A former Bar Mills store, seen here in 1974, has been razed to make way for housing. Contributed / Buxton-Hollis Historical Society
Making way for a home
An old building on the banks of the Saco River on Depot Street in Bar Mills dating back to the 1870s was recently demolished to make way for a home.
Buxton Code Enforcement Officer Patti McKenna said a single-family, two-story residence is planned for the property owned by Austin and Aaron Gregory of Biddeford.
The old building had once served as a store, a grain mill and more recently as a glass company.
“The building has not had a good use in many years, has been vacant and deteriorated,” Brent Hill of the Buxton-Hollis Historical Society said.
The building housed Meserve’s Store in 1872, becoming one of five Meserve’s retail outlets in Bar Mills, according to Hill. By the 1930s, it became the Soule Brothers Grain Mill. Grain was shipped in by the railroad that once served Bar Mills.
Bar Mills was once a bustling village, according to Buxton native Richard Atkinson, but it all came to a halt when the mill shut down many years ago.
“The village needs more people, a little more activity,” Hill said.
Board elections
Chad Poitras is running unopposed for another three-year term on the Select Board. The election is June 11.
Planning Board incumbent Christopher Baldinelli, Heath Knight, and Scott Warchol are in a three-way race for a pair of Planning Board seats. Current board Chair Keith Emery is not seeking reelection.
Incumbent Michael Pettis is unopposed for reelection to the budget committee with two openings available. Another incumbent, Tyler Ladd, will not be on the ballot for a budget committee seat. All seats are three-year terms.
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