Photo by Susan Dutil
Kringleville 2021 is underway thanks to the Waterville Children’s Discovery Museum and these Colby College students who volunteered to spruce up the Kringleville Christmas cabin. Kringleville is seeking volunteers for the 2021 season. If you are interested in being part of the magical Kringleville tradition, please contact Amarinda Keys at amarinda@childrensdiscoverymuseum.org.
Paul J. Schupf Art Center in Waterville, ME. (photo credit: Colby College)
Complementing revitalization within downtown Waterville’s Main Street corridor, Central Maine Growth Council (CMGC) is pleased to announce the successful grantees of its Façade and Building Improvement Grant Program (FBIGP).
The grant program, funded by Colby College and the Bill and Joan Alfond Foundation, provides a reimbursement of up to fifty (50) percent of the total estimated project budget up to $10,000. Eligible projects range from new awnings and signage to brick repointing and the removal of outdated alterations to building exteriors.
The program was established in 2019 to broaden engagement in Waterville’s ongoing revitalization, activated by over $175 million in recent investment by private and public sector supporters. With the façade and building improvement initiative now in its third year of deployment, the grant program encourages new and existing downtown property owners and businesses to invest in their commercial storefronts while restoring the original character of historic buildings. CMGC has deployed 36 grants totaling $175,950 since the program’s launch in 2019, supporting more than $2.25 million in direct investment in less than three years.
“From business revitalization to historical façade restoration, we were thrilled with the quality of the applications we received for the program’s third funding cycle,” states Garvan D. Donegan, director of planning, innovation, and economic development at Central Maine Growth Council and FBIGP advisory committee coordinator. “The grant program has allowed us to leverage additional resources to help expand and grow new downtown private sector investment, incentivize landlords to beautify and improve their buildings, and preserve our historic downtown district while fostering the conditions for small business creation, retention, and economic development.”
This year, the grant awards made through the façade program will stimulate more than $150,000 in direct investment in downtown storefronts and facades during the 2021 calendar year. 22 applications were submitted, and 15 were successful.
Successful grantees of the 2021 FBIGP award include:
● 197 Main Street – Sunset Realty Co.
● 173 Main Street – Portland Pie Company
● 119-123 Main Street – Roisin Enterprises, LLC
● 115-117 Main Street – Costantino Enterprises, LLC
● 80 Main Street – Day’s Jewelers
● 70 Main Street – Holy Cannoli
● 62 Main Street – L. Tardif Jeweler
● 54 Main Street – SBS/Carbon Copy
● 52 Main Street – Children’s Book Cellar
● 48 Main Street – Incense & Peppermints
● 36-44 Main Street – Focus LLC
● 57 Main Street & 14-28 Common Street – MGH Realty Co., LLC
● 5 Concourse East – Sidney H. Geller Trust
● 31 Temple Street – REM
● 14 Temple Street – Universal Bread.
Hope’s Place for grieving children, a program of Hospice Volunteers of Waterville Area, will be offering the art workshop: Create a Mosaic, geared towards children ages 6 to 18. This activity will give children the opportunity to express their feelings of grief and remember their loved one while creating a beautiful piece of art. The workshop will be held on Monday, September 13, from 6 – 7:30 p.m., in the Hospice Volunteers of Waterville Area Healing Garden, 304 Main Street, in Waterville. Create a Mosaic will be facilitated by professional glass artist, Lucie Boucher (stoneridgeglass.com). To register, contact Jillian Roy, Phone 873-3615 x 19 or email jroy@hvwa.org. Hospice Volunteers of Waterville Area will follow the current CDC COVID 19 guidelines and recommendations for in person meetings.
Hodgkins School
There are four school buildings in the central Kennebec Valley that are on the National Register of Historic Places, two in Augusta and one each in Winslow and Waterville.
Winslow’s Brick Schoolhouse has already been described, in the Jan. 28 issue of The Town Line. The old Cony High School, in Augusta, now the Cony Flatiron Building, will be a future subject.
