NORWAY — Teddie and Laddie were gadabouts.

From the porch of Fred and Cora Cummings’ Gingerbread House on Main Street to Anne Gibson Cowie’s house on Pleasant Street and the Cummings’ cottage on Goats Island in Lake Pennesseewassee, the two collies were favorites among schoolchildren and others in the first few decades of the 20th century in Norway.

Nearly a century later, the dogs are featured in a new picture of the Gingerbread House used for an Advent calendar.

The calendar, created by local artist Ann Reibel as a fundraiser for the restoration project, shows a fanciful image of the Gingerbread House with 25 window flaps from the top of the tower to the front door, each opening to a seasonal picture behind the flap.

And sitting in the front yard is either Teddie or Laddie.

Not a lot of information is readily available about the dogs, but anyone who knew the Cummingses, who lived at the Gingerbread House until the 1940s, probably knew their dogs. And probably no one knew them outside of family as well as the Cummingses’ friend, Anne Gibson Cowie.

“My great-aunt, Anne Gibson Cowie, grew up in Norway and though she moved to California in her later years, always considered Norway to be home sweet home, Ellen Gibson of Norway said.

“She kept scrapbooks starting in high school and must have been an avid amateur photographer, because there are some wonderful photos,” Ellen said. “She knew all the Norway luminaries, like Vivian Akers, and was good friends with the Cummingses. She would take care of their dogs, Teddie and Laddie, when they went on vacation.”

Anne Gibson Cowie was born in 1888, grew up on Crescent Street and graduated from Norway High School in 1906 before moving to Pleasant Street as an adult. She later married G. Ralph Harriman, who was a pharmacist at Stone’s Drug Store in Norway, Ellen Gibson said.

Cowie, a homemaker who took care of her parents, was probably in her 30s when she would take the dogs into her home while the Cummingses took long trips to places such as Redlands, Calif., in 1921, Gibson said.

Cowie moved to California in 1922, eventually divorced Harriman and married again, taking on the name Cowie. She died in California in 1979 at the age of 90, Gibson said.

The calendars with pictures of Teddie and Laddie will be available for purchase from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 3, at the Gingerbread House, 500 Main St. They may be ordered for $15 through the Friends of the Gingerbread House, P.O. Box 525, Norway, ME 04268.

At the calendar sale, tours will be available for those who have donated $500 or more to help restore the remaining 22 windows in the massive two-story home.

Donations may be made to the Friends of the Gingerbread House, P.O. Box 525, Norway, ME 04268 or through the PayPal button under the “How You Can Help” tab on the website at www.gingerbreadhousenorway.org. Sponsor donations will also be accepted at the Oct. 3 event.

For further information email the Friends of the Gingerbread House at norwaylandmarks@gmail.com.

ldixon@sunmediagroup.net

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