The upper section of Summer Street was settled by wealthy shipbuilders and businessmen, many from the Lord and Thompson families. It became known as "Zion's Hill" in 1833 during a town debate over the sale of liquor, when local store owner John Osborne reportedly rose at a town meeting and protested, "If the Lords of Zion's Hill would just mind their own business and allow me to tend to mine, there would be no trouble about this liquor business!" These houses now form part of the Kennebunk National Register Historic District, established in 1974.
