WILTON – A donated family home will now be home to the new Western Maine Play Museum.
The organization closed on the donated property at 561 Main Street Monday. The building is commonly referred to as the “York House” as it was built for and lived in by Dr. Albert York and his family, the museum organization said in the announcement. WMPM had been searching the local community for a space to house a children’s museum since November of last year. Initially, their site committee had sought a leased space, but unable to find an affordable commercial lease they begin looking at building acquisition. After receiving a lead from the Downtown Wilton Committee about the 561 Main St. property, they reached out to the heirs of the building who agreed to donate it.
“This house and the town of Wilton meant a lot to Dr. York and his family,” said Ken Sawyer, a resident of Wilton and caretaker of the York estate. “Their relatives feel that having the house be put to beneficial use is a great way to honor their memory. Having delivered and cared for hundreds of children from Wilton and its surrounding towns, the relatives feel that Dr. York, his wife, and children would have taken great pleasure in seeing their home come alive again as a children’s museum and as a step forward in the revival of downtown Wilton.”
According to Sawyer, Dr. York graduated from the Maine School of Medicine at Bowdoin College in 1898. The building at 561 Main St. was constructed in the early 1900s and housed the York family and Dr. York’s medical practice which included general medicine and surgery. His wife, Maude, a nurse, was his medical and surgical assistant. He had three children: Albert Jr., Mary and Ruth. Mary and Ruth remained in the home throughout their lives, having never married or had children. They were known locally as “the sisters” and stayed very active in local activities until their final years at the ages of 95 and 96.
The building, though solidly constructed, is in need of extensive interior and exterior renovations since it remains much as it has for the last century with single pane glass, no insulation, knob and tube electric, etc. There is also lead paint throughout the building and some asbestos remediation that will need to be done, along with updating the building to meet commercial building codes and ADA requirements. The house has been examined by two local contractors and Wilton’s fire department chief to get an overview of the building’s needs.
When WMPM approached one of these contractors, Josh Wojcik, owner of Upright Frameworks, he expressed enthusiasm and support for the project. Wojcik had heard of WMPM, knew of the York House, and immediately volunteered for Upright Frameworks to do the renovation at cost.
“One of the cool things about building a successful company is that you get to decide what to do with that success and, frankly, I can’t think of anything better than helping to revitalize my home town,” Wojcik said. Upright Framework’s willingness to do the project at cost is not unique (though the size of the project is unusually large) as they have done this for several non-profits throughout western, central and southern Maine.
WMPM expects to launch a capital campaign later this year to raise the funds necessary to pay for building renovations, furnishings, and exhibit creation. Although a final capital campaign goal has not yet been decided upon due to ongoing exhibit design work, they expect the amount needed will be over $500,000. Their goal is to have the children’s museum open during the summer of 2015.
Western Maine Play Museum is a registered non-profit that incorporated in November of 2013 and is led by a 13-member board of directors. Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments (AVCOG) is currently acting as WMPM’s fiscal sponsor until their own tax-exemption is approved by the IRS, so donations received will be tax-exempt under AVCOG’s 501(c)3. Community members interested in making a donation should write checks out to AVCOG with “WMPM” in the notes and then mail to: Western Maine Play Museum, P.O. BOX 871, Farmington, ME 04938. Project updates can be found at: www.facebook.com/WesternMainePlayMuseum
or you can contact WMPM directly at: angelamcleod78@gmail.com.
This is awesome news for Wilton. this is a great small step towards a brighter future for Wilton. I think people will start to realize just how special of a place Wilton is soon and we will continue to see more development of properties such as the one in this story.
I am incredibly excited that WMPM finally has a home! I’ve followed this story closely since the initial survey and I look forward to taking my family when they open. Great work Angela and team!
A great community project that I’m proud to be part of! Hats off to Angela McLeod for her vision!
Excellent job to All members that are working deligently on this Grand Goal~~!!!!
I don’t have any skin in this game, and maybe I am ignorant of construction costs, but I would think that you could have a very nice new building for $500,000 and a lot of volunteer labor. When you renovate this one, you’re still going to have a very old building, likely with issues that will keep cropping up over time.
As a young man,I lived across the street from this house.I remember Ruth and Mary quite well.They would be thrilled to see this happening.A very nice addition to Downtown Wilton.
Congrats to all,involved with this!
@ the fool
It appears to me that the $500,000 approximate cost would include a lot of the exhibits for the WMCM. Unless there is serious structural and foundation issues, the renovation costs shouldn’t even come close to 500k. I think that is a wonderful building and an excellent location to start building back up. Good luck to all!
Let me clarify about costs: the $500,000+ mentioned in the article refers to the cost of renovating a very large building in need of everything from insulation to all of the necessary bells and whistles (a parking lot, a sprinkler system, a fire alarm system, etc), plus furnishings AND exhibit creation. As you can imagine, none of these things are cheap. Why not a new building? No one was offering to donate a turnkey building AND the idea of a start-up non-profit without any credit history or assets going to a bank and getting a loan for $500,000 is not realistic. Believe me, we explored every possible option for finding the space to house the museum and ultimately felt that this one was the best. The other small children’s museums in our region (Augusta, North Conway and Rockland) all lease and, I daresay, would give their eye teeth for the opportunity to own their own building. Even though we have a long road ahead of us, we still feel very lucky. When we get done with this building it’s going to knock the socks off the most cynical among us.
Keep the vision and excitement going! Yes, $500,000 is an investment and it seems like things are well thought out and will happen in stages. Great to renovate a building with so much history and it looks like it has some unique character. Keep up the faith and I look forward to seeing things develop.
The York sisters Mary and Ruth are smiling down from heaven.
This is a great opportunity for Wilton. I can’t wait to bring my grandchildren to the Museum.