This is Margery Gould Rath. In 1984 this cancer survivor created a walk-a-long with other volunteers and survivors. She was from Massachusetts and the first walk was in Boston but in the past 25 years, Maine's turn out for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk has been absolutely huge. I visited the walk this year (and last year as well). It was held on October 18th, 2009 starting at 1030am registration. It was a 3 mile walk with a 1 mile option around Portland. I attended with my sorority sisters, one of whom has a grandmother fighting Breast Cancer and so the walk had a lot of sentimental value as well as historic value.
This is me and my little sorority sister Casey showcasing our home-made T-shirts to the event! The picture on the right is from the American Cancer Society website for the 2009 walk.
Last year alone, the Portland walk had 3,000 participants and raised nearly $250,000 for the American Cancer Society. Though the walks have only been going on for 25 years, the Breast Cancer Walk is a huge part of the history of volunteer work in Southern Maine. Having been a part of Southern Maine's volunteer community for a few years now, this is the biggest community service walk-a-thon in the state.
The site is significant to Maine because it has helped to raise millions of dollars for the research of Breast Cancer. Every year the walk gets bigger and its impact on the community continues to get larger. Though it is not a stationary landmark, the walk occurs every year around the same time and is known to most who participate in it as a historical event in the city of Portland.
This is a photo of the old Gorham Academy building from the Gorham Historical Society. According to the University of Southern Maine website, "The Academy was chartered by the General Court of Massachusetts in 1803. A land grant was made to produce income, providing that the trustees raised $3,000 within a year. The required $3,000 for construction was raised and, on a lot of land given by Thomas McLellan valued at $350, the Academy was built. The building was dedicated on September 8, 1806 and was leased to the State in 1878 for the use of the new normal school for educational purposes. It still is not the property of USM, but belongs to the Gorham Academy Association."
This plaque sits outside the Academy along a stone wall near to the street. I took the picture with my phone (and am pretty impressed with the quality!) When I saw the site, I never thought much of it. Walking past the campus on the way to my dorm room, I'd seen the building without giving it much notice. When I did approach it the other day after work, I stopped to read the sign and then was more intrigued.
I've never seen anyone at the site or reading the sign and so I received more than one odd look from people driving or walking by. The site wasn't the best maintained either. The leaves weren't raked up and there was some litter on the ground.
The Gorham Historical Society lists the history of the academy as starting in 1803 with the incorporation of the Academy. (In 1800 the population is listed as being 2503). The next listing is in 1806 listing that the "Building erected to house Gorham Academy, fall semester of Academy opened September 9. Reverent Reuben Nason Preceptor. Thirty-three students enrolled." The female seminary that was dedicated in 1837 was a part of the Academy until the next year when it seperated. The building was known as many different names at different times. Those names include Gorham Academy, Gorham Male Academy, Gorham Seminary, Gorham Female Seminary and Maine Female Seminary.
The Academy "closed after having practically no enrollment in the previous two years." in 1877. This building is important to Maine History as beginning the cycle of schools in Gorham that would eventually become the University of Southern Maine as we know it now. Without this building first being dedicated in 1803, The school would not have evolved as it has over the past 200 years.
This is a picture of Pennacook Falls from the Rumford Historical Society's website. On September 4th, around 3 in the afternoon, my friends and I stopped at the falls, now usually referred to as Rumford Falls, on the way to camp. The falls weren't as easy to see as this picture let on. Since it's summer time, the water was lower than it would usually appear just after the snow melts in the spring. It's also from a farther vantage point since the falls has since been broken up by the dams that force it into distinct sections. From what a native of the town (and a brochure I picked up at the town information center) told me, I was expecting a much grander site. According to the New England Waterfalls website, this falls is a cascading 176 foot drop in the Anderscoggin River. It's supposed to be the largest falls east of Niagara! From where I stood, it wasn't so impressive.
On the bank where my friends and I viewed it, artists had set up black cut-out style sculptures to represent the Native American tribes who used to inhabit the area. There are cutouts of them carrying fish in baskets, making fires, and even ones of a canoe and a tee-pee. The four of us really enjoyed posing with the cutout shapes (as I imagine other kids must also enjoy since I didn't see children there). The site was pretty scarce save for a few elderly couples wandering around the beach and rocks. Overall, I suppose I didn't view the site at it's best time but I hope to go back in the Spring and really experience the site.
Rumford was settled as New Pennacook in 1774 as a small farming community. In 1800, the town was incorporated as Rumford and has since grown from that small community into the center of business for the region with the paper mill. The Rumford Falls Paper Company was constructed in 1882 by Hugh Chisholm. According to the brochure I picked up in the information booth, this business employed immigrant families in the area and at one point was the world's largest paper mill. Scottish, Irish, Russian, Lithuanian, Polish, French, Italian, and Canadians worked together under one roof in this secluded area along the Anderscoggin. The Falls have also been host to dams that dissect the waterfall into it's separate parts. The Rumford Falls Power Company powered not only the mill but the community. Artists have made their livings here as well, painting and photographing the falls.
Rumford Falls is also historically significant to Maine for inspiring the nation's (and the world's) first environmental legislation, the Clean Air Act, as well as other environmentally friendly pieces of legislature to come. Edmund Muskie, a Rumford native born of Polish immigrants, became a Maine Senator, Govenor, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State. He was also authorized said Clean Air act. The Encylopedia states that, "Laws regarding water quality, regional clean air standards, and a model cities program were among his successes." Without Muskie's history of growing up in a town with terrible water pollution due to mills, we might not have had the laws put into effect when they were or at all.
Rumford Falls came to be a very interesting site to visit. Not only is the area seen for it's beautiful landscape that inspires art but the practical uses that have helped boost Maine economy for 127 years.
This is me and my little sorority sister Casey showcasing our home-made T-shirts to the event! The picture on the right is from the American Cancer Society website for the 2009 walk.
