Island Builders: Past and Present
ISLAND BUILDERS: FROM FRAME TO FINISH- THE ARCHITECTURE OF NORTH HAVEN
The story of North Haven is built—quite literally—by the hands of its carpenters. For generations, these skilled craftspeople have shaped the island’s built environment, creating the homes, barns, workshops, and gathering places that give the community its unique character. Working with local materials and time-tested techniques, island builders brought both practicality and artistry to every project, whether raising a timber frame or restoring a weathered farmhouse.
WHO MAKES ISLAND ARCHITECTURE?
“I always said any guy on North Haven could pick up a hammer and saw and be a carpenter. They all could. They all had that innate ability. Like they were born with it.” - Pat Curtis
Constructing early island farmhouses during the late 1700s was a cooperative, communal activity, with families and neighbors gathering together to shape timbers, put up a barn, or shingle a roof. Structures were built from locally sourced lumber, cut and milled on the island. Materials were frequently repurposed and whole buildings were moved, even from island to island or from the mainland. The Samuel Thomas farm house is believed to have been moved in pieces to North Haven from the family’s home in Marshfield, Massachusetts during the 1780s.
The establishment of a summer community in the late 1800s brought with it a building boom. Initially, the Rockland contracting firm, W. H. Glover & Company, one of the leading contracting firms in Maine, did much of the work. However, by the turn of the century, several North Haven carpenters, including Wesley Dyer, Henry Calderwood, and Henry Duncan, managed most of the building projects.
A frenzy of building activity occurred in 1901 when a local newspaper, The Rockland Opinion, reported 11 houses constructed on North Haven, more than any other year in the island’s history. By the following year, the fevered pace had subsided, falling back to an average about one summer “cottage” constructed per year. By comparison, there were an average of three to four new home building permits issued each year by the town of North Haven between 2015 and 2022.
This exhibit traces the connections between island builders and shows how craftsmanship, skills, knowledge and traditions have been passed from one generation to the next. One particularly impressive lineage of building and carpentry skills can be traced six generations from Henry E. Calderwood in 1889 through Owen and John Lermond, to Clarence, Doug and Chris and Pat Stone and now Chris’s son Issac. Chris took over his father’s business in 2008 and renamed it Stone Contracting and Building Inc. in 2008.
Another lineage begins with Ron Curtis, who started his building in the 1950s and became one of North Haven’s most successful island contractors and builders. Curtis’ crew included his son Chuck, who took over Curtis Construction in 1990 and Roman Cooper, who went into business Cooper Construction with his brother Shaun in 1990. Chuck’s son Alex Curtis, together with Nick Koster, started North Haven Property Management in 2022.
Soon after the Second World War, Forrest Adams moved to North Haven. Adams hired Sam Cabot, who started Wood Owl Construction in 1987 hiring, among others, his son Elliot, who now runs a contracting firm on the Mainland, and Ben Sparhawk, who started Sparhawk Construction in 2017.
In recent years, two new builders Abel LaBelle and Morty Hansen have moved to North Haven and currently run LaBelle Building and OrmBuilt. LaBelle originally came to work for Elliot Cabot.
We celebrate the remarkable artistry and skills of the men and women who take on the many challenges of building on an island. With their calloused hands and keen eyes, builders and carpenters on North Haven not only construct houses and barns and boat houses and town buildings but give life to and shape our island’s character and identity.
Exhibit Content by: Lydia Brown, Jacqueline Curtis and Alice Cornwell
The story of North Haven is built—quite literally—by the hands of its carpenters. For generations, these skilled craftspeople have shaped the island’s built environment, creating the homes, barns, workshops, and gathering places that give the community its unique character. Working with local materials and time-tested techniques, island builders brought both practicality and artistry to every project, whether raising a timber frame or restoring a weathered farmhouse.
WHO MAKES ISLAND ARCHITECTURE?
“I always said any guy on North Haven could pick up a hammer and saw and be a carpenter. They all could. They all had that innate ability. Like they were born with it.” - Pat Curtis
Constructing early island farmhouses during the late 1700s was a cooperative, communal activity, with families and neighbors gathering together to shape timbers, put up a barn, or shingle a roof. Structures were built from locally sourced lumber, cut and milled on the island. Materials were frequently repurposed and whole buildings were moved, even from island to island or from the mainland. The Samuel Thomas farm house is believed to have been moved in pieces to North Haven from the family’s home in Marshfield, Massachusetts during the 1780s.
