The Fishing Shacks of South Portland | Gone But Not Forgotten

On the afternoon of January 14^th, a Sunday, Misha Pride, the mayor of South Portland, Maine, arrived at Willard Beach to get his eyes on what had quickly become the talk of his community. 

The day before a powerful surge of wind and water pushed into Casco Bay, creating a record 14.57-foot high tide in Portland Harbor. For two historic fishing shacks at Fisherman’s Point, a rocky ledge on the southern end of Willard Beach, the powerful East Coast storm proved too much and the wooden structures tumbled into the cove. Their loss had been a gut punch to the community and Pride wanted to see the damaged scene first-hand.

Only, there wasn’t much to witness. 

“The buildings were completely gone,” says Pride. “Debris had washed up on shore, but it was almost like they had never been there. They had vanished.”

For generations of residents, the buildings had been South Portland fixtures. Built in the late 1870s, the structures were relics from a time when Willard Beach and Simonton Cove had been home to a thriving fishing community from which a dozen or so schooners launched from. Wooden structures sprung up along the local coast line to store nets and fishing gear. 

But time and weather had dwindled their numbers. By the late 1970s, just five remained in South Portland. Then came the famous Blizzard of 1978. The nor’easter set a then water-level record of 14.17 feet, and wiped out three of the shingled shanties. Then January’s storm took out the remaining two.

“They were more than just buildings,” says Pride. “People have collective memories of those shacks. People got married down there, they had birthday celebrations, and other special moments. My own mother made a beautiful painting of them. They were important to so many people. And now those memories are all that’s left because there isn’t a physical trace of them anymore.”

But that may change. In 2022, following a series of powerful storms that endangered the fishing shacks, the South Portland Historical Society worked with architects on drawing up plans in the event the buildings were ever destroyed. Following January’s devastation, the organization began to consider putting those plans into action. 

“We have heard from [the architects] since the shacks washed away with another offer to help us, lending their services,” Kathy DiPhilippo, Executive Director of the South Portland Historical Society, told reporters. “We’ve also heard from carpenters willing to donate their time in a rebuild and people willing to donate to help pay for materials.”

Donations to the work can be made at the society’s website.