As we continue our research into some of the seafood processing companies that were located in the post-war West Yard of South Portland’s former shipyards, let’s take a look at George Kern and his connection with South Portland.
Portrait of George J. Kern. Courtesy photo/Bowdoin College.
George J. Kern was born in 1923 and led a rather interesting life. He was the grandson of John H. Kern, founder of John Kern & Son, a wholesale distributor and retailer of meats, first at his farm at 901 Washington Ave., and later 251-255 Commercial St., in Portland. John Kern & Son sold smoked meats and ready-to-serve meat products under the “Farmer Kern’s State-o-Maine” brand. George’s father, George C. “Farmer” Kern, joined John Kern in the business and eventually became president of that company, as well.
George J. Kern lost his leg in a freak accident in 1936 when he was only 12 years old. He had gone with friends to Highland Lake to go swimming. While he was holding a gate open for the car, the driver attempted to back up and turn, but George’s legs ended up crushed between the car bumper and the gate. One of his legs was amputated.
Throughout his life, Kern was known for his sense of humor. In his obituary, Kern was quoted saying that, after the accident, “for the next 70 odd years he just hopped around.”
The loss of his leg did not slow George Kern down at all. He graduated from Deering High School in 1941, having participated in band, served as manager of both the football and track teams, and was a standout swimmer on the swim team. In the yearbook, he noted that his hobbies were boat building and fishing, a hint of what was to come.
George, who later went by the nickname “Farmer” like his father before him, attended Bowdoin College where he was active in the school community, a member of a fraternity there, and swam for the Bowdoin swim team. In 1946, he won the annual Peaks to Portland swim in record time and the exciting event was captured in the Portland Press Herald: “With a roaring crowd of three to four thousand dotting the banks of the Eastern Promenade, after nearly 2,000 had turned out to see the Peaks Island start of the race, George Kern, brilliant one-legged swimmer from Bowdoin, beating a cramp in the final half mile, swept in to the float off East End Bathing Beach shortly after noon Saturday, winner of the grueling Peaks to Portland swim in one hour, two minutes, 19½ seconds, a record for the new course that is virtually an eighth of a mile farther than the old one.”
In a 1942 image of the South Portland Shipbuilding shipyard, there are two Liberty ships pulled up at the two long outfitting piers. Just to the left, the smaller Crib 3 sticks out from the shore at a slight angle. The George J. Kern Company was located on Crib 3 from 1947 to 1950. South Portland Historical Society photo
After graduating from Bowdoin, he briefly worked for the family’s meat business, but began fishing and making plans to strike out on his own. By August, 1946, he was in discussions with the Greater Portland Public Development Commission to lease space in the West Yard of the former South Portland Shipyard where he would establish a new company, originally using the name Gulf of Maine Shellfish Company.
By May, 1947, he had partnered up with William V. Benson, a local lobsterman, and they rented space at Crib 3, formerly a small outfitting pier. The company was soon called the George J. Kern Company.
George Kern was listed as president and William V. Benson was listed as treasurer. It was undoubtedly an exciting time for George, as he also married Bertha Bonney in May, 1947. They lived in Portland and would raise four children there.
An article in the Portland Press Herald in May, 1947, had a great description of Kern’s new company in the shipyard: “A new firm has installed itself at one of the outfitting piers – the outfitting of crabs for the market. In the George J. Kern Company, George Kern is associated with William V. Benson, a skilled fisherman who also has a good writing talent. The immediate output is cooked crabs and lobsters for local and out of state markets.
“This company has just built some crab-tanks, to make sure of always having a fresh supply on hand for its kettles; and it expects shortly to have 10 or 12 girls picking crabmeat. It will also make a specialty of cooking Maine shrimp in season.”
Press Herald photo
In January, 1949, Kern was hired on to manage the newly-formed Seafresh Fillet Company, Inc., a wholesale fish dealer at 63 Portland Pier in Portland. Kern left William V. Benson managing his George J. Kern Company in South Portland. By 1950, it appears that Kern left the partnership as William Benson incorporated a new company, Benson Lobster, in the same space at Crib 3.
At this point, Kern seems to have lost his ties with South Portland. He remained at Seafresh Fillet, which had subsequently changed its name to Bespakt Fillet Company, through at least 1951. In 1952 and 1953, he was listed as working as a salesman for Portland Fish Company at the end of Custom House Wharf, and he was also the proprietor of Anchor Lunch, at 17 Portland Pier.
In 1954 he was working for Boston Fish Company, as assistant manager of their location on Merchants Wharf. By 1955, he had established his own company at Merchant’s Wharf, Eastern Fish Company, a seafood wholesaler, that he operated into the early 1970s. In 1961, Kern moved into the retail side of the business when he purchased the former Union Wharf Seafood market at 228 Commercial St. and, after renovating the store, changed its name to Kern’s Fish Market. George Kern was well-known in Portland as the proprietor of Kern’s Fish Market from 1961 into the early 1970s. In 1969, he added another retail location when he bought Maine Lobster Company at 378 West Commercial St.
Fisherman Paul York, left, is shown with George Kern at Eastern Fish Company on Merchants Wharf in 1961. South Portland Historical Society photo
In 1973, George Kern left the seafood business behind and became a full-time restaurateur. While still living with his wife Bertha in Portland, he partnered with two other investors, Richard Hammond and Raymond Pasquale, and opened the Warehouse Restaurant at 37 Park St. in downtown Lewiston.
In 1974, they purchased another restaurant in Lewiston, the Point After Pub on Sabattus Street, and changed its name to SpeakEasy. Also in 1974, now doing business as R & C Enterprises, Inc., the company was operating a third restaurant in Lewiston, Lou’s Den on Birch Street. In 1977, they opened another Warehouse Restaurant location in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
George Kern was active in the restaurant business into the 1980s. His wife Bertha died in 2002 and George died in 2012.
Note: If you have any photographs, documents, or artifacts related to South Portland’s past, we would love to hear from you. 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. The society offers a free Online Museum with over 16,000 images available for viewing with a keyword search. You can find it at https://sphistory.pastperfectonline.com and, if you appreciate what we do, feel free to make a donation by using the donation button on the home page.
Kathryn Onos DiPhilippo is executive director of the South Portland Historical Society. She can be reached at sphistory04106@gmail.com.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
