It can be very interesting to look at South Portland’s neighborhoods on the 1871 F.W. Beers & Co. atlas. Of course, our community was known as Cape Elizabeth back then and, in view of the early homesteads, it’s easy to see how some of our streets got their names. Let’s take a look at Daniel Anthoine and his family who once owned much of the land along what we call Anthoine Street today.

Daniel Anthoine was born in Windham in 1896, the son of Nicholas Anthoine and Anna Pettingill. When he married Jane Wyllie in 1823, he was living in Westbrook, but they soon moved to Cape Elizabeth where they made their home and raised their family. They lived in a home on the northerly side of Highland Avenue (then known as Barren Hill Road), just west of where Anthoine Street intersects today.

Like their neighbors the Buzzells, the Anthoines were strong believers and practitioners of the Free Will Baptist faith. Daniel was elected a deacon in the church – a very high honor and symbolic of his reputation in the community. Daniel was widely known as an abolitionist in his time. Along with his friend Edward Hill, they were among the first people in Cape Elizabeth to lead the anti-slavery movement.

Daniel worked as a farmer throughout his life. He and Jane are believed to have had at least 10 children: Margaret, Jane P. (died around age 6), Ellen Maria (died around age 4), James W., Ellen Wait (died around age 6), John, Jane “Jennie”, Mary Ellen, Daniel P. and Edwin.

His wife Jane died in 1858 and Daniel remarried in 1859 to Mary Ann Cummings of Cape Elizabeth.

The first Anthoine home was destroyed by fire in 1863 when sparks coming out of the chimney landed on the roof. The Anthoines rebuilt their home on the same property. Daniel Anthoine died in 1872 and is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in South Portland with his first wife, Jane.

Daniel and Jane’s eldest son James was born in 1831 in Cape Elizabeth (South Portland) and married Helen Dyer; they had at least four children, three of whom lived to adulthood: William, Annie and Lucia. On Aug. 18, 1862, James and his brother Edwin mustered into Company E of the 17th Maine Infantry at Camp Abraham Lincoln in Cape Elizabeth. Another brother, John, also enlisted and served, but with a different regiment. During the war, James spent time in a convalescent camp in 1863, then was wounded on the first day of the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864. He survived and came home, but his brothers were not as fortunate – both Edwin and John were wounded in battle and died in 1864 from their wounds. James Anthoine would work as a farmer and blacksmith throughout most of his life, working for many years in the car shop of the Boston and Maine Railroad and, in later years, as a machinist at the John P. Lovell bicycle and sporting goods factory in Ferry Village.

Daniel and Jane’s oldest daughter Margaret married a sea captain, Hiram Hamilton. Daniel let them build a home on his land down the hill and, in 1860, he sold that one-acre lot of land to them. The lot was described as being on the west side of the “new road” (Anthoine Street). In May 1872, they lost everything in a fire. The Portland Daily Press reported “The story and a half dwelling house, barn and carriage house of Capt. Hiram Hamilton, at the foot of Buzzell’s hill … was totally destroyed by fire, together with almost all of their contents. The origin of the fire is unknown, but it is thought to have taken from a spark from a pile of brush in the vicinity.”

Another of Daniel and Jane’s daughters, Mary Ellen, married Woodbridge Osborne and they lived in the summers in a large home on Anthoine Street, on the corner of where Arbutus Street intersects today.

Daughter Jennie Anthoine is not believed to have married. She was active in both the Free Will Baptist church and in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Over the years, she rose in position in the WCTU, eventually becoming a vice president. For many years, she was elected one of 15 state superintendents and she worked in the organization’s “department for homeless children” where she spent her time trying to secure homes for children.

Daniel and Jane’s son, Daniel P. Anthoine, can be credited with the development of the neighborhoods along Anthoine Street. Born in 1842, he grew up on the farm, attended Westbrook Seminary, and was a school teacher in his 20s. In 1871, he married Angie Hannaford and they lived in the Anthoine homestead on Highland Avenue. According to his obituary, “his eyesight failed him at the age of 30.” He gave up teaching and worked as a farmer and milk dealer for the rest of his life.

In 1877, Daniel P. Anthoine’s barn was destroyed by fire. According to a report in the Portland Daily Press, “they only had time to get out two cows and some carriages before the building was consumed. The barn was quite a large one, but contained very little property.” The fire was blamed on two homeless men who had been lingering around the neighborhood and had been overheard talking about “the barn.”

The Daniel Anthoine home was on a lot of land that extended from Anthoine Street down to where T-Ledge condos are today. In the 1800s, the home was simply addressed as “Barren Hill Road, Knightville.” The street changed its name to Highland Avenue circa 1902, around the time that home delivery of mail began in South Portland. The home then was known as 337 Highland Ave. Daniel P. Anthoine lived there until about 1903 when he moved to a home toward the bottom of Anthoine Street. Highland Avenue was renumbered around 1948 and 337 Highland is now 371 Highland Ave. today.

In the early 1900s, Daniel P. Anthoine began dividing the Anthoine land into house lots. Three subdivision plans were created: Harbor View Park – containing house lots along the new streets known as Elmwood Avenue, Harbor View Avenue and the north side of Osborne Avenue; Highland Park – lots on the east side of upper Anthoine Street, with the new streets known as Colonial Avenue, Columbus Avenue, Oakdale Avenue, Maplewood Avenue and Rosewood Avenue; and Williams Park – with lots on the south side of Osborne Avenue, including Bennett Street, and the additional new streets known as Arbutus Avenue, Baltimore Avenue, Hamilton Street and Grove Avenue.

Now home to Pinnacle Health and Rehab, the nursing home on Anthoine Street also has ties to Daniel P. Anthoine. The footprint of the nursing home was home to Barnum’s Bathing Rooms from 1866 to (under different ownership) the early 1870s; Isaac Barnum had originally purchased that property from Daniel Anthoine’s neighbor, John D. Buzzell. In 1878, Daniel P. Anthoine purchased the property and all references to the former spa disappeared. In 1895, the property was mentioned in the town of South Portland’s annual report: “When the old town of Cape Elizabeth was divided the poor farm became the property of the new town of Cape Elizabeth, so it became necessary for the selectmen of South Portland to procure a suitable place for the inmates of the town. We have leased the two and one-half story house of Daniel P. Anthoine for the term of three years with five acres of land, at a rental of $175 per year. We have furnished it with new furniture, stoves, cooking utensils, bedding, etc. We have secured the services of Stephen W. Place and wife as keeper and matron at a salary of $250 per year.”

While this home was initially leased from Daniel P. Anthoine, by 1898 there was already talk of the need for renovation and enlargement of the home to meet the needs of the residents there. The city of South Portland purchased the property from Anthoine in May of 1903.

Daniel P. Anthoine died in 1919; he and his wife Angie are buried together at Bay View Cemetery.

South Portland Historical Society offers a free Online Museum with nearly 17,000 images available for viewing with a keyword search. You can find it at 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. If you have photographs or other information to share about South Portland’s past, we hope you will reach out to us. 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 the executive director of the South Portland Historical Society.

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