Painting by Edith Cleaves Barry (1884-1969), 1948.
Brick Store Museum Collection, 84.B.66.

By autumn of 1947, Maine was experiencing its worst drought in 30 years. On Monday, October 13, a wildfire broke out in the Pine Grove Park area of Lisbon Falls. A previously-burning fire in Topsham-Bowdoin was still going strong, and a small fire in Shapleigh Plains surfaced. Two days later, ten fires burned in Maine. A day later, 20 fires were burning. On October 17, Governor Horace Hildreth announced the closure of Maine’s woods as 50 fires were burning throughout the state, including an underground blaze in Kennebunkport.

Things looked brighter on October 19, when it was reported that more than half of the fires from the previous day were out, and a light shower provided the first rains since October 3. But on Monday, October 20, the Kennebunkport fire surfaced, and the situation in Maine took a turn for the worse.

The fires of 1947 ultimately involved the efforts of some 20,000 volunteer firemen and incredible relief efforts put forth by organized charities and individuals. The fires displaced more than 2,000 Mainers and left millions of dollars in damage.

Uncertain of whether or not the fire would hit them, many families simply packed up as much as they could and left. The 1948 painting by Edith Barry, artists and founder of The Brick Store Museum, depicts people doing just that at the intersection of Kennebunk's Main and Summer Streets, near the First Parish Church. Edith Barry took a bit of artistic license with her painting for the fire did not actually ever come that far into Kennebunk. The threat, however, was very real, and a lot of people still say that the heart of Kennebunk was saved by a simple change in the direction of the wind.

On October 24, 1947, Edith Barry wrote a letter to her sister Julia in California to describe the alarming events in the Kennebunks of the past week. Her correspondence provides a vivid picture of the panicked citizens of the Kennebunks as well the preparations in place. Click HERE to read a transcription of her letter.