LEWISTON — A picture in the newspaper inspired local painter Melinda Campbell to visit the Cowan Mill on Saturday.
Scott Taylor/Sun Journal
Local painter Melinda Campbell works on her version of the ruins of the Cowan Mill. It reminded her of the ruins of the Roman Coliseum, she said. She was one of hundreds who came to Veterans Park Saturday afternoon to look at the ruined building, destroyed in a massive fire on Wednesday.
"The way it is now, it looks like the Roman Coliseum — the ruins," she said. "I just have to paint it."
Campbell was one of hundreds who visited Veterans Park in Lewiston on Saturday to pay their respects to the Cowan Mill, destroyed by a massive fire on Wednesday.
Most came equipped with digital cameras. Campbell brought her easel, a canvas and paints.
"Somebody came and said the city wants to demolish it by Wednesday," she said. "So today was the opportunity. It's sad."
City officials have scheduled a hearing at 11 a.m. Tuesday in Androscoggin County Superior Court, seeking a legal order to demolish the building. They said Friday that they hope to be ready to begin knocking the building down as soon as that order is signed.
Investigators from the Maine State Police, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Lewiston Police have declared the fire an act of arson. No arrest has been made, but Lewiston Police Lt. Mike McGonagle said police are following some leads.
"We've been interviewing witnesses and hopefully, we'll be able to bring this to a conclusion in the next few days," he said.
The fire began just after 4 p.m. Wednesday and consumed the 159-year-old mill building in a matter of hours. All that remains are several stories of brick wall and the smokestack.
Spectators had been coming all day, Ace Security guard Lewis Crafts said. He'd been stationed on the road in front of the old mill, near the entrance to Espo's Trattoria since emergency crews cleared out. His job has been to make sure the curious don't venture too close to the old husk of a building.
"Its extremely dangerous in there right now," Crafts said. "You can't let anyone near it because one brick might fall, then the whole thing would come down and someone would get hurt."
So far, no one has ventured closer than the street. People stop to look at the building, take a few snapshots and move on. Crafts figured that no fewer than 50 people had stopped by Veterans Park to look at the wreckage during the first three hours of his evening shift.
Dennis and Nadine Bellmore of Lewiston came to snap some pictures of the building's remains and the nearby Great Falls. Neither had family who worked in the mill but some had worked in the nearby Hill Mill.
"It was a piece of Lewiston's history, and it's a shame to see it go," he said. Both work in Portland and hadn't been able to get downtown until Saturday.
"We tried Wednesday, to see the fire," he said. "But we just couldn't get close. And we tried again Thursday, but we couldn't see anything."
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I don't see anywhere in the
I don't see anywhere in the story that the artist is planning on getting paid by anyone for the painting she is doing. That was a strange comment to make - and so what if she did? She would be making money off of hard work, and talent. Most likely she is doing it for herself.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.I wonder how much she thinks
I wonder how much she thinks she will get paid for painting this.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.I live in Texas, but a
I live in Texas, but a friend in Maine keeps me current on the news in your state. It saddens me that you have lost such a treasure. I hope the people responsible are caught and punished.
I used to live in Milwaukee. They recently had a serious fire there, too. Two young men setting off military flares in their backyard accidentally started a fire that nearly destroyed a meatpacking plant a block away. It burned for three days, and was the largest single building fire in Wisconsin history.
I mention this because it was covered by CNN and made me wonder if the story "inspired" whoever set the Cowan Mill fire.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Let's preserve this land
Let's preserve this land people, before these city councilors give it away to some greedy speculator. We need someone to get going and get this done right!
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