A five-man crew started re-shingling the roof of historic Lincoln Hall, the modern-day home of the Lincoln Theater and the Maine Coast Book Shop & Café, early Oct. 17.
The job briefly closed Theater Street Monday morning as a crane hefted shingles and other supplies onto the roof, otherwise accessible only by a ladder in the theater attic.
Damariscotta contractor Zander Lee and a five-man crew tethered to the roof with rope harnesses will complete the project in about “five days of good weather,” Lee said.
Barnaby and Susan Porter, the proprietors of the Maine Coast Book Shop & Café, co-own the building with the Lincoln Theater.
The historic structure was built over a 10-month span in 1875 for $28,500, Barnaby Porter said. Bricks cost just $6 per 1000 at the time.
The Jan. 26, 1876 dedication, featuring a Portland orchestra, prompted the Knox & Lincoln Railroad to offer special trains and “was probably the most elaborate and ultra-social event ever held in the Twin Villages,” the late historian Harold Castner wrote in 1963.
“From that time on, it became the entertainment center of a vast area, due to the fact that there was nothing like it east of Portland,” Castner wrote.
The building hosted the town offices of Damariscotta and Newcastle, Lincoln Academy graduations, dances, minstrel shows, political rallies, roller-skating, theatrical troupes, town meetings and, according to Castner, turkey shoots.
A Mr. Otis S. Page bought Lincoln Hall in 1924 and “installed permanent chairs and sound-proofed the walls for a motion picture theatre,” Castner wrote.
Today, the Lincoln Theater continues to host Damariscotta’s annual town meetings, as well as concerts and the productions of its resident theater company, Lincoln County Community Theater. It still screens films and, more recently, started broadcasting live opera and theatre productions from New York and London.
The shingling, which the building’s owners describe as maintenance, is the latest in a series of repairs and improvements.
The improvements include the construction of accessible restrooms, an elevator and an office; the expansion of the lobby; installation of air conditioning, new seating, a sprinkler system and a sound system; interior and exterior painting, repairs to the Lincoln Theater ceiling and upgrades to the heating system.
Future projects include a complete rebuild of the stage and backstage areas.
Lincoln Theater Executive Director Andrew Fenniman said the organization plans a “complete renovation” of the building’s interior with the ultimate goal of making the Lincoln “one of the best performing spaces in the state” and “a place that people really want to be in.”
