 Good afternoon and welcome to Fort Allen Park as we celebrate the installation of a remarkable set of interpretive exhibits and With it the formal completion of Friends of the Eastern promenades Eastern promenade Fort Allen Eastern promenades Fort Allen rehabilitation project I'm Matthew Kennedy the president of the board of the Friends of the Eastern promenade We're honored to welcome Mayor Ethan Strimbling to Fort Allen City Council member Belinda Ray And to welcome so many others whose vision effort and dedication have made this day possible Our valued private sector partners individual donors artists architects historians builders Extraordinary city staff our neighbors and our colleagues at the Friends of the Eastern promenade The Fort Allen rehabilitation project has been a remarkable collaborative effort its success rests on countless individual contributions of all sorts and As with most collaborative efforts of any complexity at least the successful ones The drive and resolve of one person stands out One person who pulled all of the disparate parts together and shepherded them forward Who found solutions when none seemed available and who kept pushing and pushing and pushing? To make this project the very best it possibly could be Every contribution to this project accrues to its overall success But it's a simple fact that absent Diane Davidson's vision and energy and determination We would not be assembled here today to celebrate its completion. So let me be the first to say Diane Thank you for everything you've done and to call to the podium Diane Davidson the founder and executive director of Friends of the Eastern promenade. Thank you President Kennedy Diane Davidson I'm the executive director for Friends of the Eastern prom I want to thank everyone for coming out today This marks a huge accomplishment for the city of Portland for Friends of the Eastern prom Project the Fort Allen rehabilitation project began in April of 2011 and what you see before you here today Are the interpretive panels that are the icing on the cake of this historic landscape so grateful To have the support each and every one of you that are here and even those that can't be here have had an impact and Despite Matthew's kind words No one operates in a vacuum. The city has been amazingly responsive. The community has been amazingly responsive At many times it was a labor of love I'm fortunate to live 120 steps away from the project Sometimes a hundred depending on how fast I was moving But in all seriousness today is really the icing on the cake We're so grateful I'm gonna make sure that I don't forget any of our Founders or excuse me our supporters and donors who really made this possible through our capital campaign program We have Bullis family Crandall-Toothacre Edmund Gardner We have an anonymous donor. We also have the Davis Family Foundation who supported three different phases of this project Martin's Point Health Center and Anonymous friends that helped make this possible in this last segment with the interpretive panels of which there are 12. I Think you're gonna love them once you have the chance to visit We're most grateful to Norway savings bank who is with us here today to another anonymous friend who supported these works of art and especially to Montgomery designs We thought this was going to take a year and Jack Breeland and Nancy Montgomery Drove into this with a contagious passion that there were many goosebumps moments. There were moments when Pat Weigel and Karen Hackel and I and our staff person Jessica Soraka went over and sat before their computer and looked at all the Data that they had been collecting and I was like is this just the FOEP Computer laptop just for us because the files were endless and they'd sifted that down You'll hear a little bit more. There's a lot more But you'll hear a little bit more about some of the work that they did and the number of people that helped Review this information for accuracy and make sure that what we're here and looking at today is accurate and We'll live on At least after I'm gone For generations and for legacies to enjoy and I also Say with quite a bit of confidence that I believe Olmstead Baxter Goodwin are looking down on us and very proud of what's before us It's my pleasure at this time To welcome Nancy Montgomery and Jack Breeland the graphic artists who put the work together Thank you There aren't many people who are so wonderful to work for and organizations. I have to say but in Maine We're lucky. We've got quite a few of them in 2013 Friends of Eastern prom first contacted Jack Breeland and I about Developing an interpretive plan here at Ford Allen Park and that plan was used to get city support and solicit funding When Norway savings signed on we began a long process of discovery and collaboration with experts Mostly local some national We certainly didn't do this alone of these wayside exhibits or educational signs or the result of these collaborations After we give a look behind the scenes about how this came together I'll take a minute if you can stand the cold and list some of the people we'd like to thank so putting the plan together I had been up here hundreds of times and You know attracted by the view, but I didn't really understand What some of the artifacts were doing here, you know, what was this World War two ship tower and and These old cannons and then this kind of more modern cannon and what was I looking at? So we came to believe in doing the plan that some interpretive signage Would help the memorials because this is really kind of a collection of memorials Hang together and make the visiting the park a richer and more valuable experience for residents and visitors from the