"There were a lot of creative people who came, and over the years, that has helped draw more creative people," said Gorrill, 41, who runs Sheepscot Valley Brewing Company out of his family's home in the south end of town.
The creative people, including home-business entrepreneurs like Gorrill, have blended with the many farmers in town to create a unique sense of community among the 2,000-plus residents.
At Uncas Farms on Townhouse Road, paintings by local schoolchildren adorn the side of one building. A mural made by local artists hangs over the counter inside the farm's store. A room behind the farm store is often used for yoga sessions, meditation sessions, group discussions and community gatherings.
"It's always been an artists' town, but still with a real small-town feel," said Rebecca Haines, 35, whose family runs the farm and store.
The Uncas Farms store is filled with things made in Whitefield, from pottery to wooden fish to all sorts of locally grown foods. The store doesn't carry Gorrill's Sheepscot Valley brand ales and lagers, though. You have to go to North Whitefield Superette for those.
Located southeast of Augusta and due east of Gardiner, Whitefield is not really on a main route to anywhere. People who drive state Route 17 between Augusta and Rockland just skirt Coopers Mills, a barely noticeable village in the northern part of town.
Even for people who venture through the more populated parts of Whitefield, there are only small hints of how vibrant the town actually is.
There are the large, folk-art-style murals of local people at Uncas Farms, and several similar ones on the side of the tiny post office in North Whitefield.
Both sets of murals were done by local schoolchildren as part of a town history project that included researching and interviewing local people. The project was overseen by Natasha Mayers, an artist who has lived in town since 1970 and who supervises the painting of murals by students across the state for the Maine Arts Commission.
Mayers also supervised students, beginning in 1994, in painting scenes on some 18 utility poles around town. She painted another 35 or so herself.
"I'm an activist artist, so it's important for me to get out of my studio and help people make art about who they are and where they live," said Mayers.
The scenes on the poles were site-specific and told little stories about the town. One pole, near St. Denis Roman Catholic Church, tells of Irish people settling there in the early 1800s, earlier than in many parts of the state. The church building itself was built in 1833, making it the second oldest Catholic church in Maine.
Another pole explains how to hang a May basket, another tells of an old schoolhouse in town, and one is about Norman Chase, a farmer who Mayers remembers as being very welcoming to "back to the landers" when they started coming to town in the 70s.
"I remember him hosting a bluegrass festival on his farm, and he welcomed all the back-to-the-landers in a way that really stood out to me," said Mayers.
Chase's son, David, runs the town's extensive Web site, www.mainething.com.
Mayers said she came to Whitefield in 1970 because it was "affordable and beautiful." The rolling farm fields and the Sheepscot River valley especially appealed to her.
"Another thing that attracted me was that everyone raises animals or food. The back-to-the-land movement brought in a nice mix of people from away who wanted to learn how to do that," said Mayers. "And those people interacted with the people who were already here."
The town's Web site lists more than 35 farms or food producers in town and more than 30 working artists. The four-mile Townhouse Road, for example, has several artists and nearly a dozen farms on it. The road, which is on the west side of the Sheepscot and runs between the town's two main villages, is a lovely drive.
Gorrill, who grew up in Quincy, Mass., used to live on Townhouse Road and made his Sheepscot Valley beers there. But then he had a chance to buy a house in the south part of town, on Hollywood Boulevard, that had a building once used for meat cutting. It was perfect for Gorrill's brewing business, so he moved with his wife and kids to the spot.
Hollywood Boulevard is a good example of the sense of quirkiness that seems to permeate the town. It's basically a dirt road that runs from Route 194 in the south end of town to the tiny village of Head Tide in Alna. The most glamorous things on it are some of Mayers' painted utility poles and the big pile of beer kegs in Gorrill's driveway.
The road was known for years as Carleton Road, but was long called Hollywood Boulevard by locals. The story goes that a Hollywood screenwriter, many years ago, had lived on the road.
A few years ago, some residents lobbied to change the name, and succeeded. But once the "Hollywood Boulevard" sign was put up, folks couldn't resist stealing it.
So now the words "Hollywood Boulevard" are painted on a utility pole to mark the road's entrance.
It's just one of the many pieces of art in Whitefield that helps to tell the town's story.
Originally published Sunday, June 20, 2004
Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at rrouthier@pressherald.com
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