LINCOLNVILLE — Oct. 27 will be a historic day in Lincolnville, as the 19th century one-room Center School will be literally rolled across Route 52/173 by a group of Lincolnville residents to its new home on the former site of the Dean & Eugley Garage.

"Man power will pull it across the road," said Jim Dunham Wednesday morning, just days ahead of the planned relocation. In the days leading up to the move, Dunham, Paul Cartwright, Tom May and Doug Thompson have been working with others to "lift" the 25-foot by 34-foot building and place timbers and narrow steel pipes underneat the frame to allow it to "roll" to its new location across the road.

Lincolnville Police Chief Ron Young said Route 52/173 will be closed Saturday from 9 to 11 a.m. and traffic diverted at Drake Store (Beach Road) and Petunia Pump (Route 235) during the move.

Having served as one the town's schools, the building is slated to be transformed into a new town library and historical exhibit center.

“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,“ said Diane O’Brien, Lincolnville’s historian.

The Boat Club this past spring 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. Lincolnville's Planning Board approved the plan in August. Terms of the 20-year lease require a $1 payment per year. Payment is to be made in advance.

Prior to that, the old Dean & Eugley Garage property across the road had been designated a brownfield because of the petroleum waste in its soil and the town acquired it for tax delinquency. Some in the community wondered then if a resourceful committee, with the help of volunteers and residents, could 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 toward the campaign.

Following the necessary commercial site plan review and DEP approval, among other requirements, the “Move It” effort continued to move along.  A crew of eager building movers formed, including Paul Cartwright, Tom May and Jim Dunham, and they ultimately came up with a plan to move it using "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 culminated in Saturday's planned building relocation.

At an earlier series of community visioning meetings held in 2009, residents expressed the need for a town library. Another local committee of former librarians and avid readers 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, as committee members have been busily designing the interior of their new building. 

Other plans for the lot — a piece with about 200-feet 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,” said O’Brien in a press release.  She said that the building is meant to be green and efficient, with as many energy-saving features as are affordable, and 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," said O'Brien.

Anyone who would like to help pull and move the building can call 789-5987 for more details, or just show up on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. to register and prepare for the move, which starts at 9 a.m.