By Nate Jones
Staff Writer
Nothing says Independence Day like fireworks, barbecued food and a neighborhood parade. While there will surely be plenty of South Portland and Cape Elizabeth residents grilling in their backyards and traveling to Bug Light Park to see the fireworks over Portland tomorrow evening, historically there hasn’t been any local parade on the Fourth of July – something the South Portland Historical Society is looking to change.
“There’s never been anything going on during the Fourth of July,” South Portland Historical Society Director Kathy DiPhilippo said. “We’d really like to start doing an annual event.”
Beginning at 1 p.m. tomorrow (Friday), residents can gather around the Mill Creek shopping center, the starting point of a short and informal walk concluding at the Thomas Knight Park where there will be refreshments and entertainment – including music, raffles and gift certificate giveaways and a visit from Benjamin Franklin – to celebrate the holiday and the historical society’s efforts to purchase the Cushing Point House adjacent to Bug Light Park.
Walkers do not need to call ahead to attend, and will be able to donate money to help the historical society purchase the Cushing Point House, a building DiPhilippo said predates the surrounding manufacturing buildings and nearby Portland Pipeline commercial oil tanker pier.
“There used to be an entire neighborhood in that area,” she said. “Now that house is all that’s left.”
DiPhilippo said the small coastal neighborhood all but disappeared when a shipyard was created during World War II. Constructing the new space changed the coastline by eliminating several houses, roads and other buildings, she said. The current owners of the property, Portland Pipeline company, agreed to sell the house to the historical society for $400,000 – the group has already raised nearly half the amount.
“That’s pretty good for a small historical society,” DiPhilippo said.
Portland Pipeline Product Movement Manager Chris Gillis said the company purchased the property and the building from the Irving Oil Company in 1999.
“We were working with [South Portland] to purchase land around Bug Light Park,” he said. “It worked out pretty well for everybody.”
The building is currently vacant, although Gillis said at one point Portland Pipeline used the house as headquarters during a construction project on the pier.
South Portland City Assessor Elizabeth Sawyer said the three-story building – located in the middle of a commercial zone – was assessed at $238,800 this year. The 2.35-acre parcel of land stretching toward the Portland Pipeline pier was assessed at $768,900, with the pier itself assessed at an estimated $3.9 million.
Gillis said the possible $400,000 purchase agreement with the historical society could include a 25,000 square foot portion of land surrounding the house.
DiPhilippo said the historical society hopes to use the building as their new headquarters and convert a portion of the interior into a museum.
Today’s event is about more than raising money to buy the Cushing Point House, however. DiPhilippo said she hopes the short walk around Knightville, down Ocean and Cottage streets and on a portion of the Greenbelt Walkway will become an annual event and grow in size.
“We’ll start with this small parade idea and see what happens,” she said. “We’re just walking around Knightville, but I love to show off South Portland.”