Saving the Promenade

Stories from South Point, Part Four

By Mary Morgan

According to the original South Point Cottage Lots Plan, there would have been roads and cottages between the beach and Great Pond. Later, the city wanted to put in a parking lot between 7th Street and the beach. JH photo.

For many years, the city of Biddeford tried to provide access to the Atlantic beaches for its citizens. They looked to Old Orchard Beach for an example of what was possible. The summer residents of Biddeford Pool resisted these efforts, fearing excessive development and a challenge to the Pool’s exclusiveness.

In 1930, the City of Biddeford wanted to build a parking lot on a common area on the water side of Ocean Avenue between 2nd and 4th streets. The owners of this property were the original developers’ beneficiaries and descendants. In order to prevent the city from moving forward, they leased the land to the nearby cottage owners, who successfully took the city to court. The details of this of this first attempt to increase parking access to the shore are described in the article in this series called Blue Point.

In 1966, the city decided to build a parking lot on the Promenade, a street described on paper in the South Point Cottage Lots Plan as being between the beach and 7th Street. The city’s attempt was blocked by the diligent efforts of Rev. Stanley Hyde. As the descendant of Clara (Berry) Hyde, he retained ownership of most of the undeveloped building lots in South Point, and of the paper streets like the Promenade.

Stan and Arelene Hyde, 1978. Hyde family collection 

Rev. Hyde (1904-1981) was educated at Thornton Academy in Saco and the University of Maine in Orono and received a bachelor of divinity degree in 1930. Two years later, he earned a master of arts in religious education from Columbia University. Throughout his career he was a pastor and educator in Vermont, Massachusetts and Illinois, and he wrote numerous articles for religious educational magazines.

His efforts to protect land at South Point began in late summer, 1966, after the city sent bulldozers to the Promenade to begin work on a public parking lot. According to a Hyde family story, “One morning, nearby residents heard the bulldozers moving toward the Promenade to begin work. These ladies ran out of their houses in their house dresses, threw themselves down in front of the bulldozers and refused to move.” The Biddeford-Saco Journal described that day in August 1966 in a front page article. Common sense prevailed, no one was injured, and the city continued working. It took a law suit and the Rev. Hyde’s actions to stop the parking lot.

Hyde used a two-pronged approach to block the city. First, he sold to the owners along 7th Street the sections of the Promenade abutting their properties. Second, he traced the living descendants of Captain William Hill, who still retained one-half ownership in South Point land, and purchased from them all the paths, paper streets, beaches, rocky areas, unbuildable slopes and land not designated as building lots.

Thanks to the Hyde and Billett families, there is a network of pedestrian paths around South Point. This one leads from the beach, through the pine grove to 7th Street. JH photo. 

After acquiring ownership of all this un-taxable land, he began the process of deeding it, and much of the land between Great Pond and the ocean, to the Biddeford Pool Improvement Association. When he died in 1981, this process was unfinished. His widow, Arelene Hyde, completed the process the following year.

Finally, in 1996, the Hydes’ daughter, Pat Billett, and her husband, Herb, conveyed the two and a half acre tract known as the South Point Sanctuary, which includes the pine grove and a new boardwalk to the beach, to the BPIA in order to preserve the land in perpetuity. The BPIA subsequently conveyed this land to the Biddeford Pool Land Trust.

The third attempt by the city to increase public access to the Pool beach was in 1973, when the city acquired the Biddeford Pool Beach Association’s beach club property by eminent domain. The details of that event, and the court case that followed, will appear on Stories from the Pool in the coming months.

References

“South Point Cottage Lots Plan”, 1882

Deed Book 1776 P223, 16 July 1967, heirs of William Hill sell to Stanley Hyde all parts of South Point that are not building lots; that is, all paper roads, rocky areas, beaches, avenues.

Biddeford-Saco Journal, 31 August, 1966, Page 1, Column 5 - 8,

            McArthur library microfiche roll 191.

            Follow-up articles on September 20 and 23, 1966 on microfiche roll 192.

Stanley Hyde’s consolidation of parts of South Point that are not housing lots is illustrated by the following deeds:

Book 1738 Page 169 15 Aug 1966 with Inez Staples (daughter of Rowland Hill)

Book 1743 Page 102  21 Oct 1966 with Alice (Berry) Sawyer of St Petersburg, Florida

            (daughter of Clara (Berry) Hyde)

Book 1776 Page 223 16 July 1967 with William P. Libby (great grandson of E. Dwight Hill

Book 1782 Page 305   6 Sep 1967 with Ann Mabbett Clark (daughter of E. Dwight Hill), et al

Book 1785 Page 224 27 Sep 1967 with Elizabeth (Foss) Clary (daughter of Mary M. Hill)

Deed Book 2966 Page 245, 08 Sep 1982, Arelene Hyde sells to BPIA 3.03 acres.

Book 3014 Page 85 30 Nov 1982 Arelene Ware Hyde’s deed to the BPIA.

The deed states that in the event that the BPIA dissolves, is sold, merges or no longer wants the property, every effort is to be made to inform the people of Biddeford Pool and find another organization to assume ownership.

Probate Record #81-635 resolution of Stanley Berry Hyde’s estate

“The Rev. Stanley Hyde”, (obituary) Journal Tribune, Biddeford, Sept. 15, 1981

“In Memory of Herb and Pat Billett,” Biddeford Pool Land Trust, South Point Sanctuary Bulletin Board