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FARMINGTON -- Patience and mindset are what wood-window restorer Charles Van Vlack says he needs when he tackles jobs like the one at the historic Old North Church on High Street.

"I estimated it would take about 65 hours to do the top and bottom sash of the 11 windows. It's going to be closer to 100, but I am staying with my estimated price," he said.

One nine-pane window that he removed from the church last week required eight hours to take out and prepare.

The 1873 former Unitarian Universalist church now owned by the Farmington Historical Society is gradually being renovated as part of a $450,000 project. The work so far has been funded by $100,000 in community donations and a $100,000 Community Development Block Grant from the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.

A new fundraising campaign is starting, however, to raise another $80,000 to finish the first phase. The goal is to reopen the building as the Farmington Historical Center with rotating museum-quality displays and involvement with area schools.

Taffy Davis is a member of the Historical Society and is spearheading the effort to restore the downtown church.

To date, the foundation of the church has been rebuilt, the post-and-beam construction has been stabilized, the warped flooring on the ground floor has been removed and a concrete floor has been poured. There are now new walls and a new furnace.

The second phase, for which funding is not yet secured, would install temperature and humidity controls, make the building accessible to people with disabilities and remove the exterior lead paint. The sanctuary upstairs with its pipe organ and choir loft has been well-maintained.

Van Vlack, of Leeds, is a retired aerospace engineer who has turned an interest with old building techniques into a second career. He was hired to refurbish the church windows through a grant from Maine Preservation, a nonprofit statewide historic-preservation organization.

"I am fascinated by the old-construction technology. Considering the tools and materials, it is quite sophisticated," Van Vlack said. "Something as simple as a window frame that is so slender and lightly built yet structurally quite strong is quite amazing.

"The window technology they used is a microcosm for the care with which these old places were built," he said.

He said the wood supports on the windows are in surprisingly good condition and are absolutely sound.

Old windows were made from old-growth pine that is strong and resilient, he said.

"One of the side pieces of a window I took out last week had over 50 growth rings per inch. I had to use a dental pick and magnifying glass to count them -- that's how tight they were," he said. "A select piece of pine these days might have four rings."

The 11 large windows around the sanctuary contain nine panes with a Gothic arched section above the upper sash. The glass is silk-screened with a lacy design on opaque glass; each is crisscrossed with a hand-painted tan stripe.

Van Vlack said the technique was a low-cost, 19th-century alternative that emulated leaded glass.

The restoration starts by removing the sashes from the frames by scraping away the heavy build-up of old lead-based oil paint. The next stage is done back at Van Vlack shop at his own 200-year-old home that he and his wife are restoring. There, the panes are being carefully removed, or de-glazed, from the sashes by chipping off the original glazing compound. The wood is then cleaned, repaired and repainted using oil-based paint to emulate the original coating.

The window construction is a mortise-and-tendon system of joints made without nails or glue and may require replacing some of the plugs, he said.

The restored panes are "re-glazed" and set into the prepared sashes. Van Vlack is also cleaning, repairing and painting the sills and frames and fixing the sash-weights so the windows can be opened for ventilation for the first time in over a century.

He said that studies done show that wooden windows, when properly maintained and used with wooden storm windows, have a better energy-efficiency value than modern, double-hung vinyl replacement windows. Wood also far outlasts replacements, which have a life expectancy of 20 to 30 years.

Van Vlack said the church's windows will be kept air-tight in the winter by applying a removable sealant around the sash each season.

Davis expects that once the renovation is complete, the church will once again be a centerpiece to downtown and the restored windows will add to its beauty.

"The silk-screened design produces a beautiful lighting effect, both inside the sanctuary when the diffused sunlight streams in, and outside, when the interior lamplight is lit after dark," she said.

GRAY, Maine—From the late 1930s to the late '70s, Rock Rest in Kittery Point provided a safe haven from de-facto segregation faced by African-American travelers. Now vacant and in need of repair, the former summer guest house was recently nominated to the National Register of Historic Places.

Rock Rest is among the sites on Maine Preservation's annual list of Maine's Most Endangered Historic Resources. The nonprofit group emphasized green projects as it released its latest list.

It also includes historic railroad buildings across the state, such as the Greenville Junction Depot near Moosehead Lake and a former Maine Central Railroad freight shed in Hallowell. The group says buildings like those could see new life as part of a cleaner Maine transportation network.

