03/21/2021
The life of our building has been a long and diverse one. Life for our shop began back in the 1940’s as an Esso station alongside route 1 in Woolwich selling fuel and oil to locals and people traveling along the coast of Maine. During those years there was a variety of items sold services rendered. The station had 2 full service bays and lifts on the main floor along with an office and service waiting area, and a men’s restroom and a women’s restroom accessed from doors on the outside along the south wall. I can remember using the men’s room as a kid when we were at MacIntire’s Phillip 66 to get gas or at the new Dairy Queen to get an ice cream. People still occasionally stop by and ask to use the restroom as the DQ still is not allowed to have a public restroom due to its close proximity to Rt. 1. Above the waiting area there is a small attic area that held various sized automobile and truck tires.
It change oil companies over the years from Esso to Sunoco, to Phillips 66 and even wore the Exxon hat after Esso modernized its face back in the 70’s. The lower level was used for storage and there was an overflow service bay down there that was and still is accessed from Sasanoa Rd.
After the fuel tanks, pumps, and service lifts were removed in the early 80’s Lepage Bakery purchased the building as a Country Kitchen bakery distribution location. Lepage raised the floor levels in the garage service bays to load and unload tractor trailer trucks and bakery delivery trucks. The former service waiting area became a “day old bakery” outlet.
In the later 90’s the building was purchased by The Crosby family from Georgetown and used as a lobster outlet and for marine supplies. During that time Timmy Larochelle of Woolwich used the facility to process deer for people.
Our tenure of owning the building came in 2007. It had sat basically unused for a few years except for Timmy’s deer processing. Greg Doak, Elliott Morse, and I had reached the point in our lives and careers where we needed more storage space for equipment. Equipment for 10-12 people working in construction at Morse & Doak Builders was getting a bit oppressive for Greg and his wife Susan’s barn and shop that we had worked out of since 1976. They were very gracious hosts to allow us to work from their home for all those years, but we had outgrown our nest in Day’s Ferry. I still miss those years of starting our days from there. Susan’s homemade donuts and business inputs are very much missed!
Our first months of ownership of the building required much cleaning, restoration, and repair of the existing structure. We felt, as we do with most restorations/renovations. It is best to return to the original plan for the building. Our goal over these past 14 years is to return the building to its original form.
The first requirement was to “hoe the place out”. And give the outside “shrubbery” a haircut. After accomplishing that we could actually see what we had. “The old girl” was built! It is a concrete block structure with steel reinforced poured carrying beams and floors. That part required minimal repairs. We had to remove the raised floors and doors used to load snd unload the tractor trailer trucks and open up the original window openings for the service waiting area. The roof however was a different story. The low (almost flat) wooden framed and sheathed roof was leaking. Structurally it was fine. We hired a commercial roofing company to add 4 “ of rigid foam insulation and install an EPDM rubber roof system. We “cleaned up” and painted the rotting T-111 siding and flaking block walls and gave her a quick coat of paint.
We also wanted to put back a sign post on the original concrete base located at the end of the north retaining wall. We were fortunate to be able to acquire the light post from Bill Reed from the small service station he owned at intersection of Washington St. and Center St. in Bath. It was being turned into Frosty’s Donuts. It fit perfectly!
Those first couple years saw us install the window and door system around the original garage service waiting area which we turned into a meeting room...affectionately called “The World Headquarters conference room”. We put windows back in most of the original window openings to give us some natural lighting. We renovated the office, added a small kitchenette, and turned the men’s and ladies’ restrooms into one bathroom with sink, toilet and shower. The main level garage bays we use for tool storage and blocked up one of the large garage doors and put in a storage entrance door and an insulated overhead door for loading snd unloading tools. The lower level we use for staging, ladder, and cribbing storage. We replaced that garage door with an insulated overhead door for us to load and unload trucks.
Work seemed to take over our focus on our building after that. We did have to add a septic system under our parking lot. Thanks to Jack and Jason Shaw for their expertise in getting that in for us. Roll the clocks ahead 12 years. Greg is now retired leaving ownership of our building to Elliott and I. The next generation of ownership (Darius and Nathanael Dock) is in control with Elliott and I at Morse & Doak Builders. Elliott and I with the support of Darius and Nathanael decided it was time to finish the outside of our building. Jan 4, 2021 saw us begin after our return from Christmas break. We hired J A Builders to do the 2” of rigid foam and metal siding for us. Jared, Dylan, and Kayne did a wonderful job for us. They also worked with us to finish eaves, window, door and conference room details with composite trim. They are a wonderful team of young men and we recommend tgem highly for your siding and roofing projects!!
Lastly John Ater and his crew of painters will be painting the white finish details in the coming warmer months. We could not do any of this to and for our building without all of our crew at Morse & Doak, Jared, Dylan, and Kayne at JA Builders, Frank Carleton Electric, Dana Gilliam Plumbing, Al Brown and the crew at Midcoast Glass and Windows, Dave Hunter Heating. Art and the crew from IRC Roofing. Jack Shaw and Sons Excavation. And also all of our wonderful customers who have hired us at Morse & Doak to work for you over the years. God has blessed us with a wonderful network of people over the years! Know that we are thankful for each one of you!
We do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you all in our prayers! Ephesians 1:16 Check back for more pictures of our building
*please message me with any omissions and corrections that I should make!
