The view of North Gorham from Fort Hill

When I was in trade school one of my instructors brought us here – to Fort Hill in Gorham, Maine – on a field trip to study proper subdivision design. He told us farming is the past and subdivisions are the future, so in another 20 years all of this will be developed. Nearly 10 years later there is still open space, but there has been a lot of development in Gorham over the past 10 years. Who knows what will happen over the next 10 years?

Source: Maine Office of GIS

The town of Gorham is located in Southern Maine, about a half hour outside of Portland.

The Presumpscot River viewed from the Mountain Division Trail

The close proximity to Portland, combined with views like this, are what attract people to Gorham today.

Gambo Falls

In the early days people in Gorham settled around the many water power sites on the Presumpscot River.

Remnants of an old mill building at the Oriental Powder Company site

The many small scale mills built on the Presumpscot…

A section of the Cumberland & Oxford Canal, now part of the Mallison Falls Hydroelectric Project

were connected by the Cumberland and Oxford Canal.

View of South Windham from Canal Street, Gorham

Rural villages grew up around these mills

Cow pasture on Huston Road

and the surrounding countryside provided food for the village.

Dairy farm in North Gorham

Today farming has become very mechanized and requires a lot of land. The pressure to get big or get out has forced many small family farms to turn to alternative sources of income.

Bennett Enterprises, Inc. – Bennett All Weather Paintball

Like this dairy farm, turned disc golf course,

Daigle Family Trust, Sebago Lake Road

This sod farm,

Harding Bridge Farm Subdivision

or this subdivision farm.

Harding Bridge Farm

At least the farmland is still there.

Remnants of an old mill building at the Oriental Powder Company site

While the small scale mills

Gambo Falls Powerhouse

Have been replaced with large scale hydroelectric dams

Mallison Falls Hydroelectric Project

And industrial factories – now Portland Safe Consulting-Design,

Millstone in a residential yard in Newhall Village, Windham, near Gambo Falls

Tow Path Road – a reminder of the days when Little Falls was a major stop on the C&O Canal

You can still find relics from the past that remind us of the way life used to be in Gorham.

Source: US Census 2000 and ACS 2009 5 Year Sample Data

Today, the reality is traditional rural industries, such as farming, forestry, or mining, have been mechanized and employ a very small percentage of the town’s population. Most of the population works in service occupations, such as retail, professional, or management.

Rush hour traffic at the Little Falls rotary

Most of the people who live in Gorham actually commute to work in another town.

Source: US Census 2000

Babb’s Bridge, in Northeast Gorham, is another reminder of the way things used to be

This part of North Gorham is still very rural – there is a maple syrup farm nearby. A recent study identified the Presumpscot River watershed as the most vulnerable to development pressures in the Northeastern US. Right now there is a lot of land for sale near this bridge. The future of this land is uncertain.

Apartments for rent on Depot Street, South Windham

Why develop rural land further outside of the employment centers when there is housing available in the Little Falls village center?

Little Falls Dam with the Keddy Mill Site in the background

At one time this village was a vibrant manufacturing center

The South Windham Train Station

With a train station on the Mountain Division Railroad, which used to travel daily from Portland to Fryeburg.

The Keddy Mill Site

Gorham and Windham have joined efforts to revitalize this village, but progress has been slow due to the economic downturn.

Pleasant Street, Little Falls

Little Falls Library

Nevertheless, Little Falls is still a very charming village

With lots of classic New England architecture.

Sawyer’s Variety on Route 202

There is a significant amount of traffic that flows through this village everyday as people commute to Portland.

Brick Colonial for Rent at the Little Falls rotary

Traffic, among other things, may explain the higher than average vacancy rate in this part of Gorham.

Source: Maine State Planning Office, US Census 2010 and ACS 2010 3 Year Survey Data

US Census 2000 and 2009 ACS 5 Year Survey Data

Source: Willis (1986). The way it was in Gorham. Saco, ME. Saco Printing Co., Inc.

Ironically, 100 years ago this village used to be connected to Westbrook and Portland via the Portland and Windham Electric Railroad. If they could bring this back today it might solve some of the traffic problems.

University of New Hampshire Library Digital Collections Initiative

This map shows Gorham in 1916. Observe the trolley line, and also the Town Farm on Huston Road, just outside of Little Falls Village. On the other side of the Presumpscot was the Windham Town Farm. Today there is a prison located on what used to be the Windham Town Farm, and the Gorham Public Works Department and two closed landfills are located on what used to be the Gorham Town Farm.

Intersection of Huston Road and Route 202 in Little Falls

Village Residential zone on Huston Road

Suburban residential zone on Huston Road near Hillside Cemetery

The trolley also used to run up Huston Road, towards the cemetery.

Gorham Public Works on Huston Road

Just a little further up the road is the Gorham Public Works Facility.

Daigle Family Trust Corn Field Adjacent to Gorham Public Works

Next to this corn field. Off in the distance you can see one of the closed landfills, a recent source of controversy in the town. Currently the town is moving forward with a plan to reopen this landfill in order to dispose of a debris pile. Many residents in the neighborhood are rightfully upset over this plan. The following is a selected (paraphrased) list of public concerns raised at a recent public hearing about this issue.

• “The Huston Road property was donated to the town to help the poor. The town has forgotten their obligation.”
• “The Huston Road property should be a community garden, not a landfill.”
• “Since I found out about this plan I have become a nervous wreck.”
• “When I bought my property I was told this landfill was closed. If it is truly ‘closed’ why can the town reopen it now, and what guarantee do we have that it wont be reopened at some point in the future?”

To paraphrase the town’s response to the last question – There are no guarantees. We are reopening this landfill because it is in the best interest of the town. If, in the future, another situation arises where we need to reopen this landfill because it is in the best interest of the town, then we will do so. After all, this site is a landfill. It’s not as if we are proposing to dump this trash in the Great Falls Elementary School.

Source: Willis (1986). The way it was in Gorham. Saco, ME. Saco Printing Co., Inc.

The great irony is this land was originally left to the town for the purpose of alleviating poverty in Gorham.

– Page 301, History of Gorham, Maine, by Hugh Davis McLellan

The landfills were opened in 1984. The municipal solid waste landfill was closed in 1986 because it is leaking. The construction and demolition debris (CDD) landfill was closed in 1996, but there is no evidence to suggest this landfill is leaking. The town is moving forward with a plan to dump more trash on what used to be the town farm.

As a resident of Gorham I understand why the town council voted the way they did on this issue, but I know I would not be willing to accept their decision if I lived near the Huston Road landfill. Although the idea of turning a closed landfill into a community garden or park may sound like a bad or poorly thought out idea, it has been done in other places. If this closed landfill was converted to a use that would provide a benefit to people in the community (instead of just being a “closed” landfill), then perhaps the town would be more reluctant to reopen this closed landfill in the future.

Here are some ideas:

What if the Public Works Department made more efficient use of their land?

By Adding these hoop-houses

They could be used by people in the community to grow food

This was just a preliminary idea. Perhaps it would be better to locate these hoop houses on the closed landfills instead. More to come…