Recorded May 20th 2020
Update of Maine Preservation’s Past Year
Presenter: Greg Paxton, Executive Director of Maine Preservation, Yarmouth
BOOTSTRAPPING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT THROUGH REUSE OF HISTORIC STRUCTURES
Presenter: Hugh French, Director, Tides Institute & Museum of Art, Eastport
Learn about a current project that is reusing reusing an historic structure to foster economic development in Eastport.
16 COUNTIES - 16 STORIES OF EARLY MAINE HOUSES
Presenter: Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., Maine State Historian
Take a whirlwind tour of notable early Maine houses - all built prior to Maine statehood - and hear the stories of the bold Mainers associated with them.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Hugh French, Director - Tides Institute & Museum of Art
French holds a B.A degree from Williams College, with additional study at the University of Edinburgh, and an M.A. degree from the University of New Brunswick, where he held the Lord Beaverbrook Fellowship.
For nearly 20 years, he worked for the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine, departing in 2001 as Associate Director. He co-founded the Tides Institute & Museum of Art (TIMA) in 2002 that serves as an innovative regional and cross-border (U.S./Canada) cultural resource and cultural catalyst institution. Among many initiatives, the Tides Institute serves as lead partner (with the City of Eastport and Eastport Chamber of Commerce) in Eastport’s membership in the Maine Downtown Network. In 2010, TIMA received one of two inaugural awards from the Maine Arts Commission’s new program, Creative Communities=Economic Development. In 2012, TIMA was selected for funding from the national ArtPlace initiative that seeks to revitalize communities across the country through the arts.
Earle Shettleworth Jr., Maine State Historian
Earle Grey Shettleworth, Jr. was born in Portland, Maine on August 17, 1948, the son of Earle G. Shettleworth, Sr. and Esther Knudsen Shettleworth. He was educated in Portland public schools, graduating from Deering High School in 1966. He received a B.A. in Art History from Colby College in 1970, an M.A. in Architectural History from Boston University in 1979, and an L.H.D. from Bowdoin College in 2008, and an L.H.D. from the Maine College of Art in 2012.
At the age of thirteen, Shettleworth became interested in historic preservation through the destruction of Portland’s Union Station in 1961. A year later he joined the Sills Committee which founded Greater Portland Landmarks in 1964. In 1971 he was appointed by Governor Curtis to serve on the first board of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, for which he became architectural historian in 1973 and director in 1976. He retired as director of the Commission in 2015.
Shettleworth’s elected and appointed positions include president of the Maine Historical Society (1977-79), president of the New England Chapter, Society of Architectural Historians (1995-98), chair of the State House and Capitol Park Commission (1988-2015), chair of the Capitol Planning Commission (1998- ), and chair of the Blaine House Commission (2004-2015). He served on the Maine Lighthouse Selection Committee in 1997-98 and the State Facilities Master Plan Commission in 1999.
Earle Shettleworth has lectured and written extensively on Maine history and architecture. The Maine Historical Society’s auditorium in Portland was named for him in 1999. In 2004 Governor John E. Baldacci appointed him as State Historian, and he was reappointed to a second term by Governor Baldacci in 2008 and to a third term by Governor LePage in 2014.
