History
Why the name “Anodyne House”? The house was built in 1879 or 1880, probably as a
wedding present for Captain Elliot P. Gamage and his bride, his first cousin, Annette.
In the late 1890's, Captain Gamage had a small coastal steamer called Anodyne built
directly across the street at his father’s and uncle’s shipyard. This boat was first
used to sell patent medicine up and down the coast during Maine’s liquor prohibition.
The medicine was called Johnson’s American Anodyne Liniment and the main ingredient was,
of course, alcohol.
Captain Gamage went on to start the Damariscotta Steamboat Company in 1900 with little
Anodyne as his first passenger vessel. Soon he built larger boats - Bristol in 1901,
Newcastle in 1902 and Tourist, now Sabino, in 1908. The picture of the three boats shows
the Newcastle on the left, Bristol in the middle and Anodyne on the right in 1902. That’s
Captain Gamage standing at the wheel house of the Newcastle -Queen of the Fleet. The
steamboat business was very successful and Captain Garage made out well. He became a local
political figure, helped found the town of South Bristol in 1915 and even served a term in
the State legislature. Sabino, by the way, is now at Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic CT, and
is the last operating coal fired steam passenger vessel in the United States.When we bought the house in 1996, an elderly neighbor told us it was named “Anodyne House”- clearly after the little steamer.