We took a look at the Ferry Village grocer Arthur Lailer last week, which led us to his brother Thomas and the history of a building on Sawyer Street. The building on the site today is now addressed as 131 Sawyer St. and is home to the Sawyer Street Studios. The building that preceded it was known as the Sawyer Street Garage. It had a long and interesting history, but burned down in January of 1931.

The footprint of the Sawyer Street Garage was slightly to the left of the existing building. For many years its address was 141 Sawyer St. or, when there was more than one tenant, it was sometimes addressed as 139-141 Sawyer St.

I wrote about the Harford brothers last year, and the local newspaper that they published, the Cape Elizabeth Sentinel. The Sentinel had first operated from a building on the corner of Sawyer and High streets in 1881, but in 1885, they moved the newspaper office into space that they remodeled in the building at 141 Sawyer St. An article in the Portland Daily Press in December 1885, talked about these new offices: “The proprietors, Messrs. J.H. and F.H. Harford, fitted up their offices in such good style that they have splendid quarters. They have thoroughly remodelled [sic] the building and put two good tenements over the printing and publishing offices.”

According to a newspaper article in the 1930s that described the history of the Sentinel, it indicated that the newspaper offices were on the upper floor of the building at one point. The article also provided detail on other uses of the building: “The old building was at one time used as a schoolhouse and, at the time of the Sentinel’s success, the lower part was used as a laundry.”

We find confirmation of this use in the 1902 Davis Directory, when the Cape Elizabeth Sentinel was located at 139 Sawyer St., while Puritan Steam Laundry occupied the first floor space at 139-141 Sawyer St.

Unfortunately for James Harford, he took out a loan in 1899 for $1,600, using the property as collateral, but defaulted. He had to move the newspaper offices out and the bank foreclosed in 1903. The property was sold by the bank to James E. Paige in 1906. Paige brought in Edmund Conary as a half-interest partner in the property and the two men opened their carpentry business, Paige and Conary, in the building.

We’ve run across James Paige previously. Paige served as the captain of the Ferry Village volunteer fire company, South Portland Hose & Ladder Company No. 1, from 1911 to 1921.

After Paige and Conary disbanded, the two carpenters sold the 141 Sawyer St. land and building in 1919 to Arthur C. Lailer (the grocer) and his brother Thomas Lailer, a blacksmith. Arthur and Thomas turned the building into a garage, calling it “Lailer Bros.,” in 1920. Later that year, Arthur Lailer sold his half interest to a blacksmith, Frank P. Bradford, with the resulting name of the garage becoming “Lailer and Bradford.”

We have found very little to document this first garage, but looking at the automobile industry can help give us some insight. Prior to the 1920s, automobiles were largely owned by the wealthy. It was Henry Ford’s introduction of, and improvements to, the moving assembly line that gradually brought automobile prices down into the range where they became affordable.

With more and more cars on roads, the need for auto repair was often taken care of by local blacksmiths, who quickly learned the skills needed to work on automobiles. With both Thomas Lailer and Frank Bradford being blacksmiths, they would both have had the skills for auto repair and general blacksmithing.

Bradford was a partner for only a short time. By 1922, George E. Robinson had begun operating the business. The garage, now officially advertised as an auto repair shop, changed its name to the Sawyer Street Garage. It was while George Robinson ran the garage that he also was acting as a new car dealer. He began selling and servicing Hudson and Essex autos. According to his daughter, Belle Graney: “We always had a new car every year. That was when he’d get one car, he called it the ‘demonstrator.’ My sister said she thinks she was 15 years old before she realized ‘demonstrator’ wasn’t the brand of car. He’d call and say, ‘I have a new demonstrator, Mother. I’ll come up, we’ll take a ride.’”

By 1925, another new business was established within the building. Howard Bates, who had previously run a pool room in Portland, leased space within the building for a pool hall. In 1927, Thomas Lailer sold the land and building to Bates.

The building burned down in a large fire on Jan. 6, 1931. According to a story in the Bangor Daily News, “Fire today swept through a Sawyer street garage here causing $20,000 damage to the structure and a dozen automobiles housed therein. The stubborn blaze, coupled with a freezing rain, gave firemen a battle of several hours. The building was owned by Howard Bates and the garage with its accessory and radio supply store was operated by George E. Robinson. The fire was believed to have started around a boiler. When the flames were controlled the fire-swept structure was a tangled mass of timbers and automobiles. The floor timbers burned through and, in falling, pulled the roof down with them on to the vehicles.”

Bates had a new building constructed in 1931 with the footprint just to the right of the original building. When construction was completed, both Sawyer Street Garage and Howard Bates Billiards reopened in the new space.

Many different businesses have operated from 131 Sawyer St. over the years, including a barber shop, pizza place and convenience stores. The building was acquired in 1989 for use as art studio space. Sawyer Street Studios has occupied the building for over 30 years now. The four current owners/artists – Lynn Duryea, Sharon Townshend, Abby Huntoon and Louise Bilodeau – use space within the building for their own studios and a retail shop, Lulu Ceramics, also operates from the building.

Note: South Portland Historical Society offers a free Online Museum with over 15,000 images available for viewing with a keyword search, and we are adding new content regularly. You can find it at https://sphistory.pastperfectonline.com. If you have photographs or other information to share about South Portland’s past, we would love to hear from you. South Portland Historical Society can be reached at 207-767-7299, by email at sphistory04106@gmail.com, or by mail at 55 Bug Light Park, South Portland, ME 04106.

Kathryn Onos DiPhilippo is executive director of the South Portland Historical Society. She can be reached at sphistory04106@gmail.com.

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