way So what do we mean by interpretive signage? What makes a good one? Interpretive signs are all about very specific sense of place. They really caption the landscape You want people to stand in front of them and kind of look up and go. Oh, that's what you mean You want them to have aha moments There's a rule that the National Park Service has helped establish and who whose best professional practices We embrace it's called the 333 rule and What that means is that when a person walks up to a sign you even got three seconds 30 seconds, maybe three minutes if you're really lucky To get something across so these signs need to work in three seconds You need for it at every level of visitor to give enough information or to give brief enough So signs have to be short form the stories need we know we try to get 75 words or so And you hope that people will just learn one simple thing So we're going to look a little bit behind the scenes Jack is going to help explain the process when we come to each job we come in as outsiders and Though I've been in Maine since 70 Portland since 76 There's so much. I don't know and I think in a way that kind of Helps you ask more questions because you don't assume anything But everything If we're lucky we get to work with experts and so many research searchers and archivists and authors and Get to collaborate and it just makes it all better. So over to Jack Thank you So I'm just going to go behind the scenes just a little bit here So kind of obviously the first thing we do is we're looking for for images And then we're going to combine that with text and the graphics in a project like this It is so amazing because there's so much out there I don't know if you've had a chance to walk around and look at the panels yet But we tapped into the National Archives and the Library of Congress and then locally you got the main memory network And you know we're in the shadow of OSHA or is like there's such a volume of stuff So sometimes it's really hard our project like this We have so many resources right at our fingertips, and it's really amazing So we're able to take that and then mountains of research from both local experts and from books and everything we get our hands on and then our process really is we got to Really narrow this thing down so our job to a large extent is editing is you know How do we get this thing down to a story that somebody can walk by and go? Yeah, I got it because that's about how much time you got with a lot of people So I would just like to take you kind of like behind the scenes on on this one panel here So let me just walk you around before I do that though So this panel is talking about for now and this panel is sort of orientation is like what is everything that's in the park moving Here that's on the guns these guys There's one on the the battleship main cannon down there There's one on Harbor defenses down below and there's one on the view shed It's what am I looking at down here and then moving over here? We've got two on the USS Portland and then there's the Jacob Cousins Memorial and there's also the kiosk over there with Maps and also about Olmstead So that's let me let's take you behind the scenes on this one here So the way we approach something like that is we try to just step back and be as naive as we can and go What what's what's for now? I mean, what is what is that me? So it's like why is there a fort for one and now we got to roll back to 1775 and the the British are out here and they are there they burn Portland to the ground one of the several times The Portland's been burned to the ground, but that was a bad one So they nine hours they siege this town burned to the ground There really wasn't a lot of defense built in here So they the the citizens and the militia went into building and over the next 20 years They had built five forts in this area and that still wasn't quite enough because the British were coming and they were starting to take over Islands and all so in 20 days they the locals got together and they decided to build what it's now called Fort Allen and It was it was kind of interesting because the the local pastor or anything that they didn't have church on that Sunday Because everybody was building Fort Allen. So where's Fort Allen? You know, why was it here? Well, the British were coming. So we're gonna build Fort Allen This berm is for it out. It's not, you know, you think about a fort you want to see something like Gorgeous looks like a fort, you know, it's not from the game of thrones or anything That pile of dirt does not really what I have in my brain for a fort So this is really a good ex a good use for an interpretive panel is to go Fort Allen is that pile of dirt That's it So we try to do that and then the next thing we do is why was it called Allen and this is another Really good story is William Henry Allen. He was a 27 year old naval commander from Providence and the Navy at this point was incredibly small and They were his mission was to disrupt commerce And so that meant that he went over off the shore of England with his boat And in the matter of a month He sank he well first of all I painted his ship in British colors ran up a British flag And then he went and sunk 18 of their ships in a month So they respected him quite a bit, but the 19th one He should have gone the other way He took a 32 pound cannonball to the me and it killed him soon thereafter He was buried with honors in England and then Two years later they named the forts several of them like the militia for it I look at Ken over here because he knows everything. Thank you Ken They named them after naval fallen naval heroes and including William Henry Allen So that's where the that's where the