April 2011
By Colin W. Sargent
“Sometimes, I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there’s no room for the present at all.” –Evelyn Waugh
“I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmalade.” –D.H. Lawrence
When we published our first issue of Portland Monthly in April 1986, the world was reeling from the Challenger disaster, Ronald Reagan was president, One City Center was the new kid on the skyline. Join a few of our friends as they capture the spirit of then, now, and tomorrow.
Reflections from a Bookstore Window
Gary Lawless & Beth Leonard, Gulf of Maine Books
“Twenty-five years ago, people were buying Thin Thighs in Thirty Days,” Gary says. “Now it would have to be Thin Thighs in Thirty Hours.
“So many people in the U.S. are conducting a mass funeral for the book. But we went to the Frankfurt Book Fair a few months ago and discovered it’s only Americans who are saying this! We went to the publishing booths of the Mongolians, the Iraquis, and the Iranians, among others–there are over 100 countries with booths there, it was amazing–and it was still exciting for them to be bringing their authors to the rest of the world. Many of these books are not written in English. And they probably aren’t even on Kindle yet.
“As for bestsellers, in 1986, we had It by Stephen King, Hollywood Husbands by Jackie Collins, Wanderlust by Danielle Steel, and I’ll Take Manhattan by Judith Krantz.
“Now we have George W. Bush’s book, Sarah Palin’s book, Glenn Beck’s book, and Keith Richards’s book. Still good fiction.”
Personal Space: the Final Frontier
Crandall Toothaker
In the mid 1980s, many trend-setting apartments and condos in the Old Port were outfitted by Singh Partners IV. Developer Pritam Singh [the former Paul LaBombard of Brunswick, who also developed The Truman Annex in Key West, among many other major properties] restored an impressive portfolio of Victorian warehouses and office buildings and installed, in many cases, identical beige Kenmore stoves and matching refrigerators, along with orange Formica counter tops (eat your heart out, Frank Sinatra).
Crandall Toothaker owns, re-restores, and rents many of the most beautiful apartments in the area, including some former Singh units.
“Twenty-five years ago, a swanky kitchen would have shiny, all-black appliances in enamel or glass,” Toothaker says. “And believe it or not, ‘almond’ was still hanging in there! It was pretty amazing to hear prospective tenants say, ‘Oh, I like those appliances’ on the same day others might say, ‘Oh, I love these cool black ones!’
“The exposed brick and beams of the late 1970s were still popular. You’d see Berber carpets [peach and teal, anyone?] which were supposed to wear like iron and look like wool in the bedrooms, and 12- by 12-inch ceramic floor tiles as opposed to the 18- or 20-inch ones we install today.”
How about the eternal Vermont Castings woodstove in a corner, with a Jon Legere or Alfred Chadbourn painting on the wall? Black spiral staircases, Corian counters, and big, big digital clocks?
“Track lighting. Incandescent lighting with the large cans!
“Now, everything’s becoming green, from flooring to recycled carpet materials. There’s a lot of glass in the tile work. The spiral staircases are there, but more stainless steel and glass.”
Understatement, then dazzle.
“There’s more pin lighting, too–LED lighting on cables. There’s still exposed brick, but a lot of people are painting the brick today as opposed to leaving it natural. Loft-style living is still extremely popular, and people take to the open concept much more than the closed rooms. Granite counters are opening up to concrete and recycled glass products. You’ll see materials like limestone, porcelain, bamboo. People used to try to hide air-conditioning vents, especially in loft-style spaces.”
Now they’re statement pieces.
As for emerging trends, “We have a couple of apartments with the 1950s look, and people love them. I’m in Miami right now, and there’s a store with very high-end retro appliances. For our next project in Portland, we’re going to put in metal cabinets (remember the Sears cabinets of the 1950s?)–very lime-green, yellow appliances that are very energy efficient but look like they’re from the 1950s. Clean lines, modern.”
The most telling thing about apartment dwellers in 2011?
“How energy-sensitive they’re becoming. They’re concerned and really care. All-green paint. They check the thermal qualities of our windows and ask questions. People are now asking what kind of boilers we have in the building and what their energy-efficiency is–even if we’re paying for the heat…”
Taking Measure of Our Lives with Coffee spoons
Eddie Fitzpatrick
Twenty-five years ago, a new wave of restaurants in Portland dazzled diners and earned raves from The Atlantic and New England Monthly. Among them: Swan Dive, Alberta’s, L’Antibes, Brattle Street, The Vinyard, and 34 Exchange. At the time, Eddie Fitzpatrick was editor of the Maine Sunday Telegram. Today, he co-owns Pepperclub.
