Auburn, Bath, Belgrade, Readfield places make 2019 endangered list

YARMOUTH — Properties in Auburn, Bath, Belgrade and Readfield, are among those on the 2019 Maine Preservation Most Endangered Historic Places list.
The list was announced Sept. 11. Maine Preservation is the only statewide nonprofit membership organization promoting and preserving historic places, buildings, downtowns and neighborhoods, and strengthening the cultural and economic vitality of Maine communities. The Most Endangered Historic Places List began in 1996 for the purpose of identifying and raising public awareness about preserving threatened historic properties. Since that time 165 places have been included on the list of which 60 have been saved, 36 are currently undergoing preservation, and 20 have been lost. This year’s list highlights nine irreplaceable historic treasures — the Charles A. Jordan House, Auburn; the Callendar House, Bar Harbor; the Old Town House, Belgrade; the Readfield Union Meetinghouse, Readfield; the Chaloner House, Lubec; the Fales Homestead, Thomaston; the Tallman House, Bath; Fort Gorges, Portland; and the Camps and Cottages of Maine. For more information on each of the listings, visit: www.mainepreservation.org/most-endangered.
Central and mid-coast Maine places on the list include:

Charles A. Jordan House, Auburn
Since 1880, the Charles A. Jordan House has held a place of prominence within the Lewiston-Auburn area. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and deemed “one of the most ornate Victorian homes in the [area] if not the State of Maine.” The owner and architect Charles A. Jordan designed a number of buildings nearby, including Edward Little High School, the Stanley Dry Plate Factory, the Avon Mill, and many private residences. Jordan lived here until his death, when the house was sold to Deacon David French. (The home is alternatively known as the Deacon French House.) In the 1940s, William J. LeBrun converted the property into a 10-room boarding house (known as the Academy House) and the building has been owned and operated by the LeBrun family ever since.
A 2018 act of arson ravaged the house. Quick action by the owners temporarily shored up the roof and stabilized the structure, but considerable and timely restoration efforts must be made to halt further deterioration, and to make the building habitable. The Charles A. Jordan House requires immediate investment. As an income-producing property, it is eligible for federal and state historic tax credits.
The owners hope that the rehabilitated structure, which holds a place in the hearts of many Auburn residents, will once again serve the needs of the community.

Henry Tallman House, Bath
The 1820s Tallman House is an outstanding Federal and Greek Revival-style house remodeled in the 1840s by Henry Tallman. Tallman was a prominent resident of Bath and a former attorney general of Maine who later served as a judge on the Bath Municipal Court. His home stands high on a hill overlooking the city and the Kennebec River, with a large cupola, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a wrap-around porch girded by fluted columns.
The interior is a treasure with a curved Federal-style staircase, striking black and white marble fireplaces, unusual pocket doors that are raised like window sashes, and a beehive oven in the kitchen
Bath is still experiencing the effects of the last economic downturn with more than 30 vacant houses awaiting resolution of mortgage disputes. Abandoned by its most recent owners, the Tallman House has been vacant for more than four years.
The mortgage holder pays property taxes but has made no move to foreclose and release the property back to the real estate market. The house is in need of substantial and critical repairs–including a new roof–before it becomes unsalvageable.
Maine Preservation has the capacity and desire to assist the owner in selling the property to someone who will stabilize and rehabilitate the house. Maine Preservation calls on the mortgagee to enter into a dialogue about the property’s future and aid its transition to a new owner.

Old Town House, Belgrade
In 1813, Belgrade required a formal place for its town meetings which, until that time, had been held in private residences. As a result, officials raised $200 dollars to construct a “town house” next to the burying ground (now known as the Woodside Cemetery).