Leaders of the 1,100-member organization released their 13th annual list Tuesday at the Pennell Institute in Gray, a former school and one of the targeted sites. Like other former school buildings across Maine, Pennell's are deteriorating due to lack of use and deferred maintenance, says Maine Preservation.

"Preservation is recycling on a large scale, and we can reduce our impact on the environment and save energy by adaptively reusing buildings and their durable historic materials rather than carting them to the landfill," said Executive Director Greg Paxton. "This is good old Yankee conservatism at its best."

The list includes the long-vacant Free Will Baptist Church in Bowdoinham and the United Baptist Church in Lewiston, whose congregation has dwindled and whose building is distressed.

Also listed is Portland's Masonic Temple and Maine's municipal tax valuation lists, which the preservation group sees as imperiled and irreplaceable records of buildings that are vulnerable to decay or being discarded.

Maine Preservation says reusing existing buildings can be cheaper and produce more energy savings than constructing a new one, even if it's built to green standards. It also advocates the re-use of "old growth wood" from historic buildings, which preservationists say is more dense and more durable than softer new-growth wood available today.

By appearing on the list, individual properties become eligible for a $500 matching grant from Maine Preservation in order to facilitate fundraising for their rescue.

Preserving the yellow church on the hill
Gardiner Congregational Church offers public suppers and partnerships

GARDINER — The Gardiner Congregational Church has to be one of the biggest churches in Gardiner, if not the biggest church. It’s also got to be the only church in that riverfront city that’s yellow and missing its steeple. Because of those unique attributes, along with its hillside Church Street location, the giant edifice is easy to see from miles away. But, if it suddenly no longer existed, would anyone notice?

It’s a question the church’s tiny congregation of 50 members is currently trying to sort out. The task isn’t just about figuring out how to upgrade and maintain the church structurally, but also philanthropically. In fact, if they can accurately define the latter, parishioners hope to make the church a lasting presence in the community for years to come.

Churches, like many other organizations, are struggling to survive in these tough economic times, and the yellow church on the hill is no exception. It is especially being hit hard by rising fuel costs and dwindling financial resources. The church is big and old, and has a very small congregation supporting it.

So, with the leadership of the Rev. Peggy Wolfe Dunn, the 19th-century church enlisted Partners for Sacred Places to help it survive in the 21st century.

“The interest of Partners for Sacred Places is preserving old church buildings that are still serving some sort of social function,” Dunn said.

Partners for Sacred Places is a Philadelphia-based organization that collaborates with preservation groups in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont to provide training and grant money to old churches that continue to serve as houses of worship or in some other beneficial social capacity.

In order to qualify, a building has to be more than 50 years old, have capital needs that exceed its capital funds, and its governing body must be willing to partner in some new way to make the building useful to its community, Dunn explained.

The Gardiner church fit the criteria and was awarded a grant which is currently helping to pay for an architectural consultation on some remodeling that the congregation wants to have done. Partners also made it possible for Dunn and two members of the congregation to receive training in developing a capital campaign to raise funds to do the remodeling that the architect will help them design.

One of the first steps they learned in planning a capital campaign, Dunn said, was to create a case statement. Before they start a major fund-raising effort, however, the congregation needs to clearly define and make a case for why people ought to contribute to their cause. It’s a process they’re currently working on.

“It’s looking at who we are and what we’re doing,” Dunn said.

A case statement is a combination of the church’s history, mission and vision, Dunn explained. The easiest part of all that is the history because much of it was researched for the church’s 100th anniversary in 1943, and several in the congregation belong to families that have attended the church for generations. As a matter of fact, the church’s ad hoc historian, Dolly Platt, is a descendent of the church’s founding members.

“My great-great grandparents helped build the church in 1843,” Platt said.

When first erected, the church had a Universalist congregation. More than a century later, the Universalists joined the Unitarians but the congregation opted not to follow that spiritual path. It chose, instead, to become a Congregational church because its philosophy was more akin to that of the congregation’s. When most Congregational churches joined the United Church of Christ in 1964, it followed suit, Dunn said.

One thing that has always remained the same, in spite of its changes in religious affiliations over the past 165 years, is the church’s color.

“It’s always been known as the yellow church. Years ago, it was the church that guided ship captains up the river,” Platt said. “They could see it when they made the turn down river.”

