 Good evening everyone, thanks for coming. My name is Tom Elliman and I have the pleasure of serving as Greater Portland Landmarks President at the culmination of this, our 50th anniversary year. We gather here this evening to recognize many of you who have contributed to advancing the mission of Greater Portland Landmarks since 1964 and to give special honor to Earl Shuttleworth, who has dedicated his life's work to the history, architecture, and historic preservation of this city and the state of Maine, and with whom I have the honor of serving in the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. Before we get too far into the program, I have a few people I would like to thank. First, the Masonic trustees who donated the use of this space tonight in recognition of the help and interest landmarks has given as they work to preserve this building. Second, to Blue Elephant Catering, who has worked closely with and has tirelessly supported us in the months leading up to this event. And to special supporters this year, including 118 on Munjoy Hill, the Heritage Company Coppersmiths, and Wright Ryan Construction. Also our 50th anniversary year sponsors, including the Danforth Group and JB Brown and Sons. Plus, to Candice Lee, our event chairperson and extraordinary planner for this evening, Candice, could you stand up please? And of course, to our lead 50th anniversary sponsor, the Dead River Company. Our strong programming and educational events are also attributable to all of you in this room who have made this year very successful for greater Portland landmarks. We are very grateful to all of you. Give yourselves a hand. Now it's my pleasure to introduce Sharon Miller, our 50th anniversary chairperson for a few remarks. Sharon. Thank you, Tom. I want to add my thanks to Tom, to everyone who made the 50th anniversary a spectacular success. I look around. I see trustees, former trustees, the people who served on the 50th committee. I wish you'd all stand, the 50th committee. I see, come on guys, you did all the work. We had a terrific team and with former trustees, current members, and the staff of greater Portland landmarks, who got so much extra work dumped on their plate that they weren't expecting and carried it all out with a smile and cheers. So I applaud them as well. We started planning for the 50th more than two years ago and our first visit was to Bob Moore who's the president of Dead River because we had an incredible schedule of events. All we needed was some money. So we went in and had a wonderful visit and I was shocked that we put out an amount that we didn't know that anyone would take. He said, sure, yes. So I said it wasn't just a lead gift, it was really an inspirational gift because it gave us the courage to go and ask others and we were also very grateful to J.B. Brown and the Danforth Group for also signing on the sponsors of the 50th. But also, all of the people who came to all of these events made it a very big financial, educational visibility success and I thank you all. Now, I think I'm here just, I was supposed to be introducing Bob Moore and I was really looking forward to it, but he could not come at the last minute because of an unforeseen issue that he had to deal with. So he called me today and said, could you please read my remarks? I said, well, sure. So instead of introducing him, I know how much Bob loves that part of his job of supporting wonderful causes in the community. He loves going to events and speaking. And they're really committed to doing good in the communities where they work. So he really regrets it, but I know I can't stand in for him. I won't do him justice, but I know you'll be heartened by his words. So instead of changing his whole speech so it made any sense, I'm asking you to just pretend this is a letter from Bob to each of you. Then I don't have to change all the nouns and everything. So here's Bob's letter to you. First, I wanted to spell the notion that the only reason I was asked to speak tonight is because I've lived here long enough and I'm personally old enough to be considered a greater Portland landmark. Longevity does, however, play a role in why I am here and why Dead River Company is so supportive of greater Portland landmarks and its mission. Dead River Company was founded in 1909. There aren't many companies like Dead River left in Maine. Those that have grown for more than 100 years under the guidance and ownership of the founding family. That alone is something for all of us at Dead River Company are very proud of. We have grown and expanded, but we've done so while preserving our core values of service and responsibility to the many communities we serve. Embracing the future is essential for progress and healthy growth. But so is honoring the past. If you leave sight of your history, you lose your identity. Supporting this event and honoring those who've served it so well seemed like a natural fit. On a personal note, with the exception of my time in school and the Navy, I lived my entire life. In fact, I've lived in just about every neighborhood in Portland. The greater Portland areas where I grew up, it's my home. It's where my children grew up, it's their home. Portland's history is our history. I remember riding the first escalator in Maine at the old Sears and Roebuck store over on Free Street. I've seen the transformation that has occurred here. Many of them exciting and forward looking, others not so much. When I was in Greeley Junior High, avidly pursuing a curriculum of baseball, basketball, and playground fights, my teacher, Gladys Berkeley, took me in hand and whipped me into academic shape. She took me to the town library, showed me how to find books I would like and showed me how to check them out. She led a spark of curiosity and a love of reading. Enough so that by the time I was ready for high school, I was able to get a full scholarship to the Lawrenceville School, a prep school in New Jersey. Now, that's a longer story for another time. But I bring it up because I began taking the train regularly from Portland to Trenton, New Jersey. Back then, the train left from beautiful Union Station. We all know that with the advent of air travel and the proliferation of automobiles, people's travel preferences changed. Why ride for six hours on a train when you could take your own car, stop when you want, where you want? Americans love their cars. Train travel across the country slowed to a trickle and train stations closed. Portland was no exception. Federal money was made available for urban renewal and cities got in line to take advantage. Portland was no different. Union Station was a chiseled pink granite towering