The establishment of a summer community in the late 1800s brought with it a building boom. Initially, the Rockland contracting firm, W. H. Glover & Company, one of the leading contracting firms in Maine, did much of the work. However, by the turn of the century, several North Haven carpenters, including Wesley Dyer, Henry Calderwood, and Henry Duncan, managed most of the building projects.
A frenzy of building activity occurred in 1901 when a local newspaper, The Rockland Opinion, reported 11 houses constructed on North Haven, more than any other year in the island’s history. By the following year, the fevered pace had subsided, falling back to an average about one summer “cottage” constructed per year. By comparison, there were an average of three to four new home building permits issued each year by the town of North Haven between 2015 and 2022.
This exhibit traces the connections between island builders and shows how craftsmanship, skills, knowledge and traditions have been passed from one generation to the next. One particularly impressive lineage of building and carpentry skills can be traced six generations from Henry E. Calderwood in 1889 through Owen and John Lermond, to Clarence, Doug and Chris and Pat Stone and now Chris’s son Issac. Chris took over his father’s business in 2008 and renamed it Stone Contracting and Building Inc. in 2008.
Another lineage begins with Ron Curtis, who started his building in the 1950s and became one of North Haven’s most successful island contractors and builders. Curtis’ crew included his son Chuck, who took over Curtis Construction in 1990 and Roman Cooper, who went into business Cooper Construction with his brother Shaun in 1990. Chuck’s son Alex Curtis, together with Nick Koster, started North Haven Property Management in 2022.
Soon after the Second World War, Forrest Adams moved to North Haven. Adams hired Sam Cabot, who started Wood Owl Construction in 1987 hiring, among others, his son Elliot, who now runs a contracting firm on the Mainland, and Ben Sparhawk, who started Sparhawk Construction in 2017.
In recent years, two new builders Abel LaBelle and Morty Hansen have moved to North Haven and currently run LaBelle Building and OrmBuilt. LaBelle originally came to work for Elliot Cabot.
We celebrate the remarkable artistry and skills of the men and women who take on the many challenges of building on an island. With their calloused hands and keen eyes, builders and carpenters on North Haven not only construct houses and barns and boat houses and town buildings but give life to and shape our island’s character and identity.
Exhibit Content by: Lydia Brown, Jacqueline Curtis and Alice Cornwell
Henry E. Calderwood |
J.O. and Flora Brown’s house, now owned by Kim Alexander, 1891
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Henry E. Calderwood (1830-1913) learned the carpentry trade from his father Mark Calderwood. In 1899, at the age of 70, he started his own construction business, which became the most successful on North Haven At that time, rusticators were building large summer houses on both sides of the Thorofare. “Many were constructed by Henry E. Calderwood, a local carpenter, who established a contracting firm with a large enough crew to supplant W.H. Glover & Company of Rockland,” writes Roger Reed in his book Summering on the Thoroughfare.
Calderwood Hall, is believed to be one of the last buildings Henry constructed. It was built for his son Forrest and daughter-in-law Lourenia as a community dance hall and gathering place. Upon his death, Henry left his business in the hands of his foreman, Owen D. Lermond. Calderwood is also credited with building the first racing dinghies at Brown’s Boatyard. According to Ellen Hayward Wheeler, who won the first recorded dinghy race in the Thorofare in 1877: “The first two boats were built at North Haven by Henry Calderwood, and carried sprit sails. The next year, four dinghies were built in a somewhat improved model copied from one on Mr. Wm. F Weld’s yacht Gitania, and these have been the model for the present dinghies with slightly higher sides.” Wheeler wrote she won the race by default as “Dr. Weld and Mr. Cobb … got busy trying to blanket each other.”
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O. D. Lermond |
The Lamonts, Sky Farm, in Pulpit Harbor
John Lermond
Cunningham Cottage, Pulpit Harbor
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O.D. Lermond (1869-1945) was born in Warren and came to North Haven to work for W.H. Glover & Company of Rockland. In 1895, he married Jennie Banks, a North Haven islander, and, by 1899, he was working for Henry Calderwood as his foreman.
“O.D. Lermond was the preeminent building contractor on North Haven for more than thirty years,” writes Roger Reed in Summering on the Thoroughfare. His carpentry skills and eye for fine detail and high quality were passed on from Owen to his son John Lermond.
John Lermond (1897-1966) married Olive Stone, a North Haven islander in 1922. He began working with his father after service in World War I. In the late 1930s, he took over his father’s business and made Clarence Stone a partner in 1945. Remembered as an exceptionally talented builder, John Lermond went on to train Doug Stone and other North Haven builders.
