More than 160 years ago, before the Civil War, Meschach Larry, a South Windham blacksmith put up a new shop at the corner of Main and Mechanic streets.
In those days, Mechanic Street was named “Smith Avenue,” because Edward Tyng Smith (grandson of Parson Smith) had just moved here, as an apprentice to Elijah Varney.
Smith’s house is still standing in 2014 on Mechanic Street and was at one time used as the village post office. Postcards of this site often appear for sale on eBay.
Between the carriage maker and the new blacksmith, South Windham’s transportation needs were covered in those “horse and buggy” days.
The Civil War changed much in the village.
Meschach Larry (and some of his brothers) went to war. He was killed in 1864. His blacksmith shop on the corner stood idle until his neighbor and carriage maker Edward Smith moved down the road and took over the corner where, for the next 50 years, Smith built and repaired wagons and sleighs for the village residents. He died in the early 1900s.
A 1903 newspaper article announced the building “just completed” of Oriental Hall, built by and for the Knights of Pythias. Located where the blacksmith and carriage shop had been, the two story structure, 40-by-71-feet, included an auditorium, a hall and balcony that would hold 400 people, a stage with painted scenery panels, electric wiring, four dressing rooms, ticket office, and many ante rooms. The blueprints show that the architect was “C Hanson, Portland.”
There were several mills and many retail stores on Main Street to serve the hundreds of village residents who went there to work. South Windham was the site of the train depot, banks, grocery stores and a very busy place and people walked on the wooden sidewalks. They walked to Oriental Hall, the hub of South Windham. It provided a place for dances, a meeting place for the lodge that built it, silent movies (accompanied by piano music), basketball games by the Windham Wanderers and even served as a school in 1925 when the John Andrew school burned.
Eventually, the building became the South Windham Post Office, and served the busiest part of Windham until the “new” post office was erected on the Gray Road beyond the railroad tracks. The historic building on the corner where a blacksmith and carriage maker started out, is today (2014) in private hands and was converted into residential use.
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