On May 3, 1903, fire burned down the largest employer in the town of Kennebunk, the Davis Shoe Factory, the location of the Lafayette Center today at the bridge on Main St across from Rotary Park. No lives were lost but the impact on the economy of Kennebunk was significant. BJ Whitcomb, photographer, was at the scene of the fire and captured the devastation with his camera. One of his photos was a portrait of a cat that had miraculously survived the blaze who became a symbol of hope for the future of Kennebunk.
In 1997, the Brick Store Museum invited artists to create interpretations of archival prints from the museum's vast collection of vintage photographs and classic postcards for their exhibition "A Brush with History: Artistic Interpretations of Archival Images". My selection was the Kennebunk Fire Cat... this painting is now part of the permanent collection of the museum.
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