“When I first moved here, Portland wasn’t even a blip on the food map. Fine dining was steak, baked potatoes, and iceberg lettuce–Valle’s on Brighton Avenue. Somehow, Boone’s, without any justification, had a national reputation. It was one of the few places in Portland you could actually eat on the waterfront. The quality of their food was nothing. ‘Boiled lobster,’ and again, ‘steak.’ For a while they brought in a genuine French food specialist and things picked up, but then he left Portland for the Samoset and it sank.
“Then there’s The Roma. As I heard the story, the owner had run a speakeasy in Detroit. He bought the Rines Mansion here–you know, Rines Bros. Department Store and WCSH-TV [now home to the Quimby Colony and maybe a cooking school]–and opened another speakeasy. He built a loyal following” for Italian-American cuisine amid richly appointed surroundings that included a breathtaking collection of Portland Glass on display in the front dining room. For generations of Portlanders, there simply was no other place to go to mark special occasions. It was the scene of many engagements, business lunches, and assignations.
“Before Portland Magazine was launched, you had Hu Ke Lau and Pagoda, but if you wanted a good Chinese meal, you had to drive to The Silent Woman in Waterville. For fancy Italian food, you’d go to Marissa’s in South Paris.
“Thinking back on it, those really weren’t the days,” Fitzpatrick says.
“HuShang was the first good Chinese restaurant in Portland. Ken Ng had the ability to remember names. You’d dine there and then go back a year later, and he’d call you by name. HuShang was always full. He opened [HuShang II] on Brown Street, and it was extremely successful.
“So successful, in fact, it was hard for him to keep up. He ran into tax problems and spent time in jail.
“We lost a great Chinese restaurant. I don’t think another Chinese restaurant has matched it since.
“Jaap Helder, a Dutchman, came to Portland in the 1970s. After running the cafeteria at the Maine Mall, he took over the management of The Hollow Reed,” a beloved vegetarian restaurant on Fore Street.
“Then, Jaap gave Portland its first French restaurant in a tiny building on Middle Street near the police station, where Bresca is now. He brought in [food writer and chef] Dennis Gilbert [now an English professor at USM] and Paul Heroux, and together they ran The Vinyard from 1979 until 1984, when Jaap sold it.”
Also appearing on the scene: “Café Always, Back Bay Grill,” and the daring idea of DiMillo’s Floating Restaurant on Commercial Street–which helped launch the Old Port as a destination attraction.
“When the Hungry Hunza closed at 21 Pleasant Street, that location became the launching pad for Alberta’s.
“Jim Ledue filled a big niche. He wasn’t expensive like The Roma. Alberta’s catered to the middle or a little above and served very good food. It was very comfortable there. You didn’t have tuxedo wait staff. People weren’t intimidated as they often are in very expensive restaurants.
“What spelled the end for Alberta’s Restaurant was Jimmy’s opening Alberta’s Café [a.k.a. Alberta’s 2], at Portland Performing Arts Center on Forest Avenue. He had a good idea; he just couldn’t be two places at once to supervise, troubleshoot, and put his personal touch on it, so the Alberta’s magic was diluted, and both closed. If he’d just stuck with the original Alberta’s, it might still be here today, even if Jimmy isn’t [Ledue died prematurely in 2009].
“After The Hollow Reed closed, there were no vegetarian restaurants in Portland. Absolutely nothing. In 1989, sensing the demand for something colorful, inexpensive, and heavily vegetarian, Jaap had the idea for Pepperclub. I was working for the newspaper at the time, and I borrowed the money to finance it. It was immediately a success, because there was no competition.”
Fast-forward to today, when Portland tops national lists as one of the top small-city cuisine meccas in the country.
“You don’t have to have the two-pound steak anymore. What we’ve seen in the last few years is an explosion of restaurants aiming at middle-range, or a little above middle-range, prices. Even since the recession, we’ve had eight ambitious restaurants open downtown. You have The Grill Room, The Corner Room, The Front Room. Local 188 opened Sonny’s. The Salt Exchange, the new Walter’s, Grace. All in the heart of downtown, and then we have four or five restaurants on Munjoy Hill.
