RUMFORD – When industrialist Hugh Chisholm built Strathglass Park in 1901, his plan was to provide affordable housing for the new paper mill’s growing number of employees.
Now, a century later, the sturdy brick, one- and two-family homes are still an important part of Rumford’s history. Some of the homes have fallen on hard times, and some need restoration and repairs. The housing park was one of Maine’s first planned housing communities.
To try to bring some of these architecturally significant homes back to their original glory, a 15-person Strathglass Park Committee was formed last month.
Town Manager Steve Eldridge, an architecture and history enthusiast, has included the restoration of Strathglass Park, with its 40 or so brick homes located within its granite gates, in the town’s overall revitalization plan. He is leading the move to improve the housing park.
He said on Monday that the town is surveying the parcel on which the homes sit to try to find space for vehicles. Parking is very limited in the enclosed development because cars weren’t important when it was designed and built, he said.
He, and the committee, are also searching for grants or low-interest loans that could be used to spruce up the building’s facades or make other repairs.
Maine Preservation, a nonprofit organization based in Portland, named Strathglass Park as one of the state’s most important endangered buildings or historic sites this past summer. Because of the designation, a representative from the organization will provide no-cost construction consulting on what should be done, said Eldridge.
He is also planning to apply for a $100,000 House and Garden Television Restore America grant that could help with construction work. Up to 12 such grants are available to nonprofit and public agencies that are focusing on rehabilitation of historic housing, according to the HGTV Web site. The planned housing park is on the National Register of Historic Places. Deadline for submission is Nov. 30.
Besides parking and repairs to homes, any funding received would also be used to redo or build sidewalks or streets, clean up overgrown vegetation, and spruce up parts of the complex.
A group of at least 30 property owners and landlords have been meeting on the possibility of restoring the housing park for the past two months.
The next meeting, open to all tenants or owners in Strathglass Park, will be scheduled in mid-November.
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