BUXTON – Homeowners and historians worry that future plans for the 75-year-old Bar Mills Bridge – a veterans monument – might adversely impact homes two centuries old and the quaint setting on the banks of the Saco River.

“The fears are they’re going to straighten the road and remove houses,” Christian Penney, who lives in a Hollis historic landmark, said Friday as he and neighbors met to discuss the bridge issue.

The Maine Department of Transportation is holding an informational meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 13, in Hollis Town Hall, 34 Town Farm Road, about the Bar Mills Bridge, known locally as Memorial Bridge, over the Saco River that divides Buxton and Hollis.

The preliminary public meeting is an opportunity for the public to speak about the future of what are actually two bridges on Route 4A – Bar Mills Bridge, over the Saco River, and the Canal Bridge, over the Saco River Canal.

Mark Latti, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Transportation, said Friday that the Bar Mills Bridge was built in 1936 and the Canal Bridge in 1937.

“They are nearing the end of their life expectancy,” Latti, said.

Property owners received a letter dated July 25 from the Department of Transportation about the upcoming meeting in Hollis. The neighbors believe options would include repairing or replacing the bridges. But so far, residents have been left to wonder about the state plans while rumors about homes being razed swirl through the community.

“Our major concern is we don’t have information,” said Albert Lemons, who lives in a 200-year-old brick colonial close to the bridge. “We want to know if they’ve made a decision.”

Latti said there are no firm plans for construction or rehabbing the present bridges, but the department has funds now for engineering. But, he said, the new budget cycle began on July 1 and there’s no construction money for the next two years.

“We have not started the engineering process,” Latti said. “We want to hear what the community has to say. We strive to work with communities.”

An informational sheet provided by Hollis resident Greg Wilson estimated replacing the Memorial Bridge would cost several million dollars.

Lemons and his wife, Cecile, have their home, built in about 1810-12, for sale. The uncertainty of state plans is impacting the sale, he said. Lemons said a surveyor had been in his yard taking a reading aimed right through their living room.

“Our real estate agent will no longer show the house because of the potential impact,” Lemons said. “It’s impacting our property and our lives.”

Historians are concerned about the impact of replacing the bridge. Jan Hill, president of the Buxton-Hollis Historical Society, said the area is where Hollis town founders settled. The society fears historic homes would be endangered if a new bridge were constructed.

“We’re wondering whether it’s necessary to destroy a historic village and the quality of life residents struggle to maintain,” Hill said last week. “It’s a beautiful village setting.

When neighbors met at the Lemons home Friday, Penney displayed a history of York County depicting the historic homes in the Hollis-Buxton area. Penney’s home is known as the Usher House, built in the 1820s. He said it was the setting for the children’s book “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,” written in 1903 by Kate Douglas Wiggin.

Penney said the Hollis comprehensive plan designates the area as an historic village. Wilson, who lives in a home built in the 1840s, said neighbors have initiated action to create a historic district in the neighborhood.

A World War I memorial, the Bar Mills bridge, which was erected following a flood, was dedicated in May 1938. Hill said a crowd of 5,000 attended the ceremony. A bronze plaque placed on a rock on the Buxton shore is inscribed with names of Buxton and Hollis World War I veterans.

Wilson believes the bridge itself is eligible to be on the national register. “The bridge is a memorial,” Wilson said.

“They build them and don’t maintain them and when they have structural problems they tear them down and build new ones,” Hill said.

Wilson said the transportation department has established Route 202 as a major transportation corridor. Residents say their Route 4A street has become a shortcut for truckers trying to reach Route 117.

The neighborhood is part of a 3-mile trail loop utilized by walkers, joggers and dog owners. There are several young children in the area and residents feel a new bridge and straightening the road would only encourage speeders and attract more tractor-trailer traffic.

Wilson said neighbors are launching a petition drive to raise awareness of next week’s transportation informational meeting.

With the bridge issue up in the air, the meeting is expected to draw a crowd, as residents hope to hear information from the state about the future of the bridge. “We’re not rabble-rousers,” Albert Lemons said.

The state is considering the fate of Bar Mills Bridge, dedicated
in 1938 to the memory of World War I veterans from Buxton and
Hollis. (Staff photo by Robert Lowell)

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