“I wouldn’t say the day of the very expensive restaurant has passed, but the new restaurants are very up-market, with prices many, many, many people can afford, not just the few.”
Asked why he thinks lofty Evangeline really shut down in the last year–”razored the pig,” as one wag put it, referring to the gold-leaf emblem that once adorned the bistro’s window–he says, “Prices and accessibility. Petite Jacqueline has started in the same spot, with a very comforting French menu at affordable rates. For a while, if you wanted to eat out and didn’t want to spend a lot of money at 34 Exchange or places like that, you could eat Chinese or Indian as an inexpensive alternative. Now there’s an explosion of Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Korean places to spice up the options. Looking for Ethiopian? Try Asmara.
“On the other hand, where we’re seeing the biggest change in the high end is in the ethnic dining establishments, too–think of Japanese places like Miyake.
“Not to mention Greek cuisine. Before, we had Free Street Taverna, and now we have Emilitsa. When I traveled in Greece for seven weeks, I never had anything like that; they were all Taverna-style. Emilitsa is more of a French restaurant, only it’s Greek.”
If Alberta’s was so great, where are its spiritual descendants?
“The Front Room, The Corner Room, The Grill Room, Sonny’s. Walter’s is a wonderful addition that says [implicitly] to diners, you don’t have to have the $25 meal. You have a half portion for $12, and for most people, that will be enough.
“That brings us to the red-sauced Italians like The [former] Village and Esposito’s. Espo’s is still going strong, but the last quarter century has redefined this category with exotic places like Cinque Terre on Wharf Street, Grissini in Kennebunkport, and the little Milanese place on Fore Street, Paciarino.”
Speaking of Fore Street…
“Sam Hayward has somehow achieved continuing national recognition from his time at the Harraseeket from when he was principal chef, ever since he opened Fore Street. National publications are continually drawing attention to him and his restaurant. He’s always on the move and innovative. He’s been very successful. Then, too, there are places like Caiola’s with very fine dining in a neighborhood atmosphere, along with Street and Co., where Caiola’s owner/chef came from.”
How do Fitzpatrick and the other successful restaurateurs plan to keep fresh and different while looking toward 2012 and beyond?
“You have to be constantly innovative. You have to be aware of the next new thing so you won’t be replaced by it. We always have solid meats and fish, but it’s our vegetarian food that sets us apart. People have very express, specific dietary demands. We have brown rice pasta for those who can’t eat wheat or flour; quinoa grain from South America for a different twist; and we’re now using gluten-free noodles. No matter how many allergies a diner may have or how many special requests, we can handle them. Mary Paine bought Jaap out after five years or so, and she is our mainstay. She is concocting dishes, inventing dishes, finding things that look and taste good. We have an enormous amount of spice at our restaurant, but we also have haddock, scallops. It’s a constant challenge to stay afloat in Portland.”
Isn’t that nerve-racking–to have to improve and reinvent at such a dizzying pace in order to be the place Rachael Ray chooses to visit when she breezes through town, shooting her show?
“It isn’t so hard that people don’t want to try to open new restaurants and experiment with new concepts. What I see now is, for every place that closes, two open.”
Crime, Punishment, Casinos
Chief Michael Chitwood
In a December 1988 interview with us, Stephen King joked that Portland was trying to market itself as a “blow-dry, Perrier, Mazda kind of city”–a pretentious, self-conscious seaport lost between where it used to be and might have been.
Police chief Michael Chitwood ran into these same contradictions when he first came here in 1983.
“I’d never been north of New York City, so arriving in ‘the beautiful town by the sea’ was a culture shock!
“I saw an urban city in a suburban setting that had every type of crime you can mention–murder, rape, drugs–but it was under control. I’d never heard the term ‘quality of life’ in the greater Philadelphia area before I pulled in. What did that mean? I couldn’t imagine it.”
Not that there was a welcoming committee here to assure the quality of his life.
“Early on, I visited the State House in Augusta. A state rep walked up to me and said, ‘Welcome to Maine. Now go back to Philadelphia where you came from.’”
So funny, then, that he fell in love with us. “Portland is wonderful, wonderful. I still miss it, and I’m saying this from a place that is just 10 minutes from where I was born and raised.
“I go online and read what’s happening, and it’s become more unique, with more restaurants, tourism.”