Romanesque gem that was replaced with a low-slung concrete and corrugated metal eyesore. Losing that landmark in exchange for a strip mall was not a fair trade. It was an architectural tragedy. In hindsight, it's easy to stand here aghast and say, what were they thinking? But there was no greater Portland landmarks on hand to say, there's a better way. There isn't a city in America that doesn't have a Union Station type story to tell. At least we can say that Portland's Union Station did not die in vain. The destruction of Union Station led a woman named E.S. Sills to form what eventually became greater Portland landmarks. This organization has risen from the rubble of Union Station to not only save other great landmarks from a similar fate, but also to educate and inform the greater public as to the value of historic preservation. It's been a productive 50 years. Here's to 50 more, Bob. So that's from Bob Moore. Thank you, Bob. And thank you, Dead River. And I personally would like to thank Greater Portland Landmarks for the honor of working with so many talented and committed people on a really fun project for the past two years that hopefully will pave the way for an even more successful 50 years looking ahead. Thank you. Good evening. No organization can remain as robust and influential as Greater Portland Landmarks has been for 50 years without the scores and hundreds of strong and influential individuals who have given over their time and talents. We will now honor all of you by reading a very brief summary of each of the five decades challenges and accomplishments. And mentioning each of the presidents and executive directors by name. We do want to applaud each of you, but if you could please hold that applause until the end, I'm sure it'll be much more meaningful for all of us. But when you do hear your name, it would be great if you could just wave to the crowd and we'll try to wave back. 1964 to 1973, creating an organization. The demolition of Union Station in 1961 put in motion a movement under the guidance of Mrs. Edith Sills that created Greater Portland Landmarks in 1964. In those early years, landmarks started architectural surveys, published a newsletter and walking tours, saved the Daniel Howe House and created the advisory service. With an infusion of volunteer hours and funds from the junior league, landmarks hired a part-time executive director, created the Spring Street Historic District, which is listed on the national register and saved the Gothic House by moving it to Spring Street and published the Portland book, just to mention a few things. Those presidents were Carlton Smith, Kinvin Roth, Susan Sewell, and Peter L. Murray. The executive directors were Pamela Plumb and Stephen Snell. And I have to mention a few others, including Franny Peabody, Ursula Byer, Jane Moody, and Sally Rand, who were very active. 1974 to 1983, growing the organization and its muscle. Landmarks steadily built its membership and influence in the community. It established annual awards, started walking tours and a marker program to build public awareness, compiled with the Main Historic Preservation Commission, and historic building inventory, and saved the H.H. Hay Building through the Revolving Fund. It assumed management of the Portland Observatory from the city. Landmarks worked hard, but ultimately unsuccessfully, to pass an historic district ordinance in Portland. Those presidents were Mary Louise Sprague, Pamela Plumb, James Graham, Gordon Grimes, Patricia McGraw-Randerson, and Lee Urban. The executive directors were Will Lee Roberts, Joel Russ, and Paula Craighead. 1984 to 1993, actively engaging in urban planning and design. In 1984, landmarks received a preservation honor award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Landmarks participated in the conversion of the Rosa True School to housing, launching a significant trend in the conversion of old school buildings in Portland. Landmarks pushed for more city controls for the protection of historic buildings and areas. It sued the city over the proposed long wharf development for failing to adhere to its own planning policies, and used the demolition of the John B. Carroll block to push for a stronger demolition delay ordinance that saved the Tracy-Couser block. Landmarks published Congress Street, a guide to building rehabilitation and new construction, and worked with the city to prepare the Historic Resources Design Manual to support Portland's historic district ordinance, which had finally passed in 1990. In 1993, it saved the historic interior of City Hall Auditorium by proposing an alternative design, which was expected. Those presidents were Joan French, Derwood Parkinson, Seth Sprague, Laura McDill, Susan Rue, Linda Murnick, and the very reverend Stephen W. Foote. The executive directors were June Lacombe, Deborah Andrews, and Martha DePriese, who's now Martha Blake, who served for 10 years. 1994 to 2003, with the historic preservation ordinance in place, Landmarks turned its attention to strengthening its implementation and played a key role in the expansion of the district boundaries in 1997. At the same time, education programs became a more important part of Landmarks' activities. The first Old House trade show was held in 1996, and Landmarks also expanded school programs, held teacher workshops, and published the first City as a Classroom Student Workbook for third graders. Landmarks took the lead in developing a new docent recruitment program with three other organizations, called Portland's History Docents, the PhDs. Landmarks worked with others in partnerships to preserve local landmarks. In 1997, to restore the Civil War Memorial in Monument Square, and the $1.3 million campaign to save the observatory and install new interpretive exhibits. Landmarks received a preservation honor award from the National Trust for historic preservation for that effort. Those presidents were Victoria Bonnebaker, Lynn Schaefer, Hillary Bassett, Daniel Squire, and Julie Ann Larry. Executive directors were Victoria Loring and Hillary Bassett. In 2004, Landmarks sold the Crockett Hunt House at 165 State Street, which had been our home since 1977. We began an intensive effort to find a new, highly visible location closer to downtown with a strong, civic presence. That dream became a reality in 2009, when we raised over $2 million to purchase and preserve the Stafford House, built in 1858, designed by Charles Alexander, as our new home. As advocates, we celebrated the creation of the Congress Street Historic District in 2010, which was unanimously approved by the city council. In 2009, we collaborated to hire a field representative to strengthen preservation