This piece will describe Augusta’s Ella R. Hodgkins Intermediate School, later called Hodgkins Middle School, and the old Waterville High School, later the Gilman Street School.
The Hodgkins School served students in seventh and eighth grades (one source adds sixth grade) from 1958 to 2009. when the students were moved to a new high school building. The application for National Register status, prepared by Matthew Corbett, of Sutherland Conservation and Consulting, in Augusta, is dated Feb. 26, 2015. The building was added to the register the same year.
The former school, now called Hodgkins School Apartments on the Google map, is at 17 Malta Street, on a 20-acre lot in a residential neighborhood. Malta Street is on the east side of the Kennebec River, northeast of Cony Street and southeast of South Belfast Avenue (Route 105).
Originally designated the East Side Intermediate School, when the building was finished it was dedicated to former Augusta teacher Ella R. Hodgkins. She is listed in the 1917 annual report of the Augusta Board of Education as a Gorham Normal School graduate teaching at the Farrington School.
Corbett described the Hodgkins School as significant both for its architecture and because it was “associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history.”
Architecturally, he described the school as exemplifying the Modern Movement; it illustrated “the most recent trends in design and construction.” In terms of historical significance, Corbett wrote that the school was an element of “community planning and development, specifically the town-wide development of educational facilities.”
Augusta architects Bunker and Savage designed the “sprawling” building, Corbett wrote. It rose a single story above the ground and was almost 440 feet long, shaped like an E without a center bar.
The foundation was concrete blocks. The roof was flat; the windows Corbett called “aluminum ribbon sash and glass block.”
Both wings had full basements, giving them two useable floors, the lower partly below ground level, Corbett wrote. The boiler room and the shop classroom were attached on the northeast.
He described the arrangement of corridors, classrooms, offices, bathrooms and other spaces inside. The school had a combination gymnasium and cafeteria, with a stage, and an adjoining kitchen. The grounds provided space for a basketball court and softball and soccer fields.
In the 1950s, concrete blocks, aluminum and glass block windows were examples of modern materials, Corbett wrote. The Hodgkins School was also modern in its emphasis on “natural light and proper ventilation”; architectural drawings “included detailed ventilation and electrical specifications, large windows and skylights, as well as advanced mechanical systems for heating and cooling.”
Hodgkins was the third of three schools built during what Corbett said was “a decade long school building program that updated and consolidated Augusta’s schools to accommodate the post-World War II baby boom.”
He continued, “As the second intermediate school constructed in the city, the Hodgkins School represents the conclusion of the city’s effort to create modern elementary school buildings.”
The first two schools built under the city’s 1953 plan were Lillian Parks Hussey Elementary School (opened in September 1954) and Lou M. Buker Intermediate School (opened in September 1956).
While the Parks and Buker schools have been substantially altered, “The Ella R. Hodgkins Intermediate School retains historic integrity of location, design, setting, material, workmanship, feeling and association,” Corbett wrote.
* * * * * *
Old Waterville High School
Waterville’s Gilman Street School began life as a high school (Waterville’s second, Wikipedia says; the first was built in 1876). It became a junior high, then a technical college and is currently, like the Hodgkins School, an apartment building.
Gilman Street School was added to the National Register in 2010. The application by Amy Cole Ives and Melanie Smith, also of Sutherland Conservation and Consulting, is dated June 11, 2010.
The Maine Memory Network offers an on-line summary of the building’s history. Ives and Smith added details in their application.
The central block at 21 Gilman Street, facing south, was started in 1909 and finished in 1912 as Waterville High School. In 1936, a wing was added on the west side for manual arts classes; and in 1938-1939. a gymnasium and auditorium were added on the east side.
The last senior class graduated in 1963, and the building became Waterville Junior High School.
Meanwhile, Kennebec Valley Vocational Technical Institute (KVVTI), started in the (new) Waterville High School building with 35 students for the 1970-71 school year, rapidly expanded enrollment and course offerings. In 1977, KVVTI rented the Gilman Street building from the City of Waterville; the first courses were taught there in 1978, although some classes stayed at Waterville High School until 1983.