name came from So anyway, that's kind of the behind the scenes on that one just the details the places that we resourced on that one But the image of the burning of Falmouth comes from Osher the We also got images from Library of Congress the National History Archives The book is called the fatal cruise of the Argus if you want to read more about William William Henry Allen and a special thanks again to Ken Thompson over here who is He worked with this many many many many times getting the dates right on all the forts and everything It's just a wealth of knowledge coming from him So anyway, that's that's kind of the behind the scenes on that panel I can go around to do that on all of them, but it's too cold for that So I'm not about to but I really hope you will too or really what we have to say is kind of on the panels themselves So there's a lot of there's a lot. I hope you will find interesting facts And just one more fact on this that I blew by was that in the Declaration of Independence where it says he is Pillaged our town and burnt our cities that city was Portland And I'm thinking that's one of those facts that I really hope people will read this and they'll go I didn't know that everybody knows the Declaration of Independence But this is the city that was burned by the British that is referenced in that document So that's a very powerful thing I think so hopefully there'll be lots of moments like that as you walk around and can learn from so again Just want to thank everybody the friends especially in Norway savings This has been a great project for for us to be involved with and it's It's very meaningful work for us So we hope they'll last a long time and it'll give people not just a view of the harbor But a view of history. Thank you Can you spare me long enough to thank a couple of people? You can manage it Obviously Diane Davison and and Matthew Kennedy friends of Eastern prom and and Norway savings bank who came and acted as outside Viewers it was just it was so great to get feedback From somebody not with a vested interest. It was very interesting the city of Portland Jeff Carling who has the institutional knowledge about These memorials and all the parks and who was very generous for this time Deb Andrews and the historic preservation board were very committed and so Intent on making sure that everything fit together and that we didn't clutter up the landscape and that the colors matched existing lighting and you know of this of the Posts, you know, everybody really really pitched in Artists see Michael Lewis illustrated the prom maps Joe Sukaskos For general knowledge main historical society Ken Thompson who proofread at least a dozen times Susan Cummings Lawrence help us with the World War one Memorial, which is In process of maybe being improved Bill Whitten Our own Bill Whitten and Ted Waller from Texas for USS Portland information Jamie Parker of Portland trails and greater Portland landmarks Hillary Bassett and their lovely collection of photographs So thanks everybody who's all of you too Hi, I'm Belinda Ray, and I am the city council representative for district one which includes this beautiful area and all of these beautiful views I always feel incredibly fortunate to live and in here live in this area and to represent this district and I am thrilled to be here today for this dedication of the panels Is that not worth okay? And I Run and I bike through this area all the time so I am very excited to take a look at some of these panels I have often wondered about many of the installations as well I always thought for Alan must have been raised at some point that it was a huge structure that was here And it's amazing for me to learn that it is this berm that it's still there So I can't wait to to lay that trivia on all of my friends who won't think it's nearly as interesting as I do but I Am also Want to say a few words on behalf of the city manager today. He couldn't be here He has allergies and I assure you he sounds horrible So I'm hoping that he has gone home to rest But he just wanted to thank friends of the eastern prom and Diane Davidson in particular For the incredible work that they have done to bring together so many different entities to accomplish this feat And I noticed Diane was getting a little emotional as she was speaking, but that's because this is five years It started in 2011 the whole restoration and the panels are the final piece and it's It's like birth when you are creating these new pieces of work So I'm sure this is a very very emotional day for her and I just want to thank you and on behalf of the city manager Thank you for putting together these public private partnerships to help preserve and improve These beautiful resources in our city. Thank you Oh, it's okay My name is Ethan Strimling on the mayor of Portland. I want to welcome you all here today and thank you for joining us We often Unfortunately, we have these battles sometimes in our cities between those who want to preserve history and those who believe that Historic preservation somehow hinders progress. I think nothing could be further from the truth Historic preservation is the foundation on which a city is built But it also guides our progress without our historic preservation without recognizing our history Understanding where we came from we're doomed to failure and projects like this Remind us of our history where we came from and indeed where we have to go I Hope that as we celebrate moments like this we always remember how much we cherish our history Certainly from a knowledge perspective But really it's so important as we recognize what Portland needs to be in our future Who it is that built our city? What kind of people we have always