Articles
Woodlawn: The Black House – A fine old Maine house museum picks itself up
How long has it been since you visited the incredible three-generational time capsule house museum in Ellsworth, The Black House, or as it is now called, Woodlawn? At least ten years? Never? No wonder. It wasn’t particularly inviting. For 70 years a board of directors, the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations, maintained the museum,
Windfall: The Navy left Winter Harbor a village’s worth of valuable real estate but few kids to fill the local school
“It’s always been a fishing village, that hasn’t changed,” said Bruce MacKay, 85, referring to how the 2002 closure of Naval Security Group Activity/Winter Harbor, the secret, low-key Navy base tucked away in Acadia National Park on the Schoodic peninsula, has affected the town of Winter Harbor. And MacKay should know: he was a freshman
Codes to Art: Signal Flags inspire a Damariscotta artist
“I started using nautical signal flags as part of a bicentennial flag,” said Damariscotta artist Franciska Needham. “I wanted something to symbolize 1976, so I did the numerals 1976 in fabric signal flags embroidered in a satin stitch.” International Signal flags are codes for the alphabet and numbers. That bicentennial flag led Needham to make
The Keeper: How seemingly random events become a career
“Even I am surprised when I meet people at a cocktail party at some occasion where I’m trying to explain myself, I usually say, `Did you ever hear of the National Register?’ And nine times out of ten, they’ll say, `Well, of course,’ said William J. Murtagh, Ph. D., this country’s first Keeper of the
Lobsterman’s Balm
“Fiddling around with potions has always been sort of a hobby,” said Ghislaine Bérubé, who has invented a large lip balm-like tube of beeswax, various oils, and natural, organic botanicals she named Lobsterman’s Balm. She and her husband, James Hughes, both software developers by profession, moved from South Portland to Washington, D.C., in 1998, where
Guns to Butter; Park Service program promotes science and learning, assists towns hurt by base closings
The Park Service formed Acadia Partners for Science and Learning, an independent 501(c)(3). The board of directors hired Dennis O’Brien as its executive director to work with the National Park Service to manage the facility, called Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC). The center is one of 13 such centers funded by Congress. O’Brien said,
Mountain Man A Deer Isle artist-fisherman lives life to the full
“To me, making art is the hardest kind of work,” said Deer Isle artist Larry Moffet, and that’s saying something because the 56-year-old Moffet earns his living as a lobsterman and boatbuilder. He works in oils, watercolors, pastels, woodcuts, cut paper and silver, has taught paper-cutting and has exhibited his work at Deer Isle’s Turtle
Store for All Seasons – Among other things, the Winter Harbor 5
“I can buy in onesies: I can order one item,” declared owner Peter Drinkwater of the merchandise he sells at the Winter Harbor 5 & 10. It’s not that he doesn’t carry a whole lot, it’s that he doesn’t have room to stock everything his customers want. And those customers range from local fishermen and
Getting an edge – Young lobstermen compete, strive and thrive in the fishery
The 2004 graduates of the Marine Technology program at Deer Isle-Stonington High School have been fishing full time for the past season, and the students from the class that will graduate this month fished all last summer and weekends till the end of the season. They are now putting their traps overboard for the 2005
Beaching out SUMMERTIME – An all-volunteer crew takes on a schooner’s yearly maintenance
Bill Brown’s SUMMERTIME exemplifies the term: a labor of love. This love affair goes back to 1974, when then-52-year-old Brooklin boatbuilder George Allen first asked then-25-year-old ship’s carpenter and sailor Brown, “Wouldn’t it be fun to build a pinky schooner?” Brown had never considered building anything larger than a peapod; but he recalled later, “This