A Victorian Carpenter and His Home

On February 27, 1842, twenty-something Abner Fogg and Eunice Taylor were married in Augusta, Maine.

Abner’s parents lived in the village of Pownal, about 45 miles south, and Eunice grew up in nearby Readfield. But in Augusta things were happening. The population in the new state capital was growing rapidly while numerous sawmills churned out countless boards, carpenters built stately homes, and government workers supported local commerce.

Abner, a carpenter, had an older brother, Alvin, who was also a carpenter. Alvin had already settled in Augusta with his wife and children, and perhaps he was the reason Abner was drawn there.

Alvin lived in an area of town where vacant lots were still up for sale. Charles Keene, a nearby carpenter with a substantial house of his own, had recently bought land from Kennebec County’s probate judge, Henry W. Fuller. (As an aside, Henry’s grandson, Melville, later became a Supreme Court justice.)

At some point Charles sold some of his Fuller property to two couples from Boston: merchant Payson Perrin and his wife, Mary, and iron dealer Jonathan Ellis Jr. and his wife, Catharine.

Less than two months after the Fogg marriage, Charles and Abner were part of a “bond for deed” where Abner would buy, in several installments, a one-fourth acre lot in Augusta. By June 1843, he had paid a total of $359 (worth $13,000 today) and was granted ownership of a Perrin-Ellis lot.

From Vacant Lot to Home

Construction may have been underway by 1843—if not before—on at least a portion of Abner and Eunice’s new Greek Revival-style house.

An Augusta city map from the 1870s shows the Fogg’s main structure included two stories (plus an attic) attached to a back addition (also two stories), with a small ell next to the addition.

The spaciousness of the completed house could easily accommodate two families and may well have been designed that way by Abner.

*Fogg house as depicted in an 1878 map, lower right corner, second from right.*

In 1850, a US Census taker reported that Eunice’s father, William Taylor, his wife, Sarah, and Eunice’s twin sister, Huldah, were living at the same address as the Foggs. William, a former farmer, worked as a laborer in the new city, and Huldah was a seamstress specializing in coats.

William’s name was included on several Fogg real estate records until the 1860s when, as an elderly man, he relinquished his share of the property to Eunice. It seems that the Taylors, at some point, may have assisted the Foggs financially.

Next door to the Foggs was the home of an iron maker, and beyond him lived a tailor and his family, a lawyer, printer, marble worker, medical doctor, brickmason, and, of course, Abner’s brother Alvin.

New Additions

Abner and Eunice eventually had several children. Having Eunice’s mother and sister handy was most likely a comfort and practical help to the young mother. And William may have worked for Abner, a master house carpenter, in the construction business.

In 1846, Abner and Eunice welcomed their first child, Eugene, who was apparently taught, at an early age, the value of work. As a young man, he operated his own grocery store while still living at home. After his marriage to the former Caroline Hodges, the couple moved into a house two streets down from his parents.

Besides the grocery business, Eugene also studied law and obtained his license in 1873. Caroline assisted in the practice at times, and the firm received praise from both clients and associates. The couple also were blessed with several children.

In 1848, Abner and Eunice’s second child, Sarah (or Sadie), came into the world. She was probably named after Eunice’s mother. As a young woman, Sadie worked in a milliner’s shop on Water Street.

In 1852, son Willie was born, and in his teens he was a grocery clerk—perhaps at his brother’s store. He also worked with his father and later worked in Boston as a “provision merchant.”

In 1855, son Orrin died less than a year after his birth, and Fannie, the final child, came in 1857. As a young woman, she, too, worked at one of the two milliner shops on Water Street.

Changes in Occupants

The year 1872 was not a happy one for the Foggs. Both Sadie, at the age of 24, and her grandmother, Sarah, at 88, died. The following year, William Taylor, also 88, died as well.

There’s an old saying that death comes in threes. That was certainly the case for the Foggs.

During this period Huldah moved in with her sister’s family, and Abner and Eunice began renting the other floor. In 1880, printer Clarence Beary and his wife, Olinda, lived there. By this time the front duplex doors may have been in place, and each apartment contained a kitchen, pantry, dining room, parlor, and two or more bedchambers.

From Carpenter to Cabby

Abner eventually left the construction business for a day job with Wyman, Webber and Gage, a manufacturer of window sashes, doors, and blinds. Located on Mt. Vernon Avenue, the company was a mile or so from the Fogg residence. By the 1880s, both Abner and Willie were employed there as door “frame makers.”

In the early 1890s, when Abner was in his 70s, he worked on his own again, only this time as a public carriage driver. With all the commercial and government activity going on in the capital, the 13 or so cab drivers were in demand.

By the end of that decade, however, Abner had retired for good.

*Tin ceiling, interior woodwork, hardwood floor inside the former Fogg house.*

Victorian tastes

The Fogg house today is still adorned with trim and doors that perhaps were made by Abner. The interior doors depict a Victorian panel style, and the mopboards are higher than most.

Either during Abner’s lifetime—or during the early years of the owners yet to come—ornate tin ceilings were installed in the ground floor rooms. Lovely, older hardwood floors can still be seen in the house, and a long, enclosed porch was added to the second story.