Rifling through the hyperbole, the problem-solver in Chitwood can’t help but recognize, “It’s the same issue as 22 years ago, the Old Port. As it grew and became inundated with bars, the same cast of characters who should have been shut down are still acting up. The drug problem is an issue. The burglaries, the robberies,” though he’s quick to say, “It’s still a safe state and still a safe city when you look at what’s going on in the rest of the country.”
One force making that possible is cowgirl-booted Stephanie Anderson.
“She’s an excellent DA. She does a great job. We had our battles, but her primary concern is for the safety of the community.”
He warms up to the casino question.
“I don’t buy that casinos bring an increase in crime, but I also don’t buy that the economic upturn they promise is going to be terrific, and schools are going to be able to pay teachers better, build theaters, and get new uniforms for their sports teams. The people who make money at the casinos are the casinos themselves–not the staff members, not even the regional employed management.
“I look around at the casinos in Jersey and Philadelphia, and they worked their way in here by telling everyone what they were going to do for the economy. They were going to help the tax base. Now they’re bankrupt.
“There are at least 10 to a dozen casinos in Atlantic City, which used to be the center of the casinos on the East Coast, that are now bankrupt. The state of New Jersey has had to take them over!
“The communities themselves did not enjoy anything. The roads to the casino and the landscaping all look nice, but the upturn is not happening.”
Then there’s gun control.
“When I got to Portland, right away I let people know I was against signing concealed gun permits. The attorney general said you have to, and I said I wasn’t going to sign them! There should be zero tolerance for some individuals to get easy access to a firearm. Guns are part of the American life. Hunters should have the ability to hunt. But to allow people who have the ability to endanger our community to walk around with concealed weapons…. I fought that battle the whole 17 years I was there.”
He feels the Maine chestnut of “I only kill what I can eat” offers an illusory sense of self-management to sportsmen, because “it doesn’t take criminal minds into account.”
No stranger to the national media, Chitwood made more waves during the famous Internet bullying case playing itself out in his neck of the woods, the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby.
Upon arresting a six-member “wolfpack” bullying a 13-year-old middle-schooler (and posting episodes of his torture on YouTube), Chitwood delighted the media by quipping, “You’re going to take a hike in handcuffs and in a wagon.”
Vintage Chitwood. Fortunately, Maine has no bullies, yes?
“It’s all over the country. The videotape released with the laughs in the background shows how it can be. There should be zero tolerance. God forbid it could lead to other tragedies such as suicide by a victim or a victim in flight killed by a car. I think the schools have to have zero tolerance and there has to be education for everyone, not just the bully and victim. The tragedies are exacerbated by social networking–YouTube, Facebook–that fosters that gang mentality” that gets ratcheted up “by cell phones. A group against one. It’s a cowardly act. The potential for bullying has always been the same. Now it has a more public face. In our incident, there wouldn’t have been criminal prosecution had it not been for that video. When it becomes more public, the bully now has a platform to feel his 15 minutes of fame. Facebook and YouTube have not made more bullies,” just more celebrity for bullies.
The Svelte Lady Sings
Karen Sanford
“Protect the Working Waterfront!” was a rallying cry in this city when Portland Magazine first made a splash. Led by Karen Sanford, the movement sought to keep marine-use only businesses close to the docks and piers where the fishing industry was located. Translation: People weren’t sure they wanted the Disney unreality of an inner-city Baltimore uprooting the ancient and fishy businesses that were at the heart of our practical charm. And the Working Waterfront Referendum won, convincingly…only to be partially unraveled recently with a loosening of some waterfront zoning restrictions.
In 2011, it’s not like Karen Sanford’s steamed or anything. Asked for a 25-year report card on the strength of our working waterfront, she has the pith and vinegar to come out swinging:
“In 1987, the people of Portland were alarmed by the displacement of fishing boat berthing and marine industry–especially on Central Wharf, renamed Chandler’s Wharf. New condo, office, retail, hotel, and restaurant proposals wanted to get in on the act.
“So, waterfront business people, fishermen, politicians, neighborhood groups, and people from all over Maine gathered together to ask the people of Portland if they wanted the City of Portland to implement zoning to protect the working waterfront for future generations–whatever those future uses might be.
“Two out of three voters, in a large turnout election on a rainy day in May, said that the City of Portland needed to uphold the public trust and zone the waterfront to maintain and develop water-dependent and water-related jobs and industry. Almost every family on Munjoy Hill and parts of the West End had generations of relatives that had been making good wages on the waterfront. The people of Portland knew what needed to be done.
