It’s an iconic rural image—a group of old-timers gathered around a general store’s woodstove, drinking coffee and swapping lies. For the island community of North Haven, that gathering spot was Waterman’s store, a stone’s throw from the ferry landing and the Fox Islands Thorofare anchorage, where the lobster fleet mingles with recreational vessels in summer. The post office and compact business district are a short stroll away in the other direction.
Almost 30 years ago, Waterman’s Co. store went out of business and understandably, the community mourned its loss. The building sat empty for seven years. On a February morning this year, four mothers of young children gathered in Waterman’s, not idly chatting but discussing some town business. The informal community hub has been reborn as a legitimate community center.
It wasn’t an easy journey, say four of those who worked to make Waterman’s Community Center happen, but those intangible elements that keep a community connected and thriving are firmly in place. And perhaps surprisingly, children are at the heart of it, along with a healthy emphasis on the arts.
As the young mothers talk, four others gather with me at two café style tables they push together in the comfortable lobby—which resembles a coffeeshop—to tell the story.
Christie Hallowell, her husband Barney Hallowell, Nancy Hopkins-Davisson, and Kim Alexander share their recollections of the process, at times fraught with conflict and clashing visions, which brought to fruition this community hub, now very much anchored in 21st century choices.
Hopkins-Davisson cites the old store’s status as a gathering place. “The coffee was terrible,” she says bluntly, eliciting laughs from the others. But she and the others acknowledge the important role the store played as that informal, serendipitous meeting spot, that “third” place outside of work and home.
Photo: Tom Groening
The store closed in the late 1990s, as owner Franklin Waterman aged and died, and the building became available.
It’s difficult today to understand why some in the community would have opposed what Waterman’s has become. The culprit, as is often the case, was change—maybe too much of it, too fast.
You can’t talk about the community center without invoking the late John Wulp, who for ten years brought high-level theater to the island. A refugee of sorts from Broadway, he landed on Vinalhaven, working for a time in a fish-packing plant, and then agreeing to introduce students to theater.
“I hired John,” says Barney Hallowell, who worked at the school for 40 years, 21 years as principal, before retiring in 2012. “And he became this force,” which those who witnessed his efforts know is not hyperbole.
Wulp led student and community productions at the school gym and Calderwood Hall. One North Haven-based musical production, Islands, co-written by Wulp and musician Cidny Bullens, was the subject of a documentary that aired on public TV, which included the community taking the show to Broadway shortly after the 9/11 attacks.
But Wulp was a divisive figure. His directing approach demanded much of young children, and he was often blunt, or maybe even rude. He was gay, which he believed alienated him from some residents, as he told me in an interview during the Islands production.
So when community leaders began talking about reviving the old store as an arts center, there was resistance.
Hallowell remembers standing with musician Nick Heyl outside the Grange Hall after Heyl had performed there and the two agreeing that the island needed a legitimate performance space.
It was Wulp who looked at the former general store and said, “This is where we should do it.”
Hallowell credits him with more than ideas.
“We never would’ve raised the money we did if hadn’t been for John’s plays,” he said. “John wanted it to be a theater school,” and there was a bit of a tussle among the core organizers, with the broader concept of a community center winning out.
Still, resistance remained. Even with the broader concept, some islanders felt there was too much emphasis on the arts, and that it represented an unwelcomed evolution away from traditional pursuits.
But the idea for a center, Hallowell said, came from a void he had observed much earlier, remembering a night when the school basketball team returned from an away game, and there was nothing from the darkened store to greet them.
“It drove me crazy,” he remembers, hoping for a “warm, welcoming place” where they could gather.
The group of community leaders who envisioned the new center raised almost $4 million. Island Institute co-founder Peter Ralston brought the late Charlie Cawley, head of the credit-card company MBNA, to the island and Cawley directed the company’s charitable arm to donate $1 million toward the project and Cawley personally gave $250,000. The Institute also helped get the project off the ground.
