|
|
Signs make South End a 'museum'
By CHRIS CHURCHILL Staff Writer
Copyright © 2004 Blethen
Maine Newspapers Inc.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WATERVILLE -- Water Street had it all, and its Franco-American residents rarely
needed to go anywhere else. It had stores of nearly every type and a movie
theater too. During the first half of the last century, the street was the
center of the densely populated South End neighborhood and it teemed with life,
a trolley clamoring down its center and children playing on its sidewalks. That
Water Street is gone, done in by urban renewal of the 1960s. Today the street
is quieter, and when South End residents need or want something, they mostly
come downtown or drive out toward the highway. But plaques that will soon
appear along the street aim to bring back some of the old spirit. The signs,
adorned with old photographs and bilingual history lessons, will make the
neighborhood into a museum of sorts, a place where natives and tourists alike
can revel in what the South End -- and Waterville -- once was. "That's how
Water Street used to look," said Richard Pellerin on Sunday, after gazing at a
plaque depicting a street lined with three-story buildings, storefronts on the
first floor. Pellerin, who lives in Waterville and grew up in the South End,
wasn't alone with his memories. The plaques, unveiled publicly for the first
time during Sunday's Franco-American Festival, were the center of much
attention, as those who remember the old neighborhood stood with others seeing
it for the first time. "This brings back memories," more than one person said.
Priscilla and Jeanne Hallee looked at a plaque and saw the house where their
family lived and their father, Edgar Poulin, best known for the musicals he
staged at the Waterville Opera House and the French music program he hosted on
WTVL. Seeing their father in his prime -- the picture shows him leaning into a
microphone -- swelled the sisters with pride. "It's an emotional thing for us,"
Jeanne Hallee said, as her sister wiped away tears. The plaques -- collectively
called the "The Museum in the Streets" -- will be installed this week along a
17-block stretch of Water Street, from Bridge Street to Grove Street. They're
the result of a year's worth of work by members of the Franco-American Heritage
Society of Kennebec Valley, which raised nearly $9,000 to pay for the plaques
and spent countless hours poring through old photos and composing the text that
adorns the signs. The society had long hoped to build a Franco-American museum
in Waterville -- and still does. But when Patrick Cardon approached the group
last year about a street-museum project, which his company has installed in
dozens of cities, the society realized that a museum celebrating Franco life
didn't need to be years from completion. Lisa Marrache, the society's
president, said the plaques attempt to present every aspect of life in the
neighborhood populated by men and women who came south from Quebec, mostly to
work in Waterville's mills. Pamphlets telling where each plaque is located will
be placed in stores, and it's hoped that visitors walking from sign to sign
will help reinvigorate the South End. Marrache said the impact of Francos on
Waterville and New England has been discounted, and it's time to correct the
historical record. "We have to let people know that we existed here," Marrache
said. "That we contributed to this city and what it is today." Chris Churchill
-- 861-9252 cchurchill@centralmaine.com
|
|