“The authors of the Working Waterfront Referendum envisioned a public-private partnership to build a strong and sustainable working waterfront in order to keep our navigational and commercial ties to the sea. The Fish Pier (developed before the referendum) is our best example, but problems there only emphasize the need to be in this for the long haul, because waterfront industries tend to be cyclical and change with changes in technology or fish stocks or commerce. You can’t abandon this resource when the going gets rough. That is what protecting the public trust means.
“Unfortunately, our city leaders do not seem to view the working waterfront as a forever resource, as part of the public trust. They seem to wait for short-term, market-driven proposals to come along. They seem to ignore their own recent study that reveals that the highest vacancy rates are with upscale uses–not marine uses. The fiasco over the upscaling of the publicly-owned Maine State Pier; the fiasco over the Pierce-Atwood tax-reduced takeover of Cumberland Wharf; and the opening up of the zoning to more and more non-marine uses are three recent examples of how far the City of Portland is willing to deviate from the vision of the majority of Portlanders who voted for the Working Waterfront Referendum of 1987.
“So instead of giving tax breaks and incentives to marine industries and pier infrastructure projects, the city courts hoteliers and law firms–and uses loose zoning as a misguided and lazy development tool.
“The result will be that our exceptional, natural, deep-water harbor that provides real-wage jobs and attracts so many tourists looking for an authentic, working New England seaport will soon look like any other waterfront theme park. Future generations will be denied the evolving roles that our working waterfront will need to fill, and they will resent the decisions that are being made today.”
Maine: Leading, Backwards and in Heels
Angus King, Governor of Maine, 1995-2003
Twenty-five years ago, Democrat Joseph Brennan was our governor, followed by Republican Gov. John McKernan from 1987-1995. We asked his successor, Independent Gov. Angus King, if he believes “as Maine goes, so goes the nation” is still on target in 2011.
“I think the character of Maine’s leadership–which has been more independent–is where the country needs to be,” says former Gov. Angus King.
“Now we have this very high level of partisanship and ideology driving the parties to the left and the right.
“But if you go back 60 years, you have Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, who in many ways was the precursor to senators Snowe and Collins. Smith was never an insider in a Senate she shared with power-brokers like Richard Russell, Jr., John Stennis. She was never a favorite of her party. But it was she who called out McCarthy! It’s not all that dissimilar from today, when we have two senators under pressure from the establishment of the Republican Party to follow it further to the right.
“Edmund S. Muskie, the great Democrat, was an independent figure who charted his own course. Young Bill Cohen was one of six Republicans who voted for the impeachment of Richard Nixon. Both were very popular with the people of Maine. Then you have George Mitchell, known for his principles and independent thinking.”
Daring to vote against party lines at times when it wasn’t expedient. Isn’t that the basis for Profiles in Courage?
“Yes! Following your conscience when it isn’t easy. Speaking of Smith, did you know when she ran in 1948, she was accused of voting along Communist Party lines by her own party?
“She was listed on the infamous ‘smear-sheet.’ According to authors, her voting record ‘lined up’ with the record of Congressman Vito Marcantonio of New York, a communist. Of course, it was ridiculous–things like ‘motions to adjourn’ and affirmations that ‘motherhood is good.’
“Her ‘Declaration of Conscience’ was just a stunning moment of courage and moderate insight. By the way, she won the primary against four men, two of them former governors. She won more votes than those two men combined.
“You’ve got me going now. Profiles in Courage was about senators who dared to vote against the grain. Did you know [one of] the first senator[s] John F. Kennedy praises in Profiles was from Maine?
“William Pitt Fessenden cast one of two or three votes that prevented the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. There was a huge movement in Maine and across the country to get rid of Johnson. Lincoln had dumped his first-term vice president, Maine’s Hannibal Hamlin, because he thought himself to be more re-electable if he had a person from a border state [born in North Carolina, elected in Tennessee] to help bring the South and the Union together. When Lincoln was killed, the impeachment failed, but up until then, the pressure on Fessenden was merciless.
“It cost Fessenden his career. It cost him his seat in the Senate. So now that I think of it, the tradition of people going against the grain of their party goes back at least 150 years. Joshua Chamberlain, by the way, wouldn’t succumb to pressure either, and he refused to attend a big rally in Portland designed to force Fessenden’s vote. So there’s a direct line from Fessenden to Margaret Chase Smith to Muskie to Snowe and Collins.