Jim Brown: “I worked for John Lermond. There were a bunch of us: Daland Brown, Clarence Stone, Garnet Thorton, Thorn Dyer, Ronald Gillis, John Brown, Chester Dyer. Lermond liked things done in the right way. He made sure the job was done right. I learned a lot of things from him. How to fit things together, how to read a blueprint, things like that. When he died, Dougie Stone stepped in and carried on.”
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Doug Stone |
Walter and Dorcy Cabot, Penobscot Gable House, Dead Horse Point, 1998
Cabotville House (house with large chimney next to Billy’s kitchen)
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Doug Stone (born 1937): “My father Irwen was a carpenter. John Lermond was my uncle. He was married to my father’s sister Olive. Clarence, my father and Olive’s brother, always worked with John Lermond. He was the foreman and partner.
“I worked for John Lermond from 1955 to 1960. Then I went into the ferry service from 1960 to 1964. Then Nancy Harwood called me and ask would I build her a house. I didn’t like going out on the water everyday, but I didn’t know (carpentry) was going to be what it was. That first winter, I hired 12 people including my father, Bill Hurd, Foster Morrison, Austin Grant, Raymond Beverage and Jack Brown. “I got into carpentry because I had to have a job. I had a wife and child on the way. I enjoyed it. It came easy to me. My father and a lot of my relatives were in the business. I can’t do anything with my head, but I can with my hands. I’ve probably built more houses on the island than anyone else.”
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Forest Adams
Dr Pool's House, Nick and Annik Smith, Pulpit Harbor
Bill and Eddie Hopins' House, Henry Sears, Crabtree Point
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Forrest Adams (1916 - 1995) Forrest C. Adams and Sons Construction. Belinda Frank (Forrest’s Daughter): “Forrest and my mother were farmers. She grew up in Warren and he grew up in Solon. My father was a wonderful builder. Someone out here had him come and build a house. And they (my parents) liked it and they just moved out. There were others, a lot of carpenters here. He was not getting in anyone’s way. You know how it is when you move out here. Everyone asks, ‘What are you doing and why are you here?’
“He was from a family of nine kids. He was the second born. He wanted to go to college and become an architect. My grandfather sent the oldest to college to be a teacher and Dad couldn’t go. He would have been a hell of an architect. “Dad served in the Seabees (the U.S. Naval Construction Battalions) during the war. He was in Okinawa building runways and doing carpentry. He said he only had to pick his gun up once. He started his business right off. He couldn’t go to college so he just jumped into building. In those days, you had to do everything for yourself. He was a teacher to others though. He had a lot of island men working for him. Lots of young men worked for him for a couple of years. They work, learn a trade, then go do it. He was a caretaker for the Cabots.” Joette DeBlois, Ted Adams’ daughter, said her grandfather also used to take apart old barns and reassemble them, often turning them into houses. This work was featured in Down East, she said.. Forrest Adams crew included Thorn Dyer, Gil Foltz, Ray Beverage, Jeff Quinn, Bill Thales, Sam Cabot and Forrest’s two sons Arnold and Ted who took over the business after their father died but eventually moved off island.
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Ronald Curtis |
The Von Clemm Tower, Crabtree Point
Gimmy and Ellen Nichols House, Crabtree Point
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Ron Curtis (1933 - 2002) started and managed Curtis Construction. Patricia Curtis (his wife) told us about his career:
“Ron started out in Vinalhaven with Crossman and Maddox, so he commuted back and forth for a year or so and then an opportunity arose for him to get into the building business here. He felt by then he had enough knowledge, he could start off on his own and that’s what he did. “I’d probably say his favorite projects were Neil and Tommy Holt’s house and Gimmy and Ellen’s House because they were friends. We were all friends. It was just a fun time. “He enjoyed those two, but he really enjoyed creating the houses. He would spend a lot of time on the phone with the architects and the prospective owners. There would be endless discussions about detail. There were times too that were very stressful, when he was meeting a deadline. But he loved to stand back and see what he’d created. It wasn’t just putting nails to wood. “Our own house (on Southern Harbor) started in the 1950s when we were tearing down a boathouse at the Morrow Estate. I saw we because I was there and Chuck was a baby in a basket. That started the house at Southern Harbor. It was the bones from that old boathouse.” Chuck Curtis told us, “My Dad worked on the North Haven Community Building. Philip and Audrey Ketchum approached him to ask him to work for them. I believe theirs was the first house he built. Sometimes it was such a beautiful day and the places we worked were so beautiful, I remember my Dad used to say, ‘God, this is so nice you guys ought to be paying me just to work here.’” Curtis Construction crew included Jerry Brown, Sonny Grant and Ed Beverage Sr., Roman Cooper, Mike Brown and Ron’s son Chuck Curtis.
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