HOULTON, Maine — It was supposed to be a routine renovation of the parking lot adjacent to the Houlton Town Office. But when the pavement was being removed Thursday, May 12, town officials noticed something amidst all the dirt and mud.
“I just happened to look out the window this morning,” said Nancy Ketch, the town’s economic and community development director, whose office is adjacent to the parking lot. “I was like ‘wow, that’s cool. I wonder what that is.’”
What Ketch saw was a square-shaped foundation made out of red bricks — what looked like the remnants of a former building that must have once stood in the area.
According to Ketch, it’s not the first time that renovations have led to a discovery of historical remnants. Renovations to downtown streets in the 1980s led to finding old corduroy roads, or roads made out of logs that once 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 Art Museum, to help uncover the mystery.
After initially suspecting it may be part of the old armory, Cummings identified it as the original town hall from an atlas dating from 1877. Another map dated 10 years later denotes it as “Town Hall and Engine House.”
Unearthed photos of the original armory confirmed that the foundation indeed belonged to the former town hall.
“The photo clearly shows that the Armory was east of the foundation recently unearthed,” Cummings said. “The foundation in question is not the armory, but rather the old Town Hall and Engine House.”
The addition of the term “engine house” in the 1887 map means that sometime between those 10 years was when the town acquired its first steam engine pump, establishing the first fire station in town, according to Cummings.
The original town hall stood there until 1907, when it was torn down to make room for the current town office, which also served as the police and fire station at the time.
Despite the discovery, there are no plans to preserve any of the remaining bricks. The renovation will continue and the area of the parking lot will be refilled as scheduled.
