Raymond residents to vote on Blacksmith Shop appropriation

Workers disassemble the old Watkins Blacksmith Shop in
Casco for transport and reassembly at the Raymond-Cacso 
Historical Society Museum. Voters in Raymond will gather
at a special town meeting on Aug. 9 to determine if the town
should award the historical society $23,200 from Raymond's
surplus undesignated fund to held fund the move and the
restoration of the shop at the museum. COURTESY PHOTO      

By Ed Pierce 

Town of Raymond residents will have the final say in approving a special appropriation for the Raymond-Casco Historical Society to relocate and restore the Raymondtown Watkins Blacksmith Shop to the historical society’s museum in Casco.

A town meeting has been called for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 9 at the Broadcast Studio at 423 Webbs Mills Road in Raymond to elect a moderator for the meeting and then vote on a warrant article to appropriate $23,200 from the town’s surplus undesignated fund balance to help fund the expenses of moving and restoring the historic blacksmith shop. Voting must be done in person for the appropriation and members of the Raymond Select Board and the Raymond Budget-Finance Committee have recommended passage of the article.

The blacksmith shop was taken apart and moved to the museum site in early July. It was first opened in the 1850s by William Watkins and was in use right up until the early 1940s. Footage of the blacksmith’s forge and shop was included in a 1922 silent movie called “Timothy’s Quest” and it once was part of a thriving rural community in Casco, but over the span of the past eight decades, the building’s condition has slowly deteriorated.

The historical society’s board of directors endorsed the project of relocating the blacksmith shop from its site on Bridgton-Portland Road in Casco to the society’s museum on Watkins Farm in Casco, restoring it and using it for live demonstrations for the public.

“I see us offering lots of things. For kids, we will offer crystal radio building workshops, or we will set up a telegraph system and teach kids about the telegraph,” McDermott said. “For adults, they can come and take blacksmithing lessons or metal casting lessons from the professional blacksmith that will be there so they can be doing things like they used to do.”

A team of advisors for the relocation was put together that included Dr. Robert Schmick, Museum Director of 19th Century Curran Village in Orrington and a veteran of several blacksmith shop moves, and Ed Somers of Bridgton, a specialist in preservation and restoration of buildings of this era. Somers agreed to take on the job of stabilizing and sectioning the building for transport and overseeing its reassembly.

Kerry Tottle of Limington devised a plan for lifting sections of the building over an adjacent building on the cramped worksite. A small group of volunteers from Bangor, Hollis and several new members of the historical society spent a good part of June preparing the building for relocation and helping load it on trailers.

Disassembly work was completed in the first week of July with work starting on a modern foundation for the building to preserve it for future generations without detracting from its original appearance.

According to McDermott, over the next few months, new rough-cut hemlock flooring will be installed, the unique split stone foundation will be painstakingly reassembled on its own frost wall, and the ox lift will be hoisted back into place to await further restoration. Repairs will be made to several wall and roof sections using period materials being collected for that purpose and other structural repairs will be made to make it weather tight, so work can begin to recreate the interior of the shop.

The shop is historically significant and is believed to predate the separation of Casco from Raymond and is likely one of the oldest existing commercial buildings in the area, Schmick said.

“These kinds of trade buildings are few and far between in the State of Maine in general, and this is probably one of the earliest I have seen,” Schmick said.

McDermott said that the historical society has financed the move and foundation work thanks to several generous private donations, including from Hancock Lumber and Red Mill and by borrowing from endowment accounts earmarked for maintenance and society operations.

Casco voters agreed at their annual town meeting this spring to give up to $25,000 to assist the historical society in funding the move, with the provision that it would only match the amount if the Town of Raymond agrees to contribute.

McDermott said RCHS’s initial matching $25,000 appropriation request was made too late to be considered as part of Raymond’s town meeting warrant in June, but in reviewing Casco’s appropriation, members of Raymond’s Select Board agreed to schedule a special town meeting on Aug. 9 to consider it.

The non-profit historical society is continuing to seek additional grants and private donations to fund the project. To make a private donation, call 207-310-3040. <