Maine Preservation Plan

Number of Page: 95
Approval Date: January 31, 2006
Planning Cycle: 5 years

Contact Information:

Kirk F. Mohney
Assistant Director
Maine Historic Preservation Commission
55 Capitol Street, Station 65
Augusta, Maine 04333-0065
(207) 287-3811; fax (207) 287-2335
E-mail: kirk.mohney@maine.gov
Website: www.maine.gov/mhpc/preservation_planning/state_plan/index.html

Mission/Vision Statement:
Not provided in the Plan.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Chapter I: Context for Preservation
Chapter II: Partners in Preservation
Chapter III: Program Activities

1. National Register of Historic Places
2. Architectural Survey
3. Review and Compliance
4. Acquisition, Development, and Covenants
5. Preservation Tax Incentives
6. Certified Local Government
7. Planning
8. Public Education and Technical Assistance
9. Prehistoric Archaeology
10. Historical Archaeology
11. Information Management
Chapter IV: Opportunities and Challenges
Bibliography
Appendices

• Appendix 1: Contexts for the Study of Historic Period Resources in the State of Maine
  
• Appendix 2: National Register Eligibility Criteria in Prehistoric Archaeological Contexts
  
• Appendix 3: Capital Needs of Maine's Historic Properties - Results of the 2004 Survey
  
• Appendix 4: Public Questionnaire

• Questionnaire distributed throughout the state during 2005, through direct mailings, in response to advertisement in five major daily newspapers, and on-line at Commission's web site, to which Maine Preservation's web site linked.

Other Plan Development Strategies:
None specifically mentioned.

HISTORIC AND CULTURAL RESOURCES
Prehistoric and historical archaeology; historic resources; historic designed landscapes; historic buildings, structures, and sites; historic churches and meetinghouses; Fort Edgecomb and other early forts; Old Gaol in York; Wadsworth-Longfellow House in Portland; historic architecture; historic village centers, farmlands, open spaces, woodlands, scenic vistas; 20th-century resources, including residential, Cold War military installations, and commercial roadside architecture; cultural resources; military fortifications; covered bridges; highway bridges; navigational light stations; African-American churches; historic properties; historic commercial districts; railroad-related features; 19th-century canal systems; historic farmsteads; community buildings, such as grange halls, public halls, and town halls; coastal summer colonies; agricultural outbuildings, including barns; agricultural landscapes; shoe industry properties and other industrial sites; sporting camps; textile mills; motor courts; traditional rural historic landscapes; prehistoric archaeological sites, such as shell middens, lithic scatters, Paleoindian sites, fish weirs, habitation/workshop sites, rare cemetery sites, pictographs, petroglyphs, quarry/workshop sites, camps, villages; historical archaeological sites, such as early colonial sites, early exploration and settlement sites, sites related to important Maine events or industries, 19th-century logging sites, extinct agricultural neighborhoods, sites related to ethnicity, race, gender, and religious diversity; 17th- and 18th-century sites; early codfishery sites; maritime-related sites, including shipwrecks; early to mid-18th-century Forts Richmond, Shirley, and Halifax; Cushnoc and other 17th-century trading posts; 17th-century fortified village of Pemaquid; site of the 1607-1608 Popham Colony; sites associated with the Revolutionary War and War of 1812; 17th-century earth-fast architecture remains.

ISSUES, THREATS, & OPPORTUNITIES

• Threats to historic properties from commercial development, sprawl, and highway projects;
• Joint archaeological site monitoring program between the Commission and Maine Archaeological Society;
• Heritage tourism a major factor in state's economy;
• Ex-urban growth and suburbanization, including development of commercial, industrial, and office parks in outlying areas away from historic village centers, threatens the viability of many downtowns;
• Increasing number of public-private groups that support preservation;
• Nearly two-thirds of Maine's towns and cities have included preservation in their comprehensive plans;
• Increasing recognition of the importance of traditional rural landscapes and 20th-century resources has led to a number of preservation successes;
• Much of the architectural survey information is insufficient to evaluate significance;
• Community interest in conducting architectural surveys surpasses the availability of funding;
• Survey coverage of the state has been uneven for architectural resources and for prehistoric and historical archaeological sites;
• State law provides for Commission review of developments and subdivisions, and some municipalities require Commission review of building permit applications;
• Development pressures in the southern and mid-coastal regions are intensifying;
• State-funded New Century Community Program provides grants to communities for preservation;
• State Rehabilitation Tax Credit program provides an additional incentive for preservation;
• Local governments and citizens are highly active in preservation and planning;
• Rural historic landscapes are under pressure from residential, commercial, and industrial development and a shrinking agricultural base;
• Preparation of prehistoric archaeological contexts is incomplete;
• ecreasing financial support for field survey projects, including underwater survey;
• Conservation lands purchased by Land for Maine's Future Board purchase program helps protect archaeological resources;
• Increasing involvement of the two Passamaquoddy tribes and the Penobscot Nation in historic preservation efforts;
• Archaeological sites vulnerable to damage or destruction by intense land development, vandalism, and erosion.

