Al Keith Wharf
The Al Keith Wharf was presented by the Bayside Community in the Summer of 2001. The plaque on the large stone at the foot of the wharf reads:
With gratitude for a half century of dedicated service to the Village of Bayside as harbormaster, wharfmaster, advisor, friend, frequent rescuer of boats and saver of lives.
Ann Einstein Memorial Playground
The playground in Ruggles Park–with new equipment made possible by generous community contributions–was rededicated to the memory of Ann Einstein on July 31, 2022. Ann’s many contributions to the Bayside community and her lasting legacy are captured here by Bill Weisenbach in his remarks at the rededication,
Dorothy and Allan Lightner Jr. Benches
Dorothy and Allan Lightner Jr. were longtime summer visitors and eventually became year-round residents of Bayside. Allan Jr. was a foreign service officer and he would come to Bayside on “home leave” to visit his parents Allan and Helen Lightner, who had rented and then owned the “North Searsport ” cottage near Merrithew Square since 1937. Allan married Dorothy in 1953 and had three children, Ned, John and Babette. The family rented cottages in the village until they purchased a home near Kelley’s Cove in 1972. They were active in Bayside life. Allan was an overseer and Dorothy was involved in various social activities. She was famous for hosting the annual Bayside fundraising summer cocktail party. Allan was born in 1908 and died in 1989. Dorothy was born in 1918 and died in 1999.
Louese Lord Bench
Dedicated to Louese Lord (Alice Louese Ricker Lord 1911-1984)
The bench was given by Carol and Ben Libby of Monroe and Bayside. He was a mason and rebuilt the Lord’s chimney on Park Row. He and Carol were good friends with Louese.
Her son, Ed Lord, recounts the story of great grandfather Leland Ricker and grandfather buying in 1912 their Park Row cottage from Fred Walls who also owned the last cottage on Park Row. Old pictures show the Lord cottage as much shorter than its neighbors. The addition of a basement in 1973 and a reconfigured roof line in 1984 created a cottage with similar lines to the others on Park Row.
Ed’s sister Nancy Louese Lord died at the young age of 16 in 1967.
John E. Dykstra Bench
The Dykstra family came to Bayside when John E. (1909-1988) was a young man. John E. Dykstra was son of John R. Dykstra and wife Alma, the former Alma Brewer Swett of Brewer, ME. They met while teaching at Bangor High School. The Swett family brought the Dykstras to Bayside.
John E. met his future wife Stella Price on the tennis court in front of the Northport Hotel. The Price family was one of several who came for the summer from the Panama Canal Zone. A few years later John asked Stella to the Harvard-Yale game. Their romance proceeded, and they were married at St. Margaret’s in Belfast. They moved into one of the two Dykstra cottages on Park Row, where two of their children Alma Homola, and John R. Dykstra II now summer. William H. lives elsewhere in Maine.
In retirement John and Stella lived on Northport Avenue in Belfast.
John served as an Overseer.
This memorial bench in Ruggles Park was donated by Ed Lord.
Stella Dykstra’s oral history recorded by Gina Cressey for BHPS in 1996 provided much of the above information.
Diane Knight Whitten (1948-2011) Bench
Diane Knight Whitten was a registered nurse and nurse practitioner who in 1976 with her husband Dana opened a pediatric practice in Belfast. She later became the Belfast Public Health nurse.
In her off-duty time she gardened, had a passion for digging clams and was a lobster woman. She was the first female selectperson in Northport and a member of the Northport Volunteer Fire Department.
Diane and Dana have a daughter Beth who gave them three grandchildren. Diane was ‘Mimi’ to them.
