, and amusements. Religious camp meetings also brought large summer gatherings, adding another tradition to the town’s life. Old Orchard became a town in 1883. Its first pier opened in 1898, extending the resort out over the water with space for entertainment and dancing
Fire and storms repeatedly changed the beachfront, but the town rebuilt. The 1907 fire destroyed much of the shorefront, and later storms damaged the pier. Each rebuilding left another layer of Old Orchard Beach’s history. Today, the beach and pier remain at the center of its summer life, while buildings farther from the water recall the boarding houses, churches, and civic institutions of the town that grew around them.
Recent Posts
The Harmon Historical Museum
The house on Portland Avenue has a quieter presence than Old Orchard Beach’s busy waterfront. Its porch, lawn, and pitched roof make it easy to imagine as a family home. That is what it was built to be, although the family story behind it reaches back to the beginnings of the town’s summer resort. Josephine […]
The Staples Inn
Across from Old Orchard Beach’s town hall stands a long, welcoming building with a porch facing Portland Avenue. It is now the Old Orchard Beach Inn, but its history reaches back to the farmhouse of the Staples family and the first years when visitors began coming here to stay by the sea. The oldest part […]
St. Margaret’s Church
The tower of St. Margaret’s Church caught our attention as we walked through Old Orchard Beach. Its rounded shape, shingled walls, and small cupola give the building a character unlike the storefronts around it. The church stands at the corner of Old Orchard Street and Saco Avenue, on a route that has carried generations of […]
Palace Playland
Marty and I rode the Ferris wheel at Palace Playland, rising above the beach for a view of the pier, the water, and the town behind us. From the ground, the rides fill your attention one at a time. From above, we could see how closely the amusement park and the shore belong together. People […]
The Old Orchard Beach Pier
From above the beach, the pier looks like a simple invitation to walk out over Saco Bay. Swimmers and sunbathers spread across the sand below it, while the buildings at its far end seem to float above the water. This stretch of shoreline has drawn generations of visitors, and the pier has given them a […]
The Cummings Guest House
Old Orchard Beach was a place people came to enjoy the ocean, the pier, and the music that filled its summer nights. Yet for Black travelers, finding a room in town could be difficult. At 110 Portland Avenue, Rose Cummings opened her family’s home to guests who were often turned away elsewhere. The house offered […]
Entrance to the Pier
When I was a child, our Maine summers centered on York. We knew its beaches and the familiar rhythm of spending time there. A trip to Old Orchard Beach took us away from that routine for a day. We did not go often, which made the pier a place I remembered long after the summer […]
