Hallowell Mural

by Chris Cart | American

Author: admin

  • Declaration of Independence

    Declaration of Independence

    rare 1776 broadsheet

    Mayor Robert Stubbs is shown holding Hallowell’s rare, original broadsheet from 1776 of the Declaration of Independence.

    At the time of the writing of the Declaration of Independence a printer in Salem Massachusetts was ordered to print 250 of these copies for distribution around the colonies. Only 11 of these broadsheets are known to exist today.

    This rare document was found framed in storage in the Hubbard Free Library in Hallowell. Hallowell’s copy of the Declaration of Independence is now housed at the Maine State Museum. It is shown in Hallowell occasionally on July 4th during a ceremonial reading of the Declaration.

    This is a quote from the artist.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Nora Winslow Keene

    I’m Nora, a dedicated public interest attorney based in Denver. I’m a graduate of Stanford University.

    Woman on beach, splashing water.
  • Sponsors

    Sponsors

    a public mural


    The Hallowell Mural is a publicly funded mural with over 100 generous donors who helped buy the paint, canvas, varnish and keep the artist going over the years of work. Begun in 2018 as an idea over dinner, the mural was finally installed at 89 Water Street, Hallowell, Maine in the summer of 2023 with great fanfare and a celebration with our Mayor George Lapointe, Representative Dan Shagoury and Maine’s Governor Janet Mills all giving talks.

    We couldn’t do it without our Sponsors. Thank you!

    major sponsors

    organizations

    major individual sponsors

    individual sponsors

    Major Sponsors

    Grants by:
    Maine Arts Commission
    Maine Community Foundation
    Elsie & William Viles Foundation
    Kennebec Savings Bank

    Other organization sponsors:
    Vision Hallowell
    Row House Inc
    Ian Parker Foundation
    Arts & Cultural Committee
    Hallowell Board Area of Trade

    Ray Valle, a major donor is shown as an Atlas sculpture.

    Major individual sponsors

    Ray Vallee · E. J. Perry · Steven Marson

    Deb Poulin · Chris Vallee · Gary Violette

  • Stevens School

    Stevens School

    Lillian Ames Stevens

    The Maine Industrial School for Girls or the State School for Girls in Hallowell became commonly called the Stevens School after Lillian Ames Stevens who was a staunch supporter of the school and one of the first 5 trustees in 1885. The school functioned from 1875 to 1920.

    While by today’s standards the treatment of the girls might be considered harsh, at the time of its creation the school was considered progressive in its kindness to “wayward girls”.

    The stated purpose of the school:

    “. . .designed as a refuge for girls between the ages of seven and fifteen years, who, by force of circumstances or associations, are in manifest danger of becoming outcasts of society. It is not a place of punishment, to which its inmates are sent as criminals by criminal process– but a home for the friendless, neglected and vagrant children of the State, where under the genial influences of kind treatment and physical and moral training, they may be won back to ways of virtue and respectability, and fitted for positions of honorable self support and lives of usefulness.”

    the little bronze “water girl” as she is know was originally given in honor of Lillian Ames Stevens. I visually quote it here as a way to remember Stevens part in what we now call Stevens Commons in Hallowell.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Stevens Commons

    The various brick buildings of Stevens Commons were once part of the Maine Industrial School for Girls or Stevens School and the entire campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

    The old brick buildings of the original campus have now been beautifully restored by Mastway Development, LLC of Winthrop, Maine and are currently used by local business and dormitories for students of University of Maine, Augusta.

    photo circa 1920 from Maine Memory Netowrk.
  • musicians

    musicians

    ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫

    There are far too many musicians known in Hallowell to count let alone include on one small section of wall. But music is central to Hallowell’s daily life with our musicians playing at restaurants, bars and our annual festivals.

    it would have required several wall this size to do justice to all the musicians who play in Hallowell. These musicians will have to stand in for all the rest.

    artist, Chris Cart

    the musicians listed

    Roger Sampson
    Steve Vellani
    Naoto Kobayashi
    Ian Parker
    Sam Shane
    Al Lund
    Pat Pepin
    bob Colwell
    Chris Poulson
    Dave Wakefield
    Katie Daggett
    Sarah Crosby
    Marcia Gallagher
    Kenny Cox

    and a sliver of Steve Jones and Scott Eliot

    spirit of the town

    Anne Mckee is the young musician playing her violin up near the top of the mural.