Any captains navigating up the river nowadays have only the church’s bell tower to guide them, but even that stands pretty high in the sky over Gardiner. Part of the steeple that the church once had was removed in the 1920s and the rest of it blew down in a hurricane in 1938, Dunn said. But of all the renovations the church desperately needs, replacing the steeple is not one of them.

“Right now we’re leaving it as is because it’s not our greatest need,” Dunn said.

Instead, the focus is on updating the large two-story addition known as Hayden Hall that was constructed on the back of the church in the late 1800s. It needs to have its electrical system re-wired, its walls insulated and a total cosmetic makeover. It’s most pressing need, however, is an accessible entrance to its downstairs dining and function room, where the church holds public suppers on the second Friday of every month from April through November.

When members noticed attendance to the suppers began dropping off last year because folks found it difficult to negotiate the steep stairway to the downstairs, creating a more accessible entrance became a priority. Not only is it a need from a structural standpoint, but also from the social mission of the church. Once that’s rectified, it should also benefit the church’s financial goals as more people are bound to come to the suppers if there aren’t any obstacles to getting to the dining room, Dunn said.

In the meantime, the suppers are going to be served on the first floor of Hayden Hall. One floor up from the kitchen, it will be less convenient to the wait staff but more accessible to the public.

“Hospitality is a commitment of this congregation. The church needs to be accessible to be hospitable,” Dunn said.

In addition to the public suppers, the congregation also makes the church available as a meeting place for such groups as Alcoholics Anonymous, the Junior Rock Hound Club, Reading Rumpus and Alternative to Violence training. It would like to open its doors to more groups and functions.

The sanctuary at the Gardiner Congregational Church includes four giant stained glass windows that have been in place ever since the church was built in 1843. This part of the church has undergone renovations within the past 20 to 40 years and isn’t in need of any repairs at present.

“It’s a big space for the size of the congregation. It’s a good social space and that’s why we’re looking for more uses for it and to develop it,” Dunn said.

By doing so, the membership would not only fulfill its mission as a church but also partner with others in new and useful ways as is required by their agreement with Partners for Sacred Places.

Although still exploring ways in which to make those connections, the congregation has started to identify groups it would like to partner and share fiscal resources with to help one another. Those groups include organizations that serve people with physical, mental or social needs.

“On one hand, it’s a mission because that’s part of our heart. But also, what are we keeping ourselves going for if not to reach out to the community?” Dunn said. “There’s a real drive here to be helpful to the community.”

The church will hold its first public supper of the year on Friday, April 11 from 5 to 7 p.m. It will also hold a History Day on Sunday, April 20 beginning at 10:30 a.m., following the church service, at which much of its historical memorabilia and photographs will be on display in Hayden Hall. For more information, call 582-2235 or visit the church’s Web site: www.gardinercongregationucc.org.

Face-lift almost complete at Bangor Opera House
Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - Bangor Daily News

BANGOR - The masonry work being done as part of the approximately $500,000 exterior face-lift of the Bangor Opera House is nearing completion, Scott R.C. Levy, Penobscot Theatre Company producing artistic director, said Monday.

The Penobscot Theatre is housed at the Main Street property, which is encased in plastic while workers maneuver on scaffolding as they work to restore the building to its original 1920s Egyptian art-deco style.

Most of the funding for the project has come from public funds, including $285,000 through Bangor’s Community Development Block Grant program, a $15,000 grant from the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, and money from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation.

The remainder has come from the theater’s capital reserve account and donations from board members.

As the work comes to an end, Levy said all of the bricks have been cleaned, the mortar in between them ground out and replaced, and some bricks replaced.

Some sections of the metal flashing at the top of the building are being replaced or have been repaired. The new entrance doors are on the property but have yet to be installed.

"We’re waiting for the scaffolding to come down so that they don’t get dirty," Levy said.

The design process for a new marquee also is under way, and concept drawings from Wagner Electric Sign Co. of Ohio are expected to arrive this week.

Levy said he expects the facade restoration to be completed by the end of summer but noted that the building is open and Penobscot Theatre’s presentation of "Little Shop of Horrors" opens March 17.

As for the building’s interior, there is a new sprinkler system and some improvements have been made to the heating system, but no major aesthetic improvements have been made to the inside.

