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The collection of Kennebunk's Brick Store Museum testifies to the wealth and prosperity that maritime trade yielded. The prosperous merchants, captains and shipbuilders of the 19th century, however, left another sort of legacy in the opulent houses built with the proceeds of their work. Today these historic buildings grace towns as diverse as the Kennebunks, Bath, Wiscasset, Dresden, Searsport, Bangor and Machias. Many remain private residences, although some are open to the public as historical sites such as the Tate House Museum in Portland, and the magnificent homes maintained by the Old York Historical Society and the Kennebunkport Historical Society.
The Admiral Robert E. Peary Home, part of the Eagle Island State Historic Site, is accessible by ferry from Portland and South Harpswell. The work of this Polar explorer and his longtime ship master, Donald B. MacMillan, is the focus of the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. MacMillan later voyaged to the Arctic in the schooner Bowdoin, now the flagship of the Maine Maritime Academy in Castine.
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