19th Century Life in The Portland Gothic House

The Portland Gothic House & Cuba Connection

Part III: 19th Century Life in The Portland Gothic House

By Marta Morse

Current resident, Marta Morse, glimpses 19th Century life at The Portland Gothic House in a three-part series. Part I tells the story of the Gothic House’s big move across town to save it from urban renewal in the 1970’s. Part II looks at letters from former Gothic House residents the Fox family as they write back and forth from Cuba to Portland.

When we left the Fox family, it was 1865 and they were reacting to news of Lincoln’s assassination with shock though they far away, busy with trade in Cuba. Then the Ten Years’ War broke out, an uprising for Cuban independence…

Fox Family Returns to Portland and The Gothic House

The Ten Years War was precipitated by increased taxes and Spain’s refusal to grant Cubans autonomy. The United States urgently called its citizens to return home, leaving business and plantations behind. At the time, harvests of sugar cane were plentiful, hogsheads of molasses filled, and all seemed content. Granted, Spanish colonial soldiers had been riding through the various estates, letting workers know they were being watched.

Pobres niñas… The six little girls in the Fox family were unconsolably. They had just been told they were to leave home…. ¿Por qué? Family stories differ and it is difficult to pin the exact date of the arrival in Portland of mother Mercedes and her six little sisters. Sailing from Trinidad de Cuba, up the eastern Atlantic coast toward Portland Head Light, Casco Bay, and the City of Portland took almost a week. The arrival of ships were watched from Munjoy Hill Observatory (1807) and families alerted.

Sails lowered, paddle wheels now steered the ship bringing the Fox family home to the Gothic House. Horse and buggy awaited the family at the Commercial Street dock. Big brothers Carlos and Enrique greeted the arrival of mother and sisters. Traveling along with them was a servant and pet parrot screeching, “¡Trinidad!”

Up the hill they drove, glad to be on land, after the long journey. In fact, 1873 is the first date the city of Portland has Mercedes listed as a resident of 40 Spring Street, the former location of the Gothic House. Horatio Fox, listed as merchant, arrived in 1875.

19th Century Life in the Portland Gothic House

Tia Sarah Jane (1809-1883) was there to greet them when they arrived. How the family was to fit in the house was the least of anyone’s concern. Everything would be challenging for the girls: Anita, Rosa, Carmen, Mercedes, the twins Serafina and Carola, along with four brothers. The house was small compared to the space in Trinidad.

It helped that the wooden Gothic Revival house was on a residential street with space all around. The small garden at the back included the privy. Sleeping was done in one of the rooms upstairs where many slept together in large beds. Some rooms had a fireplace for warmth. All quickly learned that cold weather required many more layers of clothing.

The weekly bath took place in the kitchen in a tin tub with buckets of water warmed on the cast-iron kitchen stove. Water was from roof gutters, supplying a basement cistern or an outdoor well. People then used a modest amount of water each day for cooking, washing clothes, and bathing. The 1866 fire that devastated businesses in Portland’s center found citizens approval of the formation of a Portland Water Company.

Three years later water arrived from Sebago Lake.

Some natural springs existed and the “Mariners Spring” of 1754 probably named the street the Gothic House was on. Indoor privies were required years later. The girls were young women by then, and the stairwell at the interior back of the house became a bathroom for first and second floors. Quick exits down flights of stairs for the privy eliminated.

With the arrival of Mercedes and daughters the household became a female domain… heads of the kitchen and the chamber, including the chamber pots! Women provided “creature comforts” and clean clothes. Widowed Tia Sara welcomed added support. Her nephews had been providing wood for the fires and buckets of water for the kitchen, but she now had help from her sister-in-law and the girls.

Fox family men were busy during business hours. Ample supply of wood for the kitchen stove and four fireplaces was necessary and monies for stocking the larder not to be forgotten.

Horatio Fox (1815-1902)

The City’s census provided business addresses for the Fox men, providing insight into diverse family interests. Horatio lived in the house until his death in 1902. He had an active life, twenty-six years as clerk at Portland Customs House…

“Mr. Horatio Fox one of Portland’s most genial and kindly citizens as well as one of the last survivors of those who made the name of Portland famous throughout the West Indies many years ago, passed away at his home on Spring Street yesterday at the ripe old age of 87… Nineteen years old sailed for Trinidad, Cuba… (Later) Eaton, Salford & Fox, also Portland men had profitable business in molasses and sugar… United States Council (Cuba)… while in Cuba married… twelve children…”

Last of the Fox Family at Gothic House

In 1940 the Gothic House and remaining interior artifacts were put up for auction by the last Fox family resident, Anita F. Thompson (1861). But, not before the Gothic style living room lamp took its residence at the New York Metropolitan Museums Gothic library. 

Harken, the parrot calling ¡Trinidad! … Wallpaper, faux grain wood, and past history. Salmon became the background color for new artwork. A white floor with painted hall rug, silver tray for calling cards as trumps l’oeil on bright green walls. Tour visitors voiced approval, especially those who knew the past dark woodwork and walls. 

Many years later, I formed a friendship with Rosa and Elisabeth Corey, great granddaughters of Horatio Fox. They shared many wonderful stories.

Previously…

Read Part I and Part II about the Gothic House’s big move to save it from urban renewal and about the Fox family in Cuba.

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Marta Morse is a freelance photographer who has shown prints at galleries and diverse venues around the country. She has lived at the Gothic House since 1986.