Now that November is here, the South Portland Historical Society’s museum at Bug Light Park has moved into its holiday hours. We are open on Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., through Dec. 17.
If you haven’t come in to see this year’s immigration exhibit, we encourage you to plan a visit soon. After the museum closes on Dec. 17, the exhibit will be removed to make way for our 2024 exhibit, centered on historic trades and tools.
The South Portland Historical Society’s 2023 fundraiser ornament features the historic Mahoney school building. Ornaments are on sale at the historical society’s museum in Bug Light Park (open Saturdays and Sundays). South Portland Historical Society photo
We have some authors joining us on Sundays to chat with museum visitors. The first author chat will take place on Sunday, Nov. 12, when Jean Flahive and Michael Connolly will both be at the museum from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Flahive is the author of “Billy Boy, Railroad to the Moon,” “The Old Mainer and the Sea,” and several other young adult and children’s books. Connolly is the author of “Seated by the Sea: The Maritime History of Portland, Maine, and its Irish Longshoremen” and the recently-released novel, “Murky Overhead (the story of an Irish immigrant family living in Portland, Maine).”
Jean and Michael’s books are available for purchase in the museum gift shop and they will be happy to sign books during the event.
The society’s fundraiser ornaments have become a fun yearly tradition. We have just released our 2023 ornament, featuring the Mahoney school building. This is a timely ornament since Mahoney Middle School just closed for good in June.
The school building has seen a lot of change over the years. After our first high school building on the corner of Ocean and Sawyer streets was destroyed by fire in 1921, the school on the corner of Broadway and Ocean Street was constructed. It first opened in 1924 as South Portland High School.
There are still many people in our community today who attended high school in that building. In 1960, the high school swapped buildings with the junior high that had been located on Highland Avenue. From 1960 to 1967, the building was home to South Portland Junior High. When the new Memorial Junior High School building opened in 1967, students on the western side of the city went there instead, and the school on Ocean Street changed its name to Mahoney Junior High School, for students who lived on the eastern side of South Portland.
In 1983, our school system changed from a junior high format (grades 7-9) to a middle school format (grades 6-8). The school was Mahoney Middle School from 1983 until its closure this year.
The ornaments are $19.95 plus tax and are now on sale at the society’s museum gift shop where you can pay by cash, check or credit card. All nine of our previous ornaments are available at the museum, as well. As Thanksgiving approaches, ornaments will also be available for purchase at a few other retail stores who partner with us in this fundraiser each year.
The museum at Bug Light Park is open on Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., through Dec. 17. South Portland Historical Society photo
Do you enjoy reading our history column in the South Portland Sentry? We’ve been producing this weekly column since 2005, using it as a method of documenting local history and to share interesting tidbits of community history with you.
Because these articles are digitized and can be found with a Google search, they have also allowed us to expand our reach far beyond the city limits, resulting in donations of photographs, documents, and artifacts from places around the country and world.
We regularly receive calls and emails from people around the country who grew up in South Portland, but moved and settled elsewhere. They often have information that is helpful to our mission of collecting and documenting our community’s past.
Research continues to be a major focus at our historical society. While we were founded in 1962, it never ceases to amaze us how we continue to find gaps of information in our archives. South Portland has an incredibly rich history related to almost every American history topic. We had two active military bases here during the American Civil War; we have the unique claim of being home to two lighthouses; we had shipyards dotting our shoreline for over a century; the railroad extended through our community; and as highway travel changed over the years, from horses to automobiles, our Main Street was also Route 1, the major highway that brought travelers through Maine right through our community.
Add to that all of the normal history that a town enjoys – the history of its own people, places and events – it’s no wonder that there is a treasure trove of history to still uncover.
We bring some of that research to you through this column. We also add that history, and digitize and catalog historic material, in our PastPerfect museum database. Thanks to support from the city of South Portland, we are also able to send material from that database into our South Portland Online Museum and Research Library. The online museum has grown this year to nearly 17,000 images, with a vast amount of related written history, and we continue to add more to it each week. If you haven’t taken a look at our online museum lately, we encourage you to visit the site.
The historical society’s 2023 Annual Appeal has just begun. The appeal runs from November to December, with a goal of reaching our year-end at breakeven and to be ready for the coming winter heating bills. We need to raise $12,000 through this effort and we hope that you’ll play a part in helping us reach that goal!
We are so grateful to all of the people who have supported us financially, allowing us to continue our work. South Portland is a community that cares about preserving its interesting, varied and significant past, so this is a very achievable goal. If you appreciate the work that we do and enjoy reading these columns in the Sentry, we hope that you will join with your friends and neighbors to make this happen for our historical society.
When we all pitch in locally, we can make a big difference.
To donate by credit card, go to our Online Museum at https://sphistory.pastperfectonline.com/ and use the “Donate” button. You could also use your credit card by phone by calling the museum at 767-7299. To donate by check, please make it payable to South Portland Historical Society and mail to us at 55 Bug Light Park, South Portland, ME 04106. You could also drop off your donation at the museum by using the mail slot in the front door.
Thank you for your support in ensuring that we have a thriving historical society in South Portland!
South Portland Historical Society – Annual Fund Drive 2023
Name ____________________________________________________
Street ____________________________________________________
City/State/Zip ______________________________ Phone ___________
Email ____________________________ Donation amount: __________
The South Portland Historical Society will recognize donors on its website, in its newsletter and in other public areas. If you would like your donation to remain anonymous, please check here ___________
Please complete this form and mail with your tax-deductible donation to South Portland Historical Society, 55 Bug Light Park, South Portland, ME 04106. For donations by credit card, call 767-7299 or visit https://sphistory.pastperfectonline.com/. The society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Kathryn Onos DiPhilippo is executive director of the South Portland Historical Society. She can be reached at sphistory04106@gmail.com.
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