A Legacy of Lilacs
One whiff of these living antiques is all it takes to recapture the past.
By Rebecca Sawyer-Fay, Photography by Lynn Karlin
When Irv and Cynthia Paradis purchased their 1828 house in Hallowell five years ago, they knew the lilacs that define the historic property on Winthrop Street came with a story. Soon enough they learned the details: all forty-eight lilacs date to 1865 and were planted by Dr. John Hubbard, noted Hallowell physician and former governor of Maine. Dr. Hubbard had more in mind than sprucing up the family homestead. The trees commemorate Abraham Lincoln as well as the doctor's own son, a Union soldier killed in Louisiana at the siege of Port Hudson.
