Sebago Mineral Spring Association observes 100th anniversary

Jane Shaw, Tom Shaw and Bill Simpson enjoy festivities
during the Sebago Mineral Spring Association 100th
anniversary lobster bake and celebration on July 10 in Windham.
The association was founded in 1921 as a social club and today
includes members from the Mineral Spring Road neighborhood.
SUBMITTED PHOTO  

By Ed Pierce

Author Janice Thompson once observed that “there are good ships and there are wood ships and the ships that sail the sea, but the best ships are friendships and may they always be.” Thompson may not have had the Sebago Mineral Spring Association in mind when she came up with that, but it does describe the Windham organization perfectly.

Founded as a social club in 1921, the Sebago Mineral Spring Association celebrated its 100^th anniversary July 10 and its members remain as friendly and neighborly today as they were a century ago. The association has a total membership of 33 individuals representing nearly three dozen homes surrounding the Mineral Spring Road neighborhood in Windham.

Current membership is drawn from 22 homes on Mineral Spring Road, three homes on Wellhouse Way and eight homes on Wintergreen Circle. 

According to association member Jane Shaw, the group traditionally gathers every year on the second Saturday in July for its annual meeting, which is then followed by a picnic. Members also gather the second Saturday of June and again in September for road clean-up chores.

This year, in honor of the association’s 100^th anniversary, members met July 10 for their annual meeting and followed that with a lobster bake celebration and party.

Steeped in history, the Mineral Spring neighborhood sprang up in the 19th century from property having been originally part of Samuel Freeman’s farm.

Early geological surveys conducted by the U.S. Department of the Interior in Maine had determined that surrounding Sebago Lake there was an abundance of water contained beneath the ground surface in granite, slate, and other rocks and some of this high-quality water also was rich in mineral content, thought to be of substantial medicinal benefit.     

A natural spring was discovered in the Mineral Spring neighborhood and in April 1883, F. L. Bartlett, Maine’s state chemist and a college professor, tested the water from the spring and proclaimed it to be “very pure.” Bartlett’s published report indicated that the water from the spring was “beyond doubt very beneficial in many diseases."

Today, 138 years after Bartlett’s pronouncement, the Sebago Mineral Spring Wellhouse over the spring still stands and can be found near the corner of Mineral Spring Road and Wellhouse Way in Windham.

Through the years, the Sebago Mineral Spring Association constructed tennis courts which are now grown over and used for boat storage, and a clubhouse, where dances were held along with potluck dinners every Saturday evening during the summer for the members. The clubhouse is long gone and is now an open field in the neighborhood where this year’s party was held.

Shaw said that at one time the association also featured a community garden for its members. 

The association continues to manage several rights of way in the neighborhood as well as maintaining a beach reserved exclusively for association members.

“For the 100th Anniversary a lobster bake was held after the meeting with 44 members and guests in attendance,” Shaw said. “It included lobsters, steamers, corn on the cob, and baked potato, all steamed over a fire in the association field. For those not having lobster, there was steak, corn on the cob, potato salad and macaroni salad.”

The 100^th anniversary party also featured several door prizes and a special anniversary cake commemorating the milestone occasion. 

“It was a great deal of fun to socialize with other members, some of which we had not yet met as they moved here during Covid time,” Shaw said.

This actually was the first in-person meeting for the association after pandemic restrictions forced last year’s annual gathering to be canceled.

All of the food for the 100^th anniversary celebration event was prepared and cooked by Tom Shaw, Mike Smith, John Thomes and Bill Simpson.

For the next year, the Sebago Mineral Spring Association will be led by President Tom Shaw; Vice President Ed Francoeur; Secretary Tim Skehan; and Treasurer Patti Thomes.

Serving on the Board of Directors for the next year as Bill Simpson; Jerry Shaw; Mike Smith; and Beverly Campochiaro. <