Danny Shaw, left, and Jon Shaw, owners of Shaw Brothers Construction, Aug. 29 at the foundation of an event center they are building at Shaw Cherry Hill Farm in Gorham. (Robert Lowell/Staff Writer)

A unique structure, featuring stone walls and massive beams that will house special events and a farmers market, is set to rise at Shaw Cherry Hill Farm in Gorham.

The 60-by-100-foot event center will be available for special occasions like weddings and parties with a capacity for 400 people, besides housing the existing Cherry Hill Farmers Market that is now conducted outside.

“We want to help out the local growers,” Jon Shaw said on Aug. 29.

The building is the third at the 258-acre site, at the gateway to Gorham on Route 25, which the nonprofit Shaw Family Foundation bought 10 years ago. The Shaw brothers’ stated mission is to preserve the agricultural roots of Gorham.

A crew works Aug. 29 on a foundation for an event center at the 258-acre Shaw Cherry Hill Farm in Gorham. (Robert Lowell/Staff Writer)

Kiln-dried Douglas fir beams 60 feet in length are coming from Washington state for the project and contractor R. A. Krouse, of Arundel, will assemble the post-and-beam construction. Beams will be erected in mid-November.

Dennis Nickerson, of Affordable Builders in Gorham, will handle rest of the project.

The event center has yet to be named, but it could be the Cherry Hill Barn.

“They say, ‘Build it and they will come,’” Danny Shaw said.

The building will have a commercial-sized kitchen and an ice cream shop. Breakfast and lunch will be served on farmers market days and accompanied with live piano music.

Lee Pratt, Shaw Brothers Construction controller, declined last week to reveal an estimated cost of the event center.

The property features include a restored 200-year-old Mosher Barn reassembled at the farm and houses Gorham Historical Society; a modern cattle barn for the Red Angus beef herd; and three miles of public walking trails with access to the Presumpscot River.

The farmers market meets under tents and awnings from 2 to 6 p.m. on Wednesdays from mid-June through September. “This is year four,” farmers market manager Jean Cayer, of Standish, said last week.

Jean Cayer, of Standish, manager of Cherry Hill Farmers Market, sets up her baskets of garlic under on Aug. 27. “We’re going to have a home,” Cayer said about a new building set to rise. (Robert Lowell/Staff Writer)

Cayer said the market usually has a dozen vendors and attracts customers from around the neighboring communities like Westbrook and Portland. Cayer is enthusiastic about moving under a roof. “We’re going to have a home,” Cayer said about the event center.

Plans call for the event center to be completed by next summer, in time for the town to host activities for the country’s 250th anniversary celebration. Older than both Gorham and the United States, property at Shaw Cherry Hill Farm is part of a 300-acre grant to a Massachusetts man, John Tyng, dating to 1730 during the reign of the British King George II.