Scarborough Colonial History: Hunnwell House and Massacre Pond

Ca. 1950, from the Maine Memory Network.

For my next two sites I went to two connected sites in my hometown of Scarborough. One of these was the Hunnewell House, the other is Massacre Pond in Prouts Neck. The sign dates the house to 1684, but online I've found a few other dates, all around the same time. I went off season, so I couldn't go inside. I have been inside before, on a field trip as a kid. Outside it looked like the house is being taken care of quite well. The signs says it is a "restoration project," but it looks fairly well restored already, especially when comparing to a picture from the Maine Memory Network of the house in the 1950's. There was no one else there, but even driving by in the summer time I can't recall ever seeing many cars there. One thing I didn't know until a couple years ago was that the house wasn't originally built here. I still haven't really got a good answer for where it was first, I've heard closer to Prouts Neck, but I'm not really sure.

Me looking very colonial.

The next place I went was not far from here down Black Point Road. You follow the same road down to Prouts Neck, to the sign that says Scarborough Beach State Park. There you have to park on the road. During the summer there is parking you can pay for, but during the off season you can park on the street. There was quite a few cars there on this particular day, as the dirt road to the pond also goes to Scarborough Beach. On either side of the road you can see the pond. It was here that two separate Indian attacks happened, one in 1703 killing Richard Hunnewell of the Hunnewell house.

Massacre Pond

Historical Significance of the Hunnewell House and Massacre Pond
     
     The Hunnewell House and Massacre Pond are both very historically significant to the history of Scarborough. The house is probably one of the best ways of telling how the early settlers in Scarborough lived. However, there are still somethings we do not know. It is not fully known if the Honneywell house was a house. It may have been a store, as Hunnewell did own a store. It was a store later on in the mid 1700's, though it's original use is still unknown. Regardless of it's purpose, it is still believed to be the oldest surviving building in Cumberland County.

     The incident at Massacre Pond can tell us a lot about settler and native relationships during this time. What is known about the event was that two months after the start of Queen Anne's War Richard Hunnewell and 18 others were tending their animals at the pond and 200 Indians came out and ambushed them, killing them all. It is an important reminder in a modern town that can often forget it's history. The pond is now most well known as being near the beach, and being good for ice skating, but there are probably many who do not know about the Massacre at Massacre Pond and the losses that occurred to settle the area, on both sides of the settler and Indian wars.