On Saturday, April 12, I visited the Sarah Fairfield Hamilton house on Main Street in Saco. The top two photos of this post are of the actual mansion on Main Street. From the photo, you can see that it is a three story mansion, which also has a carriage house that has been attached. The house has a small porch in the front and also one on the side. There are many windows in this mansion which makes it unique from the other mansion on Main Street. Today the mansion is named Thornton Hall, but when Sarah's husband bought the house, it was called the Leland Mansion.
Unfortuantely I was not able to go inside the mansion because it has been renovated into apartments. But from the outside we can get and idea of the scale of the house. It is one of the largest on Main Street and certainly one of the oldest. From reading the information on the walking tour of Main Street I found that this house and Sarah were very interconnected with the factory life and rights of women who worked on Factory Island. She recently has been brought back to life through the presentation of her portrait to the Saco City Hall auditorium. She is one the only women to have her portrait displayed at City Hall.
Historical Background:
Sarah Fairfield Hamilton was the granddaugher of Thomas Thornton, who founded Thornton Academy. She was born in 1831, and died in 1909. Her father was a congressman and she lived a very privileged life. She was educated at Thornton Academy and was a student there when in burned down in 1848, one year after her father died. Sarah's father was away from home a lot during her childhood serving as congressman and eventually a senator. This probably contributed to her independence. After her father died she had to help her mother take care of her six younger siblings.
Sarah went on to create the Saco chapter of the Women's Education and Industrial Union. Through this union, Sarah was able to create the first kindergarten in Saco, and later a childcare service for mill workers' children. Many of the talks and debates about the union and its actions took place in the Leland Mansion parlor, which is where Sarah moved to when she married her husband. Her husband was Benjamin Hamilton, who was the supervisor of the Sunday school where she taught. Originally the Hamilton's onlly purchased half of the Leland Mansion, which they lived in their entire lives.
On one of Sarah travels to Boston she ran into Abbey Diaz, who was a famous speaker about womens rights, and invited her to speak in Saco. The lecture was a huge success, which took place at City Hall, and really got the women's suffrage movement going in Saco. Sarah went on to speak herself on women's issues. A lot of the social programs that we have in place in Saco today started with Sarah's initial union. Unforunately, Sarah died before she was able to vote, but she did pave the way for future generations to be educated and be treated fairly in all areas of social life.
As a woman and an activist Sarah is very important to Saco history. The education system and the child care system would not be what they are without her influence. Women in Saco may not have realized their potential as equals without her guidance. Overall Sarah provided a service for women that no one else was giving. She gave them strength and confidence and eventual rights.
