Wednesday, 11 April 2018 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: North America / Nordamerika Category/Kategorie: GeneralReading Time: 4minutes
Kennebunkport is a town in York County in New England. The population is at 3,500. The town center, the area in and around Dock Square, is located along the Kennebunk River, approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) from the mouth of the river on the Atlantic Ocean. Historically a shipbuilding and fishing village, for well over a century the town has been a popular summer colony and seaside tourist destination. The Dock Square area has a district of souvenir shops, art galleries, seafood restaurants, and bed and breakfasts.
Cape Porpoise, while retaining its identity as a fishing harbor, has a very small village area with several restaurants, a church, grocery store, coffee shop, small library, and art gallery. Kennebunkport has a reputation as a summer haven for the upper class and is one of the wealthiest communities in the state of Maine.
Kennebunkport was first incorporated in 1663 as Cape Porpus, subject to the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Due to Indian depredations, the town was depopulated by 1689, and not resettled by Europeans again until the early 18th century. The town was renamed Arundel, and the town center located inland at Burbank Hill. In 1821 the town was renamed again, this time to Kennebunkport in reflection to its economy becoming one of shipbuilding and trade along the Kennebunk River. By the 1870s the town had developed as a popular summer destination, with both hotels and homes constructed along its coastline. Cape Arundel, Cape Porpoise, and Beachwood (now called Goose Rocks) were some of the early summer colonies; although Cape Porpoise was, and still is, a working fishing harbor. Since 1939, Kennebunkport is home to the Seashore Trolley Museum.
Kennebunkport is also the summer home of former U.S. PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush, father of former U.S. President George W. Bush. First built by Bush’s maternal grandfather George Herbert Walker, it has been a family home ever since, and has been owned by Bush since sometime in the early 1980s. The Bushes’ ancestry is distinct from the Walker family that settled York County. Some of this family’s Walker relatives are buried in the Kennebunkport area ancient cemeteries. During his presidency, George H.W. Bush often invited world leaders, from Margaret Thatcher to Mikhail Gorbachev, to Kennebunkport. In 2007, his son George W. Bush invited Vladimir Putin and Nicolas Sarkozy. The Bush compound is on Walkers Point, called Point Vesuvius prior to the Walker family’s acquisition.
