GORHAM – Hopes by historic preservationists to halt the University of Southern Maine’s plans to install synthetic materials on the exterior of a landmark on its Gorham campus appeared in jeopardy on Wednesday.
Wooden clapboards and vintage windows were recently removed from the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery, a historic structure built in 1821. University renovation plans called for vinyl siding to replace clapboards and exterior shutters to replace vintage windows.
But, the university last week temporarily halted renovation on the art gallery amid a public outcry that the work ruined the historic significance of the building.
In a meeting hosted by university officials on the Gorham campus on Wednesday, preservationists called for wood clapboards and restoration of original windows for the art gallery. While officials committed in the meeting to working with the Maine Historic Preservation Commission to determine what is financially possible for the university, it is unclear at this point what might happen.
“I can’t make any commitment on materials now,” university chief financial officer Dick Campbell said in Wednesday’s meeting.
Campbell said he wants the project completed before school starts in the fall.
“I’m focusing on getting things buttoned up,” Campbell said.
The building was listed in 1972 in the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of Interior and is situated in the Gorham Campus Historic District.
Gorham Town Councilor Bruce Roullard, chairman of the Gorham Historic Preservation Committee, said after the meeting he’s pleased that the university is willing to review the matter. Roullard said the university would coordinate with the office of Earle Shettleworth, director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.
“That’s a huge step forward,” Roullard said.
Gorham resident Adam Ogden handed Shettleworth a box filled with project information that Ogden requested from the university under the Freedom of Information Act.
“We need to start analyzing that material immediately,” Shettleworth said.
Campbell said he would meet on Thursday with Bob Bertram, executive director of the university’s facilities management, to determine what commitments of materials have already been made. Campbell said he’d have an update on Thursday concerning finances and what’s possible.
The art gallery faces the danger of being removed from the federal register.
“I hope the university will be a good steward and take responsibility for our cultural heritage and ensure this building does not get de-listed from the national register,” Ogden said after the meeting.
The University of Southern Maine Art Gallery, which faces College Avenue on the Gorham campus, was built as a religious meeting house. Then, for years it served as Gorham’s town meeting house.
After the town no longer needed it, the building and lot were transferred to the state in 1961. The university’s forerunner, Gorham State Teachers College, initially utilized the building for a student chapel. It has served as an art gallery since 1966.
In recent renovation work, clapboards and large windows on each side of the art gallery were removed. On July 11, some of the vintage windows were left leaning against a tree behind the gallery. Since then, said Judie O’Malley, spokeswoman for the university, the windows have been placed in storage in another building.
“Those are rare windows,” Ogden said.
The five old windows, which were not functional, on each side of the gallery had 40 panes of glass each, 20 on upper and lower sashes. Inside the art gallery, the windows have been walled over for display purposes.
Ogden on July 10 noticed the exterior siding of the art gallery had been stripped and reported what he saw to the Gorham Historic Preservation Committee. With emails flying to agencies and groups, the backlash led university officials to stop work.
“We put a halt on the project to give us enough time to schedule this meeting,” O’Malley said before the meeting convened.
“There will be a united front from the preservation side,” Ogden said before the meeting.
The art gallery site is also location of the town’s Civil War Monument. A gift from a town benefactor, Toppan Robie, the memorial was dedicated in 1866.
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