Home

About St. John's and Its History

Contact Us

St. John's Schedule

Portsmouth Masonic Schedule

Worshipful Master's Page

Becoming A Mason

Officers

Past Masters

The Portsmouth Masonic Temple

Historian's Articles

St. John's Scholarships

Photo Album

Masonic Information

275th Anniversary Celebration

Links

Historian's Article for December 2005

Horace Mitchell

by Alan M. Robinson, P.M., Historian

The Hotel Champernowne and its Dining Room

Kittery Point, Maine

Bro. Horace Mitchell, Proprietor

Across the Memorial Bridge from Portsmouth in Kittery’s Wallingford Square is Naval Lodge No. 184, A.F.&A.M.  Constituted on May 8, 1879, Naval Lodge and its members have long shared good tidings with the brethren of St. John’s Lodge.  Kittery has produced many prominent men and Masons over the years and this month’s subject is no exception.

Horace Mitchell was born in Kittery Point on March 13, 1857.  He graduated from Kittery schools and New Hampton (NH) Literary Institute.  He was master of grammar schools in Kittery for 34 terms. While that’s mighty impressive, he’s probably better known for one of his business ventures. He worked for a time at the Marshall House in York Harbor and at the Hotel Wentworth in New Castle.  For five summers he managed the Hotel Pocahontas on Gerrish Island in Kittery Point.  With that experience under his belt, he erected and opened the magnificent Hotel Champernowne along the river’s edge in Kittery Point.

Horace lived a few hundred yards north of his famous hotel in the historic Sparhawk Mansion which was built many years earlier by Sir William Pepperrell.  He and his first wife Lucy A. Frost had a daughter Ethel May.  Lucy died at a young age and Horace got remarried to Mary G. Chase on Christmas Day, 1901.  Together they had a son, Horace Jr.

Horace was an active participant in town affairs and a prominent Republican in Maine state politics.  He represented Kittery in the Maine legislature beginning in 1891 and was elected to the State Senate in 1896, serving two terms.  He continued serving in the legislature from 1911-1919.  In 1887, he promoted the Portsmouth Kittery & York Street Railway and helped organize the Agamenticus Water Company (later taken over by the Kittery Water District) – considered one of the best water supplies in New England. In his spare time, he served as postmaster of Kittery Point, Trustee of Traip Academy (Kittery’s High School) and Superintendent of Schools in Kittery.  During World War I, the Hotel Champernowne was taken over by the United States Housing Corporation.  Horace, having ‘retired’ from the hotel business, managed two large farms in East Kittery on which he profitably raised cattle and fowl.

Horace was genuinely loved by the people of Kittery and Kittery Point.  They honored him by naming their newly constructed grammar school after him, while he was still alive!  Today, the Horace Mitchell Primary School still serves Kittery’s youngest students in a warm and inviting environment fitting of the great man whose name it bears.

Bro. Horace Mitchell was made a Mason in Naval Lodge.  He served his Lodge as Master and was active in the York Rite in southern Maine.  Sometime you might enjoy a visit to his fine old Lodge.  Their stated meetings are on the first Wednesday of the month, just like ours.  If you go, mention Bro. Horace Mitchell’s name – they just may welcome you in!