Open house October 26

Public invited to view progress at new Lincolnville library

Thu, 10/17/2013 - 9:00pm

    LINCOLNVILLE — The community is invited to an open house at the new Lincolnville Community Library and Open Air Museum at 208 Main Street on Saturday, Oct. 26 from 3 to 5 p.m. This will be an opportunity to see all the progress building crews have made on the library and museum and to talk with people who’ve been working on the project. It will also be a chance to help celebrate the dedication of the museum to Jacqueline Young Watts, founder of the Lincolnville Historical Society, in a ceremony beginning at 4 p.m. The open house will include activities for all ages and refreshments will be served. 

    It has been exactly one year since nearly 200 people gathered to grab a long rope and help pull the town’s former one-room schoolhouse across Main Street in Lincolnville Center. Since then a large team of skilled volunteers and professional contractors have been working together to renovate the building and turn it into the new Lincolnville Community Library. They have nearly completed work on the exterior, adding clean white clapboards, a new roof, and refurbished windows, and made significant progress on the interior, which now has an insulated main room. The building addition, which will house a workroom for librarians and a bathroom, has been framed, and drillers recently cleared out the old well on the site and got a good flow of water.  

    Meanwhile, another crew, led by women, has finished building one wooden shed for the museum and nearly completed the second. The finished 24-foot shed will have a marine exhibit for visitors to view during the October 26 open house; the 40-foot shed will be ready for exhibits next summer. Items for future exhibits include a bobsled, ice cutting tools, lime industry artifacts, agricultural implements, and other large objects that will help depict the life of Lincolnville residents in the 19th and early 20th centuries. 

    To volunteers Judy Papian and her husband, Ted Steele, who split their time between Lincolnville and St. Louis, Mo., the project has been a welcome opportunity to meet new people while also doing something for the community.

    “This has been the best year we’ve ever had in Maine,” said Steele. “It’s the first year we’ve really felt connected to Lincolnville. The project has been a real joy.” 

    Papian, a member of the museum crew, also appreciated the opportunity to learn new skills. “I hardly knew how to hammer a nail when we started,” she said. “I loved learning to use the power tools and getting strong enough to do things like pick up a long oak board all by myself.”  

    Museum crew member Lois Lyman also praised the experience.

    “I’m used to being on the dumb end of the tape, but here I’ve been on the smart end at least half the time,” she said, smiling. “It’s given me a chance to try out skills I never had before. Now I know why [my husband] likes woodworking so much.”

    Lyman, who is also the volunteer cataloger for the library, said it has been satisfying to watch the progress of the entire library and museum project and see the level of community involvement. 

    “This started with a small group of dedicated people and others have come on board slowly,” she said. “So many people have contributed money and services. The community is really behind it now.” 

    Members of the Historical Society and Library Committee have raised all but about $28,000 of the $208,000 needed to complete the project through grants from foundations and monetary and in-kind donations from more than 200 individuals and businesses. Crews have worked at the site at least three days a week since last spring, logging countless hours of volunteer labor, and will continue to do so until the project is finished.

    The plan is to move into the new library before the end of the year and begin having extended open hours and regular programing by Jan. 1. The new library will offer an expanded book collection, an online cataloging and checkout system, computers for patron use and free wireless Internet access, and programs for all ages. Meanwhile, the temporary library will continue to be open Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the corner of Main Street and Heal Road. Programs are also scheduled there through December. 

    Donations of time and money are still needed to complete the library project. For more information, call 763-3098.

    Sheila Polson is a writer and editor and also chairman of the Lincolnville Community Library Committee.