1. National Register of Historic Places
2. Architectural Survey
3. Review and Compliance
4. Acquisition, Development, and Covenants
5. Preservation Tax Incentives
6. Certified Local Government Program
7. Planning
8. Public Education and Technical Assistance
9. Prehistoric Archaeology
10. Historical Archaeology
11. Information Management

A. National Register Priorities

Short-term:
• Prepare context-based Multiple Property Submissions;
• Strengthen the link between survey and nomination;
• Identify properties that are under-represented in the National Register significance areas;
Long-term:
• Revise historic district nominations that inadequately reflect the range of applicable criteria;
• Review and update existing historic district nominations;
• Explore feasibility of academic communities to prepare Multiple Property Submissions;
• Revise and update nominations containing errors or omissions.

Short-term:
• Identify agricultural resources, including barns and outbuildings;
• Identify and survey rural historic districts;
• Involve volunteer groups in architectural survey;
• Improve data collection and management.
Long-term:
• Conduct reconnaissance surveys in Aroostook, Piscataquis, Somerset, Washington, and York Counties;
• Complete reconnaissance survey in Cumberland County;
• Conduct intensive survey of rural Lincoln County;
• Identify strategies for involving special interest groups or neighboring communities in multi-phase surveys of specific property types, such as university programs, post-World-War-II resources, automobile-related resources, and boys and girls summer camps.

Short-term:
• Establish open communications among the public, applicants, and state and federal agencies;
• Incorporate review and compliance information into survey database;
• Develop GIS database;
• Increase the effectiveness of the review process;
• Provide review-and-compliance-related information on the Commission's web site.
Long-term:
• Post survey information on the Commission's web site;
• Focus survey efforts on areas experience rapid development;
• Develop historic contexts to help evaluate 19th-century agricultural resources;
• Establish internet accessible library of municipal preservation ordinances.

Short-term:
• Promote and collect data from the Historic Property Capital Needs Survey;
• Revise condition assessment documentation for light stations;
• Establish a summer intern program to help monitor preservation covenants;
• Publicize benefits of preservation grant programs.

Short-term:
• Publicize the availability of the federal and state tax credit programs;
• Raise the visibility of model tax credit projects;
Long-term:
• Amend the State Rehabilitation Tax Credit for increased effectiveness.

Short-term:
• Increase municipal participation in the CLG program;
• Expand CLG survey and nomination efforts;
• Strengthen local commission member and local official understanding of the application of the Secretary's Treatment Standards;
• Educate CLGs and local commissions on the importance of identifying and protecting archaeological resources;
• Develop municipal preservation planning, identification, and protection strategies;
• Expand information exchange and collaboration among local commissions and interested parties on preservation issues;
• Develop and participate in local commission training.
Long-term:
• Expand training for local commission members.

Short-term:
• Develop community preservation plans and zoning ordinances;
• Educate regional planning commissions about benefits of preservation planning in maintaining community character;
• Incorporate preservation in initiatives and programs of the Community Preservation Advisory Committee and GrowSmart Maine;
• Include Commission representation on the Advisory Board to the Maine Downtown Center;
Long-term:
• Establish a database that identifies historic and cultural sites for heritage tourism;
• Establish heritage corridors throughout the state.

Short-term:
• Offer public lectures and workshops on specialized topics for specific audiences;
• Post Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Maine and National Register documentation on the Commission's web site;
• Explore ways for local commissions and CLGs can provide preservation education;
• Develop "preservation news" and post on the Commission's web site.
Long-term:
• Study feasibility of joint sponsorship of "preservation week;"
• Develop preservation education program as part of the state's educational curriculum;
• Strengthen cooperation and coordination of preservation efforts between public and private advocates;
• Distribute preservation information to municipalities and historical societies.

Short-term:
• Joint public education efforts of the Commission and the Maine Archaeological Society;
• Integrate survey and results of review and compliance work into databases and site location model;
• Educate municipal governments, local commissions, and the public on importance of identifying and protecting prehistoric sites;
• Develop forest management plans;
• Improve agency, applicant, and public understanding of the review and compliance process.
Long-term:
• Complete coastal zone survey;
• Work with Penobscot and Passamaquoddy THPOs on archaeological matters;
• Map archaeologically sensitive areas in municipalities;
• Complete scanning of archaeological survey reports into electronic format;
• Continue Paleoindian survey and data recovery.

Short-term:
• Link nominations to survey results;
• Identify and evaluate early colonial English and French sites in areas with severe coastal erosion;
• Expand the Maine Shipwrecks Inventory;
• Strength the link between the review and compliance process and the historical archaeology survey program;
• Educate CLGs, local commissions, and the public on the importance of identifying and protecting historical archaeological sites;
• Improve agency, applicant, and public understanding of the review and compliance process.
Long-term:
• Revisit sites with out-dated nominations;
• Seek annual funding for the Maine Shipwrecks Survey;
• Explore mechanisms for erosion control at severely threatened sites;
• Record Maine Historic Sites Inventory data on topographic maps;
• Develop historic contexts to help evaluate resource types other than agricultural, such as mills, logging, mining, and urban sites;
• Develop GIS database to include surveyed areas, individual properties, and sensitive areas.

Short-term:
• Electronic storage of National Register files;
• Enhance geospatial data from the structur database;
• Complete electronic storage of pre-1987 archaeological survey data;
• Complete plotting National Register sites and districts on USGS base maps.
Long-term:
• Develop and maintain generalized site location information for archaeological sites;
• Create web-based applications for multiple data entry sources.