On the Southeast coast of Maine you find one of those small towns the whole world has heard about. We’re talking about Kennebunkport. As an old New England port town with centuries of history, it has a lot to offer. But most folks know about it because of Walker’s point — a sort of White House in the middle of New England. President George H. W.  Bush, made this a frequent summer getaway during his administration. The place was first built by his

maternal grandfather George Herbert Walker and has been owned and used by generations of the Walker and Bush families The view from Ocean Drive is still very popular for visitors, and the Bush family had a profound impact on the community — and was the source of many visits by celebrities and world leaders. President Bush entertained British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev and many others over the years. At the Kennebunkport Historical Society, a small room has been set aside to tell the Bush story, showing several artifacts provided by the Bush Family.  “Kennebunkport’s most famous summer residence,” says Kristin Lewis Haight, executive director of the Historical Society. The society is based inside a classic old home called White Columns, one of the towns most distinguished old historiical homes.. Organized tours of the home take you back to the mid 18 hundreds.

But Kennebunkport is so much more than a sort of secondary White House. Its history goes back centuries. The town was first incorporated in 1653 – part of the Massachusetts Bay Colonies. Maine became a state in 1820. In the early years, it was a fishing community based around Cape Porpoise which still has that old charm of a fishing village. Along the Kennebunk River, a robust ship building industry sprang up, and by the 1870’s the town became a bit of a popular summer destination, with Boston about a hundred miles to the south. Visitors love the vistas, the beaches, the town center along the water at Dock Square, and the historic old buildings. And they come by the thousands to see a gem of a museum, The Seashore Trolley Museum has gathered and restored old trollies from all over the world. It actually started in the 1930’s and over the years, volunteers from all over the region built a 2 mile stretch of track and take people for rides on the historic cars. Train Operator Mike Frost says of the place, “when this trolley was running of course when it began, there were no automobiles, this was the way you traveled, otherwise you’d walk.”

You can also watch workers restore the old cars. Says director Katie Orlando, “it’s pretty amazing what we’ve been able to do from photographs and just from knowledge that we’ve had about other cars and similar, from similar manufacturers. And now we’re able to keep them running because we have talented volunteers and staff on our team that really care about our mission.”

Kennebunkport is also a wonderful jumping off point to explore the coast line, the rivers, the old forests, and the history of the shipbuilding over the years.  A drive up the coast brings you to South Portland — where hundreds of ships were built for World War Two.

The Liberty Ship Memorial is located at Bug Light Park overlooking the harbor. It tells the story of the men and women who worked on the ships on this very spot. During the war, they could work on 13 ships at a time at this location. One of the last two working Liberty ships, the USS Jeremiah O’Brien, which was involved in the D-Day Landings in Normandy, was built in this very shipyard in 1943. You can learn more about the O’Brien in our special report: A Piece of D-Day. Just one of the thousands of ships built in the yards all up and down the Maine coastline.