services. And in 2012, we launched Places in Peril, our new endangered properties program. Our advocacy expanded to preserve these places in peril, undo urban renewal, and advocate for new historic districts. We continued our preservation publishing with Deering, a companion to the Portland Book, the energy efficient old house in our award winning new City as a Classroom workbook, which is now required text for all Portland 3rd graders. Those presidents were Jeffrey Melhuis, John Knox, Malcolm Collins, Sally Oldham, Marjorie Getz, and our current Tom Elliman, and the executive director for this entire decade has been none other than Hillary Bassett. And now, if all of those presidents' executive would please stand. Could you please stand, all of you that are here? And we would like to hear your- Hi, I'm Hillary Bassett, the current executive director of Greater Portland Landmarks, and I'd like to introduce three people who are going to pay a tribute to our special guests this evening. They are Seth Sprague, advisory trustee and former president, Pam Plum, advisory trustee, former president and former executive director, and Deb Andrews, former executive director and manager of Portland's Historic Preservation Program. And we'll start with Seth. Thank you, Hillary. And thank you for asking me to, my assignment tonight is to read a letter from none other than Christopher Monkhouse, Earl's lifelong friend, who unfortunately couldn't be here tonight. And those of you who know Christopher will know that my delivery is not going to compare with his, but I did wear a bow tie in his honor. For those who don't know, Christopher is a Portland native who grew up in one of John Calvin Steven's most beautiful homes on Bowdoin Street, and Christopher is the curator of European decorative arts at the Arts Institute of Chicago. He writes, dear Hillary, thank you for inviting me to make remarks about Earl G. Shettleworth Jr. as part of your 50th anniversary celebration of the foundation of Greater Portland Landmarks. As one of the original incorporators, along with Elizabeth Ring, John Pankost, John Calvin Stevens Second, Philip Wadsworth, Robert Albion, and Edith Sills, and the only surviving member of that august group of concerned citizens and ardent preservationists, nobody is more deserving of being honored for his founding role in your organization. I had the good fortune to be introduced to Earl by his Deering High School history teacher, the aforementioned Elizabeth Ring, in spring 1964. The same year, Landmarks was founded. As I often frequented the main historical society's reading room, went home on vacation from Deerfield Academy, Miss Ring then serving as vice president and acting director of the society came over to me one day with the suggestion that I should meet Earl Shettleworth, as she felt we had many interests in common. So it was a range for us to meet in the reading room the very next day. And as they say, the rest is history. For starters, Earl introduced me to the Daniel Howe House and then various sites on the eastern promenade that were terra incognita for somebody who had grown up on the other promenade. And even under my very nose in the western cemetery, Earl showed me the fragmented remains of the headstone for the Portland portraitist Charles Octavius Cole, whose profession was carved into the marble. Somewhat grandly as artiste. What pleasure that final E gave to Earl. As we realized that the headstone was not long for this world, we seriously contemplated taking preservation into our own hands and removing it on the spot. While our law-abiding ways got the better of us, that would not be the only time we contemplated a larseness act especially in the case of vulnerable architectural fragments. However, we invariably made do with a snapshot using my father's polaroid camera. As our friendship stretches over 50 years, I could easily regale you all evening with stories pertaining to our collecting and preserving Maine's cultural past in tandem. However, one in particular stands out. Once I had become a curator of decorative arts at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design and Providence, and acquired the requisite station wagon for the performance of my job, Earl knew that he could rely on me when time was of the essence to keep important documents out of harm's way. He had only just learned that the former offices of the Maine and New Hampshire Granite Company in J-Maine were going to be destroyed, along with the firm's archive containing literally thousands of Incan linen architectural drawings. So Earl enlisted me and my station wagon for an 11th hour rescue mission on a high foliage weekend in Maine. Needless to say, leaf peeping did not figure into our agenda. Instead, we came away with virtually all of the architectural records that then were deposited in the shed attached to Earl's gardener home. Eventually, the future disposition of the drawings needed to be addressed, with Earl and me agreeing that the drawings should be redistributed geographically, with drawings earmarked for depositories closest to their actual building sites. That way, all Maine projects ended up in Augusta in the architectural archive maintained by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, while the rest of the projects pertaining to New England went to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now Historic New England based in Boston. And as Earl recently reminded me, rolls of blue lines for 12 buildings by Daniel Burnham were donated to the Ryerson and Burnham Library at the Art Institute of Chicago. I was rewarded for my labors and loan of my station wagon with the remainders of the drawings going to the Heinz Architectural Center at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, where I was the founding curator from 1991 to 1995. That way, the drawings for the nearby buildings of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University, literally came home, as their granite foundations originated in the quarry of the Maine and New Hampshire granite company in J. In conclusion, I think it's fair to say that Earl and I have both spent our professional careers, not only as historians, preservationists and curators, but also befitting two boys who grew up in Portland as harbor masters. It has been our mutual goal to get ships into safe ports, and not necessarily our own. Architectural records are most meaningful if they are in the hands of those who appreciate what they have and close to the sites of the buildings they record. The final disposition of the archive of the Maine and New Hampshire granite company is a case in point. Through frequently lecturing