A “MOVING DAY” FOR LINCOLNVILLE

Volunteers have begun laying out timbers to move the old Center School in Lincolnville across Rte. 52 to its new home at the former Dean & Eugley Garage site.  The move will take place on Oct. 27 at 9 am.  The old 1-room School will become the new Lincolnville Community Library.

Lincolnville, Maine - Saturday, October 27th will be a “moving” day for the town of Lincolnville – both physically and emotionally.  On that day, the 19th century, 1-room Center School, a 25’ X 34’ building, will be moved by a group of able-bodied town residents, across Rte. 52 to its new location – the former site of the Dean & Eugley Garage.  Lincolnville residents who attended the Center School as children will have front row seats to watch the building’s ultimate transformation into a new town library and historical exhibit center.

Diane O’Brien, Lincolnville’s town historian says, “The Center School closed in 1947 – the year Lincolnville consolidated all its one-room schools into a single school building on Hope Road.  It was converted to a garage next to the old Lincolnville Center Fire Station.  It was basically a shell, but with sound structure.  For several years, the Lincolnville Boat Club used the building for storing its sailboats, and after the town’s new Fire Station was built in 2010, there were lots of ideas about what to do with both properties. “



This past spring, the Boat Club purchased both buildings and began refurbishing the old Fire Station as its Clubhouse and storage facility.  They agreed to sell the Center School building to the Lincolnville Historical Society for $1 if they would move it off the property.

Meanwhile, directly across the road, the old Dean & Eugley Garage property beckoned, empty, forgotten, and never-to-be-built-upon.  Designated a brownfield because of the petroleum waste in its soil, the town had taken it for tax delinquency some ten years ago.  The idea formed -- could a resourceful committee, with the help of many volunteers and residents, move the schoolhouse across the road and repurpose the building for a better use?

At the June Town Meeting, voters agreed to lease the Dean & Eugley land to the Lincolnville Historical Society, and in the early summer, the “Move It!” campaign was launched, with numerous fundraising
events, including several pie sales, a picnic and auction, and a radio play held this spring and summer.  Together, the events raised $13,000.

Following the necessary commercial site plan review, DEP approval, and many more roadblocks, the “Move It” effort continued to move along.  A crew of eager building movers formed -- Paul Cartwright, Tom May, and Jim Dunham -- and came up with a plan to move it with "people power."  Donations of timbers from Viking Lumber, shingles from Rankin’s Hardware and Building Supplies, tree work from Bob Bateman and Chris Gardiner, landscape design consulting from Kerry Hardy, and Vincent Abaldo serving as general contractor for the project have now made the move possible.

At an earlier series of community visioning meetings held in 2009, residents had expressed the need for a town library.  Enter another local committee of former librarians and avid readers who began gathering and cataloguing books at the Lincolnville Farmers' Market building at 6 Heal Road.  Through their efforts, a functioning, temporary library was established and has been in use there since January.  Once the Center School building is moved to its new site, the Lincolnville Community Library will have its new home.  Committee members have been busily designing the interior of their new building.

Other plans for the lot, a piece with about 200' of frontage on Main Street, include landscaping with native plants, paths, a small parking lot, and a series of open-air sheds to display large historic items such as agricultural equipment.

“This is so exciting to see an old, useless building and a condemned lot, both located at the gateway to Lincolnville Center, being brought together to form something entirely new – a community library, park, and historical displays,” says O’Brien.   She notes that the building is meant to be "green" with as many energy-saving features as are affordable; the landscaping will take into account the property’s proximity to the pond.  “This has truly been a community project, and one that will help bring new life to Lincolnville Center and provide a sense of pride for residents,” O’Brien says.

O’Brien encourages anyone who would like to be a “puller” to help move the building to call 789-5987 for more details, or just show up on Saturday, October 27 at 8:30 am to register and prepare for the move which starts at 9am.