The city of South Portland is calling for 30 to 40 volunteers to survey the historic features of all of the buildings in Knightville/Mill Creek. The historic documentation is scheduled to begin within a month.
Residents are invited to attend an organizational meeting July 20 at 7 p.m. in the city hall council chambers to learn why the survey is considered important for the area’s future and what volunteers would be expected to do.
Those who sign up at the organizational meeting will attend a training seminar a week later when representatives of the architectural firm of Barber Wheelock will show them how to conduct the survey.
South Portland Planning Director Tex Haeuser said Berber and Wheelock have been hired to design and manage the study which will yield an historical rating based on criteria standardized by the National Register of Historic Places
It represents a step forward in implementing a master plan for neighborhood revitalization that was adopted by the city council last fall. The master plan was put together by a citizen steering committee. It’s stated objective was to make Knightville/ Mill Creek a better place in which to live, work and do business.
“The study will provide us with a base-line that we will need in order to apply for grants to help us preserve our historic features,” Haeuser said.
Rommey Brown, chair of the citizen steering committee, said, “We hope very much that other neighborhoods in the city will take steps to have their own historical surveys. For that reason we welcome volunteers from other parts of the city.”
She emphasized that the surveys will be “curbside. The survey involves exteriors only as seen from the street. No one will enter onto private property.”
Brown also noted that owners of property that has been historically surveyed can access expert information on how they can enhance the historic nature of buildings that need rehabilitation or that have been historically diminished by being “remuddled.”
For each property the volunteers will fill out a form developed by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission and which is compatible with national statistics. Each property will fall into one of three categories: it “contributes” to historic preservation by being essentially as it was when built; it is “compromised” because of non-historic structural changes; or it is “non-contributing” in either architectural style or age.
Surveyed will be all properties on the peninsula south and east of the Fore River and west of Mill Cove. The southernmost boundary will include the Armory (although this is actually in Pleasantdale), and it will include the properties fronting on the south side of Broadway to Cottage street. Included on the south side of Broadway will be Holy Cross school, Holy Cross church, and properties along the south side of North Richland St. between Broadway and Cottage St. On the north side of Broadway the survey will include the housing authority high- rise buildings and the Stewart Morrell American Legion hall.
The survey is an activity planned by a sub-committee of the steering committee, focused on historic preservation of Knightville/Mill Creek. It is cpo-chaired by Pat Webber and Susan Raye.
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