Fire destroys Water Street landmark in Lubec

LUBEC – For nearly 20 years, Mary Coggins dished up homemade soup and down-home advice at her store on Water Street.

On Saturday night, she watched as fire destroyed the building that had housed her tiny lunchroom and business, which closed in February but retained all of its inventory.

An adjacent vacant building that has housed an insurance office also was destroyed.

Fire Chief Bobby Hood notified the state Fire Marshal’s Office, and was in Lubec on Sunday.

Passers-by had reported the fire, Hood said. “They saw smoke and flames coming from the back,” he said. Firefighters were able to save the four-unit apartment building next to Coggins’ store. Three of the four apartments were occupied and the residents had to be evacuated.

Hood estimated that 60 firefighters from Lubec, Whiting and Campobello Island, New Brunswick, helped fight the fire.

Andrea Van Thiel owned the vacant building. Dan Marshall of Atlantic Salmon of Maine rented space on the second floor above Coggins’ store.

“It was an awful tough fire because of all the metal ceilings,” Hood said. The fire got in between the ceilings and the first floor and attic. He said he believes the fire started in the warehouse at the back of Coggins’ store.

Last February, Coggins was forced to close her store because of illness in her family. But she said she made a point of stopping by twice a week to water her plants.

The establishment had been a gathering place for people who worked downtown as well as some who dropped by simply to experience the conversation and the warmth and ambience of the wood stove.

Many of the store’s customers worked across the street at the R.J. Peacock Canning Co. and dropped in for a bowl of soup or a bag of potato chips.

Most regulars went to the rear of the store, past the popcorn machine and coolers filled with soft drinks and juice, where they gathered around a single table.

To the side was a small stove. If there weren’t a pot of soup heating on the stove, Coggins or her friend and longtime helper Pauline Roman would whip up a hamburger or a hot dog. Those who didn’t get there in time to get a seat at the table sat on a bench in front of the stocked shelves and balanced their plates carefully on their knees.

The often spirited conversation ranged from gossip to speculations about town, state or federal politics. After Thursday night selectmen’s meetings, regulars gathered at the store to evaluate the decisions and conduct unofficial polls about whether the actions were wise or foolish. Foolish won out most often.

At the front corner of the store, near the window, was a cardboard sign that read, “Executive Session Only.” That spot was designated for private conversations. Sunday morning, the sign was still intact, but the fire scorched everything around it.

Around 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Coggins said, she received a telephone call from friends who live on the street behind the store who told her the building was on fire. When she arrived, flames were dancing in the window.

Standing on the street, watching two decades of effort burn, Coggins said she and her husband, Jed, a Lubec selectman, had rented the building in 1982 and turned it into a store. Two years later they bought it.

The Lubec native said the fire puzzled her.

“I just don’t see how this could just go by itself, I really don’t,” she said. She said she had planned to clean out the store this week because some prospective buyers wanted to look at it. “But it’s gone. I can do nothing about it. We will go on from there,” she said.