SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — Amid major flooding and strong tide surges Saturday, the historic South Portland Fishermen's Point fishing shacks were swept out to sea.
Saturday's storm broke record water levels in Portland Harbor. Portland Harbor's tide level reached a high of 14.57 feet, surpassing the old record of 14.17 feet during the Blizzard of 1978.
Two shacks were lost in Saturday's storm.
"They’re iconic for anyone who has loved this cove," South Portland native Candace Anderson-Ek said. "It’s like a ghost of what could have been here. I can’t believe there’s just no remnant that remains that showed that they ever existed."
When Anderson-Ek was a kid, she said she spent her summer days at Willard Beach. The beach and the fishing shacks have been constants in her life since childhood.
"I think all of us who grew up here from our early years to our adolescence, they were just silent keepers, kind of watching over us all of our lives," she added. "It’s an old friend, gone."
South Portland Historical Society Executive Director Kathryn DiPhilippo told NEWS CENTER Maine on Sunday that the lost fishing shacks predate the city itself.
The Willard neighborhood, where the shacks stood, has a long history of being home to fishermen, according to DiPhilippo.
"The Simonton family arrived in 1718 with a large group of Scots-Irish settlers," DiPhilippo explained. "The Simonton family had a large wharf and warehouse on the point in the 1700s. The point was previously known as Wharf Point; it was then known as City Point for a time, after it was acquired by the City of South Portland."
In the present day, it is now known as Fishermen's Point, found at the south end of Willard Beach.
Once Europeans began settling in the Simonton Cove area, they built their homes in the surrounding area, including fishing shacks along the beach that were used to store their gear, DiPhilippo told NEWS CENTER Maine.
Later in the 1870s and 1880s, DiPhilippo said about 10 to 15 fishing schooners were based out of Simonton Cove, and the cove was sometimes referred to as Gurry Cove "because of the fish landings there."
"It was a working beach," DiPhilippo said.
DiPhilippo further explained that in the early 1880s, a private resident purchased a lot of land along the beach, and most of the fishermen who had shacks on the beach had moved them to the point.
"When the City of South Portland acquired the point in the early 1900s, the fishermen using the shacks were allowed to keep using them by paying a fee to the City each year," DiPhilippo said. "Over the years, most of the shacks were lost, to vandalism and storms."
Two other shacks at the point were destroyed in an earlier storm in 1978, The Associated Press reported.
Though Willard Beach hasn't been a working waterfront since the 1970s, the surrounding community continues to value the beauty and history behind the remaining standing shacks. The shacks on Fishermen's Point were the "last tie" to the Willard fishing community's lengthy history.
"They are part of the identity of the beach and South Portland," DiPhilippo said. "Truly landmarks, by any definition."
When Willard Beach was no longer a working waterfront, fishermen stopped maintaining the shacks.
So, in 2022, the South Portland Historical Society partnered with SMRT Architects and Engineers to help preserve the memory of the remaining shacks.
"SMRT did a 360-degree photographic documentation of the interiors of the shacks for us, and created architectural drawings that would help with a recreation/restoration of the shacks if they were washed away or seriously damaged in a future storm," DiPhilppo explained. "It was agreed upon that an exact restoration wouldn’t be needed, as the materials used in the original construction of the shacks were often scrap materials; anything that fishermen could lay their hands on. But there are now plans that would allow the use of modern-day materials to recreate the exterior appearance of what you see still standing today."
While it may have looked like three shacks were lost in the storm, DiPhilippo said the historical society is calling it two.
"The reason for the confusion is that one of those shacks was like two shacks, but attached to one another," DiPhilippo explained. "There were two doors, which I believe used to be used to go into two separate spaces, likely separated by an interior wall. When we went in the shacks with SMRT, however, there was no interior wall, so both doors opened into just one giant space. So we are now just calling that one "one shack" - so both that one and the other one washed away."
Following the loss of the two shacks after Saturday's storm, DiPhilippo said the South Portland Historical Society has begun accepting donations to help rebuild them. The historical society is also working to develop a list of carpenters who have volunteered to help rebuild.
Plans to rebuild the shack are also not a given. According to DiPhilippo, the city of South Portland will need to agree to the plans, as the land is owned by the city. The historical society will still need money and manpower in place to request the rebuild, and tax dollars would not be spent for the rebuild.
"It is our hope that if there is enough donation money and volunteer labor available to rebuild, we'll be given the permission to do so," DiPhilippo said.
"To see them gone and not even a reminder that they even existed at all is just a little nostalgic and sorrowful,” Anderson-Ek said.
To view what the interiors of the shacks looked like through the 360-degree photos taken by SMRT, click here.
If you would like to donate, click here. You can write "fishing shacks" in the comment box when donating.
For questions, you can email sphistory04106@gmail.com. Carpenters willing to donate their time to help rebuild the shacks are encouraged to reach out via email.