The program seeks to raise awareness and create positive rescue solutions for historic properties.
By Gail Geraghty
Staff Writer

NORWAY – Maine Preservation will announce its list of Maine’s Most Endangered Historic Properties in a Thursday press conference in front of the Norway Opera House in the heart of downtown Norway.

Anne Campbell, Main Street Program Manager for Norway Downtown Revitalization, has invited members on her e-mail list to attend the conference, set for 11 a.m.

Maine Preservation Executive Director Roxanne Eflin declined to say whether the Norway Opera House had made the list, given the choice of the setting for this year’s press conference.

“We’re doing it at the Opera House because it’s really a great backdrop for what we are announcing,” Eflin said. The private nonprofit organization, formed in 1971, has listed 50 structures and sites, including barns, neighborhood schools and downtowns, since it began its Maine’s Most Endangered Historic Properties program in 1996.

Five properties made the 2002 list, including the Clarence Mulford House in Fryeburg. The house was home to the author who created 28 “Hopalong Cassidy” novels and has since been bought by a person who intends to restore it.

Modeled after the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s America’s 11 Most Endangered program, Maine Preservation’s endangered property program seeks to raise public awareness and create positive rescue solutions for significant historic properties that are threatened by deterioration, disuse and, possibly, demolition.

Many of the 50 properties identified so far have been rescued and only two have been lost to demolition, according to information posted on the Maine Preservation Web site. Being named to the list gives a property an edge when applying for federal historic preservation grant funding.

ggeraghty@sunjournal.com

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