Photo Booth Bath

City Park 2015 (Facebook treasure)

Glass plate photo of the Dirigo

On the corner between Summer Street and Washington Street, there is a winter mermaid officially known as the “Spirit of the Sea.” In 1959, the Bath Garden Club commissioned the nationally acclaimed William Zorach of Georgetown, Maine and New York, New York to sculpt this mythical figure in bronze. Upon its completion in 1962, it arrived in Bath to become a permanent resident. Throughout the year, this siren of City Park calls us to the little bridge near the library to admire the beauty of our City of Ships and revel in its capacity to create a four-masted steel bark like the Dirigo, built at the A. Sewall & Co. shipyard in 1894, as well as a Zumwalt-class destroyer, built at Bath Iron Works in 2013.

A  1950  post card shows City Park's fountain before "The Spirit of the Sea"

View from City Park of Bath's Cosmopolitan Club

Every day of the week, you will find someone in City Park snapping a photo of the "Spirit of the Sea," recording the architectural splendor of the Winter Street Center, or capturing the charm of a street lined with Greek Revival style homes. In winter, spring, summer and fall, there will always be someone with an I-phone or an expensive camera standing on the dock at River Park capturing the glory of The Sagadahoc Bridge and The Carlton Bridge. In truth, Bath, Georgetown, and Harpswell, and all the Down East ports of Maine, create an amazing photo booth! All creative people who enter these charming places aspire to take amazing pictures and send them to the one they love!  

1928 post card view of the Carlton Bridge (mainememory.net)

Last fall, Sagadahoc Preservation, Inc. presented a lecture by Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., the director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, entitled “Greetings from Bath, Maine: A Collection of Bath Post Cards.” Much to my chagrin, I was unable to attend Mr. Shettleworth’s talk, but I was captivated none the less by the notion that from 1900 to 1950, the phenomenon of post cards created a pictorial history of America. Today, the post cards we used to receive in our mailboxes and collected in shoe boxes have been replaced by thousands of Instagram messages. Frequently, post card like images appear on our Facebook page, and sometimes they show up on random blogs like Bath Time. Just like railroad cars, automobiles and airplanes transformed the way we travel, technology has altered the way we capture our Kodak moments. The new technology for taking pictures is so available that we don’t believe anything we see is important or meaningful until we record it for eternity Online. If we were to pause and reflect on the permanence of these images we are sending into cyberspace, we might stop and decide not to publish. In the face of great beauty, however, we feel a strong urge to point the camera and snap the picture. As fleeting as beauty can be, there is no time to hesitate. As fate and Bath would have it, living Down East is synonymous with wishing for a more expensive camera! 

Cook's Lobster House in ice by Steve Yenco

When I think of Bath and its coastal neighbors as a photo booth, I also think of Steve Yenco of Mainly Maine Photography and Ben Williamson of Benjamin M. Williamson Photography. In January, February, and March, these two visual artists rescued me from winter despair with their pictures of Cook’s Lobster House and “The Old Shack,” a.k.a. “The Nubble,” on Bailey Island. In two quick crystal moments, they persuaded me to see winter as the prettiest season of the year! As a true girl of summer, born on the twenty-seventh of July, I call that magic!  

"The Old Shack" (The Nubble) by Benjamin Williamson

Vintage post card of The Nubble (mainememory.net)

Ironically, last summer I visited the three islands that form the town of Harpswell for the first time, and I too tried to capture the beauty of Sebascodegan Island, Orr’s Island and Bailey Island with my camera. The contrast between the summer pictures that I took from the Cribstone Bridge and the winter images snapped by Yenco and Williamson are truly dramatic. Truth be told, I stumbled upon Bailey Island and its one of a kind bridge by accident. It was a spectacular July day, and I just felt the need to drive down Route 24 along the 216 miles of coast that define the picturesque town of Harpswell.

View of the Cribstone Bridge from Orr's Island (July 2014)

When I reached the Cribstone Bridge, I marveled at the sight, parked my car and walked along the bridge’s pedestrian lane. On that same day, there was a camera crew and a striking television reporter taping an upcoming show. We all chatted briefly about the breathtaking view, and I started taking pictures with both my camera and my I-phone in case one of them should tragically fall in the water. Capturing the images of Orr’s Island and Bailey Island became the mission of the day. The bronze marker at the end of the walkway confirmed my belief that this was indeed an important, historical place. Opened in 1928, the 1,150-foot bridge that connects Orr’s Island to Bailey Island was designed by engineer Llewelyn N. Edwards with an open cribbing. This unique design allows the tide to flow freely.  The lattice of 10,000 tons of granite slabs also promised that the bridge would be able to withstand the crushing blows of ice chunks that would inevitably strike it during the mighty winters of Maine! The amazing photos taken this winter by Steve Yenco and Benjamin Williamson demonstrate the force of Maine’s winter and the engineering genius of the Cribstone Bridge!

Morse Lobster House, Bailey Island (July 2014)

Early morning view of the Sagadahoc Bridge by Carolyn Lockwood

The cameramen, and women, of Bath have been pointing their cameras at phenomenal bridges since the turn of the twentieth century. In fact, post cards from the 1920’s capture the construction of Bath’s Carlton Bridge in 1927. Until the opening of the Sagadahoc Bridge in 2000, the Carleton Bridge offered the only dry pathway over the Kennebec River for people, trains and automobiles traveling north to Woolwich. Today, the Sagadahoc Bridge is an intrinsic part of historic U.S. Route 1. As MDOT’s first design-build project, it also boasts a six-foot wide bike lane and a six-foot wide barrier protected sidewalk. Nevertheless, its greatest claim to fame is its popularity as a subject among the photo booth groupies of Bath! I must admit I am becoming one of those groupies! However, the director of Maine Street Bath, Carolyn Lockwood, is by far the coolest local champion of photography in Maine’s Cool Little City. She happens to dwell in a perfect spot for taking pictures of downtown Bath and the Sagadahoc Bridge. On many a cold winter night, hundreds of Bath residents delighted in the artistry of her photos.

The construction of the Carlton Bridge (1927 post card)

Summer in Bath

In winter, good and noble photographers have entertained us with dazzling images, and I believe they have proven that there is incredible power in the stillness of a single image. I would especially like to thank Steve, Benjamin, and Carolyn for their magnanimous gift to all of us. Their art has lifted us up during the coldest of Maine days! At this moment, summer can be viewed Online standing behind spring! I can almost smell the flowers. It's picture post card perfect!