OLD ORCHARD BEACH — A piece of history is for sale.
The former Cummings’ Guest House on 110 Portland Ave. is listed with the Maine Real Estate Network.
According to a Journal Tribune article from 1993, the Cummings family came to Old Orchard Beach in 1917, and were the first black family to move to town. Rose Cummings opened the boarding house in the Portland Avenue home in 1923, after learning that black musicians who played at The Pier were denied access at local hotels and had no place to stay. The boarding house was in operation until 1993. After Cummings’ death in 1959, her seven children, primarily son E. Emerson Cummings, took over, according to information from the University of Southern Maine.
University of Southern Maine’s Glickman Library purchased the guest house register in 2008, documenting the guests and the dates of their visits, and the records are part of the collections of the Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine.
The Cummings’ House had many notable guests, including musicians Duke Ellington, Count Bassie and Cab Callaway, according to the 1993 Journal Tribune article.
Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen stayed at the Cummings’ home 1940, and later dedicated a children’s story to Pumpkin Cummings, the cat of Rose Cummings’ daughter Ann, according to USM documents.
E. Emerson Cummings, recalled in the 1993 article Duke Elington playing piano in the home’s front room. E. Emerson Cummings was a local teacher and served on the Town Council, and the street where the town’s high school sits, E. Emerson Cummings Boulevard, was named after him.
The former Cummings Guest House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. The home was built in 1900, according to the real estate listing.
The property belongs to Elena Tilly of Washington D.C. According to USM documents, her family had been frequent guests to the Cummings’ house when she was young.
— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.
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