The Memory Network writer said that to save money, vocational students did some of the repairs and renovations the Gilman Street building needed.
KVVTI outgrew its new space, too, and by 1986 had completed the move to its current Fairfield location – a process that took six years, the Memory Network writer said.
The Gilman Street building housed educational offices and served other public and private purposes until Coastal Enterprises Inc. “in conjunction with a developers’ collaborative” turned it into an apartment building named Gilman Place. Its introductory open house was held May 11, 2011, as the first tenants moved in.
Ives and Smith said the original part of the building was designed by Freeman Funk and Wilcox, of Brookline, Massachusetts. The school is one of only a “few known examples of educational architecture” by that group, Wikipedia adds.
Ives and Smith called the school’s architecture “simplified collegiate gothic style.” All three sections are brick with cast stone trim.
The first building, Ives and Smith wrote, is a “symmetrical central three-story five-bay building.” The doors are in the two end bays; the central bays had windows on all three stories.
The doors described in 2010 “had Tudor gothic door surrounds with a four-centered pointed arch, white painted paneled intrados, and flush modern replacement doors with multi-light transoms.” Above each door is an arch over a stone sculpture: on the west, an eagle, wings spread wide, above the City of Waterville seal, and on the east an identical eagle above the Maine State seal.
Centered at the top of the building is a decorative stone rectangle with the words “Waterville High School.”
The 1930s additions were partly financed by the federal Works Progress Administration and were designed by Bunker and Savage of Augusta. Each wing is narrower and lower than the original building, and its front projects out slightly from the main building.
The exterior materials were chosen to match the original building, but Ives and Smith documented stylistic differences.
Of the west wing, they wrote, “Designed with more of the Art Deco influence of the 1920s-30s, the Manual Arts Building was simpler in massing and more streamlined in decoration than the original building.”
The east wing is more elaborate than the west. Ives’ and Smith’s description included a “substantial projecting stylized Tudor gothic tri-partite entrance,” framed by “cast stone quoins,” with its doors “recessed within gothic arched door surrounds” under “three original trios of four-over-six double hung lancet windows.”
They continued, “A cast-stone Tudor arch at the cornice level is elaborated by two round relief sculpture plaques of athletic themes (football and basketball) on either side; the arch fascia is infilled with fancy relief scrolls.”
In this wing, the combination gym and auditorium had an 84-by-68-foor basketball court in the middle; 15 “graduated rows of elevated seating” above the entrance in the south wall; and a 36-by-24-foot stage, with dressing rooms on each side, under a “painted wood Tudor gothic arch” along the north wall. “The aisle-end of each seating row is elaborately carved and painted art deco design,” Ives and Smith wrote.
Showers and locker rooms were in the basement below the stage.
Ives and Smith concluded that the Gilman Street School deserved National Register status for two reasons: its architecture, and its role in illustrating, with its 1930s additions, changes in education, specifically adding courses for non-college-bound students and accommodating increased enrollment.
They concluded, “[T]he property retains integrity of location, design, setting, material, workmanship, feeling and association and has a period of significance from 1909-1940.”
* * * * * *
For readers who wonder when this series will describe the district elementary schools that for years provided all the education many residents got, the answer is, “Not until the next writer takes over.”
The subject is much too complex for yours truly. Many local histories cover it, some writers basing their information on old town reports that contained detailed annual reports on each district.
Kingsbury wrote in his Kennebec County history that what is now Augusta was divided into eight school districts in 1787, 10 years before it separated from Hallowell. Eventually, he found, there were 27 districts.
The China bicentennial history has a map showing locations or presumed locations of schoolhouses in the town’s 22 districts. Sidney started with 10 districts in 1792; lost one to Belgrade in a 1799 boundary change; and by 1848 had 19, Alice Hammond wrote in her history of that town.
Millard Howard found detailed information on Palermo’s 17 districts for his “Introduction to the Early History of Palermo, Maine”. Windsor’s highest number was 15 in 1866-67, according to C. Arlene Barton Gilbert’s chapter on education in Linwood Lowden’s town history.
