NORWAY — Attempting to balance the area’s architectural heritage with the current and future needs of the community, the Western Foothills Land Trust has – with community input and professional guidance – decided to take down the historic Pike Roberts farmhouse in Norway.

The Western Foothills Land Trust has owned the 1823 Pike-Roberts farmhouse since 2009 when the Trust purchased the structure and 3.5 acres from local historian and author Peter Lenz. Tragically, the extended farmhouse suffered a chimney fire which started in the ell in 2004.

While the ell was a total loss, the main 2-story house, comprised of 4 rooms, suffered smoke and fire damage to the roof, frame, exterior sheathing, and interior panels. A newer poured foundation on the east side had been unsettled by water and the north and west granite foundations were subsequently disturbed and the sills damaged.

The Trust purchased the parcel in December of 2009 for several reasons. It wanted to protect the entrance to Roberts Farm Preserve, to tell the cultural history of the Pike- Roberts farm, and to acquire land adjacent to the Preserve for a future home for the Trust, possibly rehabilitating the historic structure for that use.

The initial 161 acres of Roberts Farm Preserve were purchased in part with Land For Maine’s Future funding and are encumbered by the state with only minor support structures for conservation, education, or agriculture permitted with prior approval.

The Trust worked with Barba+Wheelock Architecture and Preservation and Richardson Association Landscape Architects in 2017 and 2018 to draft plans for buildings and grounds to house future educational and agricultural programs as well as offices for the Trust.

Since 2011, many non-profit partners have made do with two portable classrooms and port-a-loos, student-built sheds and hoop houses to provide programming and fresh produce for a thankful community.

The Trust’s architectural and site plans while modest, aim to establish a useful campus of creative spaces that will be flexible enough to accommodate changing needs in a changing climate. Future planned structures include a large barn-inspired building which will house Trust offices, multi-use classroom spaces, rental spaces, and a large timber framed meeting area.

Improved parking and access for school buses, a roofed open-air pavilion, and an agricultural barn are also in the designs. The project has been divided into three phases for planning and funding. The demolition of the historic farmhouse is the first step of the first phase of the Trust’s plans for the campus.

During the two-year planning process, the Trust’s committee and architects identified the programmatic needs envisioned by the Trust and its partners on site and worked to develop two parallel plans for the 1.2-acre campus: one plan with the historic home, and the other without it. Near the end of the planning period the committee was asked to make a choice based upon practical and educational needs and chose to remove the historic home.

According to Executive Director Lee Dassler,  this was not an easy decision, nor one quickly made. The Trust then worked with a potential buyer who wished to move the house to another site. Unfortunately, the structure’s condition and the cost of moving a two-story building were prohibitive.

This winter’s crowded parking area at the warming hut elevated the Trust’s need to launch Phase I fund-raising to improve the parking situation for next year and to begin Phase I site work by removing the historic structure. Deconstruction and demolition work, to be undertaken by Scott and Janet Everett’s crew is to begin soon respecting road conditions.

Peter Lenz should be recognized for his work attempting to restore the four-room historic home and extensive ell, said Dassler.

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