 I'm here with another CTN member highlight and this time we are covering the Fort Allen Park and the Eastern Promenade to talk about the restoration of Fort Allen and the Bicentennial celebration coming up I have two guests this time and the first one is Diane Davidson who is the Executive Director of Friends of Eastern Promenade to talk about the restoration. Thank you for joining us Diane Thank you for having us. So why did this restoration of Fort Allen come about and what is it all about? Well Friends of the Eastern Promenade are the primary stewards of the Eastern Promenade landscape and Eastern Promenade is on the National Register of Historic Landscapes. The master plan for the Eastern Promenade was adopted by the City of Portland in 2004 and there are suggestions in there and recommendations that guide our efforts and so in 2011 we raised the foundation funds to hire a landscape architect team to explore the significance of the Fort Allen landscape and put together a design scheme for us. So that period of significance was identified as between 1890 and 1930 and that is really the time when the Fort Allen landscape held the most historical integrity and then in the 30s things started to degrade and changes started to happen that weren't really in keeping with the intentions of Olmstead and Baxter and Goodwin who actually designed Fort Allen. So when the Friends of the Eastern Promenade started this by hiring architect and doing this how did you start working in collaboration with the city? Well, we hired the landscape team, Martha Lyon and Regina Leonard and we brought those designs to the City of Portland. You know the city was pretty receptive. We then had to negotiate for funds, you know, CIP funding and CDBG money so the Eastern Promenade is really the jewel of Portland and I think that was helpful in us advocating for what ended up being about a total of 1.2 million in-city support between those funding sources. We also felt strongly that it was a project that needed to happen in one phase. You know, we really couldn't close down the Fort Allen area twice. Neighbors and visitors have been very patient. It's been a long time coming to them, but we just reopened the roadway a week ago and So I understand that the city, you know, contributed 1.2 but the actual cost was higher than that. How did Friends of the Eastern Promenade raise the extra money for that? Well, we're still in the process of raising that money. Our budget was about 300,000 and that includes sort of the furnishings, if you will, and the finishing touches of the project. The city funds, the 1.2 covered really the nuts and bolts in the foundation, you know, returning the gentle curve to the horseshoe drive as it was historically, removing overhead utilities and burying those so that we have less pollution, light pollution, and you can see the night sky reinstalling the walkways and improving pedestrian circulation so that the memorials that are there are better integrated into the landscape. Friends of the Eastern Prom were about three-quarters of the way there with our campaign to finish the project and the furnishings that we're bringing back are the two Civil War era cannons. Those were just returned yesterday, and they're quite lovely, quite impressive. Next week, the USS Maine cannon will be returned. So it's the cannons, it's the remainder of the wrought iron fence. It'll include interpretive exhibits that will help people explore and enjoy the rich history of the park, as well as looking out at Casco Bay and being able to tell what they're looking at and what islands are in view. So now to open this up, this new project, and everybody bring it, you have a celebration coming up. Yeah, we are grateful for the timing. This has been an incredible collaboration with the city. We've worked very closely with the local and state historic preservation boards. You know, city staff and crews have been really helpful and supportive and, divinely, it's all coming together just in time to celebrate the bicentennial of Fort Allen. So we'll be doing that on September 19th and 20th. And what will that involve those two days? It's a Friday and Saturday. Friday and Saturday will involve lectures at the Jewish Museum, the Maine Jewish Museum, and then Saturday will involve a number of celebrations beginning at the 1812 cemetery and then a moment of silence and then a parade that will take folks over to Fort Allen, where we'll celebrate with naval representation and dignitaries and speakers. Great, great. Well, to talk a little bit more about the historic significance of all of this, I'll be talking to Dan, right? Yes. Dan Haley. Yes. I'm here with Dan Haley, the co-chair of the Bicentennial Committee for Fort Allen, to talk a little bit about the historical significance of Fort Allen. Thanks for joining us, Dan. Oh, pleasure to be here. We like to talk about the Eastern Promenade and its history and kind of a little brag in the neighborhood. Yeah. But we are coming up on the 200th anniversary of Fort Allen as we spoke earlier, and we want to celebrate that. And we're going to start it with the 1814 cemetery that's over by the tennis courts in the playground. And the significance there is the Americans had a very, very bad battle experience in Quebec, Canada. And 26 of the soldiers were being transported by ship from Canada down to Boston for a prisoner's swap. And 26 of them got sick. Five of them survived that. And 21 of them are now interred, are interred on the Eastern Promenade. So we'll start, even though it's not 200 years specifically for that one, it's actually probably another