The authors of the Fairfield bicentennial history didn’t even try to count theirs. Three paragraphs on pre-1966 elementary schools in town included this statement: “There were many divisions of the Town into districts for school management by agents” before state law changed the district system in 1893.
Alma Pierce Robbins summarized the difficulty of describing town primary schools in her Vassalboro history: “In 1839 the School Committee was directed to make a large plan of the twenty-two School Districts. They did, but it was of little value. The next year there were many changes and another school opened.”
Gilman Place
An undated, but recent, online piece by Developers Collaborative begins: “Gilman Place has structurally preserved and bestowed new life into a vacant neighborhood treasure, while repurposing it as affordable workforce housing for area families.”
The article says there are “35 affordable apartments in walking distance from the city’s award winning downtown. Gilman Place is an example of smart growth development simultaneously addressing two concerns many Waterville residents shared: how to preserve and reuse the former Gilman School as well as the need for more quality apartments in Waterville.”
Gilman Place won the 2011 Maine Preservation Honor Award, the piece says. It says state and federal tax credits helped the project, and quotes recently-retired City Manager Mike Roy calling the reuse of the building “one of the best success stories in the city in the last 25 years.”
Correction & Expansion of one of last week’s boxed items
The update on the First Amendment Museum should have said that it was 2015, not 1915, when Eugenie Gannet (Mrs. David Quist) and her sister Terry Gannett Hopkins bought the Gannett family home on State Street, in Augusta, that now houses the museum. The same wrong date was in the account of the Gannett printing and publishing businesses in the Nov. 12, 2020, issue of The Town Line.
The First Amendment Museum website says the Pat and John Gannett Family Foundation bought the building. The foundation is named for Eugenie’s and Terry’s parents, Patricia Randall Gannett and John Howard Gannett.
They met in Florida when he was assigned there as an Army lieutenant during World War II and married July 5, 1943. Patricia Gannett died Feb. 12, 2013, at the age of 91; John Gannett died July 16, 2020, at the age of 100.
[Editor’s Note: The online versions have been corrected.]
Corbett, Matthew, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Ella R. Hodgkins Intermediate School, Feb. 26, 2015, supplied by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.
Ives, Amy Cole, and Melanie Smith, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Waterville High School (former), June 11, 2010, supplied by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.
Websites, miscellaneous.
Carson Mattice, center, and Wyatt Jones, right, get autographs from 2004 Red Sox World Series closer Keith Foulke. (photo by Mark Huard, Central Maine Photography)
Charles Ferris, 10, of Waterville, has a baseball signed by former Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee. (photo by Mark Huard, Central Maine Photography
Thanks to the generosity of Ray Haskell, the youth in Maine have had the opportunity to attend a baseball clinic working with the Alfond Youth and Community Center, at Maine’s Fenway Park, in Oakland, and Purnell Wrigley Field, in Waterville. This year’s event was hosted at Purnell Wrigley Field on August 11, in which 100 youth from around the state attended.
The clinic was conducted by the Major League Baseball Alumni Association, led by Geoff Hixson and the Red Sox Foundation. Former MLB players came along to help that included 2004 World Series closer Keith Foulke, former Red Sox Bill Lee, Mike Torrez, Tom Burgmeier, Steve Crawford, Chico Walker, Rick Miller, Jerry Martin, Kevin Buckley, along with other players including former MLB players from Maine, Matt Kinney and Pete Ladd.
After the clinic all the ball players attended the annual Golf Fundraiser at the Waterville Country Club. Thanks to Ray Haskell and the golf steering committee over $1,000,000 has been raised supporting programs at the Boys & Girls Club and YMCA over the past 15 years.
Waterville Cal Ripken Baseball team member Carson Mattice said, “I loved meeting the players. It was such a cool experience meeting players who were once at my level and age, who made it to the major leagues.” Carsons dad Stephen Mattice said, “As a parent, I would say that I truly appreciate these gentlemen coming out and spending some time with the kids and providing them with some advice and tips. They were all extremely down to earth and friendly to all.”