on architectural history and preservation, Earl has developed a robust presentation style that can be heard over the din of foghorns, again invoking the analogy to a harbor master. Earl's first public lecture, appropriately enough, was arranged by Miss Ring on Portland architecture for a meeting of the College Club in January 1964. As was often the case, College Club gatherings frequently took place in the living room of Edith Sills on Vaughan Street, where I might add many of the early meetings of greater Portland landmarks also occurred. So if this were London, the Greater London Council would be affixing a circular wedgewood blue ceramic plaque to 134 Vaughan Street, noting its seminal role in the formation of greater Portland landmarks and the site of Earl G. Shettleworth Jr.'s first public lecture on Portland architecture. Fifty years later, Earl is still informing and inspiring audiences about our built environment, with tonight being no exception. Let's end Christopher's remarks. And as I was reading Christopher's remarks and thinking about them, it made me think about how important it is for an organization to find passionate, dedicated people. Everyone here came to be involved in different ways, and we all have different stories to tell. The Messers' Monk House in Shettleworth had the encouragement of the icons Elizabeth Ring and Edith Sills. In my case, my parents imbued in me a love of history, and they introduced their children to historic preservation through the direct method. They handed out paint scrapers and blow torches. But even though my mother, Mary Louise Sprague, devoted countless hours over many years to landmarks, it was ultimately a summons from Franny Peabody that nudged me into my involvement, one that has stretched 30 years plus and has been very rewarding for me, and I'm grateful for that nudge from that most remarkable lady. Among other things, I would hope that this celebration will inspire people young and old to engage with landmarks. Fifty years of dedicated work by landmarks has helped make Portland the wonderful city that we live in today. Imagine what the next 50 years might hold. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Pam Plumb, and I am so happy to be here, and I've been so happy to see so many friends from those very, very early years, along with the ones from all the later years as well. My life was changed forever by Kinvan Roth. Kinvan Roth was showing my husband Peter and myself his house, thinking that we might rent it for one year, for Peter's one year clerkship. And he turned to me and said, what are you going to be doing, my dear? He said, beats me. I'm looking for a job. He said, well, why don't you come apply to be the Executive Director of Greater Portland Landmarks? I was 26 years old. I had just finished graduate school, or at least through a master's, and I was history of art major. That seemed impressive to him, but I told him I was a medievalist. I didn't know anything this side of the Council of Trent, but I was a quick learner. And in an astonishing leap of faith, Kinvan Roth and Sally Sewell, now Susan Thomas and a couple of other folks actually hired me to do that job. I had no idea what to do. Let me describe to you the office of Greater Portland Landmarks. In that moment, it was in the Howe House. It had been painted by the individuals who were willing to repaint the interior of the Howe House. We had an enamel kitchen table. We had a vintage typewriter, the kind that had the little things on the top and you had to do like this to make it go from Jane Moody. And we, a membership, was on index cards in a shoebox. So that's where we began. It was a time of great energy, great direct involvement. We were chasing bulldozers and trying to save buildings and trying to promote the value. The volunteer organization before I came along had already done a number of things that were pointed out by Jim Cram and gotten the organization on its way, but we were still in guerrilla warfare mode. The interesting thing to me to watch over all this time is how landmarks grew into having its place at the table, which is what it needed desperately in those early years and didn't have and it grew to have later on. There were monumental moments, the moving of the Gothic house, which started white hair in my head at the age of 27 and things like that, which were dramatic and successful for the organization. But the last thing I want to say about those early and dramatic times and it continues to present day is that whenever we had a question, we would say, where's Earl? Earl will know. What about that building over there? Earl will know. Well, why was that street developed that way? Well, Earl will know. And you know what? That's what we're still saying. Earl will know. In preparing my remarks tonight, I realized that I've known Earl for 30 years this fall. I came to serve as Executive Director of Greater Portland Landmarks, very green, and he was very helpful to me and continues to be an inspiration. I consider an Earl a rock star and so I am very honored to recognize him tonight. Critical to any successful historic preservation effort is an understanding of the place you're trying to preserve. It's pretty difficult to make the case for saving something that people just don't understand. Out of understanding rose appreciation and ultimately the motivation and conviction to save and protect special places. How lucky we are then in a state so rich in historic resources to have Earl Shettleworth. Since his early teens, Earl has been helping the citizens of Maine in communities large and small to understand what they have, what the historic buildings in their community tell them about their community's past and how relevant they are to today. For 50 years, Earl has researched and documented the historic architecture and cultural history of Maine. He's crisscrossed the state, sharing this information in countless talks and presentations. He's authored at least 28 publications, I checked with your staff to see if that's correct, I'm not quite sure, but he's authored at least 28 publications about various aspects of Maine's architectural history and co-authored or contributed to at least as many. Whenever there's a project that involves a significant historic property, the press calls Earl, knowing that he will not only be able to give detailed information about the particular property, but also help the readers understand its role in a larger context. All of this he's done while running a very busy and effective state historic preservation office. As you may or may not know, Earl is the longest serving state historic preservation officer in the country. As