NEW GLOUCESTER – Selectmen on Monday supported taking steps to apply to the National Register of Historic Places to list the old exhibition hall at the New Gloucester Fairgrounds. Built in the 1890s, it is now a barn.
New Gloucester Historical Society members Leonard Brooks and Nancy Wilcox outlined the history of the hall, which was built as part of the Danville-New Gloucester Agricultural Society Fairgrounds.
Brooks, who is society president, fielded questions concerning restrictions that might be required as part of listing on the register. “If you put the property on the national register, it protects the property to a limited extent,” Brooks said.
New Gloucester’s lower village, the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village and the 1839 Universalist Meeting House on Route 231 are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Shaker Village is also deemed a National Historic Landmark.
Today the vacant barn is the only remaining structure at the 31-acre Bald Hill Road facility, which over time was named the Royal River Park and Trotters Park.
New Gloucester voters approved the purchase of the facility and its half-mile track, which was used to race and train trotters and pacers until the late 1980s.
Today the track is open to pedestrians. An ice skating rink was opened this winter for the first time.
Wilcox has amassed 45 pages of history and photographs of the fairgrounds. The material will be released soon to the public.
“I want to go after reuse grants,” she said. Her priorities include installing windows and a new roof first. “We have quite a treasure trove of craftsmen in this town and could get them under cover for Community Day,” she said.
Brooks said the federal register listing would give the fairgrounds a “step up” when applying to private foundations for funds. “It shows a certain degree of integrity and shows extra interest and care for a property” he said.
The process takes about a year from start to finish, he said.
The first step will be to complete an application, which is sent to the Maine Historic Preservation Commission for review. If the project is worthy, the application will be sent on to the federal Interior Department to be put on the national register.
The program is voluntary, said Brooks, noting the applicant can drop out of the program at any point, even after approval.
Cliff Andrews, who heads the New Gloucester Fairgrounds Committee, said Pine Tree Networks will help clean out the barn in July as a community service project. The track will be dragged next. Also, renovation projects of the interior fields have been successful, with grass planting and soil restoration this spring.
In other business, Steve Libby was renamed chairman of the Board of Selectmen and Kevin Sullivan as vice chairman.
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