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| Today |
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Upstairs, Downstairs:
Memories, Realities of Town
Hall
Upstairs at the
Amherst town hall, a grand story could unfold—if anyone in town
would listen.
The two-story
building that sits beside Route 9 got a new roof last year. But
that was the extent of the facelift for the hall that is now
quite tired looking.
<complete story>
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Yesterday |
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How a Tannery Built a Town
Long-time
residents of the small town on the west branch of the Union
River can point to the field that rises out of the woods along
Tannery Loop Road.
That’s where
the tannery used to be, they say. And the road’s name is all
that remains to honor the hemlock tanning factory that gave rise
to Amherst’s reputation and population in the mid- and
late-1800s.
<complete story>
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Neighbors |
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Norm
O’Halloran’s Respite from the Rush
If you’re
looking for 86-year-old Norman O’Halloran, you need to head for
one place only: the cemetery.
But he’s not
dead yet.
Forty years
after he first clipped the weeds at the old Tannery Loop
Cemetery up on the hill, O’Halloran is still thriving in his
role as town sextant.
<complete story>
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Memories |
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Commonplace
Now, But The Hunter’s Breakfast Started Here
What they are
still talking about in
Amherst:
It was
someone’s bright idea in
Amherst
to stage Maine’s first-ever Hunters’ Breakfast, which took place
in the Amherst Grange Hall in November 1945.
The opening day
for deer season resulted in not just a breakfast for 800. It
started an entire tradition of towns holding breakfasts for
hunters before they head out for what many believe is the best
single day of the year.
<complete story>
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| Written and
photographed by Katherine Williams. She can be contacted at
667-2576. |
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Go
Figure |
Amherst Facts
Acreage: 27,035
Population, 2000: 230
Population, 1990: 226
Popul. under 20, 2000: 47
Median age: 43.2
School: Airline Community School in Aurora
Town meeting: Third Saturday in September
<more town facts>
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They
Said It |
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“The first questions they
 asked
when I arrived were, ‘What are you going to bring to us?’ and ‘What are
you going to change?’ ”
—First Selectman
Neil
Butler
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Milestones |
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The early years:
1801: First settlers, the Grovers and Orcutts, come upriver from
Ellsworth.
1822: Amherst separates from the plantation of Mariaville.
1826: The first school opens.
1831: Amherst incorporates as a town. The same year, the tannery is built
on the Union River.
1870: The Pershing School, the second of four in town, opens.
1906: The Airline is designated a state road—but it wasn’t paved until
1950.
1907: The tannery burns.
1932: The last mill in town is built.
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