How many of you remember Dodge Inn, a much-loved steak and seafood restaurant on the banks of the Sheepscot River in North Edgecomb known for its tasty Indian pudding? It was owned by Stanley and Velma Dodge, an older couple when I knew them in the 1980s. The Dodges lived at the end of Fort Road on Davis Island. Their restaurant, which closed over 50 years ago, was just past Donald E. Davey Bridge where Water’s Edge Restaurant is today.

These memories came back to me the other day when my friend Steve Christiansen of Wiscasset stopped by my home. “Here is something you need to see,” he said, handing me a menu from Dodge Inn. Marjorie, my wife, who spent her summers on Davis Island as a young girl, was pretty excited, saying her parents and grandparents often ate at Dodge Inn when they came to Edgecomb.

Giving credit where credit is due, Steve explained that the menu had been given to him by Debbie Flanders. Debbie, one of the six children of the late George and Ann Flanders, grew up on Federal Street, across from the Wiscasset grammar school. In the 1980s George served several terms as a Wiscasset selectman and later chaired the Wiscasset School Committee. He knew a great deal about the history of "Maine's Prettiest Village" and spent much of his spare time collecting Wiscasset memorabilia, including dozens of postcards, photographs, brochures – even matchbooks featuring local businesses.

Following Ann's death this past March, Debbie began sorting through the collection and placing much of it in plastic sleeves for a future generation to enjoy. Debbie, of course, remembered Dodge Inn, and a lot more about Wiscasset's not-too-distant past.  For those of us who lived through them, the 1970s, '80s and '90s hardly seem like history at all. Yet enough time has passed that the people, places and memories of those years are already becoming part of Wiscasset folklore.

A lot of people around my age or older got their first taste of employment working at Dodge Inn during the summer; the restaurant operated seasonally opening around Memorial Day and closing in October. My brother-in-law Bill Schubert of Boothbay worked there one summer as a pot washer.  “I was 15 or 16 at the time. Stan, Mr. Dodge, was in charge of the kitchen and Mrs. Dodge managed the waitstaff and dining room,” he told me over the telephone. Mrs. Dodge was wheelchair bound having been a polio victim when she was a young girl.

“Some of the other locals who worked there were Ruth Applin, Ruthina Clark and Steve Dowdy,” recalled Bill. “It was a really popular place to eat. On the weekends there’d be a line of people waiting outside for their names to be called that a table was ready. Another thing I remember was there were tiffany lamps, made with stained glass over the dining room tables. One night someone broke into the building and stole all of them. That was pretty big news back then.”

Some of the others who worked for the Dodges included Frank and his wife Linda Sprague, names you might recognize because they’re the owners of Sprague’s Lobster, a popular outdoor eating spot on Wiscasset’s downtown pier. Allan Dodge cooked for the Dodge Inn, too. Allan later became the chef for Le Garage Restaurant in Wiscasset and worked there 40 years until the restaurant changed hands and became Water Street Kitchen and Bar.

I can’t end this until I share with you a few items listed on Dodge Inn's menu which should make your mouth water and serve as a reminder how much prices have increased since the good old days! Stapled to the menu is a typed sheet of daily specials dated Aug. 28, 1958. Diners could begin with a jumbo shrimp cocktail for just 90 cents! Among the popular main courses was a broiled U.S. choice sirloin steak, served with hand-cut French fries or onion rings for $4. Dinner came with a salad, buttered rolls, and coffee. Seafood lovers could enjoy a "Deluxe Seafood Platter" featuring clams, scallops, shrimp and lobster for $2.75. A Maine lobster dinner with corn on the cob and coleslaw was $3. For customers who preferred something other than seafood or steak, there was broiled lamb chops with mint jelly for $2.75, grilled Virginia ham for $2.35, or the house specialty, Dodge Inn-style chicken pot pie for $1.60. Dinners came with a choice of two vegetables, “unlimited buttered rolls, and coffee refills." No beer or hard drinks were sold there, just coffee, iced tea, or soda pop – all 10 cents each.

On the front of the menu was a map of Davis Island drawn and signed by Wiscasset artist Schuyler Fairfield. Schuyler, a sign painter and commercial artist, worked in a basement on Railroad Avenue around the corner from Red’s Eats. His workshop underwent a complete remodeling a few years ago and is now home to the Jolly Roger raw oyster bar. The Dodge Inn’s paper placemats (one of those was tucked into the menu) featured more pictures drawn by Schuyler, among them the Marie Antoinette House off Eddy Road, the Blockhouse at Fort Edgecomb, and Wiscasset’s former schooners, the Luther Little and Hesper. Actually, Hesper is misspelled as “Hester.”

The back of the Dodge Inn menu informs diners, “Davis Island was settled by Moses and Sarah Davis in 1770, and with the exception of Fort Edgecomb and one other small lot, has remained in the possession of the Davis family from that time to the present.”  That fact was true in the late 1950s and 1960, the people who had homes on Davis Island leased their property from Lawrence I. Davis who eventually sold off all the island’s lots. For decades Mr. Davis served as Edgecomb’s town clerk; he sold me my first Maine hunting license. He lived in a small ranch-style home not far from the original Moses Davis homestead.        

After the Dodges retired, the Dodge Inn building sat empty until the early 1980s. Charlie Keegan Sr., owner of Muddy Rudder restaurant in Freeport, eventually reopened it. It, too, was called the Muddy Rudder and featured a menu of steaks, seafood and a full bar. After a few years, the building was torn down and a larger two-story restaurant was built, the same building that’s now home to Water’s Edge Restaurant.  

Phil Di Vece earned a B.A. in journalism studies from Colorado State University and an M.A. in journalism at the University of South Florida. He is the author of three Wiscasset books and is a frequent news contributor to the Boothbay Register/Wiscasset Newspaper. He resides in Wiscasset and can be reached by emailing news@wiscassetnewspaper.com