Cummings' Guest House

The Cummings' Guest House is a historic African-American summer boarding house at 110 Portland Avenue in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. Established in 1923, it was one of the only places in the community offering summer accommodations to African-Americans during the period of Jim Crow segregation. Prominent guests included Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, and Lionel Hampton. The property, which reverted to completely private use by the Cummingses in 1993, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.[1]

Cummings' Guest House
Cummings' Guest House is located in Maine
Cummings' Guest House
Cummings' Guest House is located in the United States
Cummings' Guest House
Location110 Portland Ave., Old Orchard Beach, Maine
Coordinates43°31′6″N 70°22′31″W
Area0.5 acres (0.20 ha)
Built1923 (1923)
Architectural styleLate Victorian
NRHP reference No.04000744[1]
Added to NRHPJuly 28, 2004

Description

The house is a vernacular Victorian wood frame structure built about 1870, probably as a farmhouse. The present structure includes the original house and a small barn, which have been joined by a two-story addition. The building once had a porch that wrapped around the southern and eastern facades, provide a measure of unity to the building's disparate elements; this has since been removed. The interior of the house shows regular adaptation to changing environment: its kitchen is from the 1970s, while its bathrooms retain fixtures and original plaster walls from the 1920s. The interior underwent some alteration in the 1960s, when the business began to decline due to antidiscrimination laws, and one of the Cummings children moved into part of the building on a year-round basis.[2]

History

Rose and Edward Cummings Jr. purchased 110 Portland Street in 1917, and were Old Orchard Beach's first African-American residents. In 1923 they converted the house into a seasonal boarding house, catering to traveling African-Americans.

Although it was not listed in any business directories, it was a popular accommodation, with word at first spread by word of mouth, and later by tour guides specifically targeting African-American vacationers. It regularly played host to African-American performers who played at the Old Orchard Beach Casino, but were refused accommodation at area hotels despite a lack of segregation laws in the state. In 1971, Maine passed a civil rights law governing public accommodations.

Performers who stayed there included Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, and Harry Carney, who became a regular visitor. Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen stayed at the house and later dedicated a children's story to the cat of daughter Ann Cummings.[3] The boarding house was operated by the Cummings children until 1993.[2]

The Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine at University of Southern Maine’s Glickman Library purchased the guest house register in 2008.[3][4]

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. "NRHP nomination for Cummings' Guest House". National Park Service. Retrieved 2015-05-25.
  3. Gotthelf, Liz (2015-09-14). "OOB historical house for sale". Press Herald. Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  4. USM African American Collection (1923-06-01). "Cummings Guest House Register (FULL)". Cummings Guest House Register.
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