The Story of South
Point , Part Five
By Mary Morgan
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| A view of the triplets taken in the early 1900s. At that time there was a boardwalk over the rocks at South Point. |
The houses at 30, 34 and 38 Ocean Avenue are called
the three sisters, or the triplets, because they are so similar: all are three
stories high and feature gambrel roofs, white trim and diamond-shaped window
panes. They were all built in the early 1900s and belonged to three families
from Holyoke, Massachusetts. Descendants of the original owners, including the
Celce and Oldershaw families, still summer at the Pool.
South Point belonged to farmer Isaac Bickford until
1874, when he sold it to Dominicus Jordan. Jordan sold interest in the property
to two business partners, William Hill and Thomas H. Cole. In 1882, this group
launched a plan to develop the area called the South Point Cottage Lots Plan. The
lots on which the triplets were built were sold by these developers’ heirs and
successors more than 25 years later.
The most noticeable of the triplets, located at 38
Ocean Avenue, is now the summer home of the McGuire family. Right at the tip of
the peninsula, on lot 61 of the South Point Cottage Lots Plan, it was sold as a
vacant lot by Sarah Emma (Berry) Littlefield to Dr. Frank F. Celce in 1906.
Frank F. Celce (whose full name was Franz Friedrich
Celce) was born in Germany in 1867. His parents immigrated to America when he
was one year old. He married Jean Hose from New York, studied medicine in
Europe and set up in general practice in Holyoke. Frank’s and Jean’s second
child, Freidrich William Celce, born in the U.S. in 1896, also became a doctor.
This original owner of 38 Ocean Ave., Frank F.
Celce, died in Holyoke in 1942. A year later, son Fred W. Celce sold the
house and lot.
34 Ocean Ave.
The second of the triplets, at 34 Ocean Avenue, now
the summer residence of the McClure family, sits on Ocean Avenue lots 51 and
53. These lots were also vacant when Clara (Berry) Hyde sold them to Louis A. LaFrance in 1909.
LaFrance was born in Chambly, Quebec in 1866. His
family immigrated to the U.S. when he was age three and settled in Holyoke. He grew
up to become a successful building contractor and real estate developer.
He and his wife, Eugenie, had four children: three
daughters and a son. Paul Louis Napoleon LaFrance eventually joined his father
in the building and real estate business. Louis died in 1938, and his widow
sold the house at South Point six years later.
Son Paul LaFrance married Virginia
Jones from Tuscola, Illinois. After Paul and Virginia divorced,
she married her South Point neighbor Dr. Fred W. Celce. Their son, Fred Celce, has a house at Biddeford Pool, overlooking Saco Bay, to
this day.
Grandma Wakelin’s House
The third triplet has a street address of 30 Ocean Avenue,
but it actually sits on 7th Street, lot 1, of the South Point Cottage Lots Plan.
It is the summer home of the Reinharts.
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| There are many fine details, such as diamond-shaped window panes, in all three houses. (JH photo) |
It was originally sold to E.H. Friedrich in 1909 as
a vacant lot by Dwight Hill and the other heirs of South Point investor William
Hill. The buyer, Ernst Hugo Friedrich, was born in Saxony, Germany, in 1857.
His family came to the U.S. when he was 11 years old and settled in Holyoke.
When he grew up, Ernst built a large plumbing business in Holyoke. He married Catherine
Bertha Leining, from Rockville, Connecticut, and they had four children born
between 1884 and 1914.
Daughter Bertha Friedrich, born in 1886,
married William Wakelin Jr. from Grand Rapids, Michigan in Holyoke in 1912, and
they had three children: Fred, Edmund and Virginia. Bertha lived a long life
and continued to spend her summers at the Pool. In fact, she became known as Grandma Wakelin, and many people still remember the three-story house at 30 Ocean Ave.
as Grandma Wakelin’s house.
Grandma Wakelin’s house was sold in 1988, however, the
Wakelin family continued to own a one-story cottage nestled between the
triplets for many years. Recently, the Hogans purchased it and built a new,
larger house in its place.
There remains one other connection to these original
South Point families: Virginia (Ginny) Wakelin married Louis Oldershaw, and their
three children, Peter, Rob and David, continue to summer at Pool in their
hillside house on Mile Stretch Road.
The triplets were probably built between 1906 and 1909.
One suggestion is that Louis LaFrance built the houses for his three daughters.
Two of the three original owners were in the building trades. They were all
successful men from Holyoke who knew each other. According to Fred Celce, building
materials could be purchased at a discount if purchased in quantity, and
perhaps that was the motivation behind a joint construction project.
At the time these houses were built, most summer
residents of Biddeford Pool lived closer to the village or along Main Street (now
Lester B. Orcutt Blvd.) The construction of these distinctive houses at South
Point was a bold step that may have encouraged other people to investigate the
beauty of this part of the Pool.
References:
“South Point Cottage Lots” Plan Book 3 Page 2,
Published in 1882
York County Registry of Deed,
Alfred, ME
Deed Book
554 Page 7 Frank F. Celce
purchase of 38 Ocean Avenue (18 Aug. 1906)
Deed Book
579 Page 5 Louis LaFrance
purchase of 34 Ocean Avenue (4 May 1909
Deed Book
586 Page 60 E.H. Friedrich
purchase of 30 Ocean Avenue (17 May 1909)
Deed Book
579 Page 6 George Cross to
E.H. Friedrich lot 47 on Ocean Ave.
Deed Book 4845 Page 259 Bertha Wakelin to John and
Susan Posser
Deed Book 1016 Page 118 Eugenie LaFrance to George
Berube
Deed Book1007 Page 169 Fredrick William Celce to
Thomas Paraday
1909 Map of Biddeford Pool owned by Anne Kenney:
Picture: BP 1909 1
Obituary of Louis A. LaFrance, 21 March 1938
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