director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, he has attracted and assembled a very knowledgeable, capable, and committed staff. Indeed, it's the very constancy of Earl's leadership and the continuity within his staff that sets the Maine Historic Preservation Commission apart from its counterparts in other states. In my role with the city of Portland, Earl and his staff at the commission have been inordinately and repeatedly helpful, always helpful. Not only providing information and resources and wise counsel on numerous initiatives, but also providing funding to undertake projects that the city wouldn't have had the resources to do otherwise. A couple of recent examples include an architectural survey of the India Street neighborhood and an historic assessment of the Portland Company. Earl, for the truly extraordinary contribution you have made to the cause of historic preservation in Maine and for your continued passion for the cause, I thank you. Thank you. This is the good thing about trusting all the great people that work with you. They will come through. This has been an extraordinary year for greater Portland landmarks as we've celebrated our 50th anniversary and our guest of honor, Earl Shuttleworth, has been involved throughout. We opened the year with a photography exhibition co-curated by Earl that showed how Portland has evolved through current and vintage images. In March, Earl introduced our keynote speaker, distinguished Metropolitan Museum of Art Curator, Morrison Heckscher, who shared insights about the preservation movement. And Earl played an essential role in developing an installation we are about to mount, telling the story of Portland's preservation movement at our Safford House headquarters. Our guest of honor tonight, Earl Shuttleworth, not only helped start landmarks, but he continues to be with us every step of the way. Earl is a prime example of what we have heard again and again this year. It's the people who make preservation happen, whether it be research, saving buildings, gathering historic images, providing deep background information, sharing advice on a wide array of topics about architecture and history, not to mention public speaking. Earl is there, or I should say everywhere. Earl never says no. He says, how can I help? Earl remembers even buildings that have long since gone. Earl is the institutional memory. Earl has spent his whole career starting at age 14, dedicated to learning about and preserving the authentic historic buildings and landscape that define Greater Portland and Maine. As Greater Portland Landmarks celebrates our 50th anniversary, it's my great pleasure to honor Earl G. Shuttleworth for his founding of Greater Portland Landmarks more than 50 years ago and for his service throughout his life to historic preservation in Maine. So we have a special thing for you before your remarks, and I'm inviting Chris Kloss to our Preservation Services Advisor to join me in revealing. So I wanted to mention this is a photograph of the interior of the Custom House that is by Heath Paley, who is here tonight somewhere, and done recently after the new restoration of the Custom House, which Earl's office and landmarks have been involved in. So we'd like to offer this as a token of our appreciation for your excellent service to all of us in the state of Maine. And now I'd like to invite Earl to make a few remarks. Well, first, I just want to thank everyone for coming. I want to thank the kindness that has been shown to me by Greater Portland Landmarks this evening. This is a very, very special event in my life. Illusion has been made already to the fact that I may be the only surviving member of the group who signed the original incorporation, and I believe that's correct. And I want to just mention very briefly before I get into my prepared remarks that Eva Sills had a wonderful wit about her. And I can remember very vividly at 16 after we went into Peter and Cairo's seniors' law office in this building, which I'll allude to again in a few moments. The papers were signed, and then she turned to me and she said, you know, someday you'll be the only one left to tell about this. And she was right. Now, she's also the Edith Sills who, as Christopher Monkhouse reminded us, hosted my first talk 50 years ago. And at the tea afterwards, Edith, who of course had spent 30 years as the first lady of Bowdoin, a very gracious and yet a very witty and sharp lady, she came up to me and she said, now Mr. Shuttleworth, of course she addressed all the boys at Bowdoin as Mr. And so I was also as a high school student. And she said, now Mr. Shuttleworth, she said, you know, the darkness of your slides was illuminated by the brilliance of your remarks. Had a wonderful cutting edge to it. Now in those early meetings between 1962 and 1964, I believe we may have one person in addition to myself who was in those meetings. Is Mason Smith here tonight? Did Mason make it? I don't see him. I know he was invited. But Mason Philip Smith, who's a very fine photographer now retired, he was very gracious in those days in taking photographs for the various early publications of landmarks, such as the 1965 walking tour. And we had hoped he'd be here tonight. So I've titled my remarks to save a city. And I'm going to use this illustrations, old postcard views, because I, among other things, I have this passion for old postcards. For most of its history, Portland believed that it was destined to be a great American city. Its motto, resurgum, and its emblem, the phoenix, symbolized its rebirth after each of four major destructions. Its ambitious spirit was noted by the English writer Anthony Trollop, who observed in his 1862 book, North America, few cities have fairer natural advantages than Portland. And I am bound to say that the people of Portland have done much in turning them to account. I doubt whether I will ever see a town with more evident signs of prosperity. And this is the view of Portland in 1865 just before the Great Fire. These evident signs of prosperity sustained Portland during the boom years of World War II shipbuilding. However, the post-World War II Portland, into which I was born in 1948, had begun to perceive itself as a city in decline. Like many of its counterparts across the nation, it viewed its 19th century form and fabric as outdated, impediments to its future, a future increasingly threatened by the automobile which ushered in these residential suburbs on Brighton Avenue and shopping malls. Portland's initial response to these changing economic and social patterns was to replace the old with the new. Thus, the 1960s became a decade of demolition, beginning with Union Station