“Voters like people representing Maine to be independent. Your readers are independent. Congratulations on the 25 years, by the way, because that’s no small accomplishment. The love for independence goes back to the origins of the state. Fishermen, farmers, and foresters–independent pursuits. They had to rely on themselves. They had a crusty independence, and that was part of the magic of the place. We have an identifiable character.”
Open Concepts
Brenda Humphreys
When Brenda Humphreys and her daughter, Jael, first came to Portland, she was featured on our May 1988 front cover as editor of the Munjoy Hill Observer. She’d moved here in 1983 after interning at People magazine, prior to which she’d traveled on a lecture circuit with Maya Angelou. Earlier, as a Ford Fellow in City Planning, she worked on a United Nations project for the Liberian government (escaping just before the military coup, during which her former boss was slain by a firing squad). During her travels with Maya Angelou for poetry readings and book promotions, a stop included Maine. She fell in love with Vacationland.
“Twenty-five years ago–has it really been that long?–I was quoted as saying ‘I don’t go around with a mirror in front of me,’ meaning I can’t see the brown skin color others see. I’ve certainly experienced living in mono-cultures where people did stare, but Mainers, to their credit, didn’t. It made bridging social gaps easier. That pleased me greatly, because I am a people person. As a child growing up in the 1950s segregated South, I’m told I frightened adults. They said, ‘Brenda talks to everybody,’ and in Dixieland dismay added, ‘even the white folks!’
“Today’s immigrant populations can take solace in having greater numbers who look like them, speak a common language, or hold onto a culture, if that’s what one wants. I found Maine to be full of new, uncharted opportunities, and it afforded me a lot of ‘firsts.’ In 1988, I was a spokesperson working on a presidential candidate’s campaign, which culminated in my becoming the co-vice chair of the Maine Delegation to the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. On the heels of this came the offer of a position in Washington, D.C., with Witness For Peace, a non-profit working on Latin American and Caribbean issues. My hope is that new immigrants to Maine will also take opportunities to embark in the many new directions afforded them.
“It was surprising to find Maine quite racially tolerant. So much so, that in 1989 when the KKK leafleted the metropolitan area about a recruiting rally in the Maine Mall parking lot, the ‘ism’ was against other minority groups in the state (which I won’t name so as not to encourage anything). But imagine my relief.
“My daughter and I were pictured in a group at [former] Gov. Joseph Brennan’s elbow in the Augusta capitol as he signed into law the state’s first official Martin Luther King Holiday to begin January 1987. That was 25 years ago. Still, the efforts of groups throughout the state that continue to make the holiday a meaningful one, no ‘butts’ about it, were heartfelt this January. Other national movements conceived in Maine during that same era are coming up on milestone anniversaries, too: Veterans For Peace; coalitions standing for justice in Central America; and the Green Party, to name a few.
“I chanced to meet up with a smiley-faced Iranian on MLK day who told me he’d moved to Portland from the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia. ‘People in Portland are far more friendly,’ he told me in a surprised tone, and he meant it, too. As do I.”
Old Port Pentimento
C. Michael Lewis
“From 1980 to 1985, I lived on the corner of Fore and Exchange,” says artist C. Michael Lewis. “Phoenix Glass was on the second floor, Bowl & Board was on the first floor. I was on the third.”
Lewis’s garret studio looked down on crowds in the Old Port, couples jamming into Movies on Exchange Street. From this enviable perch, young Lewis was living the life. He was also capturing the spirit of the city with paintings such as Tommy’s Park–a luscious block of upper Exchange Street staged as curvy, giant paint cans. With so many businesses launching and buildings being painted and prettied up, the image carried the jolt of energy that “Anything is possible!”
“I did the painting to raise money to create the trompe l’oeil that still exists on the side of the building fronting Tommy’s Park facing Middle Street,” Lewis says. “Maine National Bank bought it, and then Maine National Bank gave me my first show. Seven paintings. I can see them in my mind. That was 25 years ago. There was a lot of corporate art collecting then.”
And it excited the market.
“Because of the Maine National show, Barridoff Galleries spotted me and asked me to be part of their gallery. They inspired me to paint in the first place! I remember walking by their place on Monument Square, looking in the windows, and telling myself, ‘I can do that. I think I can do that!’”
