Farnham Point Association celebrated its 50th anniversary July 31 with a community potluck and social. The Association was created in 1971 mainly to deal with roads and driveways, said several members. However, with much of the Point now part of the Association, it has also become about community and socialization. One of the afternoon’s main talking points was the area’s history.

“The Point was named obviously after the Farnhams who have been here since at least the Revolutionary War,” said Bonnie Hunter. “That much we do know, though I tried to find out if they ever owned some of this land.”

Chris Hunter, Bonnie’s husband, said the greatest historical figure of the Point was Jonathan Farnham Jr., an officer in George Washington’s bodyguard detail. Farnham was born in 1753 in Plymouth, New Hampshire, died in 1823 in East Boothbay, and his widow, Dorcas Farnham, received 200 acres from the state of Maine. Two Farnhams, including Jonathan Jr., were interred in a cemetery on the Point, he said. “The United States was a little bit slow about giving this land out because, well, they were in debt.”

The Point’s longest resident Nancy Adams said she and her boyfriend used to camp on Farnham Point in the early 1960s when they worked in the local restaurants while saving up for college. When the couple returned to buy the property a couple years later, they found several trees marked with orange ribbons. “We said, 'I guess we're a little too late!'”

Adams said shortly after that, she bought what was once the mess hall and main cabin of an old “boys’ camp” before it went through a couple of families. “But then it burned down in ’95, so we built another one.”

The fire was a serious loss of history because the walls and beams had notes about previous owners’ and tenants’ excursions and adventures almost like a diary, said Adams. “It was a camp, so they had no problems with writing on the walls. It was all so interesting … but of course we didn't write any of it down, so I can't remember all that was on the wall, but it was really interesting to see what people had done.”

The Hunters said fellow resident Tony Curulla ended up with a slice of Revolution-era history though the house cannot be found in the National Historic Register. Said Curulla, “We had the dumb luck to be able to purchase a house from John Quincy Adams's great great grandson, John Quincy Adams III. He built it in '94 so it's not an old piece of history. He designed it, built it. Interestingly, he was also the last to live in the big house down in Quincy, the Adams's place.”

While the Association has become a way for residents to socialize, the true purpose surfaced with talk about roads, wintertime and dues. Former Boothbay Harbor resident and Point resident of 21 years Steve Hughes and road committee member Bob Cross talked about niche politics and a patch of ice that comes back every year.

“These are snowbunnies, here,” Hughes said of a few members. Nov. 1, “there aren't too many people here and Christmas is just wonderful,” he said.