Hancock spy site listed on national register

AUGUSTA – The Nazi Spy Landing Site in Hancock Point is one of several Maine sites that have been entered in the National Register of Historic Places, according to Earle G. Shettleworth Jr., director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.

Commission staff prepared the nominations of the sites. The designation indicates that the properties have been documented, evaluated and considered worthy of preservation and protection as part of the nation’s cultural heritage.

The landing site on Crabtree Neck, Hancock Point, is the location where a German U-boat deposited two spies on a mission to relay technical information on American military activities back to Germany during World War II.

The small, sandy beach where the two men landed is one of only two locations in the United States where German spies gained entry into the United States during the war.

The site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of the potential impact this military event could have played in the war against Germany in 1944 and 1945 had the German spies not been apprehended.

Other sites named to the national register include:

. The East Blue Hill Post Office, East Blue Hill, a small two-room frame structure on Curtis Cove Road, believed to have been built in 1884 by George Long for use as a post office. It has served as the unofficial community center since it was opened.

. The Agassiz Bedrock Outcrop in Ellsworth, a rounded, polished and exposed roches moutonnee, or bare hummock of rock, located east of Ellsworth Falls on Route 1A. The outcrop shows pronounced grooves molded by glacial ice and was described by Harvard University professor Louis Agassiz in his 1867 work “Glacial Phenomena in Maine” as demonstrating the presence of glaciers over the entire state during the Pleistocene Epoch.

. St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, St. John Plantation, a religious structure built between 1909 and 1911, sandwiched between the only road in town and the St. John River. As a modern cathedral, the building combines a traditional floor plan with Colonial Revival interior decorative elements. It reflects the French-Canadian ancestry and economic status of the local residents and the use of modern materials to mimic earlier handcrafted decorative features.

. The Frankfort Dam in Waldo County, a 250-foot-long granite step dam crossing the North Branch of the Marsh Stream. It was listed because of its association with the Mount Waldo Granite Co.