At least 2,000 posters of Lewis’s Tommy’s Park were made, and the trompe l’oeil became a reality. “I worked out the perspective and working drawings; Chris Dennison was the driving force for putting the mural in place. He raised $30,000 for it. He’d done his own mural there in 1975, but the wall had deteriorated from water damage coming from the inside, so another wall was added, covering it.
“Guess what happened? The wall leaked again. It’s still leaking! There’s still water inside the wall.”
Asked how collectors differ from 1986 to 2011, he says, “I can only speak from a personal experience. My gallery owner, from Gallery 127, sold two paintings to a corporate office. I asked what was it about those paintings that particularly appealed to them and felt a bit hurt when she said the buyers told her, ‘[The paintings, one of which was of HuShang on Brown Street,] went with the furniture.’ I have to laugh now, because it was a typical 1980s palette–pink and green.
“Several years later, a friend of mine went to a place selling auctioned office furniture from businesses that had gone belly up. And there were my two paintings! I guess they went with the furniture then, too.
“I make a living doing illustrating and renderings–working on commission–and selling my paintings directly through my studio. It’s to people I know. Friends of friends of friends. Clients of friends. It’s nice, because I like the contact with people. Then there’s this sidelight I have with a racing car [see pbs.org/wgbh/nova/car/my-lewis.html].” He holds a national electrathon racing record.
Lewis appears regularly in gallery shows, too, because “Painting is a basic drive. It’s doing what I do. It’s my form of self-expression. It would be impossible to stop.” He adds, “The art scene as a whole has exploded and is far better than it was earlier, with big-audience events like First Friday Art Walk and many, many galleries.” Outside the roar of the greasepaint, “There’s a lot more art selling on a smaller scale and to private collectors, too. For my show a few months ago to celebrate the new Portland Public Library–I did the artwork to illustrate architect Scott Simons’s great new designs transforming the building, and the library built a first-floor show around it–I went around and collected old work to go with my new work, because it was a retrospective. The feeling I had seeing paintings I hadn’t set eyes on for 25 years…but that others had seen every day! I went into a lawyer’s house on Western Prom. His kitchen is dominated by a painting that I did 25 years ago.” Talk about ‘finder of lost loves’: He has breakfast with this painting every day, and he loves it!
Inside Job
Deb Andrews
Shortly after Portland Magazine was launched, “We lost a very significant treasure–the Carroll Block–across from the Victoria Mansion that was owned by 75 State Street,” the congregate care facility. “It was at the base of Park Row, a very significant context,” says Deb Andrews.
By lost, you mean…
“Torn. Down.”
“Landmarks was formed in 1964, so we thought we were pretty powerful. There was a huge protest. A crowd of Landmark supporters staged a rally that turned into an uprising. People were taken off in a paddy wagon.”
Exciting stuff. Who got carried away?
“Oh, let’s see. In the police van, David Turner of Carson Turner Books [was squeezed in with six others including state representative Jim Oliver]…
“People were screaming. It got…strident. In the movie Landmarks, would be a key scene, absolutely.”
That same year, “There was a fire at the Storer Mansion on Waynflete’s campus, and there was a question of whether the building should be taken down after the fire, and they decided to take it down.
“Today, it’s an open parcel where there’s a walkway connecting the western part of the campus with the rest of the campus. They kept some of the stairway–they call it ‘Waynhenge’–in a field.
“Around the same time, near the site of Two Portland Square, there was a large brick warehouse structure, four or five stories high, very much in the same vernacular as the Old Port. The developer wanted to take that down. You had planning board members saying that it was just a dirty, old building. Historic preservationists were shocked at that attitude. That building could have been successfully rehabbed.”
Enter the Historic Preservation Ordinance.
“I remember when the ordinance was being debated, WCSH-TV–in its on-air editorials–predicted it would put a lid on Portland’s development potential.”
That was about the time she switched from being president of Landmarks to what some might call the empowered side of public policy-making.
“It was time to fight city hall from the inside out. I was at Landmarks from 1984-1990, and then I came to work with the city as a planner before becoming head of its historic preservation program.”
Who says there’s no drama at city hall?
“I had to rewire myself a little bit. Joe Gray, who was director of the Planning Department at the time, was the one who hired me.
“He tells a story about city councilmen crying out, ‘Joe, Joe, Joe, what have you done? It’s like letting the fox into the henhouse.’ It was interesting. Greater Portland Landmarks was definitely pushing for change.”
Big wins in the last 25 years?
