Nonprofit Maine Preservation raised $50,000 at its annual gala Sept. 26 at Grace, a historic church-turned-event space on Chestnut Street in Portland. The event was supported by more than 50 corporate sponsors, led by Norway Savings Bank.

“We’re a statewide nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to promoting and preserving historic places, buildings, downtowns and neighborhoods, strengthening the economic and cultural vitality of Maine’s communities,” said Executive Director Tara Kelly. “We prove that the rehabilitation of historic buildings supports new jobs, revives downtowns and neighborhoods and creates housing and business opportunities.”

Trustee Willy Wong is converting the 160-year-old Friendship Street School in Waldoboro into a mixed-use property that will include living quarters, an art gallery and workshop space. “Historic buildings and neighborhood are cultural assets that we want to preserve for the next generation,” he said.

Funds raised through the gala will support preservation advocacy and stewardship, technical assistance for owners of historic properties, paid internships, monitoring of properties under easement and researching Maine’s endangered historic places.

The 2024 Most Endangered Places list – which was released the week before the gala – includes Maine’s 66 light stations, endangered by rising seas.

In Portland, the most contentious place on the list is 142 Free St. – which was built in 1830 and served first as a theater, then as the Portland Chamber of Commerce and, from 1993 to 2021, as the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine. The Portland Museum of Art bought this property within the Congress Street Historic District and is hoping to demolish it to make way for a museum expansion.

“If we don’t protect historic landmarks, we’ll lose them,” said Frank Reilly, who lives in one of Portland’s oldest surviving brick houses, built in 1803.

The other properties on this year’s endangered list are Sangerville Town Hall, Central Congregational Church in Eastport, Starling Hall in Fayette, Kneisel Hall in Blue Hill and Eagle Island State Historic Site, which was the summer home of arctic explorer Admiral Robert E. Peary.

“We want to support these beautiful buildings so they don’t fall by the wayside,” said Mark Wiesendanger of South Portland.

Over the past five years, Maine Preservation has administered close to $1 million in preservation grants to 99 projects throughout the state made possible through funding from the Northern Border Regional Commission and the 1772 Foundation. The nonprofit is about to embark on its biggest sub-granting effort yet with over $3 million from Maine’s congressional delegation to rehabilitate two of the state’s most endangered properties from the 2021 list: the Wayne Masonic Hall and the First Congregational Church of East Machias.

Amy Paradysz is a freelance writer and photographer based in Scarborough. She can be reached at amyparadysz@gmail.com.