Belfast: Museum seeks help to save train station

BELFAST - With the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad up for sale, a nonprofit group is trying

The City Point Central Railroad Museum at City Point is seeking to raise $60,000 to buy and

The railroad has listed most of its rolling stock on the Fairfield, Iowa-based Rail Merchants International Web site railmerchants.net. More than $1.1 million in equipment is listed on the

site including diesel locomotives, Pullman cars, cabooses, dining cars and repair equipment.

The 1913 steam locomotive the railroad’s late owner Bert Clifford purchased from Sweden carries an asking price of $175,000. The Swedish diner cars have an asking price of $55,000

The railroad, which for the past two years has operated as the nonprofit Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad Preservation Society, notified the Department of Transportation of its decision

earlier this week. The railroad runs on 29 miles of track it leased from the state.

The state obtained ownership of the 66-foot-wide rail corridor between Belfast and Burnham in the mid-1990s from one of the railroad’s earlier ownership groups. DOT track manager Nathan Moulton said the state would continue to cut brush and maintain the miles of track relinquished

"They notified us verbally that they have canceled the lease and that they are closing down operations," Moulton said Thursday. "They said they planned to sell the railroad whole or parcel

Attempts to reach railroad preservation society president Robert Lamontagne were unsuccessful. However, Lamontagne stated in a press release that the society was unable to attract the riders and financial support to break even. The railroad carries extension financial

"We are very grateful to our corporate sponsors and other members who have supported the preservation society as we provided special excursions, holiday and foliage tours, and special events," Lamontagne stated. "We regret that the society cannot continue running at a loss. We want to carefully review and examine our status with the state and other contractors in order to ensure an orderly transition and hope to find interested buyers for the equipment and

Gov. Joshua Chamberlain signed the railroad’s original charter when it was formed in 1867 by a group of investors. Originally planned to operate from Belfast to Greenville, the line never met its goal and instead ended in Burnham where it established a junction with the Maine Central

For many years the railroad was operated by the city of Belfast, which controlled the majority of the stock. It carried freight, passengers and mail. It also carried grain to support Belfast’s poultry industry, but when that closed due to competition down South, the railroad soon

The city sold the railroad to a private group in 1991. It was operated as a seasonal tourist attraction. Clifford, a Unity businessman, assumed control a few years later and moved the bulk of the railroad’s operations to the Unity Station. The railroad controlled a major portion of the Belfast waterfront but lost its rights to that property a few years ago when it failed to meet the

Belfast Mayor Walter Ash, who served as president of the railroad during the period of the city’s ownership, said it was unfortunate that the railroad ever left Belfast. He said the City Council tried to work with railroad management, but the two sides were never able to resolve their

"They should never have taken it out of Belfast; it was all out of spite," Ash said Thursday.

Those wishing to help preserve the Brooks Station can contact City Point Central Railroad and Museum at 13 Oak Hill Road, Belfast 04915 or visit cpcrr.com.

Ellsworth: Former jail added to registry

ELLSWORTH - A 122-year-old brick building that once housed the Hancock County Jail and now is home to the Ellsworth Historical Society has been added to the National Registry of Historic Places.

The announcement was made Thursday by Earle G. Shettleworth Jr., president of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, which submitted the nomination.

In being added to the National Registry, the former jail has been documented, evaluated and considered worthy of preservation and protection as part of the nation’s cultural heritage, according to a statement from the commission.

Linda Grindle, president of the Ellsworth Historical Society, said the news was exciting.

"We’ve been working on that for about a year. It’s a lot of work to get on that registry," she said.

The building on State Street in downtown Ellsworth is adjacent to the structure that houses the district and superior courthouses, the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office and the new county jail.

Aside from the prestige of being named a historic location, Grindle said the designation allows the historical society to apply for grants that it hasn’t been eligible for in the past.

"The building is in pretty tough shape. We really are in need of money to help save this building," she said.

The Queen Anne-style, brick structure was built in 1886 and served as Hancock County’s jail until the 1970s. The front of the building was a former residence for the jail warden, and the back contains 14 small cells on two floors. A dividing wall between the two sections once allowed the warden to monitor inmates from the kitchen of the residence.

Since 1980, when it was saved from demolition, the building has been home to the Ellsworth Historical Society.

Last June, the building was one of six throughout the state that made the list of Maine’s most endangered historic properties.