Old Town House, Belgrade (Maureen Milliken photo)
Completed in 1815, the Old Town House is one of Belgrade’s oldest buildings. Annual meetings were held in the single-story, post-and-beam structure from 1815 until 1872, as was the 1819 vote to separate from Massachusetts. After the building was used as a quarantine site during a smallpox epidemic, meetings were moved to the local masonic hall.
From 1873 to 1918 the building was used by the Woodside Cemetery. Pursuant to the wishes of Belgrade’s citizens, the Town of Belgrade recently entered into an agreement with the Belgrade Historical Society to allow the society to preserve and restore the Old Town House and use it for display and meeting space.
An assessment of the structure by the Belgrade Historical Society identified several critical issues, most significantly that the building’s frame is infested with wood beetles and there is dangerous water infiltration.
The Belgrade Historical Society, understanding the significance of this building to the community, has launched a $200,000 capital campaign to restore the old meetinghouse and has already raised over $75,000 toward this goal. Meeting the full campaign goal means the society can protect this local landmark and transform it into a useful space for current and future generations.

Readfield Union Meetinghouse, Readfield
The Readfield Union Meeting House is significant both for its architecture, which is unusually refined, and for its key role in the Readfield community. When the Meeting House was built in 1828, the rural area surrounding Readfield Corner had several congregations, but they lacked the numbers and resources to construct their own church buildings. These congregations came together to build the Union

Interior of Readfield Union Meeting House (Submitted photo)
Meeting House as a multi-denominational meeting place, with each congregation using the building some of the time. The meetinghouse continued to serve this purpose until the mid-20th century, when the local congregations were finally able to build their own buildings, and the Union Meeting House fell out of regular use. Built by Richard Mace, Jere Page, and Francis Hunt without an architect, the building is the second- oldest brick church in Maine, with a frame and clapboard tower that includes a clock and an octagonal belfry. Several of the sanctuary’s arched windows have stenciled stained glass, which is only found in one other church in Maine.
The building’s most striking, significant, and famous feature is its incredible tromp l’oeil decoration, which was added in 1866 -1868 and covers all four walls and the ceiling of the sanctuary. This work is considered to be the finest example of tromp l’oeil in Maine. The painting is attributed to the artist Charles Schumacher, who is known to have painted about 51 other buildings in Maine.
This may be the only remaining, intact example of his work. The Union Meeting House has suffered from years of disuse. Despite ongoing maintenance efforts, the building remains threatened due to its age, the fragility of the murals, and the steep expense of rehabilitation and maintenance.
Today, the building is owned and maintained by the Readfield Union Meeting house Company which has been rehabilitating the structure and needs to raise $600,000 to complete its five-year restoration project. The nonprofit’s plan includes replication and resurrection of the spire. With sufficient financial assistance, the Readfield Union Meeting house Company will be able to continue efforts to stabilize and maintain the Union Meeting House, with the goal of using the building for concerts, events, and community meetings.

Also on the list are Maine Camps & Cottages
The bucolic ideal of a Maine camp or cottage is inextricably linked to the history of the Pine Tree State. In defined areas along the coast, such as at Mount Desert Island and Prouts Neck, large-scale and sometimes year-round cottages were built by summer residents –“rusticators”– who arrived by ferry and train to escape cities to the south. More typical along the coast were modest, small-scale cottages. Inland, an array of rustic camps permitted Mainers and visitors to get back to nature and enjoy the healthful benefits of fresh air, the outdoors, and simple pursuits such as fishing, boating and hunting Current design trends have led to the wholesale removal of historic features in old camps and cottages, stripping them of their character and authentic qualities. Other classic getaways are being demolished and replaced with gargantuan structures that loom over neighboring homes and change the scale, views, and historic access points of rural communities As one camp steward says, “We don’t consider ourselves to be the owners of our camp. Instead, we consider ourselves to be its newest stewards. The owners and their descendants cared for the camp and its story for more than 100 years, and we are privileged to have the honor of doing so for the years to come.” Maine Preservation believes that the following efforts will lead to improved outcomes for our state’s historic camps and cottages:
* Educating owners about ways to modernize and update cottages and camps without destroying the durable historic materials that give them their character * Celebrating the authentic sense of place and history that characterize Maine’s vacation places and their role as an escape from the hyper-connected world in which we live * Instilling preservation principles and locally protecting historic camps and cottages * Limiting the scale of new houses based on their surrounding.

TOP PHOTO: Harry Tallman House, Bath (Submitted photo)