HACKMATACK PLAYHOUSE
Some Hackmatack History
For several years, Hackmatack Theatre-goers have read about the history of the barn. Many of the surrounding buildings have an interesting history as well.
Most of the buildings in the neighborhood have been built by or for members of the Guptill family and many Guptill relatives are neighbors.
The yellow family of buildings just to the south of the Hackmatack (now owned by the Mills family) was originally built by Samuel Lewis Guptill in the early part of this century. Known as the "Forget-me-not", these buildings housed services for early automobile travellers, including fuel for autos and food for the hungry. Visitors could rent an overnight cabin, and if they happened to be visiting on a Saturday night, they could dance in the barn. This barn was built for dancing, and except for a few stray cats, has never housed animals.
The buildings directly across Maine Route 9, which most recently housed a day care center, once was a home for Aunt Maggie and Uncle Clifford Wilson's mink and chinchilla ranch. In the 1940's, this was a prosperous business.
The oldest building on the Hackmatack property proper is the homestead, half of which was built in the late 1600's to replace the original Guptill (then Gubtail) house burned by the Indians and the French during the Salmon Falls massacre of March, 1690. (The original house was located on the hill nearby the present Stephen Guptill home.) During the 1800's, brothers Samuel and Nathaniel Guptill both lived in the house with their families. After a disagreement between the two brothers, Nathaniel decided to move out and build his own house on the same property. With truee Yankee frugality, he used one side of the old house as a wall for his new house. This is the reason the Guptill homestead has a unique double-cape style.
The second oldest building on the property is the "woodshed" (just south of the house). This original barn dates from the late 1700's and has been used through the years as a slaughter house, for drying meat, and now as a rehearsal hall and prop storage!
Our own "leaning tower" was the "shop", built in the late 1800's or early part of this century to support a family blacksmith operation. Inside one could still see the big hand bellows. During the early 1970's, the upstairs of the shop was used as a tomato ripening and packing room. This structure was built during a lean year, built with no foundation using an inexpensive "balloon" support system. Unfortuantely, it could not be saved, and had to be demolished.
The "mill" is across the orchard from the "shop". It now houses the theatre's shop operations and its costume collection. It was one of several lumber mills built on the property by Lewis Guptill in the middle part of this century. This was a complete finish lumbermill, powered by an Allis Chalmers tractor. If you listen carefully through the whirr of the belts and the screech of the saws, you might be able to hear Lewis and Almon Allen and young Carleton Guptill prepare a load of lumber for a cottage they are building at Wells Beach.
The farm and its buildings have many stories to tell. Perhaps 200 years from now, Guptill great, great grandchildren will be telling the story of how the barn became, for more than a quarter of a century, home for the Hackmatack Playhouse.
In 1995, the S. Carleton Guptill Memorial Fund was established to preserve and improve our historic buildings. Contributors to the fund are listed on the plaque mounted in the lobby. Please stop by the Box Office for more information, or mail your contribution to: Hackmatack Playhouse, S. Carleton Guptill Memorial Fund, 538 Rt. 9, Berwick, ME 03901. We thank you in advance for helping us secure the future of Hackmatack.
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