Perry's Nut House
Boston Public Library
In the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, America had showmen P. T. Barnum and Florenz Ziegfeld. Belfast had Irving L. Perry. Unlike Barnum and Ziegfeld, I. L. Perry did not stage spectacles with hundreds of performers. Instead, he curated a museum of sorts of the bizarre, the curious, and the downright delicious.
Perry had been operating a cigar factory in East Belfast but in 1927, he converted that factory into a store. Perry’s Nut House at first sold pecans and other assorted nuts, which was all fine and good but a little dull. Until, that is, Perry began adding unusual exhibits – a 16-foot, 2,300-pound Florida alligator; boxing bear cubs; a gorilla; and a water buffalo reputedly shot by Theodore Roosevelt – transforming his nut shop into a bona fide roadside attraction.
After Perry died, Perry’s Nut House was sold to Joshua Treat, who not only kept up but expanded Perry’s oddities tradition, making the old sea captain’s home a must-see stop for tourists heading up the coast on Route 1.
Generations of fans were dismayed when Perry’s Nut House closed in 1997 and its curiosities were auctioned off. For years after it closed, visitors to the area still inquired about it. That continued interest brought about a revival. New owners reopened Perry’s in 2004, selling, of course, nuts, as well as sweet treats like fudge. And the new owners have even been able to restore some of the curiosities that made the store famous, guaranteeing new generations of fans will have nightmares about man-killing clams.