    She is an extraordinary violinist from Hallowell. She is a member of Bay Chamber Faculty.

    Anne was a part of the mural from the earliest sketches.
    Why is she playing her violin sitting high on the projecting beam? I’m not sure, except that having her perched way up there somehow, to me, captured Hallowell’s spirit.

    artist, Chris Cart

    From Bay Chamber website:

    “Anne McKee (violin) hails from Hallowell, ME where she began playing the violin at age four. She recently completed her Master of Music degree at Boston Conservatory under the tutelage of Dr. Katie Lansdale.

    Some of her musical accolades include first prize in Midcoast Symphony Orchestra’s Concerto Competition, second prize at Peter E. Tannenwald Young Artist Competition, and finalist in Boston Conservatory’s all-school concerto competition. In addition to long-term study with Betsy Kobayashi, Lydia Forbes, and Eva Gruesser, Anne has taken masterclasses with Sergiu Schwartz, Alexi Kenney, Grigory Kalinovsky, and Joseph Lin, as well as members of the Ying, Jupiter, Lydian, and Ariel Quartets. She has enjoyed attending Bowdoin International Music Festival, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Promisek Bach+ Workshop, and Harvard Music Festival.

    Most recently, Anne was invited to perform at Music From Salem (NY) as one of two Emerging Artists in their summer concert series.”

    https://baychamber.org/faculty-data/anne-mckee

  • Ian Parker Foundation

    Ian Parker Foundation

    an old soul

    The Ian Parker Foundation was set up in memory of much beloved Hallowell musician Ian Parker.

    The Ian Parker Foundation is a 501(c)(3) corporation and gifts to it are fully tax deductible. The Foundation supports local live music, musicians and music students.

    The Ian Parker Foundation gave a generous grant to support the mural.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Ian William Parker (Oct. 5, 1983-Feb. 28, 2011)at his home in Machias. He was a musician, beginning his career performing as a solo artist throughout the state of Maine, and was an integral vocalist/ guitarist in various bands including the popular bands “Rumble Strip” and “The Returnables.” Ian was also a recording session musician and played on recordings for numerous talented Maine artists.

  • Wabanaki nation

    Wabanaki nation

    13,000 years

    The Wabanaki people have lived in the Kennebec valley, from the head waters to the sea, for over 13,000 years.

    The Wabanaki nations include the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Mi’kmaq, Maliseet and Abenaki. The term “Abenaki” has been wrongly used over the years to describe all the Wabanaki people. It is a mistranslation of the original Wôban-aki, meaning People of the Dawnland, the First Light or East, a term that refers to both the people and the land.

    While not an original term describing a certain tribe of people, over the centuries “Abenaki” came into common usage describing native tribes from central Maine west as far as the Hudson River and Lake Champlain.

    reference: The Wabanaki of the Kennebec

    The Wabanaki I placed in the forefront of the mural in a relatively large area of canvas, out of respect, to show they were the first to live this land.

    artist, Chris Cart

    sacred place of rippling waters

    The Wabanaki communities identified themselves with the rivers they lived on or with the lands along that river. The word Kennebec derives from the original Kwenebek or /kínipekʷ/ meaning deep river.

    There was a large Wabanaki gathering place known as Koussinok, meaning sacred place beside the rippling waters, just above the “head of tide” of the Kennebec at the small rapids in what is now Augusta. Wabanaki people would gather in Koussinok in the warm months to grow foods they would use throughout the year. This land was sacred to the Wabanaki of the area as it was where their ancestors had long been buried.

