Last week, I spun a yarn about my journey from my office in Camden, up Atlantic Highway to my home, and the businesses I have interacted with along the way. As I only work at the Camden office every other Saturday, last Saturday morning, I took a trip inland, up Beach Road, toward the Center.

But first, a glaring omission from last week’s column: Viking Lumber!

It was Monroe’s in my childhood, but Viking’s Lincolnville Beach store is a frequent stop for any home owner or contractor in the area. I learned as a young man that Vikings had a charge account in my parents’ name, and I may have taken advantage of this fact. Sorry to my late old man, thanks for the paint in 2005…. 

Back to last Saturday’s adventures.

Leaving home, I must self-promote the business here at Sleepy Hollow,  Sleepy Hollow Rag Rugs. Recycled clothes, woven on the old barn loom into beautiful floor rugs. Diane and Tracee O’Brien continue a tradition of Yankee thriftiness. And, like many small farmsteads across town, we might have eggs for sale; in the entrance to the shop is the egg fridge.

Heading toward the Center, just past Stephen’s Corner, (the intersection of Youngtown and Beach roads) is Dolce Vita Farm and Bakery.

Rose Lowell has a brick oven, where she bakes bread and other goodies. Follow her on Facebook, or the Lincolnville Bulletin Board, to learn what is coming out of Il Forno (the oven) this weekend. The Friday pizza nights should not be missed.

Western Auto. As I continue up Beach Road, a bit beyond Dolce Vita, on the right stands the last vestige of a chain from the past, Young and Hickey’s Western Auto. The place to get your studded tires put on or taken off, salt for your water filtration system, auto parts, or, if you’re me, a can of Moxie and trash bags for a weekend dump run.

At the intersection of Beach Road and Camden Road, you are hitting the Center proper. Drake Corner Market, Lincolnville’s last remaining gas station, resides here. If there is a true “center” to Lincolnville, it is Drake’s. Gas, pizza, chips, adult beverage, check. Arrive any morning, and the long table is full of a rotating cast of locals. 

During the Pandemic, in the winter of 2020-21, when inside dining was banned, they actually had a burning barrel in the parking lot, where these gentlemen could still gather with their morning coffee and egg sandwiches, and discuss the state of the world.

Here, Beach Road becomes Main Street. I drive past Norton’s Pond and the Breezemere Park Gazebo, where the Lincolnville Town Band still performs on summer evenings. (Once upon a time, I was a terrible clarinetist in the LTB.) 

I pass the Library and the old fire station (now the home of the Lincolnville Boat Club, the place to teach your youngsters to sail).

At the end of the Center proper, at the intersection of Main Street, Heal and Belfast roads, stands the Lincolnville Center General Store. The Center store of my youth, this stately old building has been refurbished, and is serving wood-fired pizza and various other baked goods, a fine selection of wines, and an astonishing array of pantry items.

They don’t have a room of arcade games anymore, but I was eying the frozen dumplings in the freezer that stands where the Ms Pac-Man machine used to reside. Fair trade.

Two convenience stores, less than a mile apart, and they co-exist. They are incredibly different, even though you can get a slice of pizza and a beverage at either one. Different vibes, but most of us locals float easily between the two – wood fired artisan pizza from the Center General one night, a classic pepperoni and pineapple from Drake’s the next. 

And of course, I must not neglect to mention all the other artisans, contractors, and side hustlers who make their living on the roads of this little town.

Simon Van Der Ven (my art teacher at Camden Rockport High School): his studio is in the Center, where he crafts amazing pottery. Janet Redfield creates art in stained glass from her Salamander Road studio. Jordan Adam’s jewelry studio. Antje Roitzsch jewelry and hanging sculptures. Randy Fein creates ceramic art. Megan Flynn, the potter’s studio behind the Boat Club, where the library building once stood, before we moved it.. Ducktrap Woodworking. Reach out to me, because this is just a small sample of what we do in this town.

Liz Hand’s Musings on The Center

I reached out to my friend and Center resident, writer Elizabeth Hand, for her thoughts on Lincolnville Center.

Ah, life in the Center!  Well, to me it really *does* feel like the center of the universe — always something going on (even if it's just cars, pickups and 18-wheelers ignoring the 25 mph speed limit and barreling god knows where).

Kids walking or skateboarding or bicycling, people (mostly women, sometimes me) walking briskly in twos and threes, dog walkers (and occasionally solo dogs enjoying brief freedom before the LBB [Lincolnville Bulletin Board] lights up with a Missing Dog alert and the pets are reunited with their owners; people hanging out over coffee, breakfast sandwiches or muffins at the general store, same at Drake's Corner Store at the other end of the Center (where you can also gas up and buy your Power Ball tickets), myriad events at the beautiful library (which has a lovely garden with benches, a great spot to take a break from searching for that runaway dog) .  

There's an amazing sense of community for those of us who live there — our house is across from Petunia Pump so I have a perfect Jessica Fletcher (Murder She Wrote) view of any goings-on.  A friend who lives nearby grumbles occasionally about living in a fishbowl but I love it. About 15 years ago, there was much discussion on revitalizing the Center, which was really at low ebb at the time [Diane and Wally O’Brien] and I would talk about it endlessly over Sunday dinners with friends.  One year I stood up at town meeting and pointed out that from my house, I could see seven vacant houses or buildings (some derelict).  

That has all changed utterly, for the good.  We moved the library, the old fire station is now the boat club and a pottery, the general store is thriving, as is the UCC community building. And of course there's Norton Pond, with ice fishing and lawnmower and snowmobile races in the winter, and swimming and boating in the summer, along with picnics or hanging out at the Breezemere Park gazebo.  

Just up the road, Tranquility Grange awaits a makeover that I hope will take place before long.  The Center is a wonderful, bustling place to live or visit, imho — the folks in those speeding vehicles. should slow down and check us out!

A Musical Success and Spring Cleaning

While I was checking out the local businesses, my wife was with my son, breaking down the set of the Middle School Musical, Frozen Jr. Kim Murphy and Susan Iltis did an incredible job directing a very ambitious production. Two sold out shows, and the student performers were incredible. And I have had Disney songs stuck in my head all weekend.

Arriving home, Tracee decided to tackle cleaning up our sons’ room. It is that time of year. As he days get longer, and the weather gets a bit warmer, some of us feel the need to declutter our living space.

Well, not me. Instead, I took my boy to the cast party at Freya’s gelato parlor in Rockport, but I am grateful to live with someone who sees the warm (ish) breeze as an excuse to open the windows and make this old farmhouse a bit more presentable.

Okay my fellow Lincolnvillains. Let me know at ceobrien246@gmail.com which local businesses I forgot this week. Also, I am thinking about writing about the businesses from the past which are no longer here. What stores do you remember? Be well, and be good!