Raze or save? 'Brewer House' to go to auction

A historic home at 609 S. Main St., which may have been built by Col. John Brewer, the city’s founding father, is in foreclosure and is scheduled to be sold by the mortgage company later this month.

Some in town think the building, known as the "Brewer House," should be knocked down, while others, including City Councilor Michael Celli, are striving to save it.

"This is the home of the founding father of our city," he said Thursday just after touring the home. "I don’t want to see it razed."

Few documents remain from the time when Brewer sailed up the Penobscot River in 1770 with his brother, Josiah, and sister, Mary, to settle the area around the Sedgeunkedunk Stream, but property maps of that time show John Brewer owned the land where the house sits.

History experts say the house was built around the same time the Brewers arrived in the area.

By putting the two pieces of information together, it establishes that the home was built by John Brewer, Celli said.

"When you look at some of the features in the home, its location on the Penobscot, the architectural style … I think those tell us whose home it was," he said. "I hope something can be done to preserve it."

Celli is attempting to get the house recognized by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission or listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, but he’s fighting the clock. The auction is scheduled to take place Feb. 28 in Portland.

If it’s listed as a historic location, who ever buys it would have to abide by certain preservation rules to keep the historic aspects of the home intact.

In 1770, John Brewer and his companions laid the foundation for a mill dam in the mouth of the Sedgeunkedunk Stream before going back to Massachusetts, the 1962 book "Brewer, Orrington, Holden, Eddington: History and Families" states.

"Brewer returned the next year and erected a mill and dwelling house," the book states. "He was joined by 21 others who became the founders of the village of New Worcester."

Later, New Worcester was incorporated as part of Orrington, but it wasn’t until Feb. 22, 1812, that Brewer broke away from Orrington to become a town named in honor of John Brewer who had worked as the community’s first postmaster since 1800.

Historians believe John Brewer’s first house was a log cabin and that he built a second house — the house at 609 S. Main St. — once he became more prosperous.

An 1812 property map lists John Brewer as the landowner of two lots on the southern side of Sedgeunkedunk Cove, once known as Brewer’s Cove and where the house now sits, and Josiah Brewer as owner of three lots on the northern side of the cove.

A canvas copy of the map, hand-drawn Oct. 9, 1845, by J.B. Stone and later stamped July 28, 1932, as a Penobscot County Registry of Deeds, now hangs in Brewer City Hall.

Christi Mitchell, an architectural historian with the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, toured the house on Nov. 20, 2007, and estimates the home is two centuries old.

The dwelling seems to have several federal-style architectural features including woodwork, moldings and decorative elements, a center chimney with four fireplaces, a circular-style stairway in the front of the building and a brick oven, Mitchell said.

Federal-style architecture was prevalent in the United States between 1780 and 1830, in particular between 1785 and 1815.

There have been renovations to the home over the years, including an addition put on in the late 1800s or early 1900s on the right side of the original building and siding that has covered or destroyed some historic elements, Mitchell said.

"Some of the house has lost its authenticity," she said. "The exterior has lost a lot of its authenticity."

The home was purchased in 1970 by Brewer resident Ailine Simon, who has had recent health issues and had failed to make her mortgage payments in recent years. Her daughter Nancy Bell, also of Brewer, said Wednesday that she’d love to turn the home into a public-private library but lacks the funds to make it so.

Right now the deteriorating house is being used as storage and is filled with stuff, she said.

"I’m still hoping some grant money will miraculously show up in my mailbox," Bell said. "I’ve got the history of my life in there. We have five generations of stuff in there."

City Councilor Larry Doughty, acknowledges that the building has historic significance, but said he thinks "it needs to go." He describes the building as "a mess" with portions that appear to be leaning, reports of rodents living inside and a deteriorating interior from lack of use.

On the other hand, Camden historian Carol Smith Fisher, who formerly lived in Brewer, said she believes the house is indeed John Brewer’s and should be saved at all costs.

"It’s a Bangor-Brewer treasure," she said. "John Brewer is enormously important for this entire region. It’s a shame his house hasn’t been saved.

"It’s criminal to see that thing falling apart," Fisher added. "I don’t know what an auction means, but I would hate to see a big, bad wolf come tear it down."

Her husband, Ken Fisher, who is an antique house enthusiast, pointed out huge 14-inch beams and other historic architectural aspects of the home during Thursday’s tour.