    The Wabanaki traditionally have a deep kinship with the land, waters and other beings with whom they share the forests, hills and rivers.

    detail from “Kennebec” mural by C Cart at Capital Judicial Center, Augusta, Maine.
  • First Settlers

    First Settlers

    wild lands

    On May 3rd, 1762 the first settlers stepped ashore on the west bank of the Kennebec River, onto the wild lands that would become Hallowell, Maine. Deacon Pease Clark, his wife Abigail, their son Peter, with his wife Zeruah with their young daughter Pheobe, had traveled from Attleborough, Massachusetts, by boat, sailing up the Kennebec River until they came to our familiar bend in the river.

    Local legend tells of the Clark’s first night where they had no shelter. The intrepid settlers passed the night under a rough cart they had brought with them, and turned upside-down for their first night’s roof.

    The first efforts of the Clarks were devoted to making a small clearing and to the creation of a temporary dwelling. They planted corn and rye upon the burnt land. Before the snows of the following winter fell, these energetic first settlers had hewn timber, procured boards and planks from the mill at Cobbossee, and built a comfortable frame house of two stories in front and one at the rear, according to the fashion of the times; and ever after that, the hospitable doors of the Clark house stood open to welcome all newcomers to this locality.

    excerpt from: Emma Huntington Nason, Old Hallowell on the Kennebec., 1909

    Their riverfront lot measuring 50 rods wide (about 275 yards), encompassed the land around the current old Cotton Mill in Hallowell. The first woods they cleared for their home and farm is where the old Hallowell Fire department building is, at the corner of Second Street and Perley’s Lane—and incidentally, also where the artist created the mural prior to its installation.

    Benjamin Hallowell

    The Clarks acquired land from Benjamin Hallowell, from whom the city gets its name. Benjamin Hallowell was one of four wealthy Boston merchants, the Kennebec Proprietors, who purchased large tracks along the Kennebec from the Plymouth Colony.

    In 1629 the Plymouth Colony had been granted land originally claimed by the British monarchy.

    map of the original Benjamin Hallowell Property and Deacon Pease Clark settler’s plot.
    photo source: Highsmith, Carol M., 1946- Carol M. Highsmith Archive

    earlier history

    Since 1628 Europeans of the Plymouth Colony had operated a small trading post about 2 miles further up river, (near Fort Western). They traded with the local Abenaki peoples until the late 1670’s.

    At that point what became known as the “Indian Wars” dissuaded any serious settlement by Europeans or colonists in the Kennebec Valley for almost a century. The New England colonies fought the native people of the Wabanaki Confederacy (the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Penobscot, and Abenaki) who were allied with the French of New France over the rights to the lands.

    The various land wars resulted in the the killing of so many native peoples that by the final treaty of the King George’s war in 1748 the battles were solely about French or English colonial rule in the area, with the New England colonies prevailing over the French.

  • Photographer

    Photographer

    Joe Phelan

    the “official” photo journalist of the mural project was Joe Phelan who works for Central Maine Papers. He documented the entire mural process from the early days of mostly blank canvas through the final installation. you can see his photo-journal article

    This is a quote from the artist.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Nora Winslow Keene

    I’m Nora, a dedicated public interest attorney based in Denver. I’m a graduate of Stanford University.

    Woman on beach, splashing water.
  • Hallowell Food pantry

    Hallowell Food pantry

    helping those in need

    Bob Ladd is shown in a blue ballcap with the Hallowell Food Pantry Logo.

    Hallowell Food Pantry is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides valuable nutrition support to those in need.

    Our goal is to help individuals and families maintain their independence and dignity by providing them with access to healthy and nutritious food.

    The Food Pantry gave over 81,000 pounds of healthy food to local residents in need last year.

  • brothers

    brothers

    in memorium

    Brothers Joshua Violette and Levi Violette died during the years of the creation of the mural. They are included in the mural as a memory for their parents who were major donors for the mural project. The brothers were much loved in the area.

    Gary Violette was a huge supporter of the mural and I painted brothers by a way of a small thank you.

    artist, Chris Cart