A BIT OF KEZAR FALLS VILLAGE HISTORY

Ruth (Allard) Paul generously sent these snapshots of a restaurant that was once located in Kezar Falls Village – first on Bridge Street, Porter and later on Federal Road, Parsonsfield. 

This was the Ideal Restaurant in 1936 in the little building to the left of the former Kezar Falls Market (aka. Goodwin’s Market). 

          The #21 Bridge Street location was a very old building and on the 1880 map is identified as Jordan Stacy’s house.  At one time it was a store run by the Johnsons. In 1936 it was the Ideal Restaurant run by Ruth (Sayles) Doherty. It later became the residence of Fred and Elsie Allard and later Oscar and Jean Thompkins.  In 2006 it was owned by Bette and Robert Williams and has since been sold again.

By 1938 Ruth Doherty had moved the restaurant to the building on Federal Road between the Kezar Falls Hardware Store and Arthur Allard’s Garage (later to become the Village Variety Store).  Ruth married Arthur Allard in 1941.

 

Ruth Sayles Doherty Allard 
1942

   The building was probably built in the early 1900’s and after the restaurant became the office of the Cornish - Kezar Falls Light and Power Company. It eventually became an apartment building. The building was taken down when the Village Variety Store was rebuilt and expanded in 2016.