The Future of Gull Cottage
GOULDSBORO — A community has petitioned for the restoration of a historic land mark, but will it be enough to save it?
Six months have passed since the cottage next to the Prospect Harbor light house caught fire in Gouldsboro.
Since then, the town and their historical society have spoken out in favor of the full restoration of the cottage by sending a petition to state representative Jared Golden
” it’s a landmark. It’s a historic landmark. And we don’t really want to see it demolished or destroyed,’ Says ray Mathewson, the vice president of the Gouldsboro historical society and one of the individuals who spearheaded the petition to restore Gull cottage.
The petition is all the town can do for the historic cottage because it is actually owned by the U.S. Navy so they can’t take any action of their own.
“They’re all very enthusiastic about signing the petition. A lot of people were not even full time residents here, they were summer time residents… And they were all very very sportive of it. It was important to them to restore that keeper’s house.”
Recently, the historical society was given hope when workers began constructing a temporary roof over the cottage.
When we reached out to the navy to ask if any decision had been made for the cottage Jeremy Lambert of the Portsmouth naval shipyard responded by stating,
“The navy’s decision on the future of gull cottage has not been made”,
However, he did also say,
“…The Navy must consider effects on historic properties, and will provide an opportunity for interested parties and the public to participate in a consultation to identify and evaluate these effects. The navy anticipates the engagement effort will begin in spring 2023….”
According to Mathewson, his work is far from over.
Hey says, “We will plan to attend those meetings when and if they happen. They have been appropriately coming to the select board meetings since it happened. We obviously can’t get old beams and wood and everything in there but we would like to restore it as much as possible to the original as is condition”.
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