Remnants of outdated Houlton city corridor and hearth home discovered in the course of parking ton renovation

It was meant to be a regime renovation of the parking large amount adjacent to the Houlton Town Business. But when the pavement was staying eradicated Thursday, May perhaps 12, city officers observed a thing amidst all the grime and mud. 

HOULTON, Maine — It was supposed to be a routine renovation of the parking great deal adjacent to the Houlton Town Place of work. But when the pavement was staying eliminated Thursday, May possibly 12, city officers discovered a thing amidst all the dust and mud. 

“I just occurred to search out the window this early morning,” mentioned Nancy Ketch, the town’s economic and group development director, whose place of work is adjacent to the parking great deal. “I was like ‘wow, which is great. I speculate what that is.’”

What Ketch observed was a sq.-shaped foundation built out of crimson bricks — what looked like the remnants of a previous creating that need to have at the time stood in the spot.

In accordance to Ketch, it’s not the very first time that renovations have led to a discovery of historic remnants. Renovations to downtown streets in the 1980s led to finding old corduroy streets, or roadways designed out of logs that after existed in Houlton. 

But to determine the origin of this latest discovery, Ketch contacted Leigh Cummings Jr., who serves as the director of the Aroostook County Historical and Artwork Museum, to assist uncover the mystery. 

Following to begin with suspecting it may be part of the old armory, Cummings determined it as the original town corridor from an atlas dating from 1877. Yet another map dated 10 decades afterwards denotes it as “Town Corridor and Motor Residence.”

Unearthed photographs of the first armory confirmed that the basis certainly belonged to the previous town corridor. 

“The image plainly displays that the Armory was east of the basis recently unearthed,” Cummings said. “The basis in problem is not the armory, but alternatively the outdated City Hall and Motor Property.”

The addition of the phrase “engine house” in the 1887 map usually means that someday concerning people 10 several years was when the town obtained its very first steam motor pump, developing the to start with hearth station in city, according to Cummings. 

The primary town hall stood there right up until 1907, when it was torn down to make place for the existing city workplace, which also served as the law enforcement and fire station at the time. 

In spite of the discovery, there are no designs to preserve any of the remaining bricks. The renovation will go on and the location of the parking great deal will be refilled as scheduled.