GRAY, Maine (AP) – From the late 1930s to the late ’70s, Rock Rest in Kittery Point provided a safe haven from de-facto segregation faced by African-American travelers. Now vacant and in need of repair, the former summer guest house was recently nominated to the National Register of Historic Places.

Rock Rest is among the sites on Maine Preservation’s annual list of Maine’s Most Endangered Historic Resources. The nonprofit group emphasized green projects as it released its latest list.

It also includes historic railroad buildings across the state, such as the Greenville Junction Depot near Moosehead Lake and a former Maine Central Railroad freight shed in Hallowell. The group says buildings like those could see new life as part of a cleaner Maine transportation network.

Leaders of the 1,100-member organization released their 13th annual list Tuesday at the Pennell Institute in Gray, a former school and one of the targeted sites. Like other former school buildings across Maine, Pennell’s are deteriorating due to lack of use and deferred maintenance, says Maine Preservation.

“Preservation is recycling on a large scale, and we can reduce our impact on the environment and save energy by adaptively reusing buildings and their durable historic materials rather than carting them to the landfill,” said Executive Director Greg Paxton. “This is good old Yankee conservatism at its best.”

The list includes the long-vacant Free Will Baptist Church in Bowdoinham and the United Baptist Church in Lewiston, whose congregation has dwindled and whose building is distressed.

Also listed is Portland’s Masonic Temple and Maine’s municipal tax valuation lists, which the preservation group sees as imperiled and irreplaceable records of buildings that are vulnerable to decay or being discarded.

Maine Preservation says reusing existing buildings can be cheaper and produce more energy savings than constructing a new one, even if it’s built to green standards. It also advocates the re-use of “old growth wood” from historic buildings, which preservationists say is more dense and more durable than softer new-growth wood available today.

By appearing on the list, individual properties become eligible for a $500 matching grant from Maine Preservation in order to facilitate fundraising for their rescue.

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