If they need a bench break along Main Street, there is Veterans Memorial Park, across the street from the old train ticket office, now the Pittsfield Historical Society.
Pittsfield has a lot of parks for a town of just 4,200. It may be known for Maine Central Institute, the private prep school that educates the town's young people for free. But the backdrop of this tiny town halfway between Waterville and Bangor is green.
On a sunny day in the summer, longtime resident Arthur Dewey Sr. is not hard to find. The 81-year-old patrols town parks, scouting for trash and other debris.
"One guy who works for (Parks and Recreation), if he gets into a jam, he gives me a call," Dewey said.
With a cane and a garbage bag, Dewey wants to make sure the town's six parks stay as tidy as they are peaceful.
Take the week after the state's biggest egg festival. After the volunteer cleanup of Manson Field, Dewey was still out in the meadow and along the river, making sure the surroundings looked pristine.
TRIBUTE TO VETERANS
Dewey also was the force behind the creation of the veterans park, and even picked out the site. The town-owned strip of land is in full view of the Pittsfield Public Library, the town-owned movie theater and the entrance to Manson Park - all centers of traffic in Pittsfield.
Dewey, a veteran who has passed out American flags in holiday parades for years, asked the town for a piece of land to build a memorial park, and it offered three plots of town land. One that wasn't being used, right on Main Street, turned into the perfect spot in Dewey's eyes. Everyone would see it.
So he raised more than $40,000 to landscape it and buy granite benches. He sold plaques to families to etch the names of veterans they loved. He convinced locals to donate their time to help build the park.
He bought maple trees and grass and on what was once just a driveway going nowhere, he had grass planted, a flag pole put up, and turned it into a park that opened in 2002, a small plot for relaxation and contemplation in town.
ACTIVITIES GALORE
Back then, the population was around 3,300. It hasn't grown much. But Manson Park continues to draw.
With its beautifully landscaped picnic area along the river, and tennis courts, baseball fields, batting cage and swimming pool, it is a gathering place for athletes, locals and visitors.
The rolling fields and hiking trails along the river and shady, huge birch trees offer an escape for nature lovers.
Dave Mosher was there running his dogs on a sunny day two weeks ago.
Mosher, of nearby Burnham, taught at Maine Central Institute and coached baseball there for 15 years, until he went to "teaching dogs."
Now with a business that leads him to dog trials across the country, Mosher, 62, rarely visits his old workplace, but still enjoys the town of Pittsfield.
After Maine Central Institute was established in 1866, it remained a major draw for people looking for a peaceful town that put a high value on education.
Destroyed by a fire in 1881, Pittsfield was rebuilt - and has rebuilt its character many times over as the textile and shoe industries in the area downsized.
Pittsfield is still home to the San Antonio Shoe Company, which made national news two years ago when it awarded its employees with $1,000 end-of-the-year bonuses for every year they worked.
Dewey worked there for 19 years.
The other major company in Pittsfield is Cianbro, which was founded in town in 1949 by four brothers and became one of the East Coast's largest civil and heavy industrial construction companies.
Today it has offices in Pittsfield, Portland, Bloomfield, Conn., and Baltimore, Md.
EDUCATIONAL EDGE
Maine Central Institute, in many ways, helped give Pittsfield staying power, even while the emphasis on education in Pittsfield may have, at times, alienated residents, Mosher said.
The school is directed by a board of trustees, not a traditional school board.
"Some local kids may not like the competition," Mosher said. "It's a bit different. It's not like a normal school administration. There are 400 local kids (from surrounding towns) and about 100 (from other towns and states and countries) who board."
But the parks around town bring everyone together.
The local youth love Manson Park, said Nate Hartley, 16, who was passing through two weeks ago.
"It's not necessarily a place where something is always going on," Hartley said. "It's the surroundings. You can go fishing or fly kites. People come here to relax."
Hartley came to visit the Goldman sisters, who were in Manson Park waiting to sell their homemade flavored ice cones under a white tent they fashioned into a summer business place.
The snow-cone traffic was slow that day, but the students from Maine Central Institute didn't care. Days with youth baseball games or local festivals would make up for it, they said.
And of course, Dewey, the 81-year-old veteran who walks the flower-covered fields of his hometown each summer day, is in Manson Park each day, helping to keep Pittsfield proud.
"I walked by the library and there was a stone under a tree I cleaned off, so people can see it," Dewey said of a memorial plaque. "This is how I get my exercise."
Originally published Sunday, August 14, 2005
Staff Writer Deirdre Fleming can be contacted at 791-6452 or at dfleming@pressherald.com
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