Royal River Park

Last updated

Royal River Park
Sparhawk Mill 2 2018.jpg
Looking east down the Royal River from beneath the U.S. Route 1 overpass in the park
Royal River Park
Type Urban park
Location Yarmouth, Maine, U.S.
Coordinates 43°48′18″N70°11′22″W / 43.8051067°N 70.1895148°W / 43.8051067; -70.1895148
Created1980s
Owned byTown of Yarmouth
OpenDawn to dusk daily

Royal River Park is an urban park in Yarmouth, Maine, United States. It is located to the northwest of the town center, between East Elm Street to the west and Bridge Street to the east. U.S. Route 1 runs through the park via an overpass.

The park is named for the Royal River, which passes through the park at its northern extremity, about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) west of Yarmouth's harbor, into which it empties after its 39 miles (63 km) journey from its source. [1] The park runs along the southern banks of the river for about 0.57 miles (0.92 km). At its widest point, the park is about 700 feet (210 m) wide.

The park has entrances at East Elm Street, Mill Street, Yarmouth Crossing Drive, William H. Rowe Elementary School and Bridge Street.

The more easterly of the two pedestrian bridges in the Royal River Park is built on old abutments for a trolley line which ran between Yarmouth and Freeport between 1906 and 1933. The Beth Condon Memorial Pathway crosses the bridge. [2]

Three of the town's four waterfalls are within the bounds of the park. The Third (or Baker) Falls were, by far, the most industrious of the four. The first buildings — Jeremiah Baker's grist mill, a carding mill and a nail mill — wears erected in 1805 on the eastern side of the river. On the western (or town) side of the river was a scythe and axe factory owned by Joseph C. Batchelder. Benjamin Gooch's fulling mill followed in 1830, but it later moved to the Fourth Falls. [3]

The Yarmouth Paper Company, which produced paper pulp, was built in 1864. The main access road to it was an extended version of today's Mill Street, off Main Street. The original building burned in 1870. Two years later, a soda pulp mill — named C.D. Brown Paper Company [4] — was built, to which Samuel Dennis Warren [5] and George Warren Hammond bought the rights in 1874 and renamed it the Forest Paper Company. Beginning with a single wooden building, the facility expanded to ten buildings covering as many acres, including a span over the river to Factory Island. Two bridges to it were also constructed. In 1909, it was the largest such mill in the world, employing 275 people. The mill used 15,000 cords (54,000  m3 ) of poplar each year, which meant mounds of logs were constantly in view beside Mill Street. Six railroad spurs extended from the tracks running behind Main Street to the Forest Paper Company, traversing today's Royal River Park. Rail cars delivered logs, coal, soda and chlorine to the mill and carried pulp away. The mill closed in 1923, when import restrictions on pulp were lifted and Swedish pulp became a cheaper option. The mill burned in 1931, leaving charred remains on the site until the development of the Royal River Park in the early 1980s. In 1971, the Marine Corps Reserve tore down the old factory, before a Navy demolition team used fourteen cases of dynamite to raze the remains. [6] Most of the remaining debris was crushed and used as fill for the park but several remnants of the building are still visible today.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">S. D. Warren Paper Mill</span> United States historic place

The S. D. Warren Paper Mill is a paper mill on the Presumpscot River in Westbrook, Maine. It is now owned by SAPPI Limited, a South African paper concern. It is one of Westbrook's major employers. The mill complex and former worker and management housing associated with the mill's operation in the 19th century were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 as the Cumberland Mills Historic District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal River</span> River in the United States

The Royal River is a small river, 39 miles (63 km) long, in southern Maine. The river originates in Sabbathday Lake in New Gloucester and flows northeasterly into Auburn and then southerly through New Gloucester, Gray and North Yarmouth into Casco Bay at Yarmouth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Branch Penobscot River</span> River in the United States

The West Branch Penobscot River is a 117-mile-long (188 km) tributary of the Penobscot River through the North Maine Woods in Maine. The river is also known as Abocadneticook, Kahgognamock, and Kettegwewick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yarmouth, Maine</span> Town in the state of Maine, United States

Yarmouth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, twelve miles north of the state's largest city, Portland. When originally settled in 1636, as North Yarmouth, it was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and remained part of its subsequent incarnations for 213 years. In 1849, twenty-nine years after Maine's admittance to the Union as the twenty-third state, it was incorporated as the Town of Yarmouth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Northern Paper Company</span>

Great Northern Paper Company was a Maine-based pulp and paper manufacturer that at its peak in the 1970s and 1980s operated mills in Arkansas, Georgia, Maine, and Wisconsin and produced 16.4% of the newsprint made in the United States. It was also one of the largest landowners in the state of Maine.

The historical buildings and structures of Yarmouth, Maine, represent a variety of building styles and usages, largely based on its past as home to almost sixty mills over a period of roughly 250 years. These mills include that of grain, lumber, pulp and cotton. Additionally, almost three hundred vessels were launched by Yarmouth's shipyards in the century between 1790 and 1890, and the homes of master shipwrights and ship captains can still be found throughout the town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sparhawk Mill</span> Former cotton mill in Yarmouth, Maine, US

Sparhawk Mill is a former cotton mill on Bridge Street in Yarmouth, Maine, United States. Built in 1840 and made of brick, it is home today to The Garrison restaurant and several other businesses. It stands, just east of the town's Second Falls, on the site of several previous mill buildings, the earliest of which was a wooden mill dating to 1817.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George W. Hammond</span> American businessman

George Warren Hammond was an American businessman. Camp Hammond, in Yarmouth, Maine, is named for him. He was also one of its architects. Built in 1889, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forest Paper Company</span>