Cameron McInnis, 10, of Waterville, said “it was awesome! I enjoyed getting autographs from the players that were there. I really enjoyed the pitching tips I learned!”
This was surely a great opportunity for kids of all ages.
Tom Burgneier, major league pitcher for the California Angels, Kansas City Royals, Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox and Oakland A’s teaches the finer points of pitching to local youth. (photos by Mark Huard, Central Maine Photography)
Zoey Trussell
Zoey Trussel, of Waterville, has been selected as the scholarship recipient from a field of applicants.
Zoey ranked second in her class at Waterville Senior High School. She started volunteering at a young age, along with her sister. She volunteered at Adult Ed with disabled adults and volunteered at Alfond Youth Center distributing meals during COVID.
Zoey assisted the swim team and drama club at Waterville Junior High. She worked with the National Honors Society Chapter to organize a Voting Registration Drive to promote civic engagement, along with many other projects.
Zoey will be attending the University of Maine at Orono to pursue elementary education.
The annual scholarship was established in memory of Joseph B. Ezhaya, a community leader who was known for his generosity and dedication to civic engagement.
This $750 annual scholarship will be distributed to the recipient after the completion of her first semester with a GPA of 2.0 or higher and will be awarded for up to four years, for a total of $3,000.00.
Alfond Youth and Community Center CEO Ken Walsh, right, and Waterville Little League President Fran Purnell, prior to the start of the 11-year-old Cal Ripken New England Tournament, held at Purnell Wrigley Field, on Matthews Ave., in Waterville, over the weekend of July 16. (photo by Mark Huard, Central Maine Photography)
Purnell throwing out the first pitch to get the competition underway. (photo by Mark Huard, Central Maine Photography)
Alfond Youth and Community Center CEO Ken Walsh and 82-year-old Francis Purnell, 40-plus years involvement with Waterville Little League, were on hand to begin the 2021 11-year-old Cal Ripken New England tournament, held in Waterville over the weekend of July 16. Purnell still keeps up with the youngsters with his pride and support. He fell in love with his first encounter with Little League as a coach to his son, Chris. He followed up with his daughter Debbie, and finished his coaching with his son Kevin. With the passion to continue his leadership skills, he became president of the league. With his wife Joyce at his side, they together ran one of the best programs for Little League and Challenger Division. His pride for “his kids” has never left his heart and forever will always be there.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mid-Maine has received a generous $30,000 Innovation Grant from United Way of Kennebec Valley (UWKV) to help launch a new program linking local law enforcement one-to-one with Augusta youth. The new program, called Bigs with Badges, is a collaborative partnership matching students from Sylvio J. Gilbert Elementary School (Littles) with Augusta Police Department law enforcement and first responders (Bigs), in long-term relationships that support local kids facing adversity.
“We are incredibly honored and excited to be a recipient of United Way of Kennebec Valley’s Innovation Grant,” BBBS of Mid-Maine Executive Director Gwendolyn Hudson said. “Through this unique, collaborative partnership, our new Bigs with Badges program, the first of its kind in Maine, will match police and other mentors in law-enforcement, with children, creating positive, one-to-one relationships that will no doubt ignite the power and promise of local youth.”
The program also aims to prevent children from seeing law enforcement as an adversary. Courtney Yeager, UWKV executive director, said BBBS of Mid-Maine’s innovative program helps address entrenched issues with a novel solution that is both collaborative and effective.
Big and Little matches between local youth and law enforcement, like this one in Birmingham, Alabama, will be made in Maine for the first time, as part of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mid-Maine’s new mentoring program Bigs with Badges. BBBS of Mid-Maine was recently awarded a generous $30,000 Innovation Grant from United Way of Kennebec Valley to help launch the new initiative that links Augusta Police one-to-one with students at Sylvio J. Gilbert Elementary School, in Augusta.
