Working Waterfront

Photographic proof of Portland’s hip rebirth

Take It Easy: Portland in the 1970s by John Duncan; Islandport Press Review by Dana Wilde Summers in the ’60s my father trundled from Cape Elizabeth to Portland to go to marine chandleries on the wharves. I remember Commercial Street being like something out of a badly filmed B movie.… SEE MORE

A view of North Haven's landing. PHOTO: JACK SULLIVAN

Working Waterfront

North Haven to offer ‘offshore year’

Islanders sometimes wryly refer to the mainland as America. If that were true, a mainland student attending an island school would be like studying abroad. North Haven Community School is not pitching its revamped magnet program that way, but it is highlighting the surrounded-by-water nature of the experience. The school… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Living aboard: Damariscove Harbor was a family’s home for 16 years

This story first appeared in The Working Waterfront in 2003. John and Robin Hammond lived aboard their wooden 1936 Casey Cutter, at Damariscove Island for 16 years. There, beside a barren island known for centuries to fishermen, they raised their son, Tomas. They fished, tended a hidden garden, and got… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Stonington hosts ‘Jane’s Walk’ on Saturday, May 7

Stonington and community collaborators will host on "Jane’s Walk: Pier to Pier, a Walk Through Time, Fishing, Quarrying and Culture" on Saturday, May 7. The event gathers friends, neighbors, and visitors for a free, short, 90-minute guided walk which begins at 11:30 a.m. on Stonington’s Commercial Fish Pier and ends… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Native stories keep heritage alive

Stories Our Grandmothers Told Us Edited by Wayne Newell and Robert M. Leavitt Resolute Bear Press Review by Carl Little In his introduction to Kuhkomossonuk Akonutomuwinokot: Stories Our Grandmothers Told Us, Wayne Newell notes that the traditional Passamaquoddy stories he and Robert Leavitt collected “create a bridge between the knowledge… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

WoodenBoat founder turns over the helm

In the early 1970s, Jon Wilson realized he wasn’t as good a boatbuilder as others whose works he admired. But he was a pretty good thinker about boatbuilding. “At that time, wooden boats had been going out of fashion and fiberglass boats were coming in, big time,” he recalled. “I… SEE MORE

The view from Little Deer Isle. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

Working Waterfront

Finding Maine

Editor’s note: In our last edition, a letter writer suggested that islanders other than the four who write regular columns for us might contribute to our coverage of life in places surrounded by water. Challenge accepted here! I arrived here in Maine three years ago on May 1. More accurately,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

It’s time to fix the Indian land claim act

Legislation aimed at modernizing and fixing what is broken in the 1980 Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement Act is working its way through the Maine Legislature. LD 1626 came through the work of a bipartisan task force that also included tribal chiefs and leaders as well as representatives from the… SEE MORE

Detail from one of Nora Flanagan's quilts.

Working Waterfront

Cutting up and stitching the coast back together

Nora Flanagan renders the beauty of Maine’s cool blue coast in a warm and tactile form. Her applique quilts, born from scraps of fabric, are as evocative as any painting and, given the process by which they are created, rely on a kind of abstraction—scissor-sliced color swatches—that serves to represent… SEE MORE

The offices of Deering Lumber in the Lafayette House today. PHOTO: COURTESY KYLE H. NOBLE

Working Waterfront

Biddeford’s Lafayette House dates to 1798

We published a 1936 photo of Biddeford’s Lafayette House, shot by Dominic Avanzato, in our December/January issue, and asked readers if the building were still standing. Here are some of the responses we received: “I can say with certainty that the Lafayette House still exists as the office for Deering… SEE MORE