Forest Paper Company was a pulp and paper mill on the Royal River in Yarmouth, Maine, United States, which was in business between 1874 and 1923. It was the first of its kind in New England. In 1909, it was the largest such mill in the world, employing 275 people. It produced 80 tons of poplar pulp each day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Main Street (Yarmouth, Maine)</span> Prominent street in Yarmouth, Maine

Main Street is a historic street in Yarmouth, Maine, United States. It is part of the 18-mile-long (29 km) State Route 115 (SR 115), the eastern terminus of which is in Yarmouth at the intersection of Marina Road and Lafayette Street (SR 88), at Yarmouth Harbor in the Lower Falls area. Its western end is a merging with Walnut Hill Road in North Yarmouth, at which point SR 115 continues west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederic Gore</span> American chemist

Frederic E. Gore (1860–1930) was a 19th- and 20th-century chemist from Yarmouth, Maine. He became the manager of the Forest Paper Company, which was in business between 1874 and 1923. In 1909, it was the largest such mill in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridge Street (Yarmouth, Maine)</span> Prominent street in Yarmouth, Maine

Bridge Street is a historic street in Yarmouth, Maine, United States. It runs for about 0.36 miles (0.58 km) from Willow Street in the north to the town's Main Street, State Route 115, in the south. The street's elevation is around 75 feet (23 m) at each end, while its middle section, at its crossing of the Royal River, is around 13 feet (4.0 m), a drop of around 62 feet (19 m).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elm Street (Yarmouth, Maine)</span> Prominent street in Yarmouth, Maine

Elm Street is a prominent street in Yarmouth, Maine, United States. It runs for about 2.7 miles (4.3 km) from North Road in the north to Portland Street in the south. The street's addresses are split between "West Elm Street" and "East Elm Street", the transition occurring at Main Street in the Upper Village. Several of its buildings are homes dating to the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portland Street (Yarmouth, Maine)</span> Prominent street in Yarmouth, Maine

Portland Street is a historic street in Yarmouth, Maine, United States. It runs for about 1.25 miles (2.01 km) from the town's Main Street, State Route 115, in the north to its merge with Middle Road in the south. It is so named because it leads to Portland, the state's largest city, after linking up with State Route 9 in Falmouth, Maine.

The First Falls are the first of four waterfalls in Yarmouth, Maine, United States. They are located on the Royal River, approximately a mile from its mouth with inner Casco Bay at Yarmouth Harbor and around 0.35 miles (0.56 km) downstream of the Second Falls. The river appealed to settlers because its 45-foot rise in close proximity to navigable water each provided potential waterpower sites. As such, each of the four falls was used to power 57 mills between 1674 and the mid-20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Falls (Yarmouth, Maine)</span> Waterfall in Yarmouth, Maine

The Second Falls are the second of four waterfalls in Yarmouth, Maine, United States. They are located on the Royal River, approximately 1.35 miles (2.17 km) from its mouth with inner Casco Bay at Yarmouth Harbor, and approximately 0.35 miles (0.56 km) upstream of the First Falls. The river appealed to settlers because its 45-foot rise in close proximity to navigable water each provided potential waterpower sites. As such, each of the four falls was used to power 57 mills between 1674 and the mid-20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Third Falls</span> Waterfall in Yarmouth, Maine

The Third Falls are the third of four waterfalls in Yarmouth, Maine, United States. They are located on the Royal River, approximately 2.8 miles (4.5 km) from its mouth with inner Casco Bay at Yarmouth Harbor, and approximately 0.4 miles (0.64 km) upstream of the Second Falls. The river appealed to settlers because its 45-foot rise in close proximity to navigable water each provided potential waterpower sites. As such, each of the four falls was used to power 57 mills between 1674 and the mid-20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fourth Falls</span> Waterfall in Yarmouth, Maine

The Fourth Falls, also known as Upper Falls or Gooch's Falls, are the fourth of four waterfalls in Yarmouth, Maine, United States. They are located on the Royal River, approximately 0.4 miles (0.64 km) upstream of the Third Falls. The river appealed to settlers because its 45-foot rise in close proximity to navigable water each provided potential waterpower sites. As such, the four falls were used to power 57 mills between 1674 and the mid-20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beth Condon Memorial Pathway</span>

The Beth Condon Memorial Pathway is a recreation path in Yarmouth, Maine, United States. It is named in memory of 15-year-old Yarmouth High School sophomore Beth Condon, who was killed by drunk driver Martha Burke in 1993 as she walked along U.S. Route 1 with her boyfriend, James Young, having just been to a video store in Yarmouth Marketplace. Burke's car swerved into the breakdown lane, and while Young managed to avoid the car, Condon was hit and thrown 65 feet (20 m) over the guardrail and down an embankment. Burke pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to twelve years, with eight years suspended.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portland and Yarmouth Electric Railway</span> Former electric trolleycar service

Portland and Yarmouth Electric Railway was an electric trolleycar service that ran between Portland and Yarmouth, Maine, from 1898 and 1933. Described in 1901 as the "new electric road", Yarmouth was "now a closer neighbor [to Portland] than ever before" because of the railway's advent.

References

  1. AMC River Guide: Maine, Appalachian Mountain Club, Katherine Yates and Carey Philips (1991), p. 249
  2. ROYAL RIVER PARK & BETH CONDON PATHWAY – Maine Trail Finder
  3. Ancient North Yarmouth and Yarmouth, Maine 1636-1936: A History, William Hutchison Rowe (1937)
  4. Reminiscences of a Yarmouth Schoolboy, Edward Clarence Plummer (Marks Printing House, 1926)
  5. "Sappi North America formally dropping the S.D. Warren Co. name" - Portland Press Herald, September 5, 2018
  6. Images of America: Yarmouth, Alan M. Hall (Arcadia, 2002)