been who it is that we want to remain in this city to keep us thriving? Projects like this help us understand that in ways that no other no other project could and for that reason I want to thank Diane the friends The city's role as councillor ray mentioned these public-private partnerships are really key We have to find ways to always work together support each other and Make sure that we are putting the greater interest of Portland at the forefront as we become Again one of the greatest cities on the eastern seaboard. So thank you for being here today And thank you for all your work on this project. I have to tell you This is the best part about being a bank president being able to use the banks resources to become Involved in such a magnificent project like this And I know someday when I decide to end my career as we all do that I'll look back on this one as one of the most special that I've been involved in I just want to start by Congratulating Diane and everyone from friends of Eastern prom It's a fantastic Organization the area I think is really really fortunate to benefit from the great leadership that they've provided Their vision and energy and at Norway savings. We've been delighted and very proud To have been associated with the organization and as I've been saying today Every neighborhood in Maine should have an organization like friends of Eastern prom with Diane Davison at its helm So I'm going to be brief As some of you may know Norway savings bank is celebrating our 150th anniversary this year So it's been an exciting time and of course leading up to such a major Milestone we've taken a lot of time to reflect on the banks history Kind of thinking through what were the factors in the last hundred fifty years that led to our longevity and Every discussion that we have inside the bank It always seems to come back to community and we've tried to immerse ourselves in our community being engaged in our communities and Really trying to be good neighbors in the 24 locations where the bank operates And so when we were approached by Diane and the friends of Eastern prom to consider Support to beautify and bring this amazing exhibit to Fort Allen Park We were super excited to be part of something that of course will be Benefited and loved by many generations and it tied in perfectly to the bank's history Roots go back to 1866 so right after the Civil War So we respect and have a great admiration for main history And this kind of support fit right in what a perfect tribute to the bank's 150th Anniversary, so we're thrilled to be part of it Karen Hakula right here our head of marketing The two of us as Jack and Nancy Said have had quite a few opportunities to view as they were coming together these fabulous interpretive exhibits and We are especially grateful and appreciative of the work that Jack and Nancy have done on the panels I can attest to the countless hours that they've put in all the Authenticating of the many facts and details Countless hours, so we're really appreciative of their work And then finally all of us at Norway savings bank want to thank not only the friends of Eastern prom The city of Portland as others before me have said I really can't imagine a more perfect public-private Partnership and we at the bank have been thrilled to be part of it. So thank you very much Thank you Pat mayor Sturmoing councilor Ray everyone who spoke I Want to point out as well when I spoke about Montgomery designs going above and beyond and how they embrace their Passion for this work. I think it's important to note that they were so passionate about this. They also provided us a Generous amount of in kind support With many of the features here at Ford Allen we at times went a little over budget, but it's all worth it The works that you see the panels that are on the USS Portland We're donated by Montgomery design so that we would have consistency in the materials and the look of these Panels that have been installed. They took the information from the outdated panel that was there and Transformed it into something that works with the landscape now. So Very worthy of noting that very grateful for your going above and beyond So Fort Allen is the destination. I may be a little bit prejudiced, but I believe it's true I want to thank everyone for coming out today Now everyone that comes here will know who the parks named after with all due respect. It wasn't named after Ethan Allen I was named after William Henry. They'll know how many kamikaze attacks the USS Portland fought off and Other fun facts to know and share with your friends Some of the teasers if you want to have fun with your friends on our website and feel free to check that out at eastern promenade.org and Keep coming back. In fact come back next Friday and Saturday for the Atlantic Cup races This is the destination You know that the people that were putting that on came here saw the work as if Casco Bay is not beautiful enough on its Own to have it restored to this period of significance that the research identified as between 1890 and 1930 is Profound so it's decimation for weddings where the Atlantic Cup Races taking place here next weekend. We have a hidden garden tour of Munjoy Hill It will be headquarters here to get your tickets, etc. And check out the gardens That's on July 10th and of course our summer concert series, which happens every Thursday night in July and August 6 30 to 7 30 food trucks hula hoops kids dancing having a good time From the bottom of my heart Thank you to everyone who's here and everyone who helped us make this happen I'm grateful and I know I speak for our board It does take a village and Munjoy Hill and eastern prom is an amazing village community. Thank you