“You know the warehouse where Stone Coast Brewing Co. was? After sustaining a fire, there were questions as to whether it should be torn down. [Through the ordinance], we got a second opinion that confirmed it was salvageable.
“The best thing about the ordinance is, it provides an opportunity for a building to speak and tell its story, and its merits to be celebrated and understood before it’s lost forever.
“The current construction of the inland side of Commercial Street is a product of the ordinance’s review process. Old warehouses have been carefully restored, and we have exciting new architecture as well. For example, there’s the addition to the W.L. Blake Block directly across from the Custom House and that new elevator tower that’s a significant addition to the Chase Leavitt Block. You can be true to your own time and honor the buildings around you. There doesn’t have to be a slavish imitation. There was a misconception that the ordinance didn’t encourage good quality new architecture and a dynamic tension between new and old,” but it’s all about working with dreamers who love this city to shape a future that’s aware of its past.
Unifying Differences
Dale McCormick, MSHA president; LGBT Activist
On July 7, 1984, three male teens threw Charlie Howard, 23, over State Street Bridge into Kenduskeag Stream in downtown Bangor–ignoring his asthmatic shouts that he couldn’t swim.
“The incident inspired a similar scene in the beginning of Stephen King’s novel It, where three homophobic teenagers throw an openly gay man over a bridge and into the Kenduskeag, there to be set upon and murdered by the monster Pennywise,” observes Wikipedia.
Just like the Matthew Shepard case in Wyoming, the murder of Charlie Howard made national news and injured the reputation of our state. Surely many Mainers had the right to hope, “At the very least, this particular hate crime won’t be repeated.”
Cut to April, 2006, in these ‘enlightened times.’ The charred corpse of troubled, homeless Trevor Sprague was discovered in “flames two feet high” below Harlow Street Bridge in Bangor.
According to the Bangor Daily News, Sprague had been convicted for “unlawful sexual contact in 2005 after he improperly touched a teenage boy who was sitting in a park near the Bangor Public Library.”
We asked former Maine State Treasurer, state senator, and current Maine State Housing Authority president Dale McCormick to discuss Maine as a tolerant place to live, 25 years ago and now.
“Nineteen eighty-six was the beginning of the first couple of cases of HIV in Maine. People were very scared. Gay people–we were fighting in the Maine State Legislature for our civil rights. Not only had Charlie Howard been thrown over the bridge two years earlier, in debate in the Legislature there was such barnyard language used to describe gay and lesbian people that Speaker John Martin of Eagle Lake had to clear the house of children. At the Statehouse. Reactions to gay people were based on fear and ignorance.
“Ironically, what the HIV epidemic did was to bring a lot of straight people into the fight–mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, extended families, and friends of people who contracted HIV either through sexual or blood contact.”
Asked how big President Obama’s recent decision was to direct the judicial department to ignore existing precedents against same-sex marriage going forward, McCormick says, “It was huge. Do you remember the Twinkie Defense, which was used when Harvey Milk was shot? Then, you could go up to someone who’s gay and say, ‘Well, I was all hopped up on Twinkies.’ Now, what President Obama is saying, and the Supreme Court hasn’t agreed yet, is that if there is discrimination against gay and lesbian people, it should be judged with the same standard as black people, women, people of other cultures–and considered with strict scrutiny. It’s a big step.
“So we go from barnyard language in the House of Representatives in 1986 to–in this decade–when [LD 1020 aka] the Civil Marriage Bill passed the Legislature, it took 46 hours because so many people wanted to be on the record to show their support with their vote. It was unbelievable. We were crying it was so moving.
“Culturally, 25 years ago, we had stereotypes of gay people as predators in movies like Silence of the Lambs. ‘Today’ we have Will and Grace and Queer Eye in re-runs. Cultural heroes who are gay and lesbian. Lady Gaga coming in support of gay and lesbian soldiers at Deering Oaks Park.
“Twenty-five years ago, there was a handful of gay, lesbian, transgender [people] and a few of their moms advocating for an end to the discrimination of gay and lesbian people. Now it’s the youth of Maine. They are appalled there’s any discrimination against gay and lesbian people and in disbelief that gays and lesbians have to earn the right to marry.”
So, our youth won’t tolerate intolerance?
“The movement grew up and left home.”
When we launched Portland Magazine in 1986, we billed ourselves as “a new magazine for an exciting city,” and anything was possible. Now, we’re an exciting magazine for a new state–poised to reinvent itself. Everything is possible.
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