in 1961, followed by the John Muzzy House, the Falmouth Hotel, the Old Post Office, the Second Parish Church, St. Stephen's Church, and the Grand Trunk Station shown here at the foot of India Street. Dramatic as these individual losses were, a greater change resulted from renewal projects such as Bayside, Monjoy South, and the Golden Triangle. The first two projects erased 19th century working class neighborhoods, while the third destroyed blocks of commercial buildings that had provided a link between the Old Port and Monument Square. Of even greater concern was the Gruen Plan, a Robert Moses-style inner-city ring road that resulted in the Franklin Arterial and the Spring Street Arterial. The promised benefit was easier automotive access to downtown businesses, but the price was high. The first Arterial truncated Lincoln Park and separated Monjoy Hill from the rest of the peninsula. While the second Arterial, combined with the Holiday Inn that we see here, created a sterile wasteland in place of a historic streetscape. Only recently, after living for more than 40 years with the scars of these Arterials, have we begun as a city to address their social and visual impacts on our inner city. This was the challenging political landscape into which Greater Portland Landmarks came into being 50 years ago on July 10th, 1964. In the Law Office of Peter N. Cairo Sr. located here in the Masonic building where we gather tonight. In addition to your speaker who founded Landmarks that summer afternoon were architects John Calvin Stevens II and Philip Wadsworth, Maritime Historian Robert G. Albion, Maine Historian Elizabeth Ring, Portland Museum Director Johnny Pankost and Community Leader Edith Sills. The need for such an organization had first been advanced by Mrs. Sills in 1962 in the wake of Union Station's loss. Responding to the concern of many of her fellow citizens over the loss of such a prominent landmark, Edith Sills invited prominent local leaders and historians to her home at 134 Vaughan Street, which you are already getting very familiar with, to discuss strategies for historic preservation. From February 1962 to June 1964, she held monthly meetings of the Sills Committee, which led to the formation of Greater Portland Landmarks. Having been Bowdoin College's first lady for more than three decades, Mrs. Sills possessed the stature and experience to bring people together and win them to her cause. No Bowdoin boy said no to Mrs. Sills. From the beginning, the Sills Committee recognized that knowledge of Portland's history and architecture were essential to identifying and preserving the city's built environment. To Elizabeth Ring, chair of the History Department at Deering High School, which we see here, I was fortunate to attend many of the Sills Committee meetings and to participate in the first architectural surveys in 1963 and 1964, aided by my compatriots, Peter Kairos Jr. and Christopher Monkhouse. These surveys formed the basis for a slide lecture that I've already alluded to that I delivered more than 100 times between 1964 and 1966. No wonder my algebra and French grades were a little tacky. The survey also informed my writing of 52 articles on local historic buildings for the Portland Evening Express between 1965 and 1967. No sooner had Greater Portland Landmarks been incorporated than it faced its first challenge. The General Services Administration announced that the old post office at Middle and Exchange Streets would be torn down for a federal employees parking lot, now post office park. Landmarks succeeded in securing a six month stay of execution for the building, but with the revival of the old port still in its infancy, a lack of investors and uses doomed the magnificent marble structure to demolition in 1965. Today I believe developers would be lined up around the block for an opportunity to rehab this building. Another early challenge for Landmarks was the Chilton Block, shown here in the very middle of, actually it's just one in from the left, to the left is the Falmouth Hotel, then there are the Chilton Buildings, the Lower Hay Building and the Muzzy Block at the right. This is Middle Street around 1900. Another early challenge was the Chilton Block, a row of post Victorian, fire Victorian commercial buildings at Middle and Spring Streets. Acquired by the city with federal urban renewal funds, the block's removal was part of a plan to redevelop the Golden Triangle, bordered by Middle, Temple, Federal Streets. Landmarks advanced a sound proposal for the reuse of the Chilton Block, which was rejected by the city council. Successes in these years, as you've already heard, included the restoration of the Daniel Howe House on Danforth Street and the moving of the Gothic House from the Holiday Inn site to its present West End of Spring Street. Seeking to establish confidence and credibility in the community, Landmarks adopted oftentimes a very reasonable approach to historic preservation issues in the 1960s and 70s, reaching out to the city. But the organization continued to be viewed with a wary eye by city fathers and business leaders. Such was this attitude that I very specifically remember being called into City Hall in 1972 after my lecture series on the city's architecture had been covered in the press. The message was delivered to me by a senior city official that my advocacy for preservation was detrimental to Portland's economic development and that I should direct my energies elsewhere. As you can see tonight, I didn't really take this advice seriously. Gradually, however, opinion began to shift in favor of historic preservation. One factor was the dramatic resurgence of the old port. Its success initially due to a few visionary private investors such as Elvin Gilman, Henry Willett, and Frank Akers. The old port demonstrated a viable alternative to the conventional teardown policies of the time. Another factor was the implementation of the new Federal Historic Preservation Programs by the Main Historic Preservation Commission in Augusta. Just 50 years ago, this was Edmund Muskie's campaign poster for reelection to the Senate. He'd been elected in 1958 and was seeking reelection. 