Jun. 20—Greater Portland Landmarks has sued the city in an attempt to save the longstanding building at 142 Free St. from the excavator.

In May, the Portland City Council voted to remove a historic classification that protected the former Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine from demolition. The Portland Museum of Art plans to build a sweeping glass-and-timber expansion on that site as part of a $100 million capital campaign. The public debate leading up to the vote was impassioned and divided, as people on both sides of the issue wrote letters and testified for hours at city meetings.

Greater Portland Landmarks spearheaded the opposition and on Thursday filed a complaint in Cumberland County Superior Court seeking to reverse the city council’s decision, saying it ignored recommendations of other city boards and did not demonstrate how changes made to the building significantly altered its character. The filing names the Portland Museum of Art as a “party of interest.”

In a news release, board vice president Carol De Tine said the preservation nonprofit “has never experienced the arrogance and blatant disregard for the law that have been displayed by the PMA and its supporters on the council.”

“We have thought long and hard about taking this action, but the fact is, for 60 years Greater Portland Landmarks has worked to protect and preserve historic buildings and neighborhoods, and we are not going to stop now,” De Tine said in a written statement. “We have been encouraged to mount this appeal by supporters and donors and many other community members who were appalled by the recent city council vote, and we are confident that we will prevail.”

Representatives for the city and the museum did not immediately respond Thursday morning to questions about the filing.

The building at 142 Free St. is considered a “contributing” structure to the surrounding Congress Street Historic District, which means it cannot be razed. Built in 1830 and later renovated by John Calvin Stevens, it has been home to a theater, a church, the Chamber of Commerce and the Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine.

The Portland Museum of Art bought the neighboring property in 2019 with an eye toward growth, and the children’s museum vacated in 2021 for a new home on Thompson’s Point. Since then, the art museum has used the space mostly for offices. The museum applied to change the classification to “non-contributing,” which would allow for the building’s demolition.

The Historic Preservation Board and the Portland Planning Board both recommended against the change. But the Portland City Council ultimately voted 6-3 to reclassify the building on the basis of “significant alterations since it was originally constructed.” They found that the building lacks integrity of design, materials and workmanship.

In the complaint, Greater Portland Landmarks challenged the factual and legal basis for that decision. The filing says the council abused its discretion by ignoring the recommendations of the other two boards. It also claims that the changes cited by the Portland City Council in its decision “did not change the building’s character-defining elements or its historic integrity.”

“The fact that a building has undergone some changes does not, in and of itself, make those changes significant or demonstrate that the character-defining integrity of the historic building has been compromised under the terms of Portland’s Historic Preservation Ordinance,” attorney Elizabeth Boepple, who is representing Greater Portland Landmarks and is a former chair of the Portland Planning Board, said in the release. “Merely reciting the changes does not make them significant.”

This story will be updated.

Copy the Story Link