Front row, from left to right, Sara Fifield, Tammy Poissonnier, Jamie Theriault, Sharon Storti, Ashton Hunter-Sildve. Back row, Hannah Fitzgerald, Ryan Poulin. All people in the photo are from New Dimensions FCU except Ashton, who is a representative of the Maine Children’s Cancer Program located in Scarborough. (contributed photo)
New Dimensions Federal Credit Union showed up at the Robert LaFleur Airport, in Waterville, a new location for their 7th Annual Cruisin’ For a Cure Car Show the morning of June 5, 2021, unsure of what to expect.
The invitations went out to car owners, and with the end of the pandemic restrictions, all they could do was set up the markers, pop the tents, start the grill, and hope for the best outcome. The airport was a new venue for them this year and, the hope was that the new larger space would be well received by the car owners (participants). When the cars started rolling in at 7 a.m., one hour earlier than the opening registration time, we knew we were going to have a large turnout. With 188 registrations, the wide-open space filled rapidly.
Once all the money was collected and tallied, New Dimensions found that they had raised a record-breaking amount. They raised a whopping $20,082.97, and with the CO-OP Miracle Match of $10,000, the total was $30,082.97.
The “Cruisin’ for a Cure Car Show” is hosted by NDFCU each year because they know the money directly benefits the Maine Children’s Cancer Program (MCCP) – an affiliate of The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center, located in Scarborough, Maine. To raise money for such a worthy cause, they began selling tickets for a 50/50 raffle and a Super Raffle that included two rustic rockers and a firepit weeks earlier and continued sales throughout the car show. Additionally, they raised even more money by grilling hot dogs, sausage & onions, deep-frying French fries, selling pizza by the slice, and making breakfast sandwiches. Other efforts to raise money were the proceeds from tee-shirt sales and, of course, each car show participant paid a nominal registration fee of $10 per vehicle. They suggested a $3 donation from the patrons who came to see the car show and were amazed at the contributions above and beyond the requested amount.
The major sponsors are the backbone of funding for this event and include area businesses who donate to help them with the costs of putting the car show together, so all proceeds go to the Maine Children’s Cancer Program. Sponsors include Gold, Silver, Bronze, General, and Trophy Sponsors, who happily give year after year. Also included are the businesses that volunteer to donate signs, posters, pizza, super raffle prizes, and more.
Mom Lauralee, Eagle Scout Sam Fegel and dad Dale, of Winslow. (contributed photo)
Samuel Dale Fegel, of Troop #417, was presented Scouting’s Eagle Scout medal during a ceremony surrounded by friends and family, at the Waterville Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Sam, son of Dale and Lauralee Fegel, is the second Fegel to earn Eagle with Troop #417. His brother Walter was presented his Eagle rank in December 2019 and served as Master of Ceremonies at his brother’s ceremony held on July 29, 2021.
Sam passed his Eagle Scout Board of Review on December 20, 2019, but the ceremony was delayed due to Covid-19. Sam’s Eagle Scout project took place on the Messalonskee Stream Trails near Messalonskee schools. He organized a team to build a bridge, ten fairy houses, repairing benches, blazing a trail and cleaning graffiti.
“I gathered my friends and family and we were able to complete all of the work in two days,” he said. “Planning the project and organizing everything took much longer.” In all, 183 total hours were spent on the project which was a benefit to his school and community. Roger Crouse, former Scoutmaster of Troop #417, said, “Sam continues to internalize and demonstrate his commitment to the principals of the Scout Law and the noblest qualities of an Eagle Scout. Sam’s kindness, friendship, and perseverance will be the foundation he builds upon as he continues to grow and serve his family, community, friends, and God. We are proud of all he has accomplished.”
His father said, “Sam really embodies Scouting, he is kind, polite and loves to give service to the community. He was really excited to help Messalonskee Middle School improve the Eagle Trail and Fairy Garden, as his Eagle project. He’s being a good leader and mentor role model for other scouts making the Eagle journey.” His mother replied, “We as his parents are very proud of him and who he is and what he’s accomplished.”
State Rep. Mike Perkins (R-Oakland) shared stories of his time as a Scout in Belgrade as a youth and encouraged Sam to follow his dreams and let Scouting be a guide.
Sam is a sophomore at Messalonskee High School where he is a member of the track and cross country teams.