In order for that to happen, a group of civicminded people and businesses have worked hard — and is still working — to restore the old train station shed on Commercial Street, and make it a viable home for the winter market. The Freight Shed Alliance has done much, but there’s still a ways to go.
“As of this week, we have a brand-new roof, which is major,” Wiebke Theodore, Freight Shed Alliance president, said last Friday. “And we couldn’t do the roof until we stabilized the foundation.”
The Freight Shed Alliance effort has been three years in the making. The group has worked with building owner BFC Marine of Woolwich, which is leasing it the building.
“We couldn’t buy it, so we formed an alliance and the building owner has been great in involving nonprofits,” Theodore said.
The alliance also got a big boost when the Maine Preservation Executive Board earlier this year included the Bath Freight Shed as a positive example on Maine’s Most Endangered Historic Resources list of 2012. While Maine Preservation recognized the building was far from being endangered — citing the Bath Freight Shed Alliance’s careful work — they included it to showcase the property as an excellent model for adaptive reuse of a historic railway freight shed.
Maine Preservation’s hope is that the Bath Freight Shed’s inclusion on this annual list will garner the support and attention the property deserves to further its preservation.
The alliance, meanwhile, has enlisted the support of many volunteers. Through Kickstarter.com, an online funding platform for creative projects, the alliance raised $18,000 to begin work on the building.
Last Thursday, with major help from roofer C.O. Beck & Sons, the freight shed got an $18,000 roof for $7,000. Higmo’s Lumber of Brunswick put in the sills.
“This a great example of the support that we are getting,” Theodore said.
Theodore and her husband, Steven, who are architects, have a passion for restoring buildings in a historically correct manner. In the case of the Bath Freight Shed, they have been particular right down to the kind of wood chosen.
Also last week, the alliance built a bathroom and installed three propane-fired heaters with the help of Mid-Coast Energy Systems of Damariscotta. The bathroom area and the area used by the Winter Farmers Market will be heated on Saturday mornings, during market hours.
The Bath Winter Farmers Market, of course, has been involved in the project as well. The alliance has attended farmers market meetings, and the market donated $1,000 to the Kickstarter.com campaign.
“We love our farmers market and we love our downtown,” Theodore said, “and we feel that having the farmers market in the middle of the winter makes things come alive.”
The alliance welcomes volunteers to work on the shed on Saturday mornings. Potluck dinners are being planned for Sunday afternoons.
“We have all kinds of chores that need to be done,” Theodore said. “If people just have an hour that they want to come over and volunteer, we would love to have them.”
For more information, call 841- 5505.
lgrard@timesrecord.com
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