Mitchell said there is enough history in the building to warrant further study, whether or not John Brewer owned the home.

"It’s a very early house for that area," she said. "Whether it’s his [Brewer’s], I have not done the deed research. I can’t verify that it is Brewer’s house. Architecturally, it is interesting to us because of its age.

"There is not that many houses in the Bangor-Brewer area with this age," Mitchell added. "The house seems to be in relatively good condition, the floors seemed straight and the walls seemed straight. It seems to be structurally sound."

If the building is sold and the new owners plan to demolish the building, Mitchell said she would like the opportunity to photograph, measure and document the structure beforehand.

Celli said he just wants to see it saved and refurbished to its former glory for future generations to enjoy.

Curator Tom Johnson leaves Old York Historical Society

Director searching 'far, wide' for replacement

Tom Johnson has just left his post as curator of the Old York Historical Society.
By Herb Perry, hperry@seacoastonline.com

YORK, Maine — A "key player" in the preservation of York's historical past has moved on, and the organization whence he came is searching far and wide to find a suitable replacement.

Tom Johnson, Old York Historical Society's curator for 15 years, is now curator at Canterbury Shaker Village in Canterbury, N.H. He started his new job on Jan. 1, but he said he won't soon forget his time in York.

"I have very mixed feelings about leaving," he said on Friday. "York was sort of home for me. I have lots of wonderful things that I'm going to miss. ... You can't spend almost 15 years at a great organization and walk away from it unaffected by your experience."

The Old York Historical Society was founded more than 100 years ago to preserve York's history and artifacts. It offers 37 period room settings and several galleries housed throughout eight historic museum buildings, according to its Web site.

Johnson praised Old York's "great collections, superb buildings and wonderful people."

"I know whoever becomes my successor is going to like it and feel themselves lucky," he said.

"It's a big change," Executive Director Scott Stevens said on Friday. "Tom was a key player in all of the progress we have made in documenting and understanding the remarkable collections we have and in bringing out their educational potential, sharing them with the community and using the collections to enrich life in the community."

"There's no Tom Johnsons out there," Stevens said. "I have to search far and wide to fill that unique niche. ... It's hard to do justice to the full scope of things Tom did here."

Cal Hosmer, chairman of Old York's board of trustees, noted Johnson's contributions not only to the historical society, but to York residents, the Historic District Commission and other towns. Johnson also provided leadership during a period of transition.

"He was very important simply because he was there when he was needed before Scott Stevens took over," Hosmer said. "He ran Old York while the search for a new director was being conducted. He played a key role keeping the organization together and running smoothly. He did an excellent job."

Johnson first met Executive Director Funi Burdick of Canterbury Shaker Village when they collaborated to restore Folsom Tavern at the Exeter, N.H., American Independence Museum. Burdick then was the museum's director.

"I had a great experience working with Tom," Burdick said Friday, "and we felt that he and I would be a great team and we could bring both our experience to Canterbury Shaker Village."

Canterbury Shaker Village, 15 minutes north of Concord, N.H., on Interstate 93, has one of the best collections of Shaker items in the world, according to Burdick. Situated on 694 acres, it has 24 historic buildings, the earliest built in 1792, occupied by Shakers from 1792 to 1992.

As curator, Johnson will develop educational and interpretive exhibits, conduct research, develop an exhibition plan and work with fabricators to interpret the collection for the public. He will oversee Canterbury's extensive furniture collection, buildings, and collection of other Shaker materials.

"It's an opportunity to spread my wings in a slightly larger museum with an international presence," he said.

Scores take up the challenge to create a new life for city's slumbering giant

By Carol Coultas , Staff Writer
Sunday, January 6, 2008

LEWISTON - More than 100 people bobbed their heads in unison on a tour of Bates Mill No. 5 Saturday, the warm-up to a brain-storming session on the future of the nearly century-old mill.

"You can see where the cotton dust is still hanging," said tour director and urban planner Steve Myers, as dozens of people craned their heads upward to look at the coated steel beams, remnants of the mill's heyday as the weave shed for Bates Manufacturing.

"Now watch your step," he added, as the the crowd obediently dropped its collective gaze to the uneven wood floors and continued on.

The tour through the 365,000-square-foot building - bigger than the Auburn Mall - was intended to give the crowd a sense of the historic structure before the Bates Mill No. 5 Task Force tapped them for ideas on what to do with it. But for some, it was already familiar terrain.