year older. So we're going to start a celebration there. And we'll start that with a wreath laying. And then the playing of taps, of course, and no speeches, just a very solemn ceremony. And then we'll form a parade there probably in front of the tennis courts and back toward Walnut Street. And that should be pretty decent for a neighborhood parade. We've got the Army Color Guard to lead it. We'll have the United States Coast Guard because they were involved in the defense of the batteries. When the batteries were first built in Fort Allen in 1814, a unit called the Sea Fensibles was organized by the federal government. And their officers directed the Army militia on building and manning the fort. So the Coast Guard has a play in that. So their Color Guard will be in the parade as well. And then we've got the 195th Army Band. And we've got the governor and the mayor of the dignitaries of town. And the neighborhood organizations like Greater Paul and Landmarks, Friends of the Eastern Promenade, Munger Hill Neighborhood Organization will all participate in the parade in the fire department, which should make it very nice. So we'll get to Fort Allen and to celebrate what used to have eight guns. We now have the two cannings sitting there. They're actually Civil War guns rather than the 1800s. And the Army Guard will bring down a 1941 howitzer, all restored, which will be a nice attraction for the kids to see and things. And so that fort is is the oldest manmade fort in the city. And it was one of three forts, one being down near the Portland Company and one being just below Fort Allen at Fish Point. So this was called the Upper Battery. And with the angle of fire and everything, the British after they took Castine didn't come to Portland because it was 5,000 militia at Fort Allen. And we had the commanding guns and stuff. So that strength eliminated us having a battle in Portland, Harvard during the war of 1812. That's huge. And so all those events that you just talked about having, that's all happening on the 20th. Yeah, well, we'll start at 10 o'clock at the cemetery, and then we'll march over and hopefully start promptly at 11 o'clock. And we'll start with the raising of the flag and we'll play revelry just like you would in a fort back in 1800. They would have been waking up to the bugle. So and then we'll raise the colors, play the national anthem, and then we'll start the speeches. And the speeches, guest speakers, is a wonderful last. Governor LaPage will be the will be the leadoff speaker followed by Mayor Brennan and then the adjutant general of the state of Maine. And then we have Herb Adams, a historian. So it should be not only a celebration, but a good historical experience and CTN, as you know, will be filming all of this. So we'll have it in the archives. So 200 years from now, when you and I aren't here, they can play this back to what happened on the first 200 years. Now, since that it was first use of the fort and 200 years ago, what has transpired there? The biggest thing, you know, I grew up next to the fort on the same side of the street where the Portland house is, is where I grew up. So for me, it was a playground as a kid, and we used to climb all over the cannons and play a little imaginary thing with the pistols and all that that you did back in those years. So it's a really, I wouldn't say sacred, but it's a very important place to the city of Portland. It's a place that everybody comes to, you know, there's a Navy reunion coming in September as well. And, you know, I brought them up the fort island and with the ship's mast and everything just kind of blew them away and the view of the Liberty Ship Park across the street. So to me, it's the greatest spot in the world to be just happened. They had a fort there because it was the best position to put the fort to protect the harbor because it takes it straight on at the entrance. So it's, you know, with the restoration that Diane was talking about, we've just really brought this place back to where it was in its heyday and hopefully, you know, another 200 years of people really enjoying the space. There's plenty of benches there now and the benches is part of how we're supporting our efforts with it, you know, for $5,000. A family can put their name on a bench and that helps us to pay for the cannons and all the other structures that we've done in there. So hopefully every bench will have a name on it. You know, and I was able to get my brothers and sisters to do theirs. So, you know, for just a couple bucks a piece, it was a little bit easier. Large families help, you know, so we're still looking for those. But the main thing is just, you know, it's a piece of our history, but it's also a piece of our recreation and it's a peaceful place and it's kind of special. I live on Walnut Street, you just mentioned about Eastern Parliament. So I appreciate how much, how great it is to have a park like that there and knowing the historical significance helps a lot. But anyway, if people wanted to find out more about this as their website or is there some resource they can go to? Yeah, theeasternpromenade.org has all of it and Diane, who you just spoke with, has that thing full of beautiful pictures from the whole process of what it looked prior and then as it went through the different phases and today, hopefully today's we'll show what the new cannons that were installed yesterday. And next week we'll have the USS Bean back in place. Well, thanks a lot for joining us and look forward to seeing the video and the celebration on the 19th and 20th. Appreciate it. I hope to see you there. Thanks.