Other treasures include an old-fashioned cabbage rose bush that still grows next to the house. Every June, the plant produces fragrant, pink blooms. Such varieties were popular in the 1800s.

In addition, a large false indigo bush thrives nearby. In older times, indigo blooms would have been used to make a blue dye for clothing. Was this plant was used by Huldah Taylor in her coat business?

The End of the Line

In 1897, Eunice, by then 81, signed her last will and testament, assisted perhaps by her lawyer son. She requested that the house go to Fannie, with the provision that she take good care of Abner.

Again, deaths in the Fogg family came in threes. In 1900, Huldah died, and Eunice followed in 1901. A year later, Abner, 86, died on September 8.

The doctor determined that the cause of Abner’s death was “old age,” and he was buried, with the rest of the Foggs, in Forest Grove Cemetery.

*Second story sunroom still enjoyed by visitors.*

Fannie occupied the house for several more years before selling the place, boarding with others, working at Capital Drug Company, and eventually moving to an apartment next door to her former home.

By that time, the Fogg house had been occupied several years by another family.

The Italians

Amilcare and Albertina Calzolaria immigrated to the US from the village of Lesignano Palmia, located in the province of Parma, Italy. Amilicare came in the late 1890s, and Albertina arrived several years later.

Parma is renown for its Parmigiano-Reggiano (or Parmesan) cheese. Tortelli d’erbetta, a ravioli dish made with cheese and herbs, is eaten every June 23 in the region during the Feast of Saint Giovanni. The Calzolaria family may have continued that delicious tradition after they settled in Maine.

*Augusta's Water Street, 1894. Granite post office, right; building, left, where the fruit store was located by 1914.*

Fruit and vegetable businesses in the US were common ventures for well-off northern Italians. By the early 1900s, at least 68 Italian fruit merchants and 32 store clerks were working in Maine.

Amilcare had a shop in Winthrop by 1910. It wasn’t long, however, before he and his family moved 10 miles east and opened the Augusta Fruit Company on Water Street. The store was in a prime location across from the busy post office that handled mail from a large publishing house.

Amilcare obtained his US citizenship in 1916 and filled out a World War I draft card in 1918. The draft card stated that he was of medium height, with black hair and grey eyes. It’s not known if he actually served before the war ended in November.

Unfortunately Amilcare did not have long to enjoy his new country. He died in late 1919, at the age of 39, and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery. His son, Frederico, age 14, also died that year.

The Wife Takes Over

Albertina, despite her losses, continued with the fruit company with the help of her family.

Her brother-in-law, Sincero Calzolaria, was the store manager by the early 1920s. He and his wife, Rose, and their daughter Elvira, had moved into Albertina’s first floor apartment. Albertina’s remaining three children—George, Elvira Maria and Peter—also worked at the store.

*Later additions: sunroom, front duplex entrances, and porch.*

Not everything was all work for the widow, however. She and daughter Elvira sailed across the Atlantic and back at least twice and stayed in Europe for several months at a time. In 1920 they traveled to Italy so Albertina could settle real estate matters and visit family. After that, she and her daughter visited France “for pleasure,” according to Albertina’s passport. In 1937, both returned to Italy again.

In 1929, Elvira married Italian-born Dominico Berni, a World War I veteran and fruit dealer. Along with Albertina’s sons, Dominico manned the Augusta store and Elvira worked in sales.

The Bernis and Peter lived upstairs with Albertina, while renters Thomas and Mary Cony, with daughter Ursula, lived downstairs. Thomas worked as a “stock house” manager, and Mary taught music.

Happy Times

The Bernis continued operating the fruit store—now called Capital City Fruit Company—with Dominico as manager and Elvira as bookkeeper. Albertina eventually rented her ground floor apartment to Garland Lewis, a city auditor from Vermont, and his wife, Estelle, along with their 10-month-old daughter Sandra.

Dominico and Elvira’s daughter, Dirci Maria, was born in 1936. By then Peter had moved out and only Elvira’s family lived with her mother.

A popular girl at school, Dirci graduated in 1952. According to her yearbook, she liked clothes and parties and was noted for “a continual state of confusion.” She participated in the Latin club, French club, dramatics, and the dancing chorus of the school’s famous Chizzle Wizzle, the longest running US student variety show that began in 1890.

On February 16, 1953, Dirci married Norris Bussell, a University of Maine engineering grad who was stationed in California in the Marines. The couple later settled in Massachusetts, raised several children, and kept a summer place on the Maine coast, not far from her family.

Some Things Remain

At the age of 80, Albertina died in Augusta in 1960, and a few years later, Dominico and Elvira left the fruit store and Augusta for good.

The building that housed the fruit store was eventually torn down. A lovely park is now located in that area and includes benches, lawns, and trees, with the castle-like former post office just across the street.

The Fogg-Calzolari house, however, still stands on its original granite foundation in the Winthrop Street Historic District.

In more recent times, the city recognized the value of the house as part of its Historic Preservation Commission’s program for older structures. A plaque stating the long-time owners and building date is displayed on the street side of the house—a gentle reminder of the extended families who once lived there, and of the Victorian master carpenter who built a home that has lasted almost 200 years.

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