"Both my parents worked here," said Vic Gagnon, as he surveyed the old loom space. "This is L-A. This is what we're all about."

Shuttered since 1993, the mill sits at the western gateway to the city, anchoring the view from Auburn. Owned by the city, it has been pitched passively for years as a possible convention center, but financing for the $40 million project was never nailed down.

Facing continued operating losses from maintaining the mill, the city earmarked $3 million for the demolition of No. 5 in its 2009 in its capital budget.

With the clock ticking, a 15-member citizen task force was formed to consider viable re-use of the building, projected costs for those uses and implementation plans.

"One of the core principles is that this should be an economic driver for both cities," said Mike Carey, co-chair of the task force, which is seeking public input.

Among the mill's assets: cultural significance as one of the few buildings in New England designed by Albert Kahn, a renowned industrial architect; a saw-tooth roof, which aside from its unique architecture, also allows sunlight and ventilation to the building; reinforced concrete construction that gives it a carrying capacity of 450 pounds per square foot - almost five times the load capacity of a modern parking garage; 95 percent of its environmental remediation work has been completed; it is still structurally sound.

Among its challenges: a complicated relationship between the mill and Florida Power & Light which owns the power station in the basement of the mill and the bordering canals; escalating development costs (a convention center today would cost more in the $60 million range); and sources of money for redevelopment.

Still, dozens of people rolled up their sleeves and began brain storming ideas for the mill in small breakout groups that gathered in the top floor of Mill No. 6 at the tour's conclusion.

The ideas were as varied as the patterns once woven by Bates's Jacquard looms: a satellite campus and dormitory space for Bates College or other college; a Faneuil Hall-type retail complex; a farmers' market; incubator space for manufacturers. And convention center.

"I don't think we should dismiss the convention center idea," said one man. "But I do think it will take more than that. We should be looking at mixed uses."

Members of the task force facilitated each of the break-out groups, keeping notes for a report that will be shared by the whole group. More public input is planned before the task force submits its report to the city council, due Feb 18. Anyone wishing to add their thoughts should send an e-mail to Lincoln Jeffers, the city liaison with the task force at ljeffers@ci.lewiston.me.us

Jonathan Labonte, co-chair of the task force, said he was heartened that no one seemed to be calling for the demolition of Mill No. 5 - that its significance to the city's history and its potential to enhance L-A's future was widely accepted.

"There seems to be a lot of energy around making this a significant facility that will draw national attention to L-A," he said. "Now we have to lay out a road map to get there."

"I'd support anything as long as it brings life back to the mill," he said. "There's so much here ... it definitely should not be lost."

Green power lures tenants
Businesses wanting to practice what they preach lease an
environmentally friendly home.

YARMOUTH — The Sparhawk Mill is attractive in many obvious ways: The 150-plus-year-old building is classic red-brick New England, boasts well-worn wooden architecture inside and is framed by the picturesque Royal River.

But the factor that appeals to many tenants of the refurbished mill lies in the building's bowels. The river's power has been harnessed and drives turbines, generating environmentally friendly electricity for tenants, with excess power sold to the regional grid.

This aspect of the building has been an attraction to businesses and individuals who care about reducing their environmental impact. The building has eight tenants, including a glass-
blowing studio, marketing and telemarketing businesses, a medical acupuncturist's office and a workout studio.

While operational paper mills generate their own power through hydro systems, it's unusual for a renovated mill to use the technology.

The owners of Sparhawk, which is not yet profitable, hope that their ability to offer green power continues to build interest in the mill at a time when there is growing focus on energy
conservation and environmental concerns in general. LEED- certified buildings are becoming more common, and businesses and even municipalities around the state are exploring
alternative power generation, often in the form of wind power.

Sparhawk was a good fit for Steve Darnley, owner of Tugboat Creative, a firm that does marketing and branding for socially and environmentally responsible businesses.

"All the infrastructure was here in the mill -- they already had water running under the building," said Darnley. "Just to be able to work into a space that was turnkey green power was an no-
brainer."

For Darnley and other tenants, the environmental nature of the building they inhabit speaks to the type of business they're in.

"To me, it sort of underscores, it strengthens, what clients and the public already know about my brand," said Darnley, who bought carbon offsets when his move from Portland to
Yarmouth increased his commute. "It was a logical step in the growth of my business to be able to do things that are more sustainable, to walk the walk."