Initially, the plan was to renovate the old store, but it became apparent that it was too far gone. Bumper stickers began appearing that sarcastically ridiculed the push to raise money to save the building. The refrain among many was that “no town money” should be dedicated, Alexander recalled.
About a third of the town watched in tears as the old store was demolished.
But the core group pressed on.
“We just wanted a home for all the things we wanted to do,” remembers Hopkins-Davisson, who serves on the school board and is president of Waterman’s board.
The pitch, in a phrase coined by artist Eric Hopkins, was “It’s our community center in the center of our community.” A guiding principle was that if programming were focused on children, the effort would succeed.
“We spent a year talking about what we wanted here,” Alexander remembers. “It really helped that we were clear.”
When work began on the new structure, effort was made to have it resemble the old store. In fact, some people returning to the island thought the completed center was the old store renovated.
Summer people were reluctant at first to donate to the effort, but they eventually got on board and also offered their technical expertise, Christie Hallowell says.
On Feb. 15, 2004, Waterman’s Community Center opened. Along with the airy lounge area with a coffeeshop counter and vibe, an ATM in the lobby, second-floor offices, and a classroom, the building includes a 134-seat auditorium and stage.
Not surprisingly, given Wulp’s hand in the design, the theater is not short on amenities, including a Steinway piano, and conversion to LED lighting, Christie Hallowell says as she gives a tour.
“We are very lucky,” she says, standing on the stage and looking out toward the seats. Hallowell has been the center’s director since 2005. The staff includes five full timers, and the center operates on an annual budget of about $900,000.
Before we sat with the others inside, Hallowell gave a short tour of the facility which included a walk up a side street to a rented building that hosts part of the Waterman’s Community Center’s pre-school program. Between daycare and preschool, the center serves 22 children, ages one to five.
“The pre-school has always been a part of it,” she says of the community center concept. Early on, as input was sought, the need for daycare and preschool services was high on the list. The summer population also uses the services, as do parents on Vinalhaven.
Parents and others—including Hallowell—regularly volunteer to make the programming work. Hallowell leads a pre-school music class one day each week.
An after-school program is active, too, hosting a “kids night out,” with pizza and a movie, and “no parents allowed.” Summer camp programming also is provided.
Hallowell shows me a video recording of an after-school “dancing through the decades” performance led by AnneMarie Lowerre, the center’s youth and theater director, with young children moving comfortably and expressively across the stage.
Hallowell gives a quick tour of the barn on the Thorofare side of the community center, which had provided storage for the store.
“It’s great to have,” Hallowell says of the structure. Fortuitously, it was raised a foot higher above the water recently. The building hosted a concert last summer, book talks, a flower show, a ceramics workshop, and provides a place to store sets and costumes for plays, all of which suggest the breadth of the center’s offerings. And longevity, now 20 years on. Alexander says children of those who attended the pre-school are now in the classes.
“It’s really great to have that history,” she says.
Hopkins-Davisson says a stop for a cup of coffee, maybe to use the ATM, while waiting for the ferry are part of the rhythm of island life now. Business owners from on and off island can be seen meeting with clients at the center.
Kim Alexander, and Barney Hallowell shortly after the nonprofit group purchased the former Waterman’s store.
Every Thursday the center hosts a community coffee gathering, a tradition that dates to the opening 20 years ago. During the height of the pandemic, the event continued once a month on Zoom, with summer residents joining in.
“We talk about anything, or nothing,” says Hopkins-Davisson.
The board is aiming to create a $3.5 million endowment to give the center some breathing room with hopes of hitting the $3 million mark by summer. One of the biggest skeptics of the project 20 years ago is now donating toward the endowment, Christie Hallowell notes.
“Success breeds success,” her husband Barney adds, and that success is apparent in the rich and broad list of activities the center offers.
“It’s been consistent and strong the whole 20 years,” Alexander says, while Barney Hallowell provides the coda: “It’s become an institution in this town.”
Tom Groening is editor of Island Journal and The Working Waterfront.
Photos courtesy of Waterman’s Community Center