50 years ago, Senator Edmund Muskie identified what would become the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. And if I were present at the creation of landmarks, I feel a little bit like I was at the preservation present at the creation of the national landmark legislation as well. Because I vividly remember in the spring of 1965, visiting Muskie's office in Washington during a summer vacation, and prophetically, Chip Stockford, who was one of his aides, handed me a draft of the National Historic Preservation Act and said, here, this is something that the senator is working on. You might be interested in reading this and letting us know what you think. Well, I've spent most of my life administering that act in Maine. This far-reaching legislation created a Federal Historic Preservation Program administered by the National Park Service in partnership with states, local governments such as the city of Portland, and nonprofit organizations such as Greater Portland Landmarks. Since 1971, the Maine Historic Preservation Commission has carried out the Preservation Act in Maine, and Portland has been a major beneficiary of the National Register of Historic Places, architectural surveys, restoration grants, certified local governments, federal and state rehab tax credits. Since 1972, the commission has nominated 73 Portland buildings to the National Register, starting with the Woodman Building, Victorian commercial block at Middle and Pearl Streets. The city's most recent additions to the register were the Nathan Clifford School in December 2013. In addition to individual listings, Portland has 12 National Register historic districts. These include the Old Port, the Spring Street area, the Deering Street area, Western Prom, and Stroudwater. The role of landscape architecture has been of particular interest to both the city and the state, and we show you Lincoln Park as an example of parts of the park system that are listed on the National Register. This initial work ultimately led to the formation of the Local Historic Preservation Board, initially created by the ordinance in 1990, strengthened a few years later, and many of the properties that were listed in the National Register either individually or as districts then became covered by the local ordinance as well. Underlying all preservation efforts is the identification of historic resources based on documentary research and an understanding of building types and styles. Expanding on the early architectural surveys by landmarks in the 1960s, the Commission, the City, and landmarks jointly published the Portland Historic Resources Inventory in 1976, a compilation of six districts and many individual structures. Since the publication of that inventory, the Commission, the City, and landmarks have sponsored more than a dozen architectural surveys, and I just show you one, Coil Park in the Deering Area off Forest Avenue, an early 20th century upper-middle-class housing development. And here would be another of the surveys, the late 19th, early 20th century summer cottages on Great Diamond Island. In 1976, the Congress created an Historic Preservation Tax Credit for the rehab of income-producing properties listed in the National Register. A parallel state credit was adopted in 1999 and strengthened in 2008. Historic Preservation Tax Credits strive to place rehabilitation on an equal footing with new construction. The purpose of these credits is to encourage adaptive reuse of historic commercial and industrial buildings in an effort to revitalize cities and towns as well as to save important parts of our heritage. And it is truly a federal, state, and local effort that works. And in the case of Portland, a hundred rehabilitation tax credit projects totaling $138 million. The most recent of which is the Eastland Hotel. Reviewing the accomplishments of the last 50 years, it is tempting for us to rest on our laurels. But as one who follows the Portland scene daily, I know that issues such as the Portland Company and House Island, Fort Scamble, shown here, are constantly emerging to require our attention. The city's current economic vitality, to which preservation has been such a major contributor, brings with it the challenge of having sound growth without sacrificing initial character. Fundamental to the future of historic preservation in Portland is continuing expansion of our understanding of the city's history and architecture through research and architectural surveys as well as through public education, lectures, walking tours, publications. Knowledge has always been our greatest strength. For example, there is still much that we have to learn about Monjoy Hill, and we see here North Street looking from Congress Street. As Abbott Lowell Cummings, my great mentor in graduate school and the former director of the historic New England, wrote in 1965, the struggle we face has long since become more than a matter of concern over an individual building of merit. Areas must now place an essential role in preserving the basic character of our older New England cities. This is what was the largest screen manufacturing factory in the world, stood on Spring Street, the Burroughs factory, swept away by the Spring Street arterial, thank you, and it's pertinent to my next point. Since the first energy crisis in the 1970s, traditional methods and materials for preserving historic buildings have been under siege. We live in an age of rapidly changing building technologies which include vinyl windows, synthetic siding, and alternative energy systems. We must continually assess the advantages and disadvantages that these technologies have for historic buildings and educate property owners accordingly. Both the landmarks advisory service and the landmark staff do an admirable job of this work. And closely linked with the methods and materials, are the professionals who care for our historic buildings. The architects, the engineers, the contractors, the conservators, and the craftspeople whose knowledge and experience are essential to that work. Fortunately, the Greater Portland area and Maine as a whole have no shortage of these technical, talented technical firms and individuals. We must support the current generation of these professionals and encourage them to train the next generation. Relying on our abundant local talent is the best way to ensure against misguided renovation projects. And I look across this room this evening and there are so many of you who have, even of your time and talent, both in your own careers and to landmarks in relation to these technical issues, and I applaud you. We also must not forget our traditional historic sites. We must actively support the institutions in Portland that have voted to preserving major landmarks that so define our city's identity. The Colonial Dames for the Tate House. The Maine Historical Society for the Wadsworth Longfellow House. The Portland Museum of Art for the McClellan House and the Clap House. Greater Portland Landmarks and the City for the Portland Observatory. The Committee to Restore the Abyssinian for the Abyssinian Meeting House. The Women's Christian Temperance Union for the Neal Dow House. The Portland Veteran