The mill also made sense for Dr. Lisa Belisle, who practices medical acupuncture and integrative health. Belisle said she works with patients to try to find joy in their lives and to practice
sustainablity.

In her office at Sparhawk, the sound of the Royal River is everywhere, creating a peaceful atmosphere. Belisle, who also writes on sustainablity issues, also sees her tenancy in the
green-powered mill as an unobtrusive example to other people.

Darnley said that although the green aspect of the building is cool, he's careful not to over-leverage it with potential clients. Going green is a very popular thing right now and can be over-
hyped, he said.

"I would have had green power if it was trendy or not," said Darnley. "Myself, my clients, we're all doing it because it's the right thing to do first ... and then it's really cool and there's an
economic savings."

Sparhawk Mill Associates LLC bought the 2.5-acre property in July 2006 for $1.5 million, according to Daniel Coyne of Coyne Commercial Brokers, who is one of three partners in the
Sparhawk.

When Coyne and his partners considered buying the property, the power-generation aspect was a positive, he said.

"We felt it's really important to people now, more and more," said Coyne. "We're leaving really a negative footprint."

There are three 100-horsepower turbines that have a capacity of 270 kilowatts apiece. Most years, the turbines can run for all but about eight weeks, due to low flow.

The annual typical output is 850,000 kilowatt hours. A bit more than half goes to the grid, the remaining to the tenants.

Coyne said he's taken some prospective tenants down to see the turbines, a bone-chilling space where water pours out of three pipes to reconnect with the Royal River.

"They love it -- they just think it's very interesting," said Coyne. "They don't want to have their offices down here ... "

The mill is warmed with electrical heat -- something that would be prohibitively expensive in many buildings.

The space in the mill goes for $8 to $16 a square foot, and the tenants don't have to worry about electric or heat costs.

Justin Lamontagne, an assistant broker with CB Richard Ellis/The Boulos Co., said Sparhawk's lease figures appear to be competitive when compared with similar properties, such as The
Lafayette Center in Kennebunk, Fort Andross in Brunswick and Saco Island in Saco.

Each was a manufacturing mill that was converted into office and retail space, and their lease rates range from $10 to $18 a square foot, depending on the size, location and condition of
the space.

But the power and heat-generation aspect of Sparhawk is a big factor as well, Lamontagne noted, "and not just because of the potential savings in utility costs."

"More and more, potential tenants are attracted to 'green' buildings and office spaces, so any environmentally friendly resource that conserves energy and reduces waste is a fantastic
perk," said Lamontagne. "Many new, progressive tenants would find the Sparhawk Mill's hydroelectricity capability extremely appealing."

Coyne said 14,000 square feet of the 24,000-square-foot mill is occupied. Sparhawk is in talks with several potential tenants, and if they move in, the property will be profitable for Coyne and
his partners.

Coyne said Sparhawk Associates would like to add a residential component to the mill, possibly converting the top floor to condos, or even adding a new building to the property. But the
site is zoned commercial, so a change would have to be made through the town.

One of the biggest tenants at Sparhawk is GrowSmart Maine, a group that seeks to build sustainable prosperity through better land use and more efficient government. They business has been there for four years, according to founder Alan Caron.

"We're committed to rebuilding downtowns, reusing buildings,"
said Caron. "It was perfect for us."

Caron said a legislative push to increase the historic tax credits for redevelopment might help the reuse of more buildings like the Sparhawk mill.

Beth Nagusky, GrowSmart's energy and climate director and the former director of Maine's Office of Energy Independence and Security, said she saw growing interest among individuals and
businesses "to produce their own renewable energy or to buy renewable energy, or offsets to reduce their carbon footprints."

"I think it's going to lead to a policy discussion at the Legislature," she said.

In particular, she said there is a push afoot to change laws so that smaller power producers, such as homeowners with solar panels or a windmill, get paid for the excess energy they put on
the grid. That would speed up the financial recovery of investment in renewable energy technology and hopefully spur
more interest.

Nagusky noted that many of Maine's towns grew around mills situated on rivers for power.

"This is going back to the future, with hydro, solar, wind and hopefully tidal," she said.

Staff Writer Matt Wickenheiser can be contacted at 791-6316 or at: mwickenheiser@pressherald.com