Blue Duck Ships Store

The Blue Duck Ships Store.

Quick Facts

Amenities

1 listed

Restroom

The one and one-half story wood-framed Blue Duck Ships Store, constructed around 1853 by Edwin Hadlock is located in Islesford on Little Cranberry Island in present-day Acadia National Park. It was originally utilized as a ship's chandlery or a retailer who specializes in providing supplies and equipment for ships.

Origins of the Blue Duck

The "Blue Duck" was also known as 'The Hadlock Store," "the New Store," the "W.E & G.T. Hadlock Store," and later as the "Islesford Market." It was also run as a grocery store from a very early date (possibly from the date of its construction) both by Edwin Hadlock and later by his son's William E. and Gilbert T.. Thanks to the Hadlock family's consisten records, we can find detailed ledgers of the comings and goings of Islesfords residents and sailing vessels who purchased essential items from the Blue Duck. 

Edwin's father, Samuel (1770-1854) had moved to Little Cranberry island from Mount Desert Island around 1791, and opened a store in 1808 (This store was later removed in the early 1900s). Edwin was Master of the schooner Samuel Hadlock and as such he traded along the eastern coast between 1848 and 1853. Samuel Hadlock died in 1854. A Hadlock family genology remembers: 
 

In 1854, at the age of 84, Samuel Hadlock died, having outlived all of his sons but Edwin and several of his nephews. He left considerable property which we distributed among his numerous heirs. The business was carried on by Edwin, the only son who did not die at sea or in a some foreign port. Edwin died in the "sand beach" house on Little Cranberry Island in 1875... 
 

The store remained in the Hadlock family until 1916 when a George Hadlock sold the land on which the building sites to Lewis G. Stanley, who in turn sold the property to Archibald A. Stevenson and Professor William Otis Sawtelle. A Haverford College professor who had taken up summer residence on the island, William Otis Sawtelle (1874-1939), had become deeply immersed in its history and families, and collected a large body of objects and documents related to the island. He was approached by artists Scott White, Charles Kincaid, and Harold Warren (who would later call themselves the "Three Islesford Painters" about using the upstairs of the store building as a gallery. The artists suggested to Sawtelle that he set up his collection in the first floor during their gallery showing in 1919 and this seemed to have sparked Sawtelle's interest in establishing a museum. A dated photograph of the building indicates that by 1919 the first story of the building was being used as a museum, and continued to be used as such until the new Iselsford Historical Museum was opened in 1928.  

In 1948 ownership of the structure was transferred to the National Park Service, who by 1951 was utilizing the building as a ranger station and comfort station. The bathrooms installed in the north half of the first story of the building date to 1953 while the rest of the building appears to retain its earlier configuration.  

The Blue Duck Today

Through the National Park Service Historic Leasing program the Islesford Boatworks provides summer shipbuilding classes to youth. Through its work keeping the shipbuilding skills alive in today's youth, Islesford Boatworks engages the entire community of Islesford and celebrates the important history of working waters and waterfronts in Maine island communities. 

Building Architecture

Architecturally, the store building is a simple structure, but changes over the years have made it difficult to determine the interior layout during its period of use as a store. Overall, the building is rectangular with a pitched roof, two chimneys, and doors and windows in all four floors. The exterior is painted clapboard on three sides and the south end and the roof are covered in wooden shingles, but those on the south elevation replaced earlier clapboards. With the exception of an additional chimney and doorway, and changes in the number and placement of the windows, the exterior of the building probably looks much as it it did in the 1850s. The most notable exception is that double doors were added in the north end of the building, which would seem to indicate some change in interior use. This change displaced a pair of windows which, in true New Englander fashion, were reused by placing them together to the west of the doors. The building shows various patches on its exterior due to its long period of consistent use