The voters’ decision to sell the building at 33 Beach Road has given us – the townspeople – something to do – saving the Beach School.

And isn't it just what we need as this dreary summer drags on? I say “dreary”, because even as Maine shows us how glorious she can be in July, when it finally rains a bit, when the sunsets are gorgeous, and the gardens bursting, we all still carry that underlying fear, wondering if life will ever be normal again.

It’s about time for a distraction.

This coming Saturday, August 1 at 11 a.m., we – Rosey Gerry, Brian and Lee Cronin, Jane Hardy, and myself, representatives of the Beach School’s tenants, the LIA and LHS – are holding a meeting at Breezemere Park, a properly socially distanced meeting. Bring your lawn chair, your mask and pen (for signing up for stuff) – but most importantly, bring your ideas and energy.

Help us figure out how we can pull off another Library-scale project for the town, another Community Building-scale renovation, another Tranquility Grange, UCC or Bayshore Baptist-style preservation. Each of these projects, including the Veterans Park and the Breezemere Bandstand itself were the result of volunteer effort. Even our wonderful school building – could our ancestors ever have dreamed of such a school?? – took nearly a million privately raised dollars beyond the state and town’s contribution.

For a town of barely 2,200 people, 50 miles from the nearest city of any size, six miles from the nearest stoplight, and 17 miles from the nearest Walmart, Lincolnville is a pretty lively place.

We have four miles of shorefront on Penobscot Bay, four or five mountains (or at any rate, hills we call mountains), six named ponds, miles of hiking trails, half of a state park, three separate villages (did you know Ducktrap is designated a village?), well-known artists, writers, and musicians, and a historical record as detailed as that of many much larger towns.

That history is evident in our old buildings. Lincolnville has, in addition to dozens of houses built in the 18th and 19th centuries, several old public buildings still in use. These include Bayshore Baptist church, built in 1835; Tranquility Grange, 1907; King Davids Lodge, 1865; Lincolnville Library, 1840s; United Christian Church, 1821, and of course, the Beach Schoolhouse, 1892.

All of these, except the Beach School, have one thing in common: they are all privately-owned, non-profits. The Beach School, following the vote to allow the town to sell it, is currently in limbo.

Here’s a brief history of this building, well-known to many in town, but not, by any means, to all. It’s not unusual for a lifelong Lincolnvillian, touring the Historical Society’s museum upstairs, to say “this is the first time I’ve ever been inside this place!”

It was built in 1892, probably replacing an earlier school on the site, as the District 17 schoolhouse. Yes, there were seventeen school districts in Lincolnville, each with its own school. It’s doubtful if all were running at once, as they opened or closed as the neighborhood population of children dictated.

These were, for the most part, simple one-room structures, heated with a woodstove, an outhouse – attached or not, no running water or electricity. Lighting was what came through the windows; it was common for a one-room school to have a long wall of windows; the Library, once the District 4 or Center School, is a good example of that.

In 1947 the town built its first consolidated school, a four-room structure, which stood on the site of today’s Lincolnville Central School. That marked the end of the remaining five District one-room schools. Those were Center, Beach, Youngtown, Wiley, and Millertown, and in the fall of 1948 they closed for good. Those last three are commemorated with signs where they stood.

Soon after closing as a school the Beach building became a meeting place for the Village Improvement Society, later renamed Lincolnville Improvement Association. There may have been some agreement with the town for the group to use it and maintain it. As the years went by volunteers, members of the LIA, added a kitchen, a furnace, the bell on the roof, did foundation and siding repairs, and many paint jobs.

I remember a toilet that burned up the waste – not sure what that was, but it needed to go! Eventually a real flush with an outdoor, in-ground holding tank was installed. One winter I helped Al Matheison insulate the pipes that ran along the ceiling of the dining room from the kitchen to the bathroom so we could use the flush year-round.

These improvements were financed by an enormous summer rummage sale, first instituted by Lena Brooks and held at the Beach in Stanton Collemore’s yard. That would be two doors north of Chez Michel. Of course this is the only way to tell a Maine story; as we all know, Chez Michel’s is no more, and Stanton, for whom the Beach Fire Station is named, has been gone for decades.

When Lee Cronin took over running the sale, it was held at the Beach School, known to most by that time as the LIA Building. It took a crew of a dozen or more a week to sort and price the mountain of stuff that came in. It was generally beastly hot that week, but the sale took in enough money to make it worthwhile.

The main mission of the LIA, in addition to plantings at the Beach, was giving out scholarships to Lincolnville students. Even as the rummage sale gave way to a different summer fund-raiser – the Blueberry Wingding – the bulk of the money raised seemed to be going to maintenance of the building, not scholarships.

