Port Clyde, Maine
Encyclopedia
Port Clyde is the southernmost settlement on the St. George peninsula in central/coastal Maine and part of the town
of St. George
in Knox County
, Maine
, United States
.
In the 19th century, Port Clyde became a busy port featuring granite quarries, tide mills for sawing timber, and shipbuilding and fish canning businesses. By the 20th century, the area attracted artists and writers. The Country of the Pointed Firs
was written by Sarah Orne Jewett
in St. George.
Port Clyde's harbor was originally known as Herring Gut. Marshall Point – site of the Marshall Point Lighthouse– is Port Clyde's southernmost extremity. This lighthouse is the one to which Tom Hanks
ran in the 1994 film Forrest Gump
New England town
The New England town is the basic unit of local government in each of the six New England states. Without a direct counterpart in most other U.S. states, New England towns are conceptually similar to civil townships in other states, but are incorporated, possessing powers like cities in other...
of St. George
St. George, Maine
St. George is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 2,580. It includes the villages of Port Clyde, Clark Island, Glenmere, Martinsville and Tenants Harbor, the latter its commercial center. A favorite with artists, writers and naturalists, St...
in Knox County
Knox County, Maine
Knox County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. As of 2010, the population was 39,736. Its county seat is Rockland. The county is named for American Revolutionary War general and Secretary of War Henry Knox, who lived in the county from 1795 until his death in 1806. The county was...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
In the 19th century, Port Clyde became a busy port featuring granite quarries, tide mills for sawing timber, and shipbuilding and fish canning businesses. By the 20th century, the area attracted artists and writers. The Country of the Pointed Firs
The Country of the Pointed Firs
The Country of the Pointed Firs is an 1896 short story sequence by Sarah Orne Jewett which is considered by some literary critics to be her finest work...
was written by Sarah Orne Jewett
Sarah Orne Jewett
Sarah Orne Jewett was an American novelist and short story writer, best known for her local color works set in or near South Berwick, Maine, on the border of New Hampshire, which in her day was a declining New England seaport.-Biography:Jewett's family had been residents of New England for many...
in St. George.
Port Clyde's harbor was originally known as Herring Gut. Marshall Point – site of the Marshall Point Lighthouse– is Port Clyde's southernmost extremity. This lighthouse is the one to which Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
ran in the 1994 film Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump is a 1994 American epic comedy-drama romance film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Gary Sinise...
Residences
- The Wyeth family, with three generations of accomplished artists, has owned a summer home in Port Clyde ever since N.C. Wyeth purchased "Eight Bells" in the early 1920s. His son Andrew WyethAndrew WyethAndrew Newell Wyeth was a visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century....
long owned property and spent time in the area, as does N.C.'s grandson, Jamie WyethJamie WyethJames Browning Wyeth is a contemporary American realist painter. He was raised in Chadds Ford Township, Pennsylvania, son of Andrew Wyeth and grandson of N.C. Wyeth...
.
- Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and his wife purchased a home on Hupper Island just off the coast of Port Clyde in 2006. The house is a one-story structure built in the 1960s and reportedly purchased for $475,000. The seller of the home was "This Old House" star Steve Thomas, according to the Knox County Registry of Deeds. Mr. Thomas still owns an older renovated barn and house just across a trail from the Chief Justice's home.
- Kenneth NolandKenneth NolandKenneth Noland was an American abstract painter. He was one of the best-known American Color field painters, although in the 1950s he was thought of as an abstract expressionist and in the early 1960s he was thought of as a minimalist painter. Noland helped establish the Washington Color School...
, one of the best known American color field painters, spent the last several years of his life in Port Clyde. There he worked regularly at his studio and owned a home with his wife, Paige RensePaige RensePaige Rense, aka Paige Rense Noland is the editor emeritus of Architectural Digest, where she served as editor in chief from 1975 until 2010. She is also the founder of the Arthur Rense Prize poetry award...
, Editor-in-Chief of Architectural Digest.
- Port Clyde is the site of Fieldstone Castle, built by Russell W. PorterRussell W. PorterRussell Williams Porter was an American artist, engineer, amateur astronomer and explorer. He was a pioneer in the field of “cutaway illustration" and is sometimes referred to as the "founder" or one of the "founders" of amateur telescope making."-Biography:Russell W...
, currently inhabited by artist Greg MortGreg MortGreg Mort is an American artist and amateur astronomer whose paintings have been the subject of numerous exhibitions. His portraits, still lifes, and landscape paintings are represented in public collections, including the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Smithsonian...
as his summer studio.