Firemen's Association for the Portland Fire Museum. The Victoria Society for the Victoria Mansion. And the Maine Jewish Museum for the Et Shame Synagogue. This, by the way, actually is a postcard interior of the bacteria of the synagogue in the Jewish home for the aged in the 1920s. These early photographs of the presence of Jewish life in Portland are very rare. To add to this, I would include our religious structures, our parks, our cemeteries, many of which have support groups. And we must not forget the Portland Room of the Portland Public Library and USM's Osher Map Library and Smith's Center for Cartographic Education. Collectively, these organizations are the guardians of Portland's heritage. In this regard, we must also find ways to replace the valuable educational opportunities for Maine students that will be lost with the recent elimination of the USM American and New England Studies Program. Finally, looking into the more distant future, will our distinctive peninsula geography place us in peril to the rising ocean waters? Will Casco Bay be to Portland as the Arno is to Florence and the Adriatic to the Venice? The Portland Society of Architecture has recently begun this thought-provoking conversation, and we as preservationists need to join it. I think this view of the fishing fleet at the turn of the century after a storm is actually everybody fleeing Atlantis. But not for a while. When Landmarks was incorporated 50 years ago this summer, no one could have foreseen the vital role that historic preservation was destined to play in shaping the renaissance of the city we know today. The success of this contribution is due in large part to the commitment of the state, the city, Landmarks, the private sector, and local residents who work cooperatively and creatively for the common goal of a better Portland. Once again, we see, quote, those evident signs of prosperity that Anthony Trollop spoke of more than 150 years ago. Thank you. Earl, thank you so much for coming. It's not just a pleasure to know you, but it's an honor to have you here, and we are pleased to honor you tonight, and we are so pleased with the contribution you make to this organization, this city, and this state. And there's more. Oh, no. There's more. I was going to ask, let's see, Peter Plum and Kathleen Grammar to come up and lead us in a tribute to Earl. All right. Now, in your brochures there, you will find a piece of paper with some words on it. All right. Everybody stand up and stretch, at least those who can do. Stand up and stretch. All right. And this is your chance now, loudly with great clarity, perfect diction and pitch to honor Earl. All right. And when we get to the refrain the second time around, we're going to do it twice, and that really requires some gusto. So, are you all ready for this? Federal dwellings with flabbered façades, bungalow follies and early kick-a-huts, classical buildings with two matching wings. These are a few of all's reddered things, floor plans and door plans and ionic order, hip booths and mansards and gambles with dormers, shingle-style houses with porches galore. These are some things that Earl poorly adores. Mansions with string courses on that lash elevation, Italian villas with fine fenestrations, saving these houses what he does best. For this HBO there's never the rest. Earl's our expert, name's official preservationist. From landmarks beginning and through fifty years, we've been eating old-finch and Paris and savage and facet, north-east to Cushing and printy-wisc asset. All the great structures in our state of Maine, Earl's got on file in his lopsided grain. John Calvin Stevens and John Bundy Brown, Carbon and Trisket and Harry Bird Brown. These are the people he knows through and through, and in lectures about them, north to Peru. Maine's official preservationist. From landmarks beginning and through fifty years, we thank him, he is the... I wanted to make a couple of closing comments while you're enjoying your cake. The first landmarks is looking ahead to the coming year and the next fifty years. In fact, at eight o'clock tomorrow morning, we'll be having a meeting at Safford House to start planning for the hundredth year anniversary party. A short fifty years away, we've got to get started on these things early. After tonight's celebration, it looks like it could be pretty important. It's been quite an evening here. Because we're all together, I thought I would mention a special thanks to three recent bequests made by Edwin Currier, Nan Sawyer and Norm Nelson. During the summer of our fiftieth anniversary year, that's this past summer, landmarks trustees have set up a board designated endowment for the first time, which we hope will grow and help sustain us over the next several decades. As we close out this year, we are forming a legacy society of landmark supporters. People like you who will remember landmarks in your estate plan. We understand that some of you will pass on a percentage of your assets to landmarks, and we thank you. Please identify yourself to us. If you are one of these people, and if you are not, please consider the opportunity of leaving a legacy to landmarks in the long term. In the short term, we are planning two major events for the spring of 2015 that you all will be interested in. First, our next old house trade show, the weekend of March 28th and 29th. We'll remind you in case you forget that date. March 28th and 29th in Portland, connecting experts in the field of historic building repair and renovation with historic property owners throughout the region. And also, and this is big, an exhibition of John Calvin Stevens' paintings in partnership with the art gallery at UNE's Westbrook campus and with Earl Shettleworth serving as curator. How could we get along without him? This collection of Stevens' artwork will be displayed together for the first time, thanks to the generosity of the Stevens family, including Paul, Dodo, Nate, Jane, and others in their family. So we will again remind you about that because that's going to be tremendously important and significant to us and the whole community. And finally, I want to thank the landmark staff without whom we could not get along. And they are all, those who are here, I think are Hillary, Chris, Jen, Kate, and Maggie. I think that's it. Could you all stand up and we would give you a... I think you all know them. They do it all. And if you don't know them, you will soon, I'm sure. And to thank all who have made the 50th anniversary year such a wonderful celebration of historic preservation in this region, we look forward to doing it more and more and better and better. Thank you all for coming and good night.