Albion Moody

(1836-1911)

Moody was born in 1836 in Standish. With his death at his home on Fletcher Street in 1911 due to heart trouble, the town lost a highly-respected citizen. Moody had come to Kennebunk in 1879 from Mechanic Falls. He originally worked in the Davis Shoe Shop, one of the factories along the Mousam River. However, he and his daughter Lillie also ran a photo studio. When his photography business was erratic, he would return to mill work.

The Moody studio had three different locations over time. Albion’s first studio was probably in a small building at the corner of Main and Water Streets, but sometime after 1892, he took over the “photographic car” that had belonged to a Mr. Healy. That stood at the corner of Main and Brown Streets (the site of today’s Cumberland Farms store). The structure actually resembled a rail car and was on wheels so it could be towed to Kennebunkport to take advantage of summer business opportunities there.

Moody’s health was on the decline by the early 1900s. He suffered an extended respiratory virus in 1903, and its effects would continue to plague him. Nevertheless, by 1907 Moody had overtaken a large photographic studio next to the site of today’s Kennebunk Savings Bank. The building had been used by at least two other photographers (L. N. Hill and B. J. Whitcomb).

Moody’s photographs are integral to our image and understanding of Kennebunk at the turn of the twentieth century. Large collections of his glass plate negatives reside at the Museum and at the Kennebunk Free Library.