In last week’s column, we took a look at Sam Silverman and his activities on Willard Beach. Silverman’s Willard Beach Bath House was located just adjacent to the larger, two-story Henry Griffin store on the beach. Let’s take a look at the life of Henry Griffin.

Henry A. Griffin was born in December 1891, in Cape Elizabeth (now called South Portland), the son of William and Emma Griffin. As early as 1907, at the age of 15, he was already working as a grocery clerk in the store of Fred Anderson at 185 Preble St. in South Portland. Thus began a long history of running stores in South Portland. He married Lucy Studley in 1909 and they had three children together: Phyllis (“Dottie”), Marian and Leola.

In 1912, Henry left Fred Anderson’s store and took a job clerking at Dan Cobb’s store in Willard Square (427 Preble St., the building where Willard Scoops is today). It was a large store and Cobb was the postmaster, so all of the local residents came there to pick up their mail. If any Willard resident hadn’t already known Henry from when he worked at Anderson’s, they certainly would have met him at Cobb’s store.

When Cobb closed his store at 427 Preble around 1916, he moved his storefront just down the street to his home, the large building at 450 Preble St. Henry worked there, as well. Around 1917, he took over the store operation with a partner, Harry W. Goodnow, and they renamed the store Griffin & Goodnow. At this point, he was now Cobb’s son-in-law. After Henry’s wife Lucy had died in 1917, Henry married Cobb’s daughter, Isabel. Henry and Isabel also had three children: Ruth, Helen and Henry, Jr. (“Bud”).

The store at 450 Preble St. closed around 1918 and Henry enlisted in the Army that July. He was discharged in January 1919, after World War I had ended. Henry spent the next few years working as an expressman (delivery service), carpenter and electrician.

Throughout these years, as early as 1918, he and Isabel also ran the large store on Willard Beach during the summers, selling hot dogs, fried clams, fried fish, French fries, drinks, ice cream and more. Cobb had reportedly built that building in 1906. It operated as a store in the summer and there was a residence in the upper portion where Henry and Isabel would live. Their son Henry “Bud” Griffin, Jr. was born in that house. The building was destroyed by fire in 1933.

Around 1926, Henry’s father, William Griffin, opened a store at 271 Preble St. He had Henry run the store for him. According to Herb Pray, who married Henry’s daughter Leola, “Leola used to dip out ice cream for the kids” at the 271 Preble St. store. That store was in operation through 1933.

From 1933 to roughly 1938, Henry and Isabel owned and operated Griffin’s Fish Market at 446 Preble St. That was on the first floor in the front of the long building that is located next to Cobb’s house at 450 Preble St. (across from the end of Elsmere Avenue).

From roughly 1939 to 1940, when it appears that Henry was perhaps not working, his wife Isabel owned and operated a store at 321 Pine St. (near Cottage Road) known as Griffin’s Lobster Shop.

During World War II, Henry went to work at the South Portland shipyards as an electrician, first for South Portland Shipbuilding Corporation and, after the two yards merged, for New England Shipbuilding Corporation.

At the end of World War  II, Henry and Isabel bought and ran the Dunscroft Inn on Route 1 in Scarborough for many years. Around 1955, they closed the inn, then had the building moved back and opened the Dunscroft Drive-In diner in its place. They also ran the Kettle Cove Restaurant in Cape Elizabeth in later years.

Henry and Isabel Griffin had a long life and enjoyed working together. According to two of their grandchildren, Henk Griffin and Rosanne Griffin, Henry and Isabel were very much in love and devoted to one another throughout their lifetimes. After Days of Our Lives premiered in 1965, Isabel became a devoted fan of the daytime soap opera; Henk fondly remembers how Henry and Isabel would take a break at 2 p.m. each day to sit and watch the show together, holding hands. Henry died in 1972 at the age of 80. Isabelle died in 2001 at the age of 103 (her father Dan Cobb had lived to be 106 years old). Henry and Isabel are buried together at Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

Henry and Isabel’s son, Henry “Bud” Griffin, Jr., also has some interesting ties to South Portland history. As mentioned previously, he was born in the apartment above the Griffin store on Willard Beach in 1921. At the end of 1940, when the Todd-Bath Shipbuilding basins were about to be created, the existing vacant building structures that had once belonged to Cumberland Shipbuilding needed to be demolished.

Bud was one of the people who worked on the demolition of those buildings. He worked at the South Portland shipyards for a few years as a welder before enlisting in the Army in 1943. He served overseas with the 245th Engineer Combat Battalion. His battalion saw a lot of action, including fighting at the Battle of the Bulge. He received three battle stars for his service during the war, as well as a Purple Heart after having been wounded in action. After the war, Bud was honorably discharged in 1946.

Bud had learned electrician’s skills from his father and, rather than working as a storekeeper, he chose to become an electrician. He owned his own business, Scarborough Electric Service and, later, Griffin Electric.

My thanks, as always, to society volunteer Jackie Dunham for her research assistance. Thanks also to Henry and Isabel Griffin’s grandchildren, Rosanne Griffin, Henk Griffin, and Lon Pelton for sharing stories, photographs and other information with the South Portland Historical Society so that we may better document the life of Henry and Isabel Griffin and the seven storefronts that they operated in South Portland over the years. If you have photographs, artifacts or other pieces of South Portland history to share, the South Portland Historical Society can be reached at 207-767-7299, by email at sphistory04106@gmail.com, or by mail at 55 Bug Light Park, South Portland, ME 04106.

Kathryn Onos DiPhilippo is executive director of the South Portland Historical Society. She can be reached at sphistory04106@gmail.com.

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