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Kennebunkport's St. Ann's: 'It's Like the Hub of the Wheel...'

One Southern Maine contractor built his family history while restoring St. Ann's Episcopal Church in Kennebunkport.

Bill Scarborough wasn't looking for a sign from God. But the junior warden of St. Ann's Episcopal church in Kennebunkport couldn't deny that the cracks that appeared five years ago on the façade of the seaside church were telling him something.

"You could follow the cracks on the mortar all the way from the base to the top of the tower," Scarborough explains. "It is the matrix of the mortar that provides the structural integrity of the building. As soon as that mortar starts to break down you have sort of a global failure of the structure, and that's what was starting to happen."

Scarborough, a contractor whose roots in Kennebunkport go back practically to when St. Ann's was built in the 1890s, recognized that his turn had come to contribute to the Ocean Avenue landmark. "St. Ann's has been the center of my life in the summer for fifty-three years," he says. "The sermon pulpit was given to the church by my great-grandfather, the baptismal area was given by my grandparents. So here was an opportunity for me to give something to a church that had been such a big part of my family."

Working alongside St. Ann's senior warden, David Winstanley, Scarborough began lining up contractors such as Consigli Construction Company of Portland, as well as masons, electricians, and other craftsmen for what would turn out to be a two-year, $2.8-million restoration. First, the southern yellow pine and local pine post-and-beam substructure was rebuilt. This was done in a way that preserves the church's original construction, which includes the use of overhead ship's knees, a clear reflection of the thriving shipbuilding industry in the Kennebunks during the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

The bell tower's roof was removed and the swinging bell hauled out, refurbished, and replaced with a hammer system that provides the same hourly chimes but places far less stress on the building by keeping the bell immobile.

"Part of our concern was that we had a 2,000-pound bell swinging in that tower," Scarborough says.

The church's interior marble and altar area were refinished, the stained-glass windows redone, and new wrought-iron hinges and hardware were constructed for all the doors. Workers installed a hydraulic pressure-release system that will keep the sea breeze from permeating the building and alleviate the dampness that led to the church's deterioration.

All the high-tech touches that bring St. Ann's up to modern building codes have been carefully concealed to maintain the church's historic atmosphere. "You walk into the building and you don't see wires running anywhere," Scarborough remarks. "You could stand in there and think it's all lit by gas lamps."

Such dedication to detail doesn't come cheap, and one might assume that St. Ann's, which only offers services during the summer months, would have difficulty raising funds for such an ambitious restoration project. But the eight thousand visitors who pass through the sanctuary every summer include such prominent people as former president George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara. The Bushes have been longtime supporters of St. Ann's (last summer their grandson was married there) and are the largest contributor to the restoration project, according to David Winstanley.

But plenty of other funds for the reconstruction have come from local people in Kennebunkport and others across the U.S., and Scarborough says such contributions have allowed the church to open its doors to people who might previously not have felt welcome. "Even though we're a somewhat cloistered summer community, we're trying to reach out to the broader community and welcome them onto the property," he says. (One notable exception to this policy is weddings: Because of the extremely high demand, the church will continue to restrict such ceremonies to about forty per summer, all reserved for families with a close connection to the church.) This year a congregant's donation will allow the church to extend its services through September, a tradition Scarborough hopes will be maintained in future years.

In the end, the restoration of St. Ann's may end up providing people with the same kind of connection to Kennebunkport that Scarborough's family has had for the past four generations.

"St. Ann's is like the hub of the wheel for me," he says. "Over the years my family has owned and liquidated many homes in the area, but the central focus has always been St. Ann's."