C-14 Asa Hutchins
House 
| C-14. As you walk along Maine Street, notice the low, curved fence on the corner of Pearl and Maine Streets which leads to a gracefully detailed gate. In the old days, fences lined the streets of Kennebunkport for the practical purpose of keeping livestock out. Every family owned at least one cow, and those who had no pasture at their house drove the cattle through the village to the fields beyond. On the corner of Pearl and Maine Streets, the Asa Hutchins House stands on the site of the first house in the village, built by Paul Shackford before 1740. In 1795 Asa Hutchins, a blacksmith from Portsmouth, built the present house. The deed mentions "a yellow schoolhouse" and the existing blacksmith shop (which probably became part of "Tory Chimneys," a house on Pearl Street). This house has carried the Fairfield name since 1800 when a Hutchins granddaughter married Joseph Fairfield. In the early 20th century, the householder was able to remember that she went to school, "Right there, the little yellow schoolhouse was just on this corner, it would be right in the road if it were there now." |