Some five or so years ago, the LIA asked the town to take over maintenance of the building that the town had owned all along, with the LIA leasing it.

Two years ago the town arranged for an assessment of the building’s condition. The results were a whopping $650,000 estimate to fix all its ills, including a new roof, foundation, and support of the second floor.

The Selectmen put a great deal of research, talk, and thought into the way forward.

By this time, the building was getting more and more use. It had become the Lincolnville Women’s Club place to gather monthly, and a place to hold wedding receptions and anniversary parties. For the past many years – I have a photo of my now 45-year-old son dressed as an elf, helping Santa – the LIA has sponsored a hugely popular community Christmas party after the annual Beach tree lighting. As a friend put it, “think how many Lincolnville children met Santa for the first time at that party!”

It’s the second floor of the building that probably gave Selectmen the most pause.

In the early 1990s the Lincolnville Historical Society had staked out the original schoolroom (the first floor was basically unfinished space during its years as a school) as their museum, renting the space from the LIA. That rent (a mere $200 a year at the start) helped pay for heat and electricity, costs the LIA carried.

Around 2002 the LHS added an office over the downstairs kitchen, giving them space to store stuff. The schoolroom, including the original blackboard filled with the signatures of former students who signed it when they visited – all but one or two have since passed away – is today filled with displays of life in Lincolnville.

One alcove is labeled “On the Bay” and another “Farm Life”.

There are displays commemorating veterans, Civil War memorabilia, domestic life, archaeology, several large maps, and a timeline tracing events right up to the present day.

The office contains dozens of photo albums, arranged by family, by houses, by areas of town. Archival boxes are stacked on shelves (23 shelves by last count), each box numbered and recorded in the PastPerfect museum software originally acquired through MBNA’s Camden Area History Center.

When the town’s assessment team looked into the framing of the second floor by removing a small portion of the downstairs ceiling, they determined that the joists were inadequate to the weight of the stuff upstairs.

This probably doomed the way forward for the Selectmen. Their insurance company saw a liability with the public coming in. The building doesn’t meet current codes. The town can’t continue to own this public building in its present condition, and the price tag was staggering.

The Selectmen did the only thing that seemed feasible. Sell a structure that couldn’t meet current codes for a town-owned, public building.

But several folks in town, on seeing the estimate, want to have local contractors take a look at the problem areas and see if we can come up with more realistic figures, as well as an extended time-line of ongoing restoration. That’s what we’ll be talking about Saturday, that and how we can raise the money to do it.

So plan to come by on Saturday; we’re excited to get started!

School

Everyone’s wondering: what will school be like this coming year? Our new Union 69 School Superintendent Kathryn Clark has sent out a letter outlining the procedures the school administration is following in determining when and how school will open this year. The LCS School Committee meets via Zoom Monday, August 3 at 6 p.m. Agenda items include a discussion of school opening and of solar panels. To get the Zoom link email.

Blueberry Swingding

Summer has traditionally been the time Mainers made money to take them through the rest of the year, especially true here on the coast. As we’re all too aware, it’s not happening this year.

Fishermen, farmers, restaurants and motel workers, shop owners, summer camps, and even nonprofits suffer when the summer folks don’t come. The LIA, which has depended on its August Blueberry Pancake Breakfast, raffle, and bake sale, has had to come up with an alternate plan.

They’re calling it the Blueberry Swingding, and it will be held Saturday, August 8, 8 a.m. to noon at the Beach. Sorry, but there’ll be no pancake breakfast, but instead blueberry baked goods and jam on sale, and an option to pre-order whole blueberry pies. Contact Lee at 236-0028 by August 3 to order a pie, $15 each.

For LIA members who will be baking, blueberries will be handed out Wednesday, Aug. 5, 4:30-6 p.m. at the LIA building.

Condolences

Sympathy to the family of Betty Amborn, who passed away last week. Special condolences to Charlie, who, along with the family, cared for her through her illness.

Rooster Pot Pie

I’m not crazy about naming the critters we eat, or even characterizing them, but this weekend we put an end to a henyard rampage when we dispatched three young roosters. They’d been terrorizing the hens – three is way too many of these guys – and we decided to give the ladies a break.

So on the hottest day yet we boiled a pot of water, Ed reviewed the method his father used and decided to improve on it, and he and Tracee got at it. I pretended to have something to do in the house, figuring they didn’t need me micromanaging. I watched from the shop window, and sure enough, just as his father and I, Ed and his wife were a good team.

By the end of it we had nine rooster pot pies in the freezer, and a kettle full of